Hei hei hei, Jotunhei(m)! The hiking viking is coming!

Heisan! 

I really wanted to describe my norwegian adventures step by step, as chronologically as possible, but I just can't help posting the entry about Jotunheim excursion first. I'll probably regret this rebellious behaviour for the next three weeks while kneeling on peas, but YOPENICOO (You only post entry not in chronological order once), so...

But OK, let me start the proper post. 

Weekend 4-5.07.2015 became on of the best weekends I've ever had (together with some other best weekends I've ever had, obviously). Saturday morning our happy and still nice smelling bus left Blindern and started its way towards Jotunheim. With my eyes and camera wide open I managed to take some really good shots from the bus (sic!). Of course it wouldn't have been possible without help of my travel companions, who were either yelling at me that I turned off my camera or just letting me use the window while they were sleeping. Guys, these pictures are our collective work! 

(end of pics from the bus)

Our first stop was somwhere I don't remember where, but I bought water and nuts in local supermarket #coolstorybro and then the next stop was somwhere I didn't remember where but got some help and now i remember - Beitostølen. Located literally in the middle of nowhere. Or Norwhere. Or Norway. 

Anyway!

At Beitostølen we got divied into groups that were supposed to be competing against each other while doing activities of different kinds. Our group, though bitten by mosquitoes, didn't get beaten by all the other groups and we got the second place and you can congratulate us by sending email to wowiamsoimpressedbyyoursecondplace@beitostølen.no and yes, I can give you autographs later. The afternoon, though really warm and exhausting, was fun and we really got into playful moods.

Therefore there's no wonder that this group of grownups had to play with snow for a while. Because SNOW. Beause July. Because fun.

 (Shoutout to the person who decided to stop the bus for 30mins!)

Finally, after some snowball fights and some more busdriving and a little bit of a boat cruise we arrived at Memurubu Turisthytte.

The place was cozy and charming and lovely and norwegian and smelled like wood (maybe beause it was made of wood, Natalia?) and yes, I was in tiny, red, hiking heaven. However, before we could enjoy the evening we had to jump into freezing cold water. TOTALLY NOT FEELING UNDER PRESSURE OF ANYONE i put on my swimming suit and not really thinking about it, toghether with other people, I jumped into this cold hell. 

1*C, 33,8F. 

Thankfully we only got hype and not hypothermia, because that would be quite sad.

After this literally not heart-warming welcome we got something to eat and we could just rest for the rest of the evening.

10:15:00PM (really!), admiring this view while listening to Wardruna's 'Solringen' - well, it was a good bit of mental picture (although the award for best mental pictures goes to C., who managed to take unlimited amout of mental pics without having any additional memory card! Dude, how was that possible?).

And on Sunday morning, as the sunishine filled the world and breakfast filled our greedy stomachs, our 17km Besseggen hike began. One can be quite surprised how many 'ex-s' one comes across while hiking. Excitement. Exhaustment. Exhilaration. Exigency (to pee somwhere in this rocky surroundings with no bushes, but who actually cares)

'I spy with my little eye.... a rock! (no roll though)

At some point the hike changed into regular rock climbing. Now, as I sit in my room, safe and sound and without any possibility of dying because of falling down (only beause of too much heat), I can say that it was so much fun. Back then, when I was on the edge of the mountain and on the edge of falling down, I was really scared and what-i-am-doing-here-plz-let-me-go-to-blindern-oh-my-word-i-am-going-to-die-ok-maybe-it-is-not-that-bad-to-die-in-norway-in-such-surroundings-ok-nevermind-plz-i-want-this-trail-to-be-over.

But hey, at 17:00 (5PM), as our feet touched the flat ground, I became one of the happiest people on Earth.

I did this hike and I DID survive. 

*curtain falls*

Norway sweet Norway

Date: 20.06 – 1.08

Days: 43

Place: Blindern, Oslo, Norway

Nationalities: 89

Amount of eaten pringles: Way too big

Number of planned hikes: 3

Number of non planned hikes: 2

Top 1 meal: peanut butter jelly sandwich

Things missing: pair of shorts, friends

And here it is, my first post in English. It’s high time I started using lingua franca  since it may happen that some of the ISS people will take a look at my casual stream of consciousness. I have no idea where to begin, so maybe I’ll make my stream mainstream and start from the very beginning.

It was late Friday night that I arrived at the Lech Walesa airport in Gdansk. Tiny, scared polish girl with huge, pink suitcase wandering around terminal and wondering how the ISS was going to be. I didn’t know anything except the fact that my flight was in the morning and I had to wait for it for ages.

6:45 my plane took off and together with my polish companion, sometimes called keBarb, we started our Norwegian adventure. More sleepy than excited we arrived to Sandefjord but apparently there was no sand and I’m still confused. Anyway! At this point little did we know about the struggle that was about to happen during our first day at Blindern dormitory.

Hello beautiful yellow building, hello rose bushes, hello hill. Oh, hill. THE HILL. (or maybe hell?) The innocent-looking, a bit rocky, not really steep hill. Beautiful – one may say. Those who thought that rolling suitcases are always a good idea will probably remember the moment of carrying the suitcases up the hill on their deathbed. It was probably the only time when I was both rollin’ and hatin’. Sweat, tears, suffering, giving up and loosing hope are probably the key-words describing this sysyphiean-like task. AND IT DEFINITELY WASN’T HILL-ARIOUS.

But we managed. WE DID MANAGE. We got our keys and headed to our rooms. With taut stomach I entered my 4* apartment at the end of the corridor. Two beds, two desks, two wardrobes, two chairs, two closets – for two of us. But where was she? Who was going to be my roommate for the next 6 weeks? Still nervous I started unpacking my life from the suitcase, hands shaking.

And there she came, my roommate herself.  And from our very first talk I knew that I couldn’t have got better roommie. It was a huge relief (if some of you don’t know how huge relief looks like here’s the picture >>>CLICK<<<). MOREOVER, just after 3 hours we also became nap partners, because nothing builds stronger friendships than napping at the same time. And that’s  how our strong friendship with pillars made out of paprika pringles cans started growing.

But this Saturday was only a preview of the best six weeks of my 21years and 6months life.

TO BE CONTINUED.