Summertimes

My travelplans have changed, I will not be going to Sweden. Norway stole my heart.
This place is amazing, the people are amazing, and the experiences are extraordinary. Long story short, it would kill me to leave here in a little over a week. Therefore, I will be leaving in August on the 22nd.
I recently took a trip with one of my fellow volunteers to Kristiansand, Stavanger and Bergen.
I've known for a while that I'd eventually end up living in Norway, but when I got to Kristiansand I knew for sure that I had found THE place to live. It is perfect for me. This made me decide that after graduating and getting my Bachelors degree (which is soon) I am coming back to Norway to stay. That is the plan.
The past few days have been great, the weather has been nothing but nice.
Result:

Bonfires by the fjord. <3
Breath = taken.
P.s.: I will soon be sending out postcards!

The amazing byglandsfjord

One week in and I wish I could stay here forever. The peace and quiet is amazing, and so are the people. (Granted, some of them are a little creepy.)

I’m staying at a place that gives me the creeps, to be honest. The first nights were downright awful. The place I’m staying at used to be a mental asylum, and after that a tbc-hospital. It gives me the creeps, plus the building needs to be completely renovated and still looks like a hospital. And it’s very empty.

The people here are lovely. A little creepy, but lovely.

Johannes is the groundkeeper and lives in the building 24/7, he just stands and stares and takes his lovely dog out for long walks. –Which I’m surprised she survives since she’s probably 3 centuries old in dog years-

He’s the only permanent resident of the house, the rest of the people come and go.

The work differs from day to day. It’s mostly prep-work for the upcoming literature festival that will be here soon.

Moving rubbish, cutting flowers, cleaning stuff.
It’s all good with me. One of my upcoming jobs will be translating the peace center’s website from Norwegian to English. That should be fun.

I went for a long walk earlier this week and took some lovely pictures! The nature out here is amazing, nothing compares.

Yesterday we had a bonfire and lovely dinner to celebrate 4^th of July (this thanks to my wonderful American co-worker!).

And next week after the festival and the wedding I’ll be travelling to Stavanger and Bergen. At some point I hope to be able to do Kjeragbolten in lysefjorden. If I don’t chicken out that is.

Kjeragbolten is a rock stuck between to cliffs with a 1km drop underneath it. … It’s been nice know y’all! ;)

First day

The view from my room. I have arrived in Norway!

I'm dead tired but as it doesn't really get very dark sleep will be hard to come by.

The people here are supreme. There's a few other volunteers. Larry, from the USA. Renana from Israel en Ingrid from France, and we're expecting more.

I'm getting to work tomorrow, helping to set up for a literature conference and an art exposition.

Checking out now,
- Ari

1 day

Departure: the day after tomorrow.

Nerves? Hell yes.


I mannaged to fit everything into my backpack, go figure.

Tips if anyone ever needs to pack a lot of stuff into a rucksack: What has more strength than one person? Exactly; three people!
And that is the amount of people it took to close the backpack.

(That moment when you realise you're not exactly sure if you put that one sweater in there but fear your backpack might explode if you open up the zipper...)


FAQ:

Send me a postcard!
=> Yes,  I will. To everyone of you out there that wants a postcard, give me your address and I will make sure a postcard reaches you! :)

When will you be back?
=> I'm not 100% sure yet, probably somewhere around the end of august.

What kind of weather is it "up there"?
=> Pretty much the same sh*** weather it's here right now. No, it is not snowing in Lapland right now.

Are you gonna meet santa claus?
 => You bet! And you better not pout, shout or cry and I'll tell you why.... He'll put you on the naughty list.


Checking out now. By next post, I hope to have made it to my first destination! ;)

- Ari

The blog.

Most of you probably already know that I am leaving to Scandinavia next week. This here will be my blog during my stay in Norway and Northern Sweden. That way I can take you all with me, isn’t that just exciting?! :-D

For those of you that don’t know of my exact travel plans yet:

On the 27^th of June I will be leaving to Norway to spend a month volunteering at a hotel near Kristiansand. I will mainly be helping with renovations of a part of the hotel called “the peace centre”.

After that I will be leaving to Northern Sweden to help on a Husky farm, but only after have a short layover in Stockholm.

The first month expect many posts here, the second month expect none.

The people I will be staying at do not have internet, do not have TV, and in the area they live there is no cell phone coverage. (They also don’t have hot water, hurray.)

In the month I’ll be staying in Norway of course I do hope I will improve my Norwegian. (More on the importance of travelling when you’re learning a language on my OTHER blog “ Babilon ”, do check it out!)

It is now less than a week before departure and there’s many things left to do. This being said, I probably better get to doing so.

In the meantime I advise you to listen to this little tune down here to set the mood: