When I found out that I was able to study abroad my first thought was wait, I have never traveled much before how am I going to do this?? My second thought was oh my goodness I wonder if I can go visit my Norweign friend Lina. Backstory I met Lina my Junior year of High School because she was a foreign exchange student. As I took her to the airport on her last day in Omaha, Nebraska I jokingly had mentioned that now I needed to come visit her in Norway. We both knew we wanted to see each other again, but we never thought it would be anytime soon due to her joining the military and me heading off to college on top of the cost of travel between us, which is a huge obstacle of its own. As I began to text her I remember not even explaining to her what was going on, the first thing I said was "CAN I COME VISIT YOU IN NORWAY!?!?". No explanation of when, why, or how I just blurted it out. Once I explained studying abroad to her she told me that I should come sooner rather than later due to weather. So it was decided that I would come visit her the week before my studying abroad experience began.
Though very sad to leave my friends and family at home, I was ready to take this huge step out of my comfort zone and begin this once in a lifetime experience. The airports were not hard to navigate and both my flight to Chicago and my 9 hour flight to Finland were strangely enough not that bad. I had to fly to Finland before I got to Norway and that smaller flight was actually somehow worse than the 9 hour flight. By than my body was tired and was basically saying "really Bailey another flight???" I felt a little sick and just exhausted as I arrived in Norway but once I was on the ground I got excited again. I texted Lina "just landed", "departing the plane", "waiting for my luggage", "getting my luggage" in all separate messages. Than I finally got out into the open area, saw her, and instantly ran to her. After 3 and a half years we were finally reunited.
    Driving from the airport to her house was an experience alone. Living in Nebraska your whole live all you see is flat ground. In Norway their are mountains everywhere and tunnels you drive through that go under mountains. I know I have experienced this a little before in South Dakota but, the views of Norway were just breathtaking. Lina laughed a little, because to her this was completely normal, mostly all houses were placed on hills and their was a mountain in any direction you looked. Lina lives in a smaller town called Gran. Most of her family lives and grew up there. We got to her house around noon on Monday and I was tired. I got about 2 and a half hours of sleep total on all of the plane rides because it was hard for me to sleep on a plane. Though lacking sleep I refused to get Jet lag so with the help of Lina I stayed up the whole day.
She showed me the view of the town from a higher altitude, which is also where her uncles lives. One day she might want to take over the house and fix it up for herself. She also showed me the main mall where we walked around for a little bit. We had more of a lazy day because all of my potential energy was wiped away from the flights. Honestly though how could I not stay awake!? I was in a beautiful country with my friend who I haven't seen in years, I feel so lucky to be here!!
(Click on the arrow to see more pictures ^^)
Lina's family is so sweet, I am so blessed that they allowed me to stay in my own room in the basement along with having my own bathroom. They also had food for us to make breakfast every day along with also cooking dinner for us! Thankful does not even begin to describe how appreciative I am of Lina and her families hospitality!! On day two we went back to Oslo to explore all the city has to offer. I experienced my first ever train ride as well.
We visited Vigelandsparken Sculpture Park. (Vigelandsparken Sculpture Park is the largest sculptureÂ
park in the world created by a single sculptor.)This park is full of stoned sculptures. The sculptures are all human bodies both young and old. I really liked the architecture of the park but I wish they had more descriptions or titles for each sculpture. Thinking about it now, maybe they didn't because they wanted you to interpret the sculpture on your own.
We explored the city more and also went down to the pier where we saw some different castles.
 Oh another thing, Lina has the cutest dog ever, His name is Fant and he is very sweet, I loved having him around. He is such a mighty independent dog, when we were at the cabin he sat on the picnic table and acted as if he ruled the whole kingdom. He would also just run free, we knew he would come back!
So like I had mentioned, their was a cabin. When you live in the neighborhood Lina's family lived in you also own a cabin up in the mountains just above her neighborhood. Later that week we went up to the cabin and it was about a 30 minute drive up. Never being in a cabin in the woods before, I was skeptical because to me it sounds like the start to a horror movie. But, the second we got there I couldn't believe my eyes. The views were honestly the most amazing thing I have ever seen. On the first day at the cabin we went down to the water where there were handmade tree swings and different furniture.
If you want to actually know what my face looked like on the swing, here are some realistic photos.
It was really fun until I ended up ripping my leggings after almost falling off the high tree swing. Luckily I was not really injured until the next day... i'll explain that story in a bit! Did I mention Lina was in the military? Yeah we went on a hike up a really tall mountain and wow lets just say I was very glad Lina had a military backpack meant to carry water. It was all worth it when I got to the top. Not only were we already up so high from being at the cabin but we were up even higher after that climb. I honestly felt like I was on top of the world and I would go back in a heartbeat.
So remember when I said I got injured? Well it's a funny story honestly it is. I was climbing up a tree that had fallen over and honestly climbing isn't really my thing even though I wish it was. The top was only like 7 feet so it truly was not even that high.
As I got to the top and released some energy since I felt like I was secure, I ended up slipping. In my defense the ground was pretty wet due to previous rain so it made my shoes a bit slippery. The fall happened so quickly, luckily before I hit the ground about 2 feet above the ground, the lowest branch actually caught my right leg and I ended up hitting the ground so lightly. Problem was I was now stuck and just hung there upside down. Lina came and got me out. She tried to get my leg uncaught but it was too stuck so she had to lift me from my shoulders and slowly I got out. I seriously do not know what I would do without this girl. I should have had her take a picture of what I looked like because my explanation does not do it justice, with that said though she was a little concerned I was hurt so a picture was not her first thought! It made my leg pretty sore when the branch hit but I walked it off just fine and continued the hike. I am kind of a clutz so lets hope nothing else bad happens the rest of this trip. I already tripped a little on the street so maybe I should print out my insurance card... The rest of the hike was super fun. I never have had many opportunities in the past to hike around such a beautiful place so no ripped leggings or bruised leg was going to ruin my trip to this cabin.
On our hike down I was a little hungry and their were blueberries. Lina told me that they were safe to eat so I would literally just plop to the ground when I wanted to and throw some blueberries into my mouth. They were very sweet! I honestly probably stopped like 6 times, sometimes I didn't even tell Lina, she would eventually turn around and say "come on girl!!" I just could not resist the taste! The day before Lina's mom had gone out and about to pick some cloudberries. She turns them into a sort of Jam to have for breakfast in the mornings!
That next day we went down the road a little while where her uncles cabin was! He had his own private dock right out to the water that you have seen down below in previous pictures. Anyone who truly knows me knows that a little cold never stopped me from throwing my swimsuit on and jumping into the water! Lina thought I was absolutely insane, it was around 60 degrees but I did not care.. she kept her sweatshirt on. I honestly could not tell you what view I liked better, looking down at the water or looking straight at it from a dock.
All i can say is honestly when I was up in that cabin I had truly found my happy place. It was so calm and so peaceful, I was unplugged from technology and plugged into the breathtaking views. I also had my first taste of legal alcohol at this cabin, it was a box wine and it was pretty good. Thanks Lina for providing me my first legal taste of alcohol!! When it was dark at the cabin Lina and I played a card game called SKIP-BO. Again, for anyone who knows me knows I am a very competitive person but sadly Lina beat me more times than I beat her. A rematch will be coming soon Lina, I will be back!
My last full day in Norway was spent in Gjøvik. It was one of Lina's friends birthday so we went to celebrate. During the day we went to a carnival. It was really cool to see all the different booths they had here and what kinds of things they sold. I remember trying some goats milk and it was decent. We also went on a ride where you are locked in and spun in a full circle, lets just say some Norwegian's heard an American's loud scream that day. After the carnival I bought my first legal alcohol at some grocery store so that was fun. I actually liked everything I picked out even though half of it was spelled in Norwegian! We celebrated her friends birthday, they taught me some Norwegian songs and dances and I showed them some American ones. They tried to teach me a really fun song in Norwegian but I kept messing up and could not get the sounds out correctly. I am so glad I was able to make some more Norwegian friends along this journey and I hope to see them again when I visit! (maybe next time a stove top won't break.. YIKES!!)
Regardless to say, my trip to Norway was absolutely amazing and I am already going to start saving money to go back and see Lina again. I am so blessed to have her as a friend and I know that even though we are an ocean away, we will be friends forever!
