Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

Sunrise in Tromsø: 9.26am
Sunset in Tromsø: 1.31pm

Sunrise in Barcelona: 7.40am
Sunset in Barcelona: 5.32pm

Sunrise in Canterbury: 7.15am
Sunset in Canterbury: 4.04pm

I just flew home from a random, sun-filled holiday to Barcelona and Cercedilla, Spain and London and Cantebury, England and boy are my arms tired. It was an amzing trip filled with friends, adventures, and people. Despite all this fun, I have to admit that it feels great to return to Tromsø, which is feeling more and more like home.

My journeys started in Barcelona, Spain where I met my parents and enjoyed the sun, the food, and the people. We spent two days being tourists and two days just sitting at cafes eating, drinking, talking, and watching everyone. Gaudi architecture, conversation with the parents, and of course ultimate frisbee were all highlights.

After Barcelona, I headed to Cercedilla, Spain where our family friends, the Fernandez, live. It was great to see Cercedilla in the fall and to get a taste of the normal schedule and life of the Fernandez. I spent a lot of time eating (again), relaxing, and chatting (often in Spanish!). A visit to Madrid added a little variety to the routine, but for the most part the trip was, like my entire holiday, just time with friends. The best kind.

After Cercedilla, I headed to London where I was picked up by my friend from Luther, Sarah Frydenlund. Sarah and I immediately began the purpose-driven mission of visiting the oldest and artsiest pubs in London. We visited about 8 different pubs, the entire time carrying my three bags, two of which were full of new purchases from Barcelona. At the end of the evening, Beth Borowski, another friend from Luther, flew in to London to join us. We picked her up and chatted for awhile in another pub before heading for the bus station to get on a bus to Canterbury where Sarah studies art and lives. Little did we know that the last bus to Cantebury left at 11.30pm. When we arrived at 11.45pm, we looked around at the empty bus station and freaked out for about 5 minutes. Then, we settled down and bit the bullet, realizing we'd have to stay in London for the night. Sarah knew of a hostel near the London Bridge so we hopped on the last metro and got off about four blocks from the hostel. We hiked from the tube stop to the hostel, now with all of my bags and all of Beth's bags. We finally got a bed at about 1am and laughed for a short while before deciding to get up for the first bus to Canterbury at 7am. After 5 hours of sleep we looked desperately for a way to the bus station, finding only an unmarked cab willing to take us. We were the trusting midwesterners, got in, and miraculously arrived safetly at the bus station 2 minutes before our bus left.

After crashing for a bit at Sarah's house, we headed out to explore Canterbury. We walked around town, ate the best fish and chips I have ever had, and joined in with the movement of the city. I loved it! There is something incredible about traveling to another part of the world and just feeling the pulse of the city and the people. It reminds me of going on a college search in high school when you would visit college campuses, eat the food, talk to the people, watch everyone carefully, and in the end try to pinpoint the atmosphere of the location. But, traveling is much better because there is an infinite number of locations to explore, and I don't have to make a decision on where to stay.

At the end of our day of exploration, we headed to the historically massive Canterbury Cathedral where we attended a hauntingly moving Even Song service, complete with the all male choir with the soprano and alto sections comprised of young boys. After the service, we made a delicious meal at Sarah's house and headed to, that's right, a pub about 5 miles outside of town where Sarah works. There we had a great time chatting and meeting some of Sarah's classmates in her Master of Fine Arts contemporary art program. I was pleasantly surprised to meet a classmate from Oslo! I didn't realize how comfortable I had become in Norwegian until we started talking. It felt so great to speak Norwegian again and got me excited to get home. After an evening of talking among the many locals at the pub, we ordered a cab to come get us. After numerous phone calls, the cab finally arrived one hour late. We got home in time for me to re-zip my bags and to crash for about 4 hours before getting up to catch my 6.20am train to London where I caught the plane home.

The trip was great, the food and sun were welcomed, and the friends and family were the highlights. I have always remembered this line from a play called "Here Lies Henry" that my friend Eric Holm performed in high school. In the play, the main character informs the audience that "when you die, you enter a room covered with photographs of all the people that you have ever made eye contact with and a gentle man takes your hand and tells you the story of each person." The past week and a half dramatically increased the number of photographs I will get to see and the number of stories I will have the pleasure of hearing, and for that I am thankful.