Once upon a time, I went to Scandinavia. I’d been wanting to visit for a long time and I asked my friend to come with me for some of it. He said yes.
I went to Finland and Denmark on my own but I was full of excitement for meeting him in Sweden in Gothenburg.
We were meeting at the bus station. I went to the downstairs bathroom to put on some lipstick and steady my nerves.
Full of expectations, we checked into our hostel and went exploring. It started to rain.
We sheltered in a pub and later we climbed a church scaffolding to get high in both senses of the word.
The next day we went on a day trip to Marstrand which is a fishing village where we went walking and ate fish and chips on the pier.
On our last day in Sweden, we went to the fish market and then got stoned in a park. We realised that we were going to miss our train to Oslo so we ran through the city to the station.
In Oslo, we ate junk food and boarded the night train to Bergen. He carried my bag for me and woke me up to show me the view.
We arrived in Bergen too early to check into our hostel so we went to the park for a nap. He took this picture of me whilst I was sleeping so we joked about how he was a perv. It is a good photo though.
Post-nap, we went to the port which is the main hub of Bergen for tourists and ate crabstick sandwiches at the fish market. He pointed out that they were imported and not actually from Norway.
In the evening we bought some booze and went to the park. My friend told me that I was good-looking and touched my face. I told him I needed the toilet and ran away. Some Norwegian guys joined us when I returned so we all had a chat.
We got the bus back to our hostel (which was up a mountain) to sit on a bench looking over the city and getting high. There was a creepy rustling noise and we had no idea what was causing it. It turned out to be a hedgehog, we were very relieved when it emerged from the bush.
The next day, we took a cable car up a mountain and walked around. He told me that I could wear his shirt so I did.
We enjoyed nice views of Bergen and we returned to the city to visit the very romantic leprosy museum. It was a creepy place but we were too happy to care.
After all that leprosy, it was time to leave Scandinavia. I was flying home from Oslo in the morning and he was leaving in the afternoon. Whilst we packed, I nudged him with my knee and he grabbed my hand, I didn’t want to let go.
We chatted a lot on the trip but I don’t remember what we talked about. We said goodbye at the bus station in Oslo after another overnight train.
After we hugged he pointed out that I’d ripped a hole in my leggings. Leggings that I’d bought so that I could look good for him. We laughed about it. He thanked me for the trip and offered to buy an owl for my nan from Oslo as she collects them. It was a very thoughtful gesture.
We both took our separate planes. I waited in the airport watching a couple who were having a long-distance relationship. She told him that she didn’t sleep when she with him. I guess she wanted to make the most out of every second.
I knew the feeling as when I returned home I spoke to my friend often. We even went out for my birthday with our other friends. Nothing happened until we both got drunk in my flat a few weeks later. It was the whiskey that finally did it.
He told me that he was in love with me and I felt the same. The trip to Norway sealed the deal for us, so I will always think of Bergen as the place we fell in love.