TRACK ONE: OSLO

“There’s a view you can’t miss”

My best friend and I decided to take a two week trip and see Paris, Bern, Amsterdam and Oslo. Of all the stories that came to be in those two weeks, one of my favorite moments was the day we flew to the other side of Norway just to see something beautiful. We had spent a few days in Oslo and were absolutely loving the incredible culture, architecture and people. One afternoon, we found ourselves walking around an old castle and were asked by a young couple if we could snap a picture of them. That photo led to an hour conversation, which led to these Native Norwegians insisting we had to see the West Coast before we left the country. We agreed.

That night, we came back to our Air BNB, found a ridiculously cheap student fair to Stavanger, and haggled for brand new $10 hiking shoes from a flea market. We were ready! The epic day panned out as followed:

4:30 AM: We woke up and wow it was early.

5:15 AM: Nice bus driver lets us ride and says he’s looking for a wife

6:00 AM: Arrive at Oslo train station. Run.

6:07 AM: “What are we doing right now? Is this real?” -Us

7:00 AM: Arrive at Airport

8:00 AM: Board plane to Stavanger. WE SEE THE GIRL FROM THE CASTLE!

9:00 AM: Arrive in Stavanger. Don’t know where to go. 

9:15 AM: Kinda stressed

9:30 AM: We find out there’s more to getting to our hike than we thought... oops.

9:31 AM: Stress.

9:32 AM: Laugh.

9:45: Take bus to a ferry when we didn’t know we would even need to take a ferry.

10:30 AM: Arrive at ferry. They’re selling hot dogs for breakfast. We eat one.

11:00 AM: Arrive across the other side. “Oh, we have to take a bus now...”

11:30 AM: Arrive at trailhead.

*NOTE: We were told by the bus driver that this hike normally takes 4 hours total. We also had to repeat the same travel plan I just described to get BACK to Oslo, and we could not miss even one stop because we were leaving back for America the next day. LOL.

11:31 AM: “We have no choice but to hustle.”

12:31 PM: Arrive to top of location pictured above. We cry. We laugh. It was the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen. Notice how it only took us an hour. We were running and people hated us and we were dead already that point.

1:31 PM: Arrive at bottom of hill. Yes, we did it in half the time. Yes, be impressed.

***Repeat every step I just described to go back to Oslo*** 

11:00 PM: Arrive back to Oslo. Smell pretty bad. Hearts pretty full. Epic. Leave for America in 6 hours.

It was a view we couldn’t miss. It was crazy. No regrets. After that, I wrote a song and I hope you love it even more now.

-k