After spending four days being sick and unable to do a trip, a window of opportunity arose. On Friday morning I was finally feeling reasonably well. But I already thought that I’ve missed the chance to canoe somewhere in the local area. Luckily Jochen and Flurin still had canoes in Roligheden and I was invited to join.

That was a bit of a surprise, because I was only starting my lunch when I received a call from Jochen. Canoeing in 30 minutes… I’m in!

Jochen and me set sail from Bertesbukta (a beach near Roligheden) and soldered on to Topdalsfjord keeping a small distance from the shore we paddled around the coast line until we found the narrowest part of the fjord to cross. Our plan was to reach Ronsbukta which was on the other side of the fjord. The Fjord was quite calm, but we still had to be a bit careful, because canoes weren’t made for the sea.

As we reached Ronsbukta, we followed the stream and found our way into Drangsvatna lake. There we reunited with Flurin’s family. They drove here by car, because it’s a bit too far away canoeing with Flurin’s little daughter Jana.

The weather was threatening to pour heavy rain rain on us at first but it never happened. It turned out to a really pleasant day. Sunshine, nice view and good company.

We paddled all the way until the very end of this long narrow lake. On the way we took a break in one of the islands. It was Engeholmen – a perfect place for overnight trip. There we enjoyed sunshine for a bit, climbed some trees and etc.

At one point we even made a raft out of our canoes. That turned out to be a stable and quite fast mean of transportation.

For a trip back Jochen switched with Flurin. Quite fast Me and Flurin we reached the shores near Roligheden. Where dinner awaited us in Jochen’s place.

It was a small day trip, but it reminded me that being outside with good companions is the thing that really makes me happy.

Bird watching… I think for me that was one of most anticipated activities this semester. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see any birds that we were supposed to.

Despite that, it was a cozy overnight with some useful knowledge provided by our guide Svein. Svein showed us around the area where we were staying. Telling us what we can eat and what we can’t. We tried out some tree buns (or gems) – taste like marzipan! Some of us even tried out tasting some ants – great source of proteins. Sorry ants… We were also advised not to pick mushrooms here as there is a big chance to confuse good ones with bad ones.

The weather was brilliant! We stayed up until stars showed up in the sky. Svein started wandering around the sky with his smart phone, which showed constellations around. It seemed a bit funny using these technologies in an environment such as this.

The only signs of birds we’ve noticed was noises when it was still dark. I am not sure if I heard some of those or it was just my imagination, because I was sleepy. I was a bit disappointed that my colleagues were a bit too loud late in the evening and that there was no signal in the morning to wake us up when the birds started making sounds. I think this should be done with a slightly smaller group.

In the morning we collected our gear and went back to parking place – then back to Uni.

Ah… this familiar place almost felt like home. I was nice to return to Berdalsbu after exactly one month. The mountains greeted us with nice weather the day we arrived and the next day. We saw a pack of rain deer minding their own business up in the mountains – what a beauty.

For the first night after searching for a potential area for digging a snow hole we squeezed ourselves into two cabins that were originally designed to accommodate around 16-18 people – we were 24. Next day we came back to the places that we thought were suitable for digging a hole. Snow conditions were terrible for skiing with a huge rucksack, it was hard and I couldn’t turn. It was agonizing to get down from the hill where the cabins were. But when we started digging all the mental and physical pain of falling again and again disappeared.

It took us a whole day to dig a snow hole. Luckily it was a beautiful sunny and warm day. It was pretty enjoyable to dig, to carve a home out of a massive pile of snow, although Flurin dug the most of it. My snow hole mates were Jochen, Flurin and Jais.

Next morning we woke up to find a completely different weather outside. It was windy (very). Deep in my heart I felt happy – I really wanted something where we could touch reality of mountains more closely (it’s nice to have a trip in a good weather, but a trip in a bad one is something to remember and to learn from).

We practiced mountain navigation as we ascended the mountains east of the valley where Berdalsbu was. As we gained altitude wind became stronger and stronger – goggles for and expedition in such weather was must. My regular sun glasses provided me with little protection against sharp snow flakes that were blown into my eyes.

We dug a shelter for lunch up in the mountains. It didn’t provide us sufficient wind and snow protection so after five minutes or so we were almost covered with snow. After a break we got down from the mountain to the cabin applying bad weather conditions navigation skills. We dried and warmed ourselves in the cabin. Discussed about the mistakes we’ve made in the mountains. After that we’ve returned to our snow holes for a second night in them.

Next morning the weather was more or less the same. We headed towards the road abandoning our beloved snow homes. On the way Len gave us a task to go in a straight line blindfolded – to demonstrate how you can loose the sense of direction in a whiteout conditions. Yup, I almost turned around, while thinking I was going straight.

Not far from the road we had a task to dig in in 20 minutes. The task was to imitate survival in very bad weather conditions. All of us passed this test. Only Will’s life would have been in question, because he spent to much time on finding a perfect spot 🙂

I was disappointed a bit when we headed home instead of staying another night in these snow holes. It was wise to go home because half of the group were cold and wet. And I got constipated… Not enough fluids and to much rice I guess – most important learning outcome.

And here we are – 2015! This year promised me adventures long time ago, but until now I didn’t believed that I am really going to Norway. It just seemed so far away from my little world which began to make me a quite depressed personality.

There is nothing wrong with Lithuania itself. It is a small beautiful country in it’s own way. But here I felt trapped in my own mind and comfort zone. Nothing outside my comfort zone seemed worth pursuing… Yeah, I admit – I am quite lazy and unenthusiastic. I like to comfort myself thinking that there are just too many good reasons not to do something and lack of encouragement (someone should be responsible, right? :D). I had and still have many many dreams and plans but those are still only dreams, because I didn’t put much effort on any of them. One day… Maybe.

There almost wasn’t a day when anxiety didn’t took over. Anxiety about the future. What shall I do for a living? What if I gona hate my profession? What shall happen to my dreams? Will I have enough time? Just too many questions in my head that seized me from doing something.

Anyway, studies abroad seems like a good start in the direction of pursuing my dreams and a good excuse to run away from my boring daily life. I made my preparations quite diligently and waited for this adventure so badly for the last few moths. Sooo badly..

Spending five moths in Norway meant that my girlfriend Karina had to be left behind for a while. After two and half year together we managed to build strong and lasting relationship. It’s a shame to be apart for such a long time, but I couldn’t handle the fact that I was becoming such a boring and unhappy person and that it might affect our relationship in the future. I didn’t want to be Karina’s disappointment. I had to leave, I had to change myself, expand my point of view, before I can be an interesting partner.

And so, this is it. I am in the plane, with my colleague Osvaldas beside me. I never flew by a passenger jet before, neither did Osvaldas. It’s going to be a really exciting journey! Pretty rough landing; 20 hours in the airport, four of which was spent outside of it because it was closed for the night; 3,5 hour bus trip to Kristiansand… And here I am – my new home. And adventures didn’t stopped there, on the same evening we made quite a few Norvegian friends, they showed us around the city, introduced me to the bar culture which seems to be really popular around here. Of course it’s popular everywhere, but I never was party guy back home, so this was entirely new to me 😛

I was really tired in the end of the day… but honestly, I never thought I would anything like this. Finally, something awesome is happening to me! We were welcome here! And it’s only the beginning…