Assignment 7: Easter Break Trip  

In the beginning of April, it was time for our Easter break. Around a week of holidays meant a great deal to us as having a break from technically already holidays is great. The sorting of a plan and the group was a struggle. As lots of people had detailed and premade plans, often weeks before the actual holidays, I became some sort of stressed about the whole process. As lots of my travels include a more relaxed less planned type, this was an unusual feel of distress only because of other people in sort of a way. Getting together as a group was another challenging factor which gave a lot of stress. Even though the whole group knew each other rather well by then, there was still a lot of weight put onto the “choosing” of the people you want to go with. From initial easy plans, it diverted to complicated group formations which resulted in very bad communication and unhappiness.

All this resulted in making a compromise rather than enjoying a nice and easy trip around the beautiful country of Norway. Once started the road trip feeling came on and we made our way up the west coast towards Haugesund to discover some distant relatives of a class member. The following days we would drive hundreds and thousand of kilometres through the amazing landscapes of Norway. Though the beginning was marked by unpleasant mood, it got a lot better over the course of the next days. Discovering the shores of westerly Norway was a lot of fun and we discovered remote and rugged terrain by hiking and driving along. We proved to be quite flexible towards our made goals and plans. As the weather worsened a lot towards one of the next valleys on the coast, where a mountain was waiting for us, we had to shift focus. We sat together as a group and decided that it would be in the common interest to go to some other place. There were no Leaders apparent or even necessary as it was a very friendly and democratic group.

Our trip would lead us to the Sognefjord and around the Jotunheimen Nationalpark making it a very scenic but also very long road trip. We enjoyed more days of hiking over rough terrain, snow, detours, and easy walks. Seeing some of the Norwegian glaciers and some proper Mountains and not hills was a very nice and refreshing view. Even the iconic Fjord views with a sunset in the background were not disappointing. As to accommodation, we choose to spend some nights in pre-booked AirBnB´s as well as nights in tents. The mood was great wherever we set up our camp. We enjoyed our time on the road together, and the first difficulties vanished to some degree. As it was still very much winter in Norway, we enjoyed a day of Downhill skiing in the ski resort of Hemsedal. Two of our companions decided to go for a day of very flat cross-country skiing instead, in the valley below the ski resort.

The last day of driving was very tiresome but very nice as I was driving with a friend from the course that I did not get to spend a lot of time with. This contributed to the next weeks and months. After a nice easter bunny break/surprise, we headed back towards Kristiansand, sat together at the student housing and enjoyed a celebratory Beer.