Whether there is a mysterious force called “Luck” or “Fortune“, some events remain inexplicable. Is there such a thing as a coincidence; or everything is pre-written? None of us can certainly tell, but there are days when such questions are even more prevalent – and Friday the 13th is one of them

“Hei, how eager are you to bring me the computer?“
My friend forgot his laptop at home when he left.
This caused a chain of events that made me question the existence of chance.

Good manners compel to deliver, so I transported his portable work desk. The day was still young to wander, so I took the opportunity to travel. The first thing I wanted to see was a semi-island called Bygdøy, because it’s full of stuff from the Viking age. Ships, axes, beards. The beautiful history of Nordic beasts; + A small forest to hike in.

The right bus came immediately, but I got off at the wrong place.
Be careful with the Norwegian public transport, it’s very confusing. It’s easy to miss, even with google maps in your sleeves.

Well, mistakes were made. At least I explored the western part of the city. Oslo is pretty big, there is a lot to see. I got to the island easily, but the roads were extremely slippery. You could barely walk up on some hills. Not even the boots could prevent down-sliding, it felt like skating – only downwards, obviously. For the top, you needed ice picks...

The unsuccessful attempts at hiking made me dry and thirsty – that’s when I realized that there is no water in my bag, and only one sandwich with goat cheese and lamb meat, so I decided to leave the woods and look for a Café. When the trails finally led me to a civilized place, I stumbled upon this pretty house next to a plantation full of veggies:

Turns out this little “cottage” was just a few minutes away from a Museum and a Café. When I walked in, the interior stunned me.
It had a burning hearth to heat the place – from the floor to the ceiling it was furnished with the most wonderful wood-works I’ve ever seen.
The tables, benches, seats – not a single inch of paint, concrete or brick. A natural beauty.
Everything was warm and soothing, a Writer’s paradise – so to say. Same goes for customer service: whatever you ask the cashiers, they’ll gladly explain it without a frown or a grumpy blink. The kindness I received was astonishing, even though it’s the darkest part of the year. Huge respect for the people of Norway.

I took my book out and started to read tips for traveling, from Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding, in the company of a cappuccino and a blueberry muffin.
The clock was around 2 when I decided to leave, yet the sun was already on its way to sleep. Right before everything would turn dark, I had the chance to walk around the shore and see the entire City from afar. I wish the pictures could convey how mesmerizing it actually was.

There was a photographer at the docks, trying to capture the magical view that was in front of us. The waves, the lights, the fog.
I’m convinced it’s similar to Valhall*.
We were just standing there, taking the moment in.
– If you were given a wish, what would you ask for? – I strike up a convo, casually.
He plugs out his earphones and looks at me, eyebrows raised.
– If you were given a wish, what would you ask for? – I repeat
“Hmm…“
–Take your time, no rush
After giving it some thought, a clever answer came up:
“To find what I’m looking for.“

Isn’t that what we all want? It’s quite obvious, but we don’t usually go that far. What could it be? Have you ever thought of that?
It’s very easy to get lost in the daily tasks and use the weekends as a kind of recharge, while the question remains unsolved.

How can we stumble upon the thing we truly want, if we barely go out to explore what makes us feel pumped?

His name was David, and he moved to Germany from Bogotá, Colombia.
He was on a vacation to explore Scandinavia. The World is quite small, one of my first friends in the Netherlands also happens to come from Bogotá; plus my host is a South American.
After a brief chat he definitely earned the conversation of the week award. His view on the World was pure gold – He knew that Life can be hard, but it’s worth the fight after all. The things we dream about might be far, but if we begin to walk we’ll eventually end up where we want. Let it be a place, an experience or a challenge we want to overcome.

He mentioned that even after all these months, he still had some trouble learning German. Since both of us started out without knowing anything, Dutch and German was something we had to face. Luckily, the experience I’ve gained in learning languages seemed effective, so we ended up exchanging emails to send each other useful bits – One was a photo he took at the beach, the other was a language guide that taught me how to acquire Dutch in a year.

He shared the view that money isn’t the goal of the game, even if you have a lot, it’s not going to solve everything. I really admired that mentality, especially from someone who took such a huge risk – to come to the EU and follow his dreams. That takes balls, trust me.
Before the sun would go down, I asked him to take a shot of me at the docks.
You know the drill: Sanity off, Unicorn mask on – find a dangerous spot and let karma do her job.
There was a slippery pole at the edge of the shore, right above the water which was ice-cold. He took a snap while I was trying to take as small breaths as possible.
It turned out to be beautiful:

Can’t be thankful enough for his willingness to browse through thousands of pictures just to find a crazy dude standing on a pole, posing as a Unicorn.

His bus came soon, which made the parting inevitable, but I promised that all of what we talked about will be a part of this post. Hi David, Thank you!

When he took off, I wandered into a museum (The Fram, which led the race to the South pole back in 1911) and around, seeing the massive ship from inside and out, with the crew cabins and everything they’ve got. For the first time in months, a few words of Hungarian caught my eardrums.
“Nocsak, magyarok itt északon?¹” – I asked the young couple
“Oh, helló!” – came the surprised antwoord².
We didn’t talk more than that though.
Since it was getting really dark (half past four) the museum was about to close, so we had to go.
Before the bus would come, I walked around the shore once more, when I kicked a kagyló³. Being surprised by its form, I went closer to the water and started to hunt for more. They were dark blue, which made it impossible to see them without a light source. One hand held the phone, the other grabbed a bunch of shells and stones. I stuffed them in a lunch box and turned to take a last glimpse at Oslo.
God, was it beautiful.

The bus rolled in to the museum – guess what:
Another Hungarian couple! The World is small here up North.
This time we talked a little, once again I’ve heard the usual “You have a cute accent though!” – It started to feel like an insult.
Before their last stop, they gave me a hug and wished me good luck. A drop of kindness from my homeland.

Once again, I was aiming to get back to the condo, but the public transport is just inscrutable. Somehow I landed in the middle of Oslo – “Alright, let’s wander a little more.” There was a library next door, which I couldn’t resist to explore. There were Dutch girls looking for romantic novels. Could the World be any smaller?
It’s so beautiful to use 3 languages under 1 day. All the time and effort that went into learning is finally paying in joy instead of anxiety. It’s been a rough road to get there, but I’ll never regret taking it.

There were Christmas lights hanging all over the city. The vibe was extremely festive, no wonder Norway is the 3rd happiest place on Earth currently. The amount of guys that had massive beards made me jealous that evening.
“It must be cool to grow up as a viking” – I mumbled, as I touched my bare cheeks.

That was the point when I decided to go home (and research how to grow a beard). This time I didn’t miss the station at which I had to leave, so the long trip of the day finally ended up on the soft couch and a warm laptop on my knees. Little did I know that the day was just about to begin.

The Evening

Ellenor and her Dad soon came in, with some pizza and beer.
Boy, her father knew how to have fun for real. When we mentioned the plans about visiting a gay bar, he was completely into the idea. Unfortunately he was already booked, otherwise he would’ve joined us.
If there was a “Coolest Dad of the Month” award, he would’ve won one.

It’s amazing to see examples as such, it gives you some hope that the World is not lost, and that there are people out there who keep up with all the craziness that’s going on. Before we’d go, it was time to share a vodka shot with Ellenor and walk to the metro with a few can of cold bois. We had to get tipsy by the time we reach the city, which meant shameless chugging in public.

On the way she told me a story about a contest at her Uni, where she and her friend were crawling on the ground, as a part of an activity. An old Lady passed by, unable to resist the urge to comment on it:
“I HOPE YOU’RE PROUD OF YOURSELVES” – She said, almost shouting
The beer bursts out of my mouth like the lava fountain of Pompeii. I couldn’t stop laughing for minutes. “Good ol’ judgmental bitches“.

Soon all of our cans were finished; goodbye sobriety. No one gave us “the look” for drinking publicly. That’s one of the many advantages of a progressive country. Hip hip hooray for Norway. When the metro took us closer to the City, we had to rush to the tram. One leg after the other, swiftly but clumsily. We made it without falling. It was time to pull the unicorn mask out and confuse people a bit. A group of girls got up behind our seats, and started talking:
“They’re talking about you” – she was translating
“I think they’re going to come here“
And they did. They took a photo, and asked me why am I doing this.
– Because it’s funny; I explained plainly
It sparks up smiles and giggles all the way, a virtuous activity.

When we stood up before the last stop, I felt the tipsiness taking over my conscious. Walking didn’t prove to be difficult anymore, but being less aware was certainly on hold. Right before we would arrive to the house we were going to, two drunk guys stopped us, asking for directions.
THEY WERE DUTCH!
All three of us immediately lit up, they even gave me a friendly hug – though I couldn’t help with their problem at all, but Google maps proved to be the savior they were looking for.

“Ah, there she is!” I looked at Ellenor standing in the door. We made it to the house where the invitation was from. Our future company was already in a warm room, having fun and drinking rum. There were only 6 of us, yet the total languages spoken in that room were: Spanish, Norwegian, English, Dutch, Finnish, Japanese and Hungarian. From all these, we had English as the common one. What a wonderful time to be alive, where people from all over the World can still talk.
Our hot host gave us spiced rum with orange, that’s when things started to get fucked up funnier than usual.
The drunker we got, the more excited we were about the gay bar.
After everyone got their fair share of alcohol, we put our coats on and left the apartment, shamelessly loud. The streets were still slippery with ice, and the drunkenness didn’t make it easier to balance.

At that point I was fairly charmed by the host, especially when she publicly took pride in stacking up with free condoms from the dispenser box. She was walking fast, and the rest of the crowd got stuck at a red light, while we were heading towards the gay bar.
The row was long and big, which is probably the best compliment you can get in here. We had to wait a lot, but right when we got to the gate they decided to let us in FOR FREE!
Guess who can afford some extra beers? – (Little did I know that 0,5l was 11€ here*)
Almost all of us roamed the toilets (to take a pee, not to steal*) and I have to admit, after all the rum, I was quite done already.

Boy, did I dance without any fear through the whole evening. It was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had in a nightclub, and the secret seemed to be drinking. I’ve always struggled to have fun in any similar setup, unable to let go and open up, but after 22 years of being afraid to go out, I let it all out. I didn’t dance like an animal, but it was certainly phenomenal. The energy, the songs, the guys hitting on me every half an hour. It was hard to worry about anything at all. Blissful existence, to be exact. No fear of being awkward (which might sound weird, after taking a banana for a walk is one of my favorite adventurous things), standing out or being judged. Just freedom and fun.

How could I not do this for so long? It felt like a part of me that I thought was flawed is now fully functional. The defect that haunted me since I was born is now gone. One step closer to the Man I want to become. Those few hours were Life-changing without a doubt. – Thank you guys for everything you’ve done.
The memory of a blond guy hitting on me still pops up occasionally, as he twerked in front of me while I was drinking that 11€ beer.

“One of the greatest discoveries a person makes is to find they can do what they were afraid they couldn’t do.”

– Henry Ford

Around 3 in the morning we decided to leave and get something to eat, when a random dude took his chances at Ellenor, hoping to score a kiss. My friend calmly asked him to stop trying, the Lady is taken and happy – to which the guy fought off the level of alcohol in his blood, as a civilized, well-mannered Western lad.

All this wasn’t that interesting, because I was still intoxicated both with alcohol and the thought of how hot my friend’s colleague is. In age, she had a ~6 year advantage, but you know who counts these after a few beers.
Being sober wouldn’t have changed it, nor the fact that there are situations I still don’t know how to deal with. It’s time to spend some more time on confidence building.

After eating, our next target was to get some sleep.
On the way home, I couldn’t even stand still.
My manner of walking ashamed even the Lords of the Drinks, there was barely a straight step in every 20.
“Are you okay? Do you need to puke?“
– I’mm no’ gnna thrwo up, dn’t wrory.
*20 minutes and a Snus later*
“It’s okay. It’s okay. Let it aaaaall out. That’s it” – my lovely friends held me while I painted the street with vodka and beer.

They had to carry me home, almost all the way. Both of them had an arm around their shoulders, as if they were dragging a wounded soldier through the desert.

There was one huge casualty: The Lucky charm bracelet my ex gave me, it was supposed to keep bad Luck away, so I suppose it sacrificed itself against Friday the 13th, because it went missing.

– I drank more beer this week than in the entire year – the conclusion came.
It was the top 3 best nights of my Life, no question about it.
That’s how the Crown Jewel of #35 was made in Norway.
Guys, thank you for everything.

Take care,
Erik

2019.12.13 – Day 326

[Hungarian Dictionary]
Nocsak, magyarok itt északon? ¹ – “Wow, Hungarians here in the North?”
Kagyló ³ – Shell/Clam

[Dutch Dictionary]
Antwoord ² – Answer

*Valhall / Valhalla – A majestic hall in Asgard, according to the Norse mythology