3rd of October, 2022.
Hitchhiking in Norway.
Oh! The adventures of not having a smartphone… or a detailed physical map of the countries I am on it. Walking outside Haukland beach, I see the road which I possibly should take as a short cut to the main road leading out of Lofoten Archipelago. But for what I remember of seeing on the map, it should be a bit further away. Or is just my memory failing me? Plus, the road which I am right now, it seems a bit busier than the one I am about to take. It is a bit longer walk, and backwards, but perhaps I will catch a car sooner.
My feet are already soaked! And that is just for the road being wet. I can feel it and it is not a pleasant feeling. I think I better get rid of these boots soon. They are useless in this wet weather. Perhaps because of that I decide I don’t want to walk more but less, so I take the small road.
Oh! The feeling of not knowing if you are in the right path or not… Slightly worse when it is not a metaphor. A few cars pass by me. At some point I finally see a busier road and now I know: I was right! Yay!
As soon as I get in this secondary road, a lady in her car stops. She tells me she is not going that further but she can take me to the main road. I take it!
She is a lovely lady and we have a pleasant conversation for a few minutes, until she drops me off in a bus stop, right by the time when it starts to rain.
My sign it says Narvik, the first town just before the closest border with Sweden. It was difficult for me to decide which route to take on my journey towards Russia. I have to arrive there on the 5th, my last day in Schengen, so that gives me three days to cross all the way from Lofoten Archipelago to Kirkenes, the town in Northern Norway, which makes border with Russia. But why have I decided to cross up there? Well, people have told me that Kirkenes border had a very good relation with Russia, having Russia defending this border on the past. Plus, I would like to go to Murmansk, which can be the further Northern place I will be on Earth.
After considering distances, bigger cities and traffic, I decide to take a route thorough Kiruna and Pajala in Sweden, and then Romaniemi, in Finland, all the way up to Norway again. In that way, I stay almost all the time in highways and from Romaniemi on, it is the same highway all the way to Norway, which definitely makes easier to hitchhike. The distance it is not the shortest possible but easier and with more traffic of cars.
A Chinese couple, Karen and Vei, stop for me. They are going to Narvik but Karen wants to explain to me that they are making a few stops, for sightseeing, before reaching Narvik. I decide to take my chances and go with them.
Karen and Vei are very sweet and arrange their extremely clean and tidy campervan so I can be comfortable. Vei doesn’t speak much English but Karen has been living in New York longer than him so she can. That’s where they live now. They are so sweet together and it seems to me they are truly happy. We make quick stops in three different places: Rørvika, a small village with a beautiful beach; Henningsvær, a town in an island, made of tiny other islands, in a very funny location, like outside the mainland – it is difficult to explain but it seems is quite touristic and many people come here for hiking; and last in Svolvær, a small town famous for its beautiful cliffs.
After that, we go all the way to Narvik. We make a plan of where is the road they will drop me off, because I don’t need to go all the way to Narvik town, there is a highway to Sweden just before that. My last few hours in Norway are in silence, admiring its tremendous beauty through the window.
10 Years Around the World 