Norway - from Money to Nothing

[original text in Englisch]

Hey, do you have a grand history of wild backpacking trips over many weeks, loads of extreme situations and a really good equipment with many useful experiences and now you decided to head to Norway during March? Well, that's really good for you! Unfortunately for myself I didn't have any of that.
My backpack costed 30 bucks and I wasn't aware of what winter in Norway would actually mean. This would also be my first ever travelling/backpacking experience and I've chosen to do it alone in Norway for various reasons. I got a tent and barefoot shoes. I have a little, very basic survival kit and loads of knowledge lacks. But my optimism wasn't to be topped - my ability to be naive was top notch. Normally my imagination about stuff like this would be rather good. In this case it hit rock bottom and I had zero clue about what I was heading into.

The following did happen:
I lived with an actually happy person in Oslo, where my journey through Norway would start. One of the four types of happiness that there are, as I would later be able to learn. He was happy through Materialism. A wealthy person with a great mind, a fulfilling job and the financial capacity to integrate all his desires into his life style. He wished for a house in Spain, so he got one. The giant camper van he barely used? Well, he wanted one and loved the idea of travelling with it. His drones, 3D-Printers and all other hobbies and interests he got? Well, yeah! He had them all because money allowed it to be in his reach. He lived the Life that all people that go to their hard work look up to and wish for, sometimes their whole time on earth. When having people like me as his company, he is not even lonely. I admired many things about that but I also realised that it's far away from my own wishes and nothing for me personally to strive for. When he continued his money earning process and I continued my money restricted travelling, it led me around the whole south coast over Kristiansand until I landed in the Preikestolen through hitch hiking - a mountain range close to the city of Oil. Stavanger. Up there was this magical place which attracted my attention. I climbed up on the mountain barefoot and met a few interesting people on the way, but nothing in comparison with who I would meet a little later on the Pulpit Rock, on which I would camp.
When standing on the incredible stone plateau overlooking the mountain range and the gigantic Fjord, it didn't take thirty minutes before five women and four men arrived. These four guys were dressed quite unusual for my western eyes. The color of their robes was as orange as the fruit could've been and their hair was shaved to a millimetre. The eyebrows had to believe in it as well. In front of me there were four absolute real buddhist monks on top of the mountain that I was standing on and they weren't about to ignore me at all. Besides taking pictures with them, I also was invited to take a four hours drive the next day and live with them for three days close to Bergen, somewhere kind of center in Norway. What just happened and how did my lucky butt slip into such a situation...? Can you imagine the impact that this event had on me? No? Well, me neither, so I'm here to write about it, trying to cope with what I experienced, and if you choose to be here and read about it, you might get an idea about what I lived through in this time...

Welcome to my journey through Norway, coming from the richest four days in Oslo to the most simple and mindful days of my young Life, only 19 at the time, in Grimo at a monastery located at the incredible valleys of the Hardangerfjord.
I forgot to mention the nature and the people of Norway which enabled this story to sound like a real fairy tale... no way that nature can be so magnificent, no way that people can be so loving and sharing. No way? Norway!

Let's look at this Journey bit by bit...
Enjoy!


Next chapter coming soon... - !