Adventure of my life....Norway

I have been documenting my experiences of travelling and life here in Europe…I probably feel this is the experience which will reside in my memory for long time in my life…

Sun was shining to the core, huge gigantic mountains were blushing at us…rivers were flowing in a hurry to meet their girlfriends…the lakes were quite relaxing after long stressful winters…our Volkswagen passat was strolling in the midst of all these beloved friends…Rakesh was enjoying with the SLR camera to capture all these lovely moments...Sathish was thinking about all his girls how it could have been if he would have made this trip with one such girl ;) Bernd was dreaming about his girl friend Mariana sitting next to him instead of Sathish ;) Hemant was dreaming about his future honey moon plans of driving with his future wife once again from Oslo to Bergen ;) slowly got a feeling we were moving out of the complete human settlements and nearing the northern most tip of the planet.

Place where accident took place:

In the midst of all these dreams, we heard a big sound which spoiled all our dreams…probably Hemant was in full dream I guess ;)…he crashed the car on the rocks nearby…BOOM…luckily no damage and hurting to any of us….came out of the car to see the door and chassis heavily crashed…and realized that we can’t further drive the car.. we were standstill for a moment…it seemed like the Nature asking us why did you guys come here to disturb our peace…didn’t know what to do for a moment…relaxed for few minutes…then comes our real adventure..

Now, how do we come out of this jungle ? Remember I referred the same place as paradise before one paragraph…how could life change in a splash of a second…oh no, I am no exception…I am yet another human :) first we tried to call to the Hertz where we rented a car…he asked us to call the road assistance…we tried reaching the road assistance…but the automatic call assistance was speaking in Norwegian…heheheeee…the praise for nature with out human settlements vanished abruptly and was crying for some inhabitants :) A man with a truck passed by after one hour of our crash…came and helped us by calling to the Road assistance…then after two hours, the truck came to pick our partially crashed car…An old man with his Viking truck displaced our car in to the truck and dropped us in the near by village called Odda which I am sure will not have more than 100 inhabitants…;)

Which part of the globe we were caught up ? (double-click to get better view)

Now, how to reach our airport from this small village to our airport Torp…got a free internet in the nearby hotel…and explored all our cheap ways of coming out of this jungle…Let me list all the possibilities which we had and please let us know did we make the right decision or not ;) Remember no public transportation of bus and train and it was Saturday evening and our flight is next day at 17.45

1. Take a cab to Bergen which costs 3000 Kroners(333 euros for four persons) and the journey takes 3 hours by car. Then stay overnight in Bergen in some streets ;) then catch a train from Bergen to Oslo(100 euros) in the morning and from Oslo to our airport(40 euros). So the cost of this route is 225 euros for one person to reach our airport.

2. Take a cab to Bergen which costs 3000 Kroners as mentioned above. Take a flight from Bergen to Oslo which costs 53 euros plus the taxes which Bernd forgot to see ;) and again 40 euros from Oslo to Torp airport. So the cost of this route is around 250 euros.

3. Rent a car once again and start our trip and back to the destination. But who is the driver…definitely not Hemant ;) renting a car costs 5000 Kroners plus the diesel but more importantly the fear which we had of renting a car and driving ;) the cost of this route is around 200 euros but with risk of making an accident once again…just imagining how it would have been…renting a car and making an accident once again…in the return direction….heheheeeeee

4. Take a cab directly to Torp airport from this jungle…the cost of this cab is 900 euros..so for each person it comes 230 euros.

By analyzing all the four possibilities, we decided to go for the fourth option because the taxi driver is going to drive the car and we can continue our lost dreams in the same manner in the car..;) The other options were not that interesting simply because we felt with the same amount you are spending whole time traveling…and we know after two days, the best way to explore Norway is to rent a car provided the driver doesn’t dream too much ;)

Decided to take the cab next morning and spend the whole night partying in the small town to forget what has happened by looking at the Norwegian girls ;) Went to a bar and grabbed a beer….couldn’t go for next beer simply because we were totally beggers in Norway at that time…;) Bernd slept inside the bar…the bar attendant came and asked him to get out of the bar…we said Bernd is a German…he can’t speak English and made some small talks with the bar attendant and made him to stay…Bernd slept continuously for the next time and the story continued for one more time and third time Bernd thought that he has to maintain his respect and Germany’s image and came out of the bar ;)…I really doubt Bernd has any qualities of a German…which he is really proud of not being one such specimen of 80 million Deutschers…oh that’s why he has Indonesian girl friend. Hats off Bernd :)

The return direction doesn’t offer the same fun as from Oslo to Bergen with the landscape…our spirits were dampened, lack of sleep, money being plundered like paper notes…came to Sandeford town which is 10 kms from Torp….hanged around there for 4 hours and went to catch the return flight to Germany in the evening…

Is this photo taken before or after the crash ;) ?

Certainly one of the experiences which will reside in my memory through out my life…It was good that we maintained our calm, peace and fun even after all these jeopardy. I couldn’t believe what has happened in Norway for the past two days…It was a kind of totally mixed experience…pinnacle of fun and disappointments…well life is all ups and downs…just a minute carelessness costs us very badly...had it not been that one moment...I would have blown the trumpet that we explored the most expensive country in the cheapest way...but learned how life could take a twist in a splash of a second...no risk no fun…I think the biggest secret what I want to keep in my life is the amount of money which I spent all together in Norway ;)

It was always my dream to cover minimum 15 countries in Europe. With Norway, I am completing my 15^th country in Europe with the most memorable incidents and experiences. To achieve some goals, something has to be sacrificed. I might have sacrificed some currency notes for what I experienced in Europe…well as long as the currency notes were earned with my analytical skills and programming variables who cares ;)

Life is beautiful
Sathish Kumar S