Jacken’s Blog

So I’m back from another endurance trip. This time to Norway. We left Stockholm on Wednesday afternoon, heading for Molde. As usual, the planning was meticulous. Car, check. Snacks and drinks, check. Planning and maps? No way. Getting to the border was no problem. Then about 10 miles from Norway I realized that they would not have Swedish snuff there, so I go into a panic. Three days without tobacco is a no-no. So we try to get hold of a place that’s open, and that sells snuff. Easier said than done. Finally we gave up and started our way through Norway. And because of our excellent planning, we had no maps. So time to hook up the old GPS to at least know were going in the right direction. So we ended up in Trondheim instead of Molde, but that’s close enough. But now it’s early in the morning, and the hotels are expensive and we have to pay for a full day, but only have the rooms for 5 hours. Fuck that. So we continue on our merry way, trying to find Molde. On the positive side, they have swedish snuff in Norway.

After around two hours, everyone had fallen asleep, except me (which is fortunate, me being the driver and all) but I started to have a problem staying awake, so it was time to stop for a quick power-nap. The sound volume in the car, with two persons snoring was to much for me, so I got out my sleeping bag and slept outside the car. Being high up in the mountains made it very cold, so I had to wrap my head with an old jacket. I managed to sleep for about an hour before the rain started. But one hour of sleep seems to have been the cure, because we could now continue. We found a hotel in Molde, a really nice one in the harbour. To go from sleeping on the freeway to checking in to a luxury hotel was a nice contrast. After drinking a few beers, I crashed in bed and slept for 14 hours. Our original plan was to stay awake all night to get maximum photo light, because this time of year it’s only dark for about two hours. But that failed miserably.

Next we moved on to Ålesund, a small village near the atlantic coast. We decided to stay here the whole day, to explore it, and to get a chance to drink some beers. So we did. And I got tired and had to go to bed at eight o clock, and slept for 13 hours.

So now we continued back towards Sweden, stopping at a place called Trollstigen. I have been there before a couple of times, but neither Mats or Micke had seen it, and it is magnificent. The way up the mountain is insane. The road wriggles up with corners that for some reason always is the place you meet a tourist bus at. The view at the top is magnificent. But this is a very popular tourist trap, so I could not stand the place for more then twenty minutes. Time to head towards Stockholm again.

The mission was to photograph the magnificent views of the Norwegian mountains, and we failed miserably. But we had a lot of fun, so maybe our next trip will be more organized. Our next planned trip is Paris.