The real trip is starting.

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Day 64, 28.05.19. Tuesday.

Finally, I'm in the Finnforest! By one of the largest lakes in the area, Rysjøen. It was quite an effort to get here, sometimes not even as pleasant as I would like it to be.

It started when I was about to take the train from Oslo after visiting my friend the philosopher. Had about 10 min to catch it after buying a go-pro from a nice fella that gave me a decent price for it. Bought the ticket and headed down to the platform, there was some commotion on the speaker that absolutely no one there understood, so I asked a lady-conductor about the train to Elverum, she said it was the next one after the current train had left, so I waited. The train left, but another came on the other side of the platform, not the same line. I started asking people if that was my train, but no one knew...that was until a dude asked me if I was going toward Hamar, he confirmed that it certainly was the train I was supposed to take. And the second I pushed the door button, it moved away, slowly picking up speed. I watched it in disbelief until it was out of sight. Luckily I only had to wait for a couple hours and I got an extended ticket from the ticket saleswoman so I sat down at a pub and had interesting conversations with several of the people there, some regarding politics and some about feelings and social developement. Others about personal experiences that we exhanged in between us, it was a good dynamic and the people were open and honest.

Eventually I got on the right train and immediatly met a very interesting woman, she was a student of inter-continental relationship, if I'm correct about what she said. I asked her if that got anything to do with being a mediator between cultures in times of conflicts, she told me it was one of her highest goals so at least I wasn't way off in my assumption. I find that exiting and it must be one of the most important jobs in this world in my perspective. We had quite an illuminating trip together as we quickly dove into a deep conversation/philosophy regarding a whole set of topics, we rarely had nothing to talk about and the trip took at least 1,5 hours. She was for me very likeable, in fact one of the most impressive young women I've met so far, and I couldn't shake off the feeling that she wanted to ask me to come with her for a few days. She had some time off studies and was going home for a while. But as with most women, she didn't take the right kind of initiative, she asked about my age, and after I told her she replied; "Oh, ok." I waited for her to take the initiative, but she didn't 😞 She knew my time schedule was fluctuant and I would gladly stall or even stop my trip to befriend this fenomenal female, but she didn't take the initiative I liked her to take responsebility for, so regrettably I jumped on the next train and got off at Elverum.

Once there I wanted to have a good meal so I walked to the nearest hotel, Clarion Hotel in Elverum. I think it's a 4 star hotel. I knew from earlier experiences that the food there is generally expensive, but once in a while it's ok to have a great meal at a high price. What I didn't expect was that the waitress tried to cheat me. She must have thought I was an easy target, and I guess I am, looking like I do. With 7-days beard, hiking bag and forest clothing. I sat down and she acted as expected, very nice and welcoming. I asked to get an extention cord for my laptop so I could charge it while working on my journal and planning where to go next. She was very helpful, even took time to go through the menu with me. I chose the moose-steak since it was a long time since I've eaten moose, it cost a little bit under 400 NOK. But when I wanted to select the wine it wasn't apparant what the price per glass was. I asked her about the wine which was a Valpolicella...I took a look at the price, and it said 500 NOK, so I assumed it was for the whole bottle. But when I asked her she said it was for a glass, I stalled for a little bit, but as agreeable as I am I let it go with few hesitant thoughts. Thought for myself that one glass is enough, but I did ask about the price for a whole bottle, she replied; "Much!" Again I let it go, stupid kind as I am sometimes. If I just had my head with me at that point I would have come to the conclution that one whole bottle of wine of that kind would have cost somewhere between 2000 and 2500 NOK, and that is just a whole new level than the cost for food. In other words, ridiculus! They can usually be bought in the alcohol monopole in Norway for about 180-400 NOK. Depending on your taste and price-range of cource. And hotels and restaurants that have the license to serve alcohol do get that for a lesser prize as they are buying more at any time, than when buying as an individual at a monopoly-marked.

Anyway, I ate the food in my usual fine manner when I find myself at a restaurant, and the food and wine was extraordinary at the least. My compliments to the chef at that day. Afterwards I went on my laptop and started to write. After I paid and had sat there for over an hour the other waitress approached me and told me they'd made a mistake and charged me for two dinners, he tried to give me some money, I told him I wanted to go over the menu again. It was then I found out that one glass of wine cost 100 NOK! Not 500! It was at that point I knew something was not right at all, but I told him to keep the money in exchange that I took the rest of the bottle of wine, because it was amazing. By then I also knew the other waitress had lied to me, probably to take the rest of the bottle with her to her room or home that evening at my expense. They propably got scared when they noticed that I typed a whole lot on my laptop, and yes, I blog about everything I can remember or have written down. She didn't approach me again and avoided me like the plague, probably because she didn't wanted to be confronted by me regarding her manipulative behavior. I could be wrong of cource, might have only been a mistake she made and that she was too embarrassed to correct her mistake, though I would argue against that because the other waitress story didn't match hers at all. And since she didn't take responsebility and apologize for it in person, like any professional wouldn't hesitate to do, I'll go with my first assumption since I've had enough experience with people exploiting me when they find out I'm actually very nice and gullable despite my looks.

The same day I spent the night on a beach a few kilometers from the hotel, it started to rain just after I was done setting up my tent. Just in time 😊 The morning after I met a bunch of people from the elderly home not so far away, they were very welcoming and even shared som of their food with me as well as their stories about their youth. I love hearing about the old days from people that are now considered in general to be too old for anything, they're not! They have valuable information within their stories about how things were in the old days, something that is easily forgotten by newer generations. And besides, they're not appreciated enough in my perspective. They struggled to build this world so we could live in relative peace, we owe them a huge gratitude for that, that is something we can't ever be able to pay back. But in the least try to keep the same self-sacrificing level for the next generations is what we owe them as they did so much more than most people today will never be able to comprehend.

It was also a lot of people with dogs and just people at their morning stroll walking past. I'm very glad I was able to have my morning bath before the rush 😉 One of them told me it was illegal to camp in that area, and then she changed her story telling it was very few people ever camping there. She directed me to a local camping-area with showers and power, I told her I had been walking over 30 km in two days with 35 kg on my back and was tired and exhausted. She kept insisting on that I moved to the camping-place, so I told her I didn't care much about that kind of arrangements as I like being outdoors and secluded, bathing in cold streams and looking for friendly local people where I can power up my equipment. I don't believe for a second that it was illegal, only that she didn't like me being there, looking like a foreigner helps me a lot when it comes to seeing people for what they really are. In this case; simple-minded bigot. And with her general body-language in mind, I'm sure I'm right about that.

As I don't like that kind of attitude and wasn't in the mood to be in spite I moved my camp 4-5 km north-west from Elverum. Not only that, but before I walked that stretch I asked some pub owners if they could get me in contact with some locals that could be interested in driving me up to the lake that I had singled out for a decent compensation. They said that they would give a call around to check, but after a while I got a feeling they just stalled to get me to buy more wine as I was drinking and writing in my journal while waiting for someone that could drive me. Taxi-prices is ridiculus in Norway, why I usually biked to town if I wanted to go out, even if it meant I had to cycle for 15 km or so. But after they had thrown me off the third time after I asked them to keep searching for someone, I left and after another visit to another bar I decided to try hiking along the road and eventually I walked the whole distance to where I camped for a couple days, totally exhausted. It was also a kind of open forest-park with a lot of trails going through it and I woke up by people driving or jogging past my tent the next day. Met some foresters the same day and they thought I was easily scared by their stories about wolves and bears, they also thought I was foreign. Some of their stories was plain wrong or extremly exaggerated, like that a wolf killed a baby not far from Elverum not long ago and that there is more hybrids than real wolves in Norway. Nothing of that is the truth, just anti-carnivore propaganda. I told them I could handle myself in most situations and they seemed surprised by that. Maybe I look more feeble than I think I do? The second day I luckily met a man that drove me the rest of the way, and I must have misjudged the distance because I had walked at least 10 or 15 km by the time I met this guy and thought I was halfway and he drove me additional 45 km until we arrived at Rysjøen. He got good monetary compensation for his kindness, but I have to try not to use up my money as I don't have limitless funds. Stupidly I've managed to exeed my budget every month since I left by a few thousand, how is another issue...I actually have no idea! Well...ok, restaurants...

But now I'm finally here, in the wildest forest I know about and have experienced in Norway. The Finnforest! And as I expected there is moss hanging from trees and bushes everywhere. The air is soft and smells mildly like pine-forest and swamp, it's a good mix, as it fills me with calm. I took my time when I first arrived to just gather the view, sounds and smells of the area before I went out into the marshland and set up camp where it wasn't too wet next to the lake. Caught a trout one of the first days as well, and even though I'm having severe muscle pulls in my legs from all the walking and are quite exhausted in general, I'm happy that I'm finally here in this beautiful wonder of the natural world. This makes everything worth it. I think I'm currently 30 km from any shop, though there are some locals that live in this area, I'm going to rely on hiking to and from camp when I need something.

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Photos

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Train-rails from Oslo.

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The clouds was on the lake! Temperature difference of air and water with little wind makes this possible. On the way from Oslo to Hamar.

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Finally here!

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The lake, Rysjøen

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Thumbs up during a coffee break :)

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The king of the natural world! At least how I felt when I got to the Finnforest.

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The hell? Snow? At this time of year?

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Super scene of part of nature one could encounter in the Finnforest of Norway

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Taken from one of the settlements in the area, I got permission!