The mini-hero of the mini-mall. Finally I'm abroad!

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Day 87, 20.06.19. Thursday.

A few days ago the small shopping-mall at Långflon got visited by a man that was stealing and scaring the employees at the restaurant, and probably other shops as well. I noticed him at the restaurant the first day he arrived, because he was drinking beer that the restaurant didn't have to sell. After he left the girls at the restaurant came over and asked me if I could help them out with that guy if he came back. I asked why, so they told me he'd been stealing food and as he was confronted with it he confirmed that he hadn't paid for it, sat down and started eating. Some time later he was told to pay for a coffee, and as he was looking for some money he pulled out a knife and put it on the counter. That scared the girls enough that they didn't dare confront him anymore, and that made me angry. I told them I would come back early the next day and if he showed up again I would confront him. And he did, so I had a conversation with him. Not in any means aggressive, just a talk. I told him that I had been out in nature for almost 3 months and that I was on a trip to see the world. He asked if I was in the military, I replied it was a long time ago but that I had served as His Majesty the King's Guard, in which I have, it was a good experience to have that responsebility for the monarch family. His respect for me increased as I talked about my experiences, so after a little while I confronted him with what I suspected he had done. Straight forward I asked him if he had taken any food or something to drink the day before without paying for it, and told him about the incident with the knife. He told me it wasn't him, of cource it was a lie. But after the talk, I didn't have a feeling that he was dangerous, weird, yes. But not someone aggressive enough to hurt others. And no wonder the girls were scared of him, he was very masculine. I know I have scared girls and women before just because of my masculinity, I don't look kind or trustworthy, but I try not to make the same mistake about others, first impressions is usually worthless.

Some time later he was on the move through the shopping-mall again, by then I had warned several of the employees to keep a look after this guy, in case he was stealing more, which he did. He also got caught and pulled out a lot of beers and food items out of his backpack that he paid for. He also came back to the restaurant and took a cup of coffee, sat down and drank it without having paid for it, like it was the most normal thing to do. When he went over to the coffee dispenser again to refill, I caught him on camera and also asked him if he was going to pay for it. His reply was; Oh! Yes. As if he didn't knew he was doing something wrong. I was puzzled by his behavior. But I had enough so I confronted him again, and this time much harder. I told him that his behavior was not acceptable and that he should take responsebility for his actions and pay for everything he had taken at the restaurant and then leave. He wasn't able to pay for much more than what a coffee was worth, because his debet-card was blocked for using abroad, as he was from Norway, a place called Elverum, and this was on the Swedish side of the border. I also called the police on behalf of the girls at the restaurant, as the signal wasn't good enough inside the shopping mall and they couldn't just leave work to do it themselves. And what did the police do? Nothing! Even when I told them about the incident with the knife, I was hoping they would send at least one patrol to check this guy out, but none came. Ridiculus from my perspective, I even told them I had him on camera, stealing. I would gladly submit that evidence if they wanted it. That day and evening he was sitting outside the mall drinking beer and peeing on the ground for all to see, at least he was out of the mall and he didn't enter again as I had told him that he wasn't welcome there any more. He left early the next morning, walking. Someone had seen him 30 km from the mall further inside Sweden that morning, I hope he doesn't come back again. I had a theory about his behavior that I shared with the other employees. Considering his weirdness and odd behavior, I came to the conclusion that he might have been institutionalized for many years and had a "vacation" on his own. The fact that he had used 400 euro on a taxi-trip from Elverum to Långflon and his foreign-blocked card, not to mention that he actually drank a whole bottle of barbecue-sauce, filled his coffee with several packs of coffee-cream and didn't pay for things when he was supposed to, made me believe that he was a mental-patient on a badly planned solo-trip to be by himself for a little while.

After this I got several things for free from the girls, and whenever people reqognized me, they were honking their car-horn and waved at me when I was walking to and from camp 😊 Nice to have a hero status for once. Makes me sad to have to leave, but my time here is up.

A day before the incident with the weird dude, I actually had a visiter at my camp. As I was resting in my tent, working on my laptop, I felt the ground starting to shake. My heart jumped and immediatly I yelled out; Is someone there? I didn't hear anything more, and the shaking stopped. I grabbed my military showel and camera and went out filming. Unfortunately it was raining and the camera-cover was damp, and hardly any sound. But I saw it at the edge of the tree-line, behind some branches. Maybe 10-15 meters from me. When I asked it what it was doing there, it left. It was a bear! Most likely the same one which had a den close by, maybe it was tracking me? Or maybe it smelled food? They're usually not dangerous and flee when they hear or smell humans, I don't think I was in any danger. At least it knew I wasn't afraid...well, that was my signal to it at least. My heart raced for quite some time :D

Yesterday my hiking-bag got ripped apart, I noticed a big hole in the middle on one of the sides, the content was bulging out of the hole. I was aware that the stress I had put on the bag by carrying way too much was slowly destroying it, but I had hoped to be in a cheaper country before I had to replace it. So luckily just after I arrived at Karlstad I found a vild-life shop that sold a bag at 105L able to carry 30-35 kg, my previous one was limited to 75L and 20-25 kg I think, so I had pushed it hard, way too hard. At least the one I got now can be pushed to carry 40 kg at times when I need to carry a lot of food, but I've tried to cut down on my weight by giving away some equipment, so I think I'm at 30 kg without food at the moment. But it wasn't cheap, 450 euro. This one sits better on my body and have more strappings to adjust for comfort. The only thing I've noticed is that if I walk several kilometers it pushes on my buttocks and causes stretches in gluteus maximus. But otherwise it's better in every way, I can carry more and probably longer if I'm able to limit the push on my buttocks.

So now I'm in Gøteborg in Sweden taking the train towards Malmø. Hopefully I'm on the right train and on the right way towards the south, its awkward when being unaccustomed to the norms when it comes to taking collective transport, I'd several times in Norway taken the train for several hours the wrong way until I noticed something was wrong. It's funny past sense, not when it's happening :D I'm like a child doing everything for the first time, and hopefully I'll be able to cope with being ignorant. But there is always some people I could ask. Since I've been awake all night due to an incident and a misunderstanding at the trainstation yesterday, I'm very tired now, I didn't get on the train towards the capital of Sweden. So I had to make the best out of a bad situation and got myself into a restaurant, bought a pizza and a whole bottle of semi-good merlot. There at the restaurant, I also got help from one of the waitresses. The misunderstanding was that I thought I could just board a train and get a ticket on board. But hell no! I had to pre-order and so the next train was due to leave early the next morning. At least with the help from this girl that worked there, I got myself a nice ticket to Gøteborg. So afterwards I left to find a spot to rest, the park I got myself into was stunning and the smell was so soothing. Thought it was a great idea to rest under a big tree, must have been at least 300 years old, maybe more. So there I am, drinking some beer I bought as well and chatting with my friend from Slovakia as the city had open wi-fi, I was happy and dry, and then it happened!

The insane water sprinklers of the park just suddenly popped up from the ground and started spraying the grass with water, omg, I mean OMG! What a time to get surprized by something not even vaguely expected. I asked the sprikler if it was kidding with me, and then I got wet, like a cat in a swimmingpool. So I had to stay up all night to use my body heat to dry the sleepingbag and clothes on a bench so that I didn't have to carry extra kilos the next days or risk getting mold inside my bag. It worked out ok enough, and then when the morning light appeared I started thinking that I should get myself to the trainstation before it opens to get my ticket out of the automat. Well I hope everything will go as planned today, because I want to sleep like a newborn tonight. Most likely somewhere over the sea, likely Denmark or Germany. Maybe even lucky enough to get on the train to Bratislava today, but I highly doubt that. Well that's it for now. Good luck to myself! Got myself on a train to Malmø, hopefully I'm not thrown off at the next station cause my ticket wasn't the right one for this train, yeah that could happen, and collective transport is really confusing sometimes. Got a little bit of sleep on the last train, but woke up with drewl on my hands on more than one occation. It must have been quite a sigth, I was sleeping with my head between my legs, and then shock-awakening every now and then, looking around myself in a confused manner. But this trip I'm gonna get a couple more hours if I'm able to. The seats are probably designed so people don't fall in deep sleep, that way fewer people lose their station of exit. But seriously I need a good night sleep tonight, and a decent meal beforehand. Hopefully I'm in main europe today or tonight, it's still early, only 11 in the morning. I guess it's possible to be a good distance towards Slovakia by the night 😊 I've had the feeling of butterflies in my belly for the last three days now, I always get that feeling when I'm about to travel long distances 😊

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