The Road to Jotunheimen

Hermavan to Turtagrø

I don't even know where to begin. So much has happened since we left Sweden.

After our Jameson-Martini shots in Hemavan, we hitched to Norway. The first guy to pick us up was Jon, a local sweetheart who drove us all the way to the border, which is about an hour's drive. He had just ended his shift at the liquor store and had some spare time before meeting his sister. Sounds sketchy, right? The Norwegian border is a funny one. There isn't much there, other than a big grey van and a roadblock. Three border patrol guys were barbecuing sausages right in front of the van as we got closer. "I think we need to show you this Covid thingie," I said, waving my certificate. Only then did one of the guys get up to look at our papers. After a quick QR-Code check, he looked at us, smiled, and welcomed us to Norway. Now, all we had to do was find a ride to Mo I Rana, which sounds easier than it is, considering there is no traffic in that area at all. We waited and waited until finally, a car came into view. The driver pulled up, and after a brief chat, we jumped in and we were on our way to a place we had never even heard of before.

Mo I Rana isn't exactly what you'd call a pretty place. It's quite the opposite. We still managed to find the best place in town to have dinner and drinks, and besides that, we found something amazing: a laundry machine. Wearing clean-ish clothes, we hopped on the next bus to Trondheim. Didn't see much of the town but did find a bar called CIRCUS. Highly recommend the place. I also visited a chiropractor because my back had been acting up for weeks. A decision with consequences, as I would later discover. The chiropractor found a heavily inflamed muscle in my lower back. I screamed when he pushed his thumb into it. My glutes were rock solid too. "Just tell me when you feel like you're dying. This is going to hurt," he said before he started working on them. I screamed again but then felt relief. Not for long, though. An hour after the treatment, I started panicking because the pain just kept worsening. Our train south was about to leave, and I ran back to the chiropractor's office to ask what the fuck was going on. "Oh, that's completely normal," he said. "It'll get worse before it gets better. It might take four days."

Well, fuck... I was supposed to hike the next day but had no idea if I would even make it to the train! That's when Laura started carrying my pack. Little did she know she'd be doing that for quite a while.

The gateway for the Jotunheimen National Park is Lom, about five hours south of Trondheim. It's where we took a zero-day because it was simply impossible for me to walk. After a day of rest, I was sort of okay to go, and we headed to a place called Turtagrø in the middle of nowhere. We had picked the most remote route of the park and weren't disappointed. There was no one. First, we headed up the wrong path for 1.5 hours (pros), but once on the right trail, we entered wonderland. The Jotunheimen is stunning. Alpine, remote, untouched, and wild, and so different from what we had seen in Sweden. We went over two passes, were caught in a crazy storm at night but treated with sunshine the next day. I'm 100% in love with this park. I wish I could just stay here forever. In a few days, we're going to meet another friend of mine in Gjendesheim, so back pain or not, we'll have to make it there.

Right before the Norwegian border

Glamorous stretching in Mo i Rana before a 7-hour bus ride

David and our new favourite bar ‘CIRCUS' in Trondheim.

Dinner in Lom

Lakka ❤

Before the storm