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Reports

During my travels, I received free accommodation for a night in exchange for writing a daily travel diary. This diary documented how I reached my next destination, the hosts who welcomed me, the food I was offered, and other experiences along the way. Below, you will find the archives of these extensive reports. Please note that English is not my native language, and most entries were written quickly, often around midnight. Enjoy!
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Saturday, 22 September 2001
Lillehammer --> Rygge (N)

Today I exchanged Lillehammer for my last destination in Norway: the little town Rygge. My host here, Frank Larssen, took me out fishing and to the cinema.

It was a peaceful day, different that the last few days. And with an exiting week coming up, I had a good time in making my mind up and had the ocean winds breeze me mentally too.

Hårvard woke me up at 9.45 this morning. Of course I made it much too late last night. Over 2500 words for a daily report, Ramon come up!

After I had a shower I quickly made breakfast and lunch for on the road and Hårvard also gave me a big bag with bananas, apples, cherries and a bottle of fizzy orange.

We arrived at the train station at 10.45 and I met up with Trond and Annegro, whom I met last night in Peppe's Pizza.

They especially came to the train station on this Saturday morning to say goodbye to me and wave me off.

I couldn't believe how Annegro was awake! She was jumping in front of my camera, while my eyes where still on night vision...

I said goodbye to Hårvard when it was time to get on the train. I thanked him for his hospitality and for letting me use his computer during the night, which made it possible for me to write some extensive reports. And I thanked him for anything else I might forget.

I gave Trond a good hand as he wished me luck on my journey and gave Annegro three kisses on her cheek (the Dutch manner) before I settled on my seat in the train towards Oslo.

After the waving ceremonie at the departure of the train I eventually dozed off again. Halfway the ride I woke up and heard my stomach rumble. I had my breakfast, ate half of the fruit and enjoyed the train ride.

The train arrived in Oslo centre around 1 pm and I had to wait almost two hours for my next connection to the little town called Rygge.

I spent the time contacting my future hosts of this week, walked around and spent some time in the various media- and bookshops.

At 3pm I boarded the train that took me to Rygge, a quiet little town along the Oslofjord, in the south of Norway.

50 minutes later I was walking from the train tracks towards the house of my host Frank Larssen, while passing an active soccer game of the local club.

I met Frank in front of his house. "How are you doing?" he asked me when I arrived inside and dropped down my backpack. He offered me a glass of applejuice. "I planned to go fishing today, do you want to come with me?"

That sounded pretty good!

So in the car from Rygge to the sea coast I talked with Frank. He once read about my project in the Dagbladet newspaper and decided to invite me over.

But he never thought I'd come over, because he had read too that I would go to the north of Norway - probably hopping to Sweden and Finland.

Frank Larsen is a mechanical engineer at the Peterson papermill [b]in Moss, the first bigger city up north. Besides his work he likes to travel, but therefore he says "I have to sell 8 hours per day to working, in order to be able to travel and life".

And he prefers to stay active, so he playes [b]table tennis a lot. He loves speed sports, "because these keeps you sharp," he told me.

We arrived at some rocky coastline and lined up for the fishing. I already got the hang of it after my last time in Bodø, but unfortunately there was no fish in the water today...

Some relatives of Frank Larssen had also joined and prepared a little barbeque on the rocks. We had upmost difficulties of creating that little fire in that aluminium box, but with the help of a little wind we could heat up some Swedish sausages and ate them with brød and ketchup.

It were a few hours of relaxing during that fishing trip. I felt different when we left the seaside again after a few hours. Like if the wildness of the windy ocean had made me at ease or something...

Back home Frank and I drunk coffee and he talked about how amazed he was about my project. He asked a lot of frequently asked questions.

But it got time for the Letmestayforaday-gift from Hårvard Bjørgsum in Lillehammer. Frank opened the carefully wrapped paper and was surprised by what came out. It was a drunk man leaning against a light pole, but complete contructed by screws and pins.

Frank was pretty amazed with that little statue!

A little later I did a little email check on his internet connection and Frank came up with the idea of going to the cinema tonight.

Moss just opened a new cinema theatre and there were two films available for us tonight. Swordfish (with John Travolta) and Antitrust (a movie about datahackers).

Frank let me decide and I went for Anti-Trust. With me as a travelling web nerd (as my friends at the Dutch radio like to call me) I can't skip a movie about datahackers.

It took us 15 minutes to drive from Rygge to Moss and we settled in the right movie room around 9.30pm.

The movie was amusing. The acting wasn't superb, but the script writers did a good job of writing a fake story about how a lot of people would love to see the powerful Bill Gates, Mr. Micro$oft, end in jail for crimes he did to get his hands on pieces of software. Of course, some geeks in a garage made him loose that game.

After the movie, Frank treated me on a hamburger and we drove back home again.

As Frank got to bed when we got home, he settled me behind his computer and arranged a guest bed for me.

Good night Rygge! Good bye Norway!

Ramon.


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