here it is...the fairytale story of my life

Dickens in Stavanger, Norway

Last summer I lived in Stavanger, Norway for two months.  It was an incredible experience...I was working as a Director on a NATO base, living right downtown a few blocks from the harbor, exploring nature, camping, and hiking, learning about myself, and residing in one of the most beautiful countries on earth.  But the most spectacular part of my trip occurred on a low key, plain old Sunday afternoon.

It was the end of my third week in Norway, as well as the height of the FIFA World Cup.  I found it quite exciting to watch the games in Europe and decided to go catch one of them at a bar on the harbor after a weekend camping and hiking with my friends.  My roommate opted not to join me, so off I went for an independent adventure (still with my back pack in tennis shoes and a North Face fleece without a shower that day).  Most of the pubs along the harbor had tv's out on their patios and it seemed to me that Dickens (the red one on the end) was the place to be.  As it was the place to be, there weren't too many available seats on the patio.  I stood outside the gate, pretending to watch the first part of the game.  I was actually scoping out the scene, trying to figure out if I was supposed to order a beer inside or if waiters were coming outside, eyes peeled to find an empty chair.  After a few minutes, I gave up and decided to just ask someone.

As I walked up to the entrance to the patio, I realized I only had a few kroner in my hands and hoped it was enough to pay for just one little brewski.  Hand with coins in palm extended, I approached the first two guys I came across and asked "How much does a beer cost?"  Sixty kroner was the response I got (a whopping $10.00!).  Rejoicing silently in my head that I had enough, I continued to make small talk with the two young men.  Once they figured out that I was there alone, the one called Janis invited me to join them.

The other's name was Asmund.

I ended up spending the entire afternoon and evening with these two and their friends.  We watched another game, they bought rounds, and I enjoyed the social aspect of conversing with these newfound friends.  At one point I recall telling Asmund that he reminded me of a friend and that his smile was amazing.  He smiled at me and kept eye contact for a few seconds too long (or maybe not long enough), giving me butterflies in my stomach.  The night continued on, and we all went on to a billiard hall as well as a club.  While playing a game of pool (after several beers, I might add), I remember starting to flirt a little bit more with Asmund.  There was something about him that had me intrigued.  Maybe it was that darn smile.  And what do you know, he flirted back as he tried to teach me how to hit the cue ball with the stick by wrapping his arms around my body from behind and holding my hands in the correct position on the stick.

From there, we tried out a club and all decided to go home shortly thereafter.  Asmund offered to walk me home.  I couldn't disagree with that idea, because there was some sort of attraction that had me wanting just a little bit more of his presence.  We walked along the harbor, where the 8 sand volleyball courts had been set up and poured for the Swatch Sand Volleyball World Championship Tour coming the next week.  I had a quick and brilliant idea to take his hand and lead him onto a court and pull him to the sand with me.  Don't worry, what happened next was just barely PG-13 (but he did loose his glasses and I did realize I had just met the best kisser in the world).  We did walk home at 3 in the morning, which made it a 12 hour hang out from the first second we met.  He kissed me some more in front of my door, as we held hands with our arms locked straight down by our sides, and had to tell me to go inside so he could go home and get to bed because he was MOVING THE NEXT DAY to Oslo.

We had plans to hang out before he left town the next day, but when I got off work I found a text that said he had already started his journey to his new city.  I couldn't stop thinking about him.

Spending the afternoon drinking wine at the Folk Museum in Oslo

A couple of weeks later, I decided I wanted to travel to Oslo for the weekend.  There was only one person I knew there, and one of my travel rules is to take advantage of opportunities to see and experience things with locals or someone else, in general.  I texted Asmund and asked if I could crash on his couch in exchange for alcohol and kisses.  He was very interested in the offer, so I planned to meet him downtown when I arrived by train on Saturday morning.

I was very nervous, because I knew I had some sort of crush on this guy and I had no idea what to expect for the weekend.  We met by the cruise ships in the harbor and started out the day by grabbing a coffee at an outdoor cafe.  It was there that he told me he had never really sight-seen in Oslo and had always wanted to see "The Scream" by Edward Munch...so we went to the art museum and found it.  My favorite painting, however, was "Kiss by the Window," also by Munch.

"Kiss by the Window" by Edward Munch

We ran around town all day, seeing things.  Eventually, we hopped a ferry to Bygdoy Island to see the Viking Museum and the Folk Museum.  At the Folk Museum, we found a little spot in the grass by the Stave church and opened a bottle of wine (or two).  We spent the whole afternoon chatting away, laughing, and truly enjoying each others company and conversation.  By the time we had finished the bottles and discovered our wine buzz, we realized the museum had in fact been closed for over an hour and we were still on the grounds.  We pulled each other in a little red wagon to a restaurant at the ferry dock.

The rest of the evening entailed grabbing a beer at a pub on Karl Johans gate and finding out that Asmund was living at his grandparents home for the summer and they did not want him to bring me home!  We scrambled to find a hotel with all the Thon membership points I had earned.  There were reservation mix-ups, and it took us 3 hours to find a hotel that would accept us and honor my points.  They put us in a suite!

At Vigelandsparken on a rainy day.

The next day it rained and poured.  Our goal (mainly my goal...as I had my tourist Eyewitness Travel Guide and was leading him around his own country) was to get to Vigelandsparken.  It was unreal.  By this point, we could not keep our hands off of each other and the romantic embrace of the raindrops on us as we held hands walking around the emotional statues was almost magical.

Some of the evocative statues at Vigelandsparken.

Following our wonderful rainy day at the park, we had to get me towards the train station.  On our way in, we stopped at a cafe for tea (blankets provided for outside seating of course) and lost track of time.  Realizing we would need to rush to get me to my 9 hour train ride, we hopped on the underground.  Seconds later, the subway halted and police officers and medics climbed aboard to help a man who'd had a heart attack or something else awful.  This ensured that I would miss my train.  Needing to get back for work at 7:00a.m., I bought another ticket to leave at 10:00pm.  As stressful and frustrating as it was to have to throw down $60 for another ticket that would barely get me to work on time, I got to spend more time with Asmund.  When the time came to head out for good, I had the oddest sensations saying good-bye to him.  I had only spent two days with this young man and here I was tearing up as I climbed on the bus to leave him and my heart seemed to clench as I thought about how wonderful and perfect my weekend in Oslo was with Asmund.

(To be continued...I am too tired and emotional to continue at the moment)