World Weary Traveller, Again

Thursday 27th May

I'm going away again.

Norway beckons again, as do the people who missed my presence from the trip last year. And yes, I made them say it. And then made them say it again. My ego really is that fragile.

Anyway, without the evil overlords of the working environment demanding my time and doling out vacation-days like they were precious gifts stolen from Mount Olympus, and without the money involved in having an actual wage. Well, without very much money at all, actually.

We're mixing it up a little this time. The festival in Bukkoy, the Viking festival I've told you about before, is only four days long. What we used to do is get the ferry from Newcastle to Haugesund which takes a day, or slightly less on the way back since it's downhill, and then a few days messing around after the show. We'd stay on the island, make Father Ted, Big Brother and Lost jokes. That, and the inevitable trip on the fast boat to Bergen.

Not long after my last trip they cancelled that ferry service. So now you have three choices.

You could NOT go. I did that last year, and was verily vilified for it.

You could fly over, but that would involve leaving behind all of your kit, making you stand like a tit in a field on an island in a frock and nothing to do while thousands of Norwegians ignore you studioiusly. With no tent.

You could drive. South through England, ferry across to Denmark, drive across the ridiculously long bridge to Sweden then northwest to Norway and across to the island. It's around about a thousand miles. And then a thousand miles back.

Guess what I'm doing.

Yes, in a week's time I shall be travelling through Scandinavia on my way to educate Norwegians in how to be a Viking, and I'll be doing it all the way with my new sidekick, the author. I won't name him here since I don't have his permission but all I'll say at this point is he is a noted author with a few books under his belt. And I'm privileged enough to go on a 2000mile road trip with him.

Of course I'll be tapping his brain as much as possible on the journey until such point as I gain his secret of super-brainy-ness or he gets so annoyed he slices off my head and drops me in a fjord.

Anything could happen.

Sadly though, I shan't be blogging every day while I'm over there for the simple reason that I won't be taking my laptop with me like I did to Greece. So I might leave you with some interesting links for you to chew over in the dark desolate gap I'll be leaving in your lives.

I shall however be giving you a full travelogue when I get back.

Assuming I'm not lying headless at the bottom of a fjord, that is.