We made it!

Hei og god morgen/dag/kveld/natt, velkommen til bloggen vår (welcome to our blog)!

~Steve~

It has been quite the adventure getting here but here we are in Norway, safe and sound. We left for the airport at 07:30 in Victoria, BC on July 31st, and made our first flight to Vancouver without any hiccups. All of our baggage was loaded and we arrived with plenty of time to spare with getting to our next flight. This is where the problems began though!

Our next flight--Vancouver to Toronto--was delayed by about 75 minutes, meaning that we had under an hour now to go through any international clearances in the Toronto airport! A nightmare we were actively not thinking about. That second flight to Toronto went quite smoothly too thankfully, though most of the flight's passengers were left in a precarious situation regarding whether they will make their connecting flight or not...

Arriving in Toronto, we were on the clock. There was little time to do anything and after not eating or sleeping for many hours now, we were not in the best of spirits. But by some miracle, we sprinted off the plane with our carry-on bags and ploughed through the crowds to sprint to our next gate, up and down several escalators and across a multitude of moving walkways, to find out that the flight hadn't left yet! In fact, it hadn't even began boarding yet. Knowing our timing was limited, we rushed a quick bathroom visit and stocked up on small, overpriced candy bars and chips before boarding the flight, just so that our stomach and hunger pains would leave us. We made that third flight though, something we didn't think was possible! Though as we discovered later, it wasn't without a negative consequence.

That third flight was one filled with movies, sickness, and just a general discomfort for nearly eight hours. We were both sick of sitting in tight spots with no leg room, feeling bloated and restless, and I personally was getting tired of plane food (though Anna has a soft spot for it)! This was where we made our jump in space and time, crossing the Atlantic ocean and realizing just what we were getting ourselves into, for better or for worse. Though we both persevered and made it through the flight, getting little to no sleep and eating food we really wish we hadn't bought. But that didn't matter, because we were in Copenhagen now with nearly 4.5 hours to relax and clear our minds (and test our credit cards, and they all worked!).

Being in Copenhagen was amazing, even if it was just the airport. It was like no airport I had ever seen before--the whole thing shifted between something straight out of the 70s to basically a modern European shopping mall, albeit with giant confusing signs pointing us where to go. After wandering around and stretching our legs, we treated ourselves to some Thai food and just basked in this new environment. We needed this little break.

Finally, it had come time to prepare for our last flight, a small trip from Copenhagen to Bergen, and what a beautiful flight that was. We slept for the first hour above the clouds but we awoke just in time to stare out the windows and see what Norway had to offer us. The ocean colour seemed painted on and the landscape was filled with inhabited islands, small towns, large mountains, and more. Anna painted it best: it was like the BC West Coast but in a different font. We never got to see much of Bergen from above but the views coming in was well worth the wait.

Getting into the airport at BGO filled us with excitement and disappointment--in that order. We couldn't believe that we were finally here! And we couldn't believe, despite us being unsurprised that it happened, that most of our luggage had been lost in transit (likely due to the insanely short layover time in Toronto). Thankfully, we had our carry-on bags and Anna got her medium sized suitcase filled with a good chunk of her toiletries. At the time of writing, we do have confirmation now that our suitcases have been found and are on the way so we've got that to look forward to!

We took a small taxi from the airport to our new residence building and after getting confused on where to get our keys from (directional confusion will be a common event for us, stay tuned), we received our keys and opened the door to our new home for the next five months: a small one-bedroom apartment with a small counter kitchen and a full bathroom. One thing we realized straight away though was that they had given us absolutely nothing--not even toilet paper. So that night, we went to a small tent that had some donated items, got some kitchen supplies, lamps, and garbage bins, and started furnishing our apartment! It's a little barren at the moment, so stay tuned for another update soon once we've got everything the way we want it! To cap off the night, we went and grabbed a few groceries, just some things to feed us (that didn't involve much cooking) while we relax and prep for a big next day.

After stuffing some pillow cases with our clothing, we went to sleep after a long 36 hour day! And today, we woke up at 11:30...so much for our early start the next day ;)

We'll keep you all posted on what's to come soon! We're hoping to have (at minimum) a weekly update each Saturday/Sunday, and when we find the time, we'll add more updates on our big adventure! 

IF YOU KNOW ANYONE THAT WOULD WANT TO KEEP UP WITH THIS ADVENTURE, SHARE THIS LINK LOUD AND PROUD!

We want everyone, who wants to, to follow along with us as we embark on this crazy adventure abroad! Leave comments, send us messages and dms, or give us a video call when it works! We want to say in touch with all of you :) 

That's all for today, thanks for reading! We're off to get pillows and more! Ha det bra!