Hitchhiking with a Norwegian family to Lakness, Lofoten

I kept walking along the road until someone could pick me up :) Lofoten Islands, Norway

That was one of the very interesting conversations in a hitchhiking I had. My face was full of a smile 😊 on the whole drive. They are one of the best couples I met.

The car was in very speed while I was waving my hand for a ride. The car suddenly had its right indicator and stopped a bit forward from me. There was an old man who comes out of the car and opened the car boot without even asking where am going or anything. And he went to adjusting the space in the boot so I can put my backpack properly. I was speechless for a while because usually, people question before telling yes or no.

This reminds me of the habit people have in the 7th century plus where hospitality was considered an important trait in different communities. When they see Travelers coming to their home, they don’t question them what they are up to or what they want. They simple give them accommodation and food for 3days.

Nowadays it’s not mostly seen but some nomadic tribes In Mongolia and other countries in Central Asia has still those habits. I have encountered in Mongolia and heard the stories from other travelers in Central Asia.

I couldn’t control myself to say a big thank you before even he start the ride.

When I entered the car, I see his wife as well. It’s a Norwegian family☺️I figured out after they asked me whether I can speak Norwegian. We started with “how are you” and kept discussing different topics.

They both good English but sometimes the wife wanted to double check the word with her husband. They were very cute while doing that. I could see the love, companionship, and chemistry between them. You know that kind of smile where we won’t laugh or smile but something that’s full in our face. Yes, that smile I had while watching them. Guess I didn’t close my mouth as well looking at those moments 😃

I was mentioning to them that they should consider visiting Kerala(which they are aware of that place) and Singapore. They replied they seem to be very old for it and even couldn’t make it to Chile when their daughter was studying there.

“We are already busy here visiting our family and friends.”

They have 4 kids and they are very an happy about it because as the family is big, they don’t feel lonely or any sort of thing. Tha,t leads to our discussion about having few kids and many kids. His uncle used to share that he is rich because he has 4kids.

I realized we are on the same page about that. Because of my observation so far and also when I met someone in the UK, he was sharing that her elder sister takes care of the younger one. Also, the younger one starts to learn things very quickly from elder one (knowledge sharing across family). Secondly, the kids seem to be not to feel lonely because they have other siblings to play, spent time and also have a hope that there is someone to take care of them.

They continued telling that there is a joke in Norway that there is a 2 life in Norway. The winter is only you living alone. Summer is time to reconnect the family connections :)

I Love that life where have time for ourself and time for others in focused time!

The Haukland Beach where i camped on that night.

There are few people even myself sometimes love the loneliness where there is no disturbance, peace of mind, that privacy to really read, think or do something we love. And the other time we just want to go out with full blow meeting new people, fun, eat, etc!

Both feeling also a nice one!

That uncle is a retired person and I asked him is everything okay and continued my question that government should be helping the people who are retired with good money?

Because so far what I heard is government gives back significant money to people who are retired. He replied “ We shouldn’t complain. Yes it’s good but basically, it is purely based on what you earn before when you are working”

When he said we shouldn’t complain. That was one of the first time I hear someone is rea ally happy with the government because most people always complain of whatever it’s given. This reminds of me when my dad used to advise me whatever happens inside the family, it should stay with family because sometimes I used to share with others and complain. I slowly it seems to be wrong to me because we sort of speak of bad of someone who is our family. Which means we are speaking badly about ourself and we destroying ourself.

Maybe its all take time to learn but that uncle was great to say that sentence.

Does Nature help life?

I asked them about comparing the two sets of nature (Singapore-over crowded, Norway — full open space). In Singapore many people complain about the stress life, very routine-based life and related things. So does Nature plays a part in helping this?

Haukland Beach, Leknes, Norway

Especially I feel relaxed eyesight when sometimes I get out of Singapore and travel to Johor Bahru. When I cross the border bridge, that natural natures sometimes keeps my eyes cool and let me forget about the issues I have. And it really leads to take a deep breath and smile at those nature for more moments.

They mentioned the government spends a lot of money to an organization that should bring the people outside of the home and do healthy activities. Also, they make sure the infrastructure(like accommodation, transport) are available to do this activity.

Which is very good yeah? Imagine our company or government does this to make sure we are on it. End of the day it leads to a healthy company and health country. I would love to promote the healthy activities that if I own a company. One of the very difficult problems the Singapore government facing is helping elders and make sure they don’t feel lonely. So through the community center in different areas, they make sure there is some sort of activity happening for them. In my villages where I live we don’t have that sort of activity because as normal there would be some sort of occasions keeps going on. Especially the aunties and grand ma there, we don’t tell them what to do. They have mastered their skills to entertain each other 😆. So far there isn’t any problem of loneliness I heard about it. But sometimes I wonder how they could spend the time in a productive way where it somehow any of the problem they face. So if zoom out and see, it seems to each country has its own extreme problem(one with loneliness, one with productivity) but I guess Norway doesn’t seem to be(I am not sure though). We need to explore I believe ( FREE SCHENGEN VISA for INDIANS😄)

That aunty spoke about different topics. It was a very beautiful time… They supposed to go Lakness(main town) but they diverted the route to make sure I reach the proper place(UttaKleiv Beach). There was a beach called Haukland which has toilet facilities and a place to camp. So uncle suggested Huakland instead of Uttakliev because it’s going to be easy to hitchhike in haukland but still said: “ I will bring you to both, you see which one you like and we will decide from there”. We went to Uttakliev via under mountain tunnel which passes after Huakland. After seeing the bridge itself I decided that I should just stay in Haukland as it’s going to be walk across this bridge if I don’t find any transport. So I replied “Ok Uncle I will just stay in Huakland”

“You made a good choice” he drove back and drop me there.

That’s where I requested for a selfie!

With that uncle, he was shy to take that photo

When i woke up on the next morning, it was strong wind

From YR weather app

When i woke up :)