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Norway Summer - Day 12 : Return journey part I

The walk back to Gjendesheim went smooth and I checked which bus to take. It turned out all regional busses had stopped riding the evening of the day before. There was still one line going to Oslo, but that wouldn't leave until 16:00. I had the option to wait for that and subsequently take a hotel in Oslo, but that seemed boring. Instead, I decided to try to hitchhike to a train station.

Hiking around gjendesheim

The nearest villages were 40 km away in either direction, so there weren't many cars. The first 20 cars didn't stop at all and the 21st did, but drove off as soon as the driver realized I wasn't Norwegian. After an hour somebody was willing to take me. The driver was a journalist for a magazine about old Norwegians buildings. He was on his way to visit a farm from the 1500s which was still in use. I was happy it was an hour away so I could see some new parts of Norway. The man was very friendly and knew a lot of fun facts about Norway. He drove me all the way to Lom, where I had started my hike two weeks before.

stave church in Lom

In Lom we said goodby and I went to buy food. After all my trips it still feels amazing to buy real food after weeks of eating granola and freeze dried meals. The smell of fresh bread in the bakery was amazing. Then I took the bus to Otta, unfortunately not with the same driver as on my way out. At first I was the only passenger but then I learned it doubled as a school bus. Suddenly the entire bus was filled with toddlers. Along the way not much special happened, although I did notice that many children left their expensive mountain bikes unlocked by the side of the road for the entire day. I don't think I can do that in the Netherlands.

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At the Otta train station were a bunch of stuffed animals, including a Musk ox. To kill time I looked through a travel brochure about Norway. I saw a beautiful picture of a sun filled valley and was curious where it was taken. I realized it was the exact same valley as where I had camped just two days before, just in a lot better weather. The train I took ran all the way to Oslo, but I didn't want to spent the entire following day in a city. Therefore I decided to get off at Lillehammer and camp there. The village was very nice, the only downside was that I had to pay to shower at the campsite. What was even more annoying was that even if you paid for 2 x 5 minutes the hot water would just suddenly stop after 5 until you reactivated a sensor outside of the stall.

 

A big advantage of the campsite was that Anna and (I forgot her name) were also there. They were two German girls who had also been hiking. They told me they smelled so bad they had made an exception and had camped on a campsite for a change, just so they could shower. That was pretty cool. There was a small kitchen and terrace on the campsite where we cooked diner and talked about hiking the rest of the evening. Around 22:30 I went to bed while they washed their clothes. After lying in my tent for half an hour I heard Anna and (I forgot her name) laughing around my tent. I didn't think much of it and was tired so I continued sleeping, the next morning I would regret that big time.

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