Invited to dinner with emigrants

Date:
02.10.2020

Day: 061

Country:
Norway

Location:
Andenes

Daily kilometers:
0 km

Total kilometers:
5444 km

Soil condition:
Asphalt

Sunrise:
07:11

Sunset:
18:31

Temperature day max:
14°

Night temperature min:
9°

Departure:
10:30

Arrival time:
18:00

(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).

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“Uuuaaa, I’m cold,” I say, lying in our Terra’s bed. “Are you still feeling sick?” asks Tanja. “Fortunately, the nausea is almost gone, but I’m terribly cold,” I say, shivering. “You got hypothermia on the ship. You’ll soon be warm again.” “How many degrees is the heating set to?” I ask, because I feel like I’m in an icebox. “22 degrees,” Tanja answers, looking at the temperature display. A ½ hour later, I have fortunately thawed out again and my nausea has almost disappeared. “Are you ready for action?” asks Tanja. “I almost feel like a new person,” I reply, crawl out from under my blanket, get dressed and climb into the driver’s cab. 10 minutes later we are standing in front of Stefan’s house. “Nice of you to come,” Stefan and his wife Nathalie greet us warmly. “You’ve got a brand new motorhome,” I say, pointing to the van parked in front of the house. “We only bought it a few months ago. Just before we moved to Norway,” says Stefan, showing us the beautiful interior of the van. “Surely you’re hungry after such an eventful day?” he asks us, inviting us into the house. “I couldn’t even think about food until an hour ago, but now I’m starting to feel hungry,” I reply. I hope you don’t mind? Because of the spontaneous invitation, it’s just jacket potatoes, butter, cheese and green salad.” “That sounds fantastic,” we say happily, because we haven’t enjoyed jacket potatoes with butter for a long time, it reminds us of home and we love eating it. “A beautiful house,” I praise and when we enter the cozy living room, we are almost speechless. “Wow,” says Tanja, standing in front of the large panoramic window, in front of which stretches a golden sandy beach bathed in the evening sun, which joins the blue waters of the North Sea just 30 meters away. A few rocks, also golden, stretch their backs into the cloudless pale blue sky. “I was here for a few months a year ago and discovered the empty house by chance and immediately fell in love with it. Nathalie agreed to buy it and now we’ve been living here for two months.” “Do you want to stay forever?” I ask. “Who knows. Nathalie works as a nurse in the hospital in Andanes and I work as a guide on the whale ship. I used to be a banker, then a photographer and journalist. I’m really looking forward to the change of working as a guide on a ship and being able to pass on my knowledge about whales and the unique landscape. We will stay as long as we like. It’s open-ended for now,” explains the Swiss with a satisfied look on his face. “And how can a Swiss woman work in a Norwegian hospital? Do the people understand English or do you speak Norwegian?” asks Tanja. “I taught myself the language through self-study. At first I had great difficulty understanding the Norwegians here. There are so many different dialects in this country. It’s almost like a language of its own, but I’m getting on quite well now,” explains the lovely woman. Although we’ve only just met, we get on like old friends. Stefan opens a good bottle of red wine, which we enjoy sip by sip. We eat the jacket potatoes and enjoy the tasty cheese, fresh salad, pineapple and cookies that Nathalie serves for dessert. The evening flies by as we talk animatedly about emigration, working as a nurse in the far north, corona, working as a guide on a whale ship and life in general. Shortly before midnight, we say goodbye to our hosts. “If you want, we’d like to invite you for breakfast tomorrow,” says Stefan just before we leave. “We don’t want to put you to any trouble,” says Tanja. On the contrary, we’d be delighted if you came. It’s a small world, but who knows if we’ll ever meet again,” he replies. “Okay, thank you. See you in the morning then,” I say…