Trondheim, aka $£*!

I took only two photos in Trondheim. The other one looks mostly like this one since I only turned slightly and pointed my camera in the other direction down the canal. My guidebook told me it is a beautiful city with a lovely cathedral. But with my train arriving at nearly 10pm and my next train leaving the next morning at about 7:30am, there was no time for playing tourist.

The landscape between Oslo was so familiar, I kept thinking I could be in Canada. But more than half the journey was in the dark, so I took to loving the snowflakes falling through the lamplight whenever we stopped at a station.

Trondheim was my "I'm getting too old for this shit" city. I lumbered with my pack through the dark and rain 2km uphill to the hostel, which ended up being more than 400NOK (about £40 or more than $80 CAD). My roomates were two Norwegian women. Just as I was drifting off, one of them started freaking out and flailing in her bed in the darkness in mad panic. I think she must have felt something crawl on her, or thought she did. Her friend calmed her down in a hurry but my heart was thumping after the strange awakening. The freak-out lady quickly fell asleep and proceeded to snore so loudly I thought she was sucking her own brains through a twisty straw. Up at 6 am to gather my things and walk through the gale to the train station. I was proud that I managed to pack by the light of my mobile phone.

Trudging in the mud on the side of an industrial road (I had gone the wrong way), I realized my shoelace was untied. I am not a small woman. I was wearing jeans (sturdy but not the best for stretching), carrying a large pack and it was also incredibly windy. Retying my shoelace represented a serious challenge. I managed to kneel on my Trondheim tourist map and keep my balance long enough to fix up my boot again. All the while spewing terrible curses into each gust of wind.

The first couple of days of my journey were really difficult. I hadn't travelled on my own like that for a long while and I felt really anxious most of the time. Trondheim was the breaking point - and I actually managed to laugh, imagining how truly pathetic I must have looked trying to tie my bootlace in the mud at 6:30 in the morning.

Next time we cross the arctic circle, killing reindeer as we go.