I was such an optimist last night! The sun rises right around 5am, and my eyes spring open at 5.05am. Wide awake. No point in lingering, I head into the livingroom for some peace and quiet, all to myself.
Téa joins me at 5.45am, why is she up this early?? So now we’re both doing silent things, alone but together. When my alarm goes off at 6.45am, I know it’s time that I head for the shower, and then it’s time to start breakfast. My mom and Maylin get up, and we eat around 7.30am. Joe gets up at 8am, and then we start packing up the final bits and pieces.
We aimed to leave “whenever we’re ready, but by 10am at the latest”. We leave at 9.59am, my mom’s car packed to the rafters. Does a car even have rafters? We set off, and are soon inside the tunnel that moves highway traffic from one side of Oslo to the other. Maylin is asleep, Téa is nodding.
One minute later, Maylin throws up.
We find the closest gas station, where we stop, clean out the car and get Maylin changed. The only thing she had this morning that she doesn’t normally have, is a glass of regular milk. We usually drink oat milk, but this morning she asked for regular milk. We can’t think of any other reason why she should suddenly get so sick.
Half an hour later, the car is as clean as we can get it with wet wipes, and we are on our way again, with a new bag of laundry in the back. The rest of the journey (3.5-4 hours) is uneventful, and we stop at McDonald’s for lunch. We did at one time promise the girls that they could taste McDonald’s in all the countries we visited, but apparently that only counts in countries where we spend more than 14 days. We did not visit any fast food chains in Macau, China, France, Italy or Monaco, thank goodness!
Norwegian McDonald’s is just the same as all the other ones, in my opinion, but I try my teenage self’s favourite burger, the “McFeast”. It just has a bunch of salad type ingredients on top of the patty, and a different sauce. I haven’t seen this version in any other country, and today I can thoroughly say, there’s nothing special about it.
By 2.30pm, we arrive at our AirBnb on Tromøya. It’s a beautiful house! There are five bedrooms, three downstairs and two upstairs. We take two of the bedrooms downstairs, knowing that the girls and I will be up early, and that way we don’t have to make too much noise and wake everyone else up.
By 3.15pm, my sisters Frida (from waaaaay far north) and Kari-Helene (from England) arrive, with Kari-Helene’s husband Ste and daughter Alma. The joy of being together again is three fold: Us sisters are happy to be together, Joe and Ste are happy to speak English amidst all the Norwegian going on, and the three young and close in age cousins are overjoyed. The festivites can begin!
Ten minutes later, there’s a knock at the door. Frida and Kari-Helene’s mom, my stepmother Lise, arrives with provisions. This AirBnb does not include linens or towels, so we have brought ours from Oslo, and the others are borrowing from Lise. After a full house and garden tour, Lise heads back home, with plans to return for dinner.
Us sisters leave the husbands and the kids in the house, and walk the few minutes to the grocery store. We buy dinner for tonight, we’ll be 11 people (and a dog, but no dinner for him), breakfasts and other snacks for the weekend. I want to buy everything, all at once, but my sisters remind me that the store will be open again tomorrow and Saturday. It’s so strange being in a country where grocery stores have strict opening hours! And don’t start me on alcohol, that’s both far, closes early, and keeps closed on holidays (that includes Sundays). At least it used to be, when I last lived in Norway. These days, there’s beer and other alcoholic beverages available at the grocery store. (Shock! Horror! What is the country coming to??)
We get back to the AirBnb, Lise comes back, the BBQ is turned on, and salad prep is in full swing. Soon, there are cheese hot dogs and burgers, some pork cutlets, potato salad and a mixed leafy salad bar all set up. The kids (Alma, Téa and Maylin) have taken over the “sommerstue” on the patio, a walled in little corner with a sofa and a dining table. They are having the time of their lives!
Around the table are my local sister Kathrine, her boyfriend Bård, Lise, Frida, Kari-Helene, Ste, Joe and I. Dinner lasts long, and we’re so fortunate to be able to sit outside and enjoy the spring sunshine. It’s not warm though, and we eventually move inside when Lise, Kathrine and Bård head home. The talks could last forever, and I’m so grateful that we have four whole nights to bond.