Category Archives: Travels

Today me and my mother decided to talk a small walk before we went to see how my dad was doing.

Woke up around 11 am because we had a guy coming over to look at our blinds. After my mum had eaten her breakfast and read the newspaper we headed out. We decided to talk a short walk and later we would pick up my sister from work and head over to visit my dad and check on how he was doing.

We walked up to the church where I had my Confirmation. Then we went over the grave yard and sat down for a while before we headed down to where I went to school and then further down to the river “Akerselva”. The great thing about living here is that it’s so easy to find a lovely place to take a walk. We followed the river down to “Nydalen” and then took the subway back home. Since it was a nice sunny day there were a lot of people outside and some of them were even swimming. It looked really nice and cool, perfect for a warm summer day.

After we arrived home we waited until my sister was finished and then headed towards the hospital. My father was feeling so much better and they had even given him and entire room for himself which was really nice. We all went outside and talked on a nearby balcony. I told him about my other plans for the week including a lunch tomorrow and meeting up with friends both tomorrow and Wednesday. We also shared our summer plans and I told him how I would return in August since this visit got cut way shorter than planned due to the cancellation. My father informed me that he would most likely stay throughout the rest of the week which made be a bit sad, but it’s for the best. He gets very well taken care of at the hospital plus it’s also nice for my mum to get a break.

When our visit was over we just headed up and had tuna fish salad for dinner. It’s not my favourite dish, but we apparently had a lot of leftover salads that needs be eaten up and it’s not too bad. We also have some more cake for dessert which I’m looking forward to eating.

Tomorrow my mum’s friend has invited us both for lunch. She is really nice and later I’ll meet up with a long term friend who I haven’t seen in a while. I’ll keep you guys updated, but as for now try not to die of the heat xD

This year I decided to head home to Norway for a while since it’s been half a year since my last visit, but the trip ended up being a bit different then I had hoped for.

I was originally going to head back home on the 15th of June, but the plane got cancelled and then they put me on another one for the next day, but that one would leave at 7 am and I would have to wait in Milan (Italy) for 4h. So I decided to just cancel everything and buy new tickets which meant that I ended up going Friday the 17th. The plane ended up being 1h delayed which meant that I didn’t arrive home until 1am which was exhausting, but I made it here safely which is important.

The next day my parents were throwing my sister her 20th birthday party, but unfortunately my dad was feeling too ill and had to get sent to the hospital. My father has been diagnosed with “Pulmonary fibrosis” and has been in and out of the hospital a lot these past months. This was also one of the reason I decided to come home, but I get to visit him everyday while I am here.

My mother carried on with the party as planned and I got to see my aunt, uncle and both of my cousins. I also got to meet my sisters new boyfriend. He seemed very charming and a bit stranger. He is 6 years older than her, but my sister has always had an eye for older guys. The party went well. We ate some delicious foods including salads, shrimps and sausages. For dessert we had two cakes a marzipan one and a cheesecake.

It is really nice to be home and I’m looking forward to spend some time with family this week. Although I was hoping that my dad was in better shape so we could spend some time together but it’s better than nothing. I have some plans to visit friends as well so I’m also excited for that.

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful summer hanging out with amazing people and are enjoying the warm weather especially if you are living in central Europe.

This weekend some friends and I got invited to a BBQ Birthday party. It was really fun despite the fact that not everyone was able to attend at the last minute.

I started the day by just waking up and jump into the shower so that I was nice and clean for the party. My friend would arrive at around 2 pm so I had at least 3h to prepear myself. I shaved my legs for the first time and put on one of flower dresses, because the it was almost 30 degrees outside. After my friend arrived we headed over to the Netherlands. It was a 40 min ride so it didn’t take too long which was really nice. Upon arrival we got news from the other people that their car had broken down and they wouldn’t be able to come. So we went from 6 to 3 people, but it was really nice regardless.

We started the party with playing some UNO. We played it differently from the rulebook, but it was really enjoyable. I had a point system which was that when someone won they got points. The points were determained by how many cards the other players had left. I think I got second. After UNO we treid Settlers of Catan Card edition and then we did one more after that. All of the games were really fun and the fact that they were in Dutch wasn’t a problem.

When we were done with the games we started up the grill and got ourself ready to eat. Our friend had a lot of food prepared. We had burgers, sausages and bacon. I really enjoy a good BBQ in the lovely summer weather. The bacon got a bit burned 😂, but the rest was perfectly cooked. For the rest of evening we just hang out and talked until it was time to head home.

The was a really great day overall even though it was a bit sad that not everyone could come, but I’ll get to see them next time 😊 When I got back home I told Nathan about my day and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

I hope you all have had a great weekend and if anyone have any tips about how to stay cool during warm weather do let me know ^^

Today was our last day before going home. Our flight didn’t leave until later so we visited the Norwegian folk museum first. Nathan and I had a really funny experience on our plane home!

We woke up at around 10 am since we had to plough the snow in our courtyard before heading out. Unfortunately, my father was too ill to join us today so it ended up being just with my mother. The drive over there took around 30 min. When we arrived we bought our tickets and started to walk around. We visited the different exhibitions and walk through different areas. The point with the folk museum is to give people a picture of how the Norwegian people used to live in the olden days in different places around Norway. There were a bunch of different houses where you could walk in and see how people lived up close. Nathan found everything really interesting which was nice since it’s one of my favourite museums for the reason being that I love history. We ended the trip with a small lunch. Then we headed back to get ready to head to the airport.

Today we had to take the bus ourselves because my sister wasn’t home and my parents didn’t have the time to drive us. I don’t mind taking the bus and we had estimated enough time for everything. We were actually in fact finished almost 1h before the plane was taking off. Everything was running smoothly and on time. When we sat down on the plane I notice something interesting. We were sitting in the same seats as when we arrived in Norway aka 2E and 2F, but on this aircraft, the economy class started from row 3 which meant that we got seated in Business class. Even the flight attendant checked our boarding passes. Now neither Nathan nor I was expecting to get special treatment because of this but when we were up in the air the guy actually asked if we wanted some free drinks and something to eat. The airline actually treated us like we were business class which was super nice of them. We got € 27 worth of food and drinks which was amazing.

Once we landed in Brussels we just headed to the train station and made our way home. Got home around 10 pm and the first thing we both did was install our new SSD’s into our motherboard. For the rest of the evening, we just played some games and relaxed. Tomorrow we are heading to Nathan’s mum with some family to have a New Years Lunch/Dinner and some other plans.

I hope you guys have had a nice week and that you have something nice planned for New Year. I have already prepared my resolutions xD

Yesterday Nathan and I joined my mother on a nice walk around the harbour and then we ended with some delicious food at a restaurant. While today Nathan got to taste crispy burgers in a croissant and experience the Norwegian shopping centres

We started yesterday by taking the tram down to the central station and walking into “Østbanehallen” which used to be a proper station in the olden days. Now it had turned into a place with shops and restaurants. My mum had needed to stop by the pharmacy so Nathan and I decided to check out the sushi place called “YO Sushi” since they had conveyor belt sushi or rotation sushi. Nathan had never seen that before so we decided to sit down and have a couple of bites. After that, we met up with my mum and headed over to the new public library.

The new library was huge and had over 4 floors. They also had so much more than books. There were instruments, a sound studio, 3D printers, sewing machines and a bunch of other things. There is tons of space to both study and read. It has really revolutionised the way we think when it comes to libraries. When we were done at the library when showed Nathan the Oprah house and then we just walked around the harbour.

When we were done with our work we headed home and reset up before we went out for dinner. My parents wanted to take us to this nice Thai restaurant that they had been to many times before. I have also been there a couple of times. At the restaurant, Nathan and I decided to go with duck as our main dish. So we had duck with grapes, pineapple and cherry tomatoes with a lovely sauce. It both looked and tasted delicious.

After everyone had eaten their dish we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Today we decided to take it pretty chill. We went out to a place that sold fried chicken burgers since Nathan wanted to try one where they used a croissant as the bun. The place is called “Fly Chicken” and he really enjoyed his meal. After that, I showed him where I used to work and then we had some frozen yoghurt.

At around 4.30 pm my mum picked us up to go to another shopping centre because she wanted to buy me a new winter jacket. We first tried out the shop that she usually goes to, but they didn’t have anything we liked so we went with another one. I found a nice dark blue one that was fairly thin but also thick enough to keep me warm. Then my mum did some groceries shopping and we just walked around. I went to buy a cable for my dad and then Nathan bought a crab shell to eat later.

When all that was over we just headed home, had dinner and talked for a while in the living room. Tomorrow we are heading home and I must admit that even though it was super nice being with my family again I am looking forward to being back home again. Our last adventure is happing tomorrow so I’ll tell you all about it then.

Today I showed Nathan different places around Oslo. We visited the food court, the shopping streets and the Norwegian winter wonderland. They were a bunch of beautiful lights everywhere.

We woke up at around 1 pm and got ready to head out. Today was another cold day outside with around -6 degrees. We walked down to the station and took the tram down to where the city kind of started and walked from there. I had already mapped out a route we would walk so that he got to see most of what we had to offer.

It started with Mathallen which is a food court located right before you enter the crowded part of the city. In there you have a bunch of different restaurants from Asian, Mexican, Italian etc, but you also have some places that sell some interesting things. Nathan and I decided to try out a sandwich place since we hadn’t eaten breakfast. He had a spicy cheese chicken sandwich and I had a cheese chicken with spinach wrap. They tasted super good and even had some hotness to them which we both like. Mine came with ALOT of sauce so It was a bit messy to eat xD

After the food court, we walked further into the city until we reached a store called Yummy Heaven. I told Nathan that this was the best candy store in Oslo. Naturally, he was interested so we went inside to take a look and ended up buying a small bag of mixed candy. Then we carried on walking through the walking street past another food court that I wanted to show him but they are temporarily closed because of Covid.

Our next stop was Power aka one of the biggest brands for electronics. Since we had a gift card for 1k NOK aka around € 100 we decided to take a look inside. We had already an idea of what we wanted to buy but it didn’t we decided to take a look around regardless. Unfortunately, they didn’t have what we wanted there so we had to go to another one. There was one close to home that we decided we would stop by.

Next, we visited Oslo’s store for anything anime/manga related. Neo Tokyo was our next stop. Thankfully it wasn’t too far away from the electronic shop plus it was inside a small shopping centre so we could warm ourselves up. In this store, they sold a bunch of different anime related things. They had also expanded which was new for me too. Nathan did not find what he was looking for but still thought the store looked cool. Apparently finding the right merch from the “Fate” franchise isn’t easy.

The last place we went to was the small winter wonderland that Oslo has every Christmas. It isn’t as big as the one in Brussels and it’s way more expensive, but it looked just as beautiful with all the different stands and everything. We did not buy anything here because there wasn’t anything too interesting plus we only brought hand luggage which means we are limited to what we can bring with us home, but we walked around and mingled with the crowd. After we had gotten something to drink we decided to head home. We walked up to the subway station and waited for our subway.

Before we headed all the way home we made sure to make a stop at the electronic store “Power” that was at Storo to use our gift cards. We had decided to both go for one “Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 NVME SSD 500GB” each. They cost just under 1k NOK which meant that we had used up both of the cards. All we gotta do now is install them on our pc when we get home. These also get screwed straight into the motherboard which makes them super faster with a bit over 3k writing speed which is 7x faster than a regular SSD. I can’t wait to put my games on it such as “The witcher“. After this, we finally went home to relax.

Today we had to take away pizza for dinner since my parents wanted to relax from making all the Christmas food. The food was amazing and tomorrow we are headed out with my family which can go both ways.

As always I hope that you guys have had an amazing day too.

Today we had a family party with my mother’s side of the family. My aunt, uncle, my two older cousins including boyfriends. It was also their first time meeting Nathan.

The party started at 5 pm when the guests arrived. We served them some champagne and everyone got to greet Nathan. Then we sat down by the fireplace and started chatting while my mother finished up the dinner. There were a lot of catching up conversations and the rest of the family were very eager to get to know Nathan better. They asked about his work, where we lived and what I was doing. I told them about my dutch lessons and our experience with the embassy.

When it came to dinner we had made it into some sort of buffet where there was a bit of everything. Some smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, bread, cheese, leftovers from what we had on Christmas eve and a bunch of other stuff. Everything tasted delicious. Nathan got to taste some Norwegian akevitt, which it seemed that he liked. For dessert, we had some English Christmas pudding with vanilla sauce. Nathan couldn’t have any because he is allergic to fruits which is the main ingredient in an English Christmas pudding.

After everyone had eaten it was time for some more presents. I got a new body cream, a dress (which I’m not really sure I’ll use too much) and a wool jumper. They were really nice presents and even if I might not use them a lot it’s the thought that counts. The guests left around 9.30 pm.

The rest of the night Nathan and I just relaxed in our room played some TFT and watched some Netflix before heading to bed. Tomorrow we are planning on heading out into the city to see what’s going on there. Looking forward to that.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful time through these troubling times, This year Nathan and I are spending Christmas eve and a week in Norway.

I started the day with my oral exam in Dutch. The exam was online which meant I could do it from home. It started at 9:15 am and lasted 15 min. We went through the different subjects such as; family, moving, use of present tense and doktor. I was feeling super nervous but in the end, I felt that it went better than expected.

Our next task was to prepare for the flight ahead. We still had to pack and tidy the apartment a bit. The plan was to leave at noon, but we weren’t ready until 12:45. We went to the bus station and waited for the bus. We hoped we would be able to take the train that left at 13:19, but we were just too late when we arrived. Next one left at 13:49 which would give us 40 min to go through everything at the airport. All this made me really stressed.

When we arrived at the airport I tried to move as fast as I could. We were super lucky because there was no line for the security which saved us a ton of time which made me really happy, but little did I know that the plane would end up being 1h delayed anyways xD

It all started with a 30 min delay. Then when everyone had boarded the plane we got an announcement that someone from the previous flight had forgotten their brown hand luggage so the entire staff had to check if it was on the plane which took almost 30 min. After that was resolved they had to resume the process of loading the other luggage into the plane which added another 30 min. So at 4 pm we finally took off and we landed in Norway at around 7:45 pm. Then we had to have the police check our registration form and we thought they would want to see our vaccination pass, but the guy just said “it’s fine I trust you” which made me wonder if he does that with everyone. After that, we stopped by the duty-free to pick up some alcohol before we went to get tested. When EVERYTHING was done we finally found where my sister had parked and headed over. Then we were on our way home.

During the car ride, we talked a bit with my sister since this is the first time anyone in my family has seen Nathan everyone was very curious. When we arrived home we got greeted with both of my parents, a lovely tree and some amazing food. We still had to wait for a bit until dinner was ready which gave my parents some time to get to know Nathan. Then finally at almost 9 pm dinner was ready. We were having a classic Norwegian dinner.

That consists of a bunch of different sorts of meat. The main attraction is the rib steak of pork where the giant challenge is to get the skin the perfect crust with crunch. Then you also have meatballs and small sausages. For the side dishes, you usually have red kale, jam, potatoes and different causes. The entire meal is really delicious but also contains a bunch of fat xD. It came from when Norway was a poor country and Christmas meal was when you finally enjoyed some great food together with your close one.

After dinner, we prepared ourselves for the presents. We went around opening different presents from both friends and family. Nathan and I got each a pair of tall soft socks and a gift card. Then I got a jumper from my sister. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any presents for my parents or my sister which I will have to find during my time here. By the time everything was done it was already midnight and everyone were ready to head to bed.

I hope you guys had an amazing day too or if you celebrate today I wish everyone a very merry Christmas. May you celebrate with either family or friends and with some amazing food. For those who do presents I hope you get something nice 😀

I have finally moved from Norway to Belgium to live with my current boyfriend. I am excited about how this will all turn out, but what I know for sure is that it will be one hell of an adventure.

The week leading up to the move I talked to a bunch of people to be sure I didn’t forget to do something important before I left. I talked to my mentor in the government and to my boss plus a couple of other important people. Thankfully the requirements I had to do wasn’t that long. I basically just had to report the move into the state department and the postal service and that was basically it. I packed all of my clothes plus some other items down and sent it away through the mail. My pc-case was going into a suitcase with me on the plane so I had to make sure that it was safe and secure with both bubble wrap and clothing. Then i also packed a small suitcase as a hand luggage so that I had some cloths if need be.

On my last day in Norway I met with my boss for lunch and we just had a nice chat about my work in their company, life in general and the road forward. She wished me good luck in Belgium and said that if anything should happen and I would have to come back to Norway I could always hit them up if I need some work. That made me feel a bit safer just in case this move doesn’t work out. The rest of the day spent mostly traveling towards the airport, going through the steps to get on and off the plane and more public transport to Nathan’s apartment.

The move was a being kept as a surprise from Nathan. He thought I would be arriving today, but I was able to change the flight without extra cost so I did and decided to keep it as a surprise for him. It wasn’t easy because I just wanted to tell him that I was moving in earlier. I had also told a couple of friend which made me worried that they might accidently reveal it, but all of them managed to keep it a secret.

When I showed up at his front door he got so happy and gave me a BIG hug. Since he is still ill our days are mostly spent sitting in the sofa. I have so far tried to make some appointments that will help me get a job here since I have 6 months so get a job to be eligible to stay in the country. I can’t wait until I have settled in properly with a job and everything only then will I be able to finally relax.

I hope you guys have had an amazing start of September and I wish you all to stay safe

Last Friday I finally got myself on a plane home to Norway after a month of postponing my vacation because of different reasons. It was both a good thing, but also might have given me the worst feeling I have had for a long time.

So during the weeks leading up to the return my boyfriend got sick right after his second vaccination. He became super weak and not able to take care of himself. The symptoms he had was fever, swollen glands and throat so for the last week it was mostly me who went around doing different chores around the apartment.

On the day that I was leaving I first started going to a clinic to get my tested. The facility was not that far and there were not many people there. My appointment was at noon and it was a speedtest so I got the result within an hour although they did say 15min, but I guess they were some delays. After that I just went home and started cleaning the apartment so that it looked nice and tidy before I left since I knew he couldn’t do it up until I had to leave. The plan was that he was suppose to follow me to the airport, but because he had become so weak he was in no condition to travel. Plus we also thought that it might have been mumps at the time which is highly contagious. So we had to say goodbye at the front door which was sad. During the goodbye he started tearing up which made me tear up too.

The trip home was went pretty smooth. I had already checked in plus I was only carrying a hand luggage. I was done with everything after around 30 min in the airport. So I went to get something eat since I hadn’t eaten anything that entire day and the clock was almost 6pm. Decided to go to a place called “Quick” which is suppose to be similar to McDonalds. The food there was pretty decent. When I eventually got on the plane the captain said that the ride home would be shorter since we had the wind on our side. Throughout the entire flight I decided to catch up on my netflix series and watch “Lucifer”

As soon as we landed that’s when all the controls started. I had to go through passport control where they check if I had a negative PCR and that I had registered my return. I got the all clear and told that I had to spend the next 7 days quarantined at home. My parents wanted something from “Duty Free” so I stopped by that and bought some champagne. After that I had to get tested again and wait for the result at the airport before I could leave. To no surprise it came back negative and I was good to go. I took the bus home since my mum had agreed to meet me at the buss stop and drive me home. I got home around 11pm and sat down and told my parents about my trip before I went down to my room which i hadn’t seen in 2 months. Since it was pretty late I didn’t do much before just heading to bed.

2 days after I came home my boyfriend told me that he had gone to the hospital because he didn’t get any better. They had him over for a couple of days to run some test. Because of all the swelling around his neck area he couldn’t eat so they gave him liquid through a tube in his arm. They discovered it was mono which is strange since that usually spreads through saliva which means that I would be the most likely to give it to him, but I haven’t been feeling ill. Regardless after a couple of night he got sent home and his throat is better, but now he is having stomach problems. Thankfully my stay in Norway is only for a week so that I get to pack etc and then I’ll move in with him and be able to take care of him.

So that was the end of my summer vacation. I hope you guys have had a lovely summer too and for those who are starting or going back to school I wish you guys good luck.