My adventure in Norway begins!

It's time - January 5th, 2021! Today I'm driving to Kristiansand (Norway) to study 'Outdoor Education' for a semester, or as the Norwegians say, 'Friluftsliv'! Kristiansand is located in Agder in southern Norway, right on the coast. It is the capital of the Norwegian Sørlandet ('Southland') and the fifth largest city in Norway. Here in Kristiansand, I am studying at the University of Agder.

Everything is packed and loaded in the car on January 4th, a day before. Despite having doubts, everything fit in.

I still drive in the dark for the first few hours, but the highway is relatively empty. We take our first short break at 9:00 am. We have a quick sandwich for breakfast and then continue. By 11:30 am, we are already near the Danish border and then take a long break at Flensburg, as we are well ahead of schedule. After this break, we cross the Danish border and now have the entire Denmark ahead of us, as Hirtshals is located in the northern tip of Denmark. I'm getting tired slowly and it's starting to get dark outside. One hour past the border, we take a short break before finally arriving in Hirtshals at 4:30 pm.

Since we only have to be at the ferry at 7:45 pm, we still have over three hours. We stroll through the small, cute pedestrian alleys of Hirtshals all the way to the sea. We also see the first Scandinavian wooden houses in Hirtshals. Unfortunately, it has been dark for a while and it's stormy and freezing cold. In addition, we are tired. I have already driven over 850 km on this day. We decide to wait in the car and have some food. But even there, it gets very cold after some time.

Now, just before the ferry departure, I'm actually quite excited about what awaits me in Norway.

At 7:30 pm, we arrive at the ferry port.

After the check-in, we have to wait outside the ship in the cold car for another hour. At 8:30 pm, we finally drive onto the ferry and park the car on the car deck.

Luckily, we are the first ones to disembark from the ferry, so we quickly go through the border control.

Due to the corona pandemic, we have to spend the first ten days in Norway in a quarantine hotel. Within the hotel, I am only allowed to stay in my own room, and the meals are delivered to my door at every mealtime. However, since I am only doing a 'travel quarantine', I am allowed to leave the hotel wearing a mask and keeping a sufficient distance from others, to get some fresh air and move around outside. The hotel where we are staying - the Clarion Hotel Ernst - is only a few minutes' drive from the ferry port. We check in there at 12:20 am and carry the many, many pieces of luggage to our rooms. We can park the car for free in the hotel's underground garage for this first night, but we have to move it to the campus parking lot the next morning. Then, I fall into bed dead tired at around 2:00 am.

Since not much exciting is likely to happen in these first few days, I will get back to you after the quarantine period!

Until then,
Your Sara