Long time no see.. 2013

This year I was asked by my aunt Eva to accompany my 83 year old grandma to the wedding of my cousin which took place in Albania! It was awesome!
I got the whole trip as a gift for taking her and arranging everything for her at the airports so that it would be possible for her to get assistance to get from gate to gate at the airports we were traveling through. I have never in my life traveled that comfortably to be honest. On the way over there we were joined by my aunt and uncle, the mother and father of the groom, and on the way back we got to go strait through the passport control without standing in line for it for 40 minutes!

When we were in Albania, which was only for a weekend really, we got to see some of Tirana and to travel up on a gondola up to one of the mountains looking over the city. It was amazing!

My mothers siblings, the father of the groom and the bride

However I got to join in on an Albanian wedding! It was so cool and very stylish. My cousin Torgeir met his Alda when they were both studying their doctors degrees in Melbourne, Australia.  He moved there ten years ago, and has been living there ever since. I would really like to visit them there one time if I get the chance to travel around in Australia a bit.

Later this summer after spending most of my time working at the kiosk Narvesen at the Arena centre in Arendal,  I went on a well deserved trip to Croatia for 9 days. This time I traveled with my best friend Helene Ellingsen.
We spent our holiday:
- In Split, on a bar crawl with other tourists from America, France, Australia and Sweden.
- With a day on the beach Bacvice in Split.
- Partying on Carpe Diem Beach on a small private island outside of the town of Hvar.
- Eating loads of pizza and spaghetti!
- 7 hour bustrip during the night to Rijeka where we stayed with Marta at her apartment.
- Seeing old friends and showing Drenova to Helene, with all the small places I spent my childhood in.

Marta, Me, Barbara, Natalija and Helene

Other significant things that have happened to me this year is that my 89 year old grandpa Terje died on the 4th of May after being sick for several years with cancer. The last month or so he was in and out of the hospital. I loved him so much. I miss him. So much. Hvil i fred Bestefar!

And some weeks ago our family dog of ten years got sick with the boreliosis decease and even though he got antibiotics for it he didn't recover and had to be put down so he wouldn't suffer anymore. I miss him too. It is so quiet at my parents house without him. No overjoyed furry little friend greeting me when I come over, no little nudges under our elbows after dinner saying "now it's my turn for dinner", and no jumping up and down when the running shoes and the jackets are put on..

But time heals wounds, and the thought of them being in a better place now without suffering and sorrow makes it easier to think of the great memories that I shared with them!

- Johanne Teresie

Summer holidays, warm nights, late night sun and the Adriatic sea! Summer 2012

I booked a ticket in February thinking that it would be fun to go visit my childhood home and friends. I had spent the weekend after Hald visiting my parents in Vanse. Then my travels took me to the east to the capital of Norway with a pit stop at Elin Cecilie's house before my flight from Gardemoen to Zagreb the next morning.

The first day in Zagreb was awesome, I met with Petra at the bus station before we went home to her cosy little flat in the outskirts of the city. There we talked and talked for ages as if it was just some months and not years since we met last time. I really appreciate the friendships that can conquer any distance and time!
That night we went to a football game Spain vs. Croatia! It was fun being together with so many people watching a big screen outside in the warmth of a Croatian summer night. I had missed the warm climate after Africa and coming to Croatia with 38 degrees was good after a cold (in my opinion) spring in Norway.

Petra and me watching the football match

The next days we went to the zoo in Zagreb and memories from the last time I was there with my school from Rijeka came flooding back! It was really fun and Petra and I went back home and ate Ćevapčići which I haven't eaten in such a long time. We also went out clubbing and shopping and I found some wonderful stuff in some second-hand shops there.
I really had a wonderful time with her in Zagreb! But since I really wanted to go to Rijeka, and come "home", I decided that I wanted to leave for the seaside with the bus instead of waiting for some friends to pick me up.

In Rijeka I bumped into my parents and Anne Malene who also had traveled to Croatia at the same time as me, just not together. I took a flight to Zagreb, my sister to Pula, and my parents drove the whole way with their new car. Talk about good organising, right?
We ate dinner together in my favourite cosy restaurant in Rijeka before they gave me a lift to Ana's place where I would be staying for a week or so.

The family gathered again in Rijeka

Ana and her friends had planned to take a trip to Baška on Krk that Friday to hang out on the beach all day. We were three cars that went, we had a really good time there. The sun was dead hot, but there was a strong breeze and therefore all of us ended up being so sunburned after a while!
One of the boys came into an accident after diving in a nearby pool so we had to rush back to the hospital in Rijeka! He was ok in the end though, thankfully.

Ana at the beach in Baska

The weekend went by quite fast, I hung out with Marta and Ada and their friends. It was so good being back home and feeling quite free for once. I met some old friends from school the week after as well and planned to go to Natalija's hairdressing salon for a well needed haircut.

Out grilling in the woods with Ada and her friends

After being in Croatia for almost two weeks I was expecting Gregory and Andreas coming from Norway to join me in Rijeka before our travels lead us to Selce for the youth camp we were joining as a Norwegian team from NMS, The Norwegian Mission Society.
For the first time I was able to show a good friend where I had had my childhood and show him where so many of my good memories had taken place! It was really wonderful and it meant a lot to me that they were eager to see what I wanted to show them. Drenova, Rijeka, Trsat, Opatija, Pećine, Crikvenica, and Selce.

From the top Barbara, Gregory, Natalija and Andreas, one fun night!

At the youth camp we were assigned some tasks where we were responsible for some of the workshops that took place in the morning and afternoon, between swimming and dinner, as it is too warm for the kids to stay in the sun all day midday. Andreas and me were in charge of the drama workshop where we played different games and assigned the groups a task to make a sketch out of a story in the bible. These sketches were shown on the last evening after a presentation of Norway.

Marta and her boyfriend came to say goodbye to me in Selce, and it meant a lot that she travelled so far to meet me one last time before I headed back home for the rest of the summer in Norway!
As I had a ticket a day earlier than the rest of the "Norwegian" team I travelled back to Zagreb by myself. I ended up at Gardermoen, the airport in Oslo all by myself that night because the flight arrived after the last shuttle buses and trains, so I was sleeping in a chair in Starbucks and on a crdboardbox underneath the stairs together with other travellers that were stuck at the airport.
The next morning I took the first bus home at 05:30 and got safely home to Arendal where I spent the rest of my summer hanging out with friends and family.

Johanne Teresie