It's needless to tell you the road from Oslo to Stavanger, because even if my eyes didn't close, my mind slept all the way!
I think that the main difference between me and the new civilization I encounter is I can't sleep thinking that someone would steal my big, big luggage that is in the open luggage area. The Romanian thinking is still fresh in my head and I can't imagine how people can be so relaxed knowing that their stuff is in the other part of the train. At last I see on the screen Stavanger and with my heart beating like crazy I take my luggage and wait for the door to open.
As soon as I step on steady ground I take a deep breath and I look around. I think I have the stare that usually all the tourists have when they come in a new environment. Well, for me everything is glowing. The train I am leaving behind, the small train station, the lake from the center, the seagulls, the people. Everything is moving in slow motion and with a smile on my face I try to gather as much landscape as I can. Now that I think a bit, the slow motion might be from the weight of my luggage. Anyway, the smile is a real thing. This moment is the ending of the epilogue of my adventure and the starting of it's introduction.
As soon as I step on steady ground I take a deep breath and I look around. I think I have the stare that usually all the tourists have when they come in a new environment. Well, for me everything is glowing. The train I am leaving behind, the small train station, the lake from the center, the seagulls, the people. Everything is moving in slow motion and with a smile on my face I try to gather as much landscape as I can. Now that I think a bit, the slow motion might be from the weight of my luggage. Anyway, the smile is a real thing. This moment is the ending of the epilogue of my adventure and the starting of it's introduction.
It's Saturday already (I began my journey Thursday) and even if it's a beautiful evening outside the street is kind of empty. I see a little girl in a bus station and I go to her. I doubt she knows English, but I have the International Guide and she has to know where the University is. No?
"Excuse me, University of Stavanger, where?" Of course, i'm using my hands in order to mime what i'm asking, and I know I act like I am talking with a monkey or a dog, but I want to be sure that she understands what I want to ask her. She looks at me strange and answers me in a perfect English "If you want to go to the University you have to wait here for the bus no. 6. You can ask the driver to show you where to stop."
Like in cartoons I stare blankly for a few seconds.
The bus leaves me in the street. Literally in the street. I carry my burden next to a board which says that I'm at the UiS buildings and I try to enter the door. It's closed. Hmmm. I crawl myself and the luggage until the next door. Closed. F**k! @#%$# I try to kick the luggage, but all I end up doing is hoping in one leg. It hurt me more than I hurt it. I made up my mind and leaving all my stuff behind I started looking for a door. I am really tired and for me this place was suppose to be the Heaven. Instead, I can't find the main building and I'm lost in an area where every building had UiS on it. I tell myself loudly (as usual) that I should calm down and try to act intelligent. After a check up of the map I finally realize where I am and where I have to go.
I enter the building and when I see the smiley faces that are waiting for me I fell much lighter. I literally could fly just about now. Seriously. Good thing that I have my luggage to keep me on the ground. They ask me for the passport and they go for the papers.
"Andreea, for a person with such a big luggage you have a very small amount of luck"
How bad can it be, i'm thinking. I have a big smile on my face and I answer as if I just heard a joke "Actually, the luggage carries me!" and then i add taking my serious tone "I have all my life inside, so wherever I go, the big fella' follows".
After they tell the address and how exactly I should reach it, I am seriously thinking to leave the luggage behind. I have to walk 10 min until the bus station, and after that exchange 2 buses, and after that I have to search the address.SHIT! SHIT!