Scandiroads #3 - Into my sweetest dreams

’10 more minutes’ I mumbled to myself after I couldn’t resist the urge to lay down on bed for a bit. But the moment I said it, I know I couldn’t allow myself to do it. The Lofoten were calling my name, in every summer breeze that found its way through my window, I could hear it calling for me. I forced myself to start my wake-up process, but my buzzing head woke up surprisingly fast after taking one breath of the purest air, as if I was breathing in minty chewing gum. My head was constantly throwing the images of me of the miraculous mountains I just saw, the crystal clear lakes and the tiny bounty beaches passing trough my mind as flashing images. And all of that was more than necessary convincing material to get into the car and navigate to my first destination on the Lofoten islands: Haukland Beach. Now come on, doesn’t that sound like you’re in Australia ? And I must say that thus far what I saw of the Lofoten, was what I expected of New-Sealand. A gathering of the most stunning and unique pieces of nature in the world, all brought together on this little fairy-tale planet.

I can’t tell you how intensely happy I felt, to be at a place that you’ve been dreaming of as a kid before you even knew it had a name, before you realized fairy tales are happening in real life. The proof, the reality-check that the earth is even more magical than you think it is, is a beautiful realization that made me feel once more how deeply I care for preserving all this beauty that’s given to us. As I left the little hidden camping by curvy steep roads, I entered the colourful harbour of Svolvaer, the biggest town of the Lofoten. Now big usually means really big in Norway, but at little Lofoten it just meant a gathering of some colourful wooden houses by the water, some lively centrum hidden away by the harbour, and a few more cars on the road. still I shouldn’t be judging because driving from one part of these ‘little islands’ to the other, still takes you more time then going from the most southern point of the Netherlands to the most Northern point. I guess this also is a reason why the world fascinates me so much: growing up in a small farmers town in the small Netherlands, makes you feel safe and comfortable. Leaving that comfort, can either be intimidating, or liberating. Needless to say how I experienced it.

Enough poetry for now, those thoughts may have gone trough my mind but my eyes were on the road. and also not really, as the surroundings took my eyes and my breath away. I was following a small abandoned road, surrounded by mountains as massive as it could ever be, pointy and sharp, yet covered in this soft green carpet of moss and bush. So mighty, yet so peaceful, almost symmetric, they surrounded the little innocent road me and my little innocent car were following. When the mountains moved a little, water appeared, in all shapes and forms. The ocean surrounds the Lofoten at all times, which is indeed normal for islands, but here it is anywhere. It is almost as if there’s barely any land to stand on as the water is watching your every move, following your every step. Whether it’s the wild ocean itself throwing its waves against the cliffs you’re following, whether it’s a peaceful lake reflecting emerald green as it enters a little hidden beach, whether it’s a mighty river throwing around its water by the means of thundering waterfalls. It is everywhere at all times.

As usual in fairy tales, you turn a page and enter a totally new scenario, and the Lofoten once again can be compared to a fairy tale on that matter. As the ocean had followed me for some time on my left, with a foggy mysterious sky above it, the green pointy mountains on my right started fading away, off into oblivion. And I could have been back in the Netherlands, as suddenly grass, as green as it ever gets, started rolling their way endlessly, creating little hills here and there with little wooden farms popping up on top of it. it was unbelievable how those few houses and the same road I still followed, were the only signs of humanity in this little world. No exit to a highway, no exit at all, just this endless road moving forward, finding its way over one of the most beautiful islands in the world, and yes Lofoten did end up in that honourable top 10. This world is so peaceful, it’s so pure, yes I did pinch myself several times to ensure I wasn’t still stuck in my childhood fantasies, in some imaginary world. As the rolling meadows turned into perfectly round off hills again and the ocean next to me now became a peaceful, cristalclear blur against the sandy beaches, I was slowly nearing my destination: Haukland beach.

I couldn’t really blame the cars that started gathering around me, or the vans desperately finding their parkingspots in the most unhandy places, cause this place was one of the many highlights of an island that was already a highlight itself. Despite my awkward parking skills I managed, and I literally had to fight the urge to not put my head up high yet. I always like to surprise myself by finding my way to the viewpoint by staring down, following the path, extending the moment where I can look up and forget to breath, forget to be alive yet at the same time feel more alive than anytime. As my bare feet touched the soft sand and my seabreeze messed up my hair from the start, I could feel the sun break trough the clouds, making my white skin glow right away. It was about time to face reality and that had never been this much fun. I heard a few voices around me, I was aware I wasn’t alone here but that was okay, as the people coming here like me would develop a huge respect for nature. Let me promise you the view was anything I could have hoped for if not more, almost to overwhelming to put into words. I was standing on a far stretching, white sandy beach, and a few metres in front of me, the clear innocent waves softly rolled towards me. The water itself had this unreal emerald green shine, that slowly turned into a deep blue shade as I looked further. Like the beach the sea didn’t get to stretch to far to the sides, as the forever ruling mountains decided how far anything was allowed to go there until they took over. The mountains had a deep shade of green due to all the bush it was covered in, and the transition from the green mountains to the green ocean in front of me was truly unique. I had never seen a place like this, maybe I would’ve imagined a beach in Thailand like this, with the greenblue waters and the jungly mountains. But I was only 3 hours by plane away from home, in Norway, which once again had proven to be the king of natural beauty.

I strolled through the water, I picked up beautiful shells, I took an immense amount of pictures from the ocean, the beach, the mountains around me. Besides the sand on the beach and the colours of the parked vans, anything was green here. This destination was totally worth the 2 hour drive from Svolvaer, how can so much beauty manifest in such a small place ? Nothing more than 1 beach, beautiful by detail. As I watched the never ending calmth of the ocean transferring into the never ending mightiness of the mountains around it, I slowly walked back to my car, planning to make some dinner in my little housie before going on another trip. After all, this was a fairytale island: the summers were everlasting and wouldn’t be chased off by the darkness of the night, yet in wintertime the darkness would be hanging over the islands like a curtain. Yet it’s not really darkness, as the natural spotlight called the northern lights shines a green light over the islands at all times. I found my way back on that one same road, passing by lakes and rivers whenever the ocean couldn’t get close enough, passing by the endless green of the pointy mountains, the little hills, or the rolling meadows. So pure, so simple, so genuine, so insanely beautiful. By the time I got back, dinner had to wait, as my brain first needed to process all the magic it hat just witnessed. That little nap, was true gold after today.

- It's an amazing life