After arriving back in Oslo from the West coast on Thursday, my friends again met us at the train station. And luckily another friend from the Camino (Fiona from Australia) was also just arriving from Spain! After collecting everyone and dropping our bags, Hasti and Linda made us a wonderful Norwegian meal with lots of vegetables and fresh FRESH salmon! It was the best fish I’ve ever eaten, and Chelsea (who doesn’t normally like salmon) agreed.

Since Chelsea’s family is from Sweden (and we had originally planned to go to just Sweden until we realized how incredible seeing Norway would be) we made it a priority to get her feet on the soil of her Motherland. Linda suggested we take a bus to Stromstad, the first big town across the border, and take the ferry over to the Koster Islands. There is a permanent population of only about 300 and no cars, kind of like Block Island. So we rented two bicycles and away we went!

We had a lovely picnic lunch, played in tidal pools, and soaked up the sun.

Baby crab!!

To finish the day we treated ourselves to a shrimp dinner. These are the same super sweet little shrimp that I had in my sandwich in Goteburg, except this time with heads and everything still attached! It was a wonderful way to keep ourselves busy relaxing on the dock as the sun went down.

Today we both said goodbye to Scandinavia; Chelsea is heading home to the US and I’m currently in an airport in London on my way to Croatia to meet Ellen for a week of sun and relaxation. I loved it up north and I’m sure I will return. My friends Linda and Hasti are some of the most welcoming and generous people I’ve ever met and the land is obviously hypnotizing. But for now, the journey continues!