A few years ago, in a Sami (North Norwegian) camp of reindeers, a tourist asked the herder, “How many reindeers do you have?”. “Fifty Thousand” came the reply and then he added with a smile, “We do not count, we just be with them”. In all these years of coming here to Scandinavia, I have a similar reply, when somebody asks, “how many tours till date?”. This year however I could not help but say, “It has been 10 years”, not knowing still, how many tours it has been.
Travel has been constant and a lot has happened after the first summer in Scandinavia back in 2009. Tours got added over the years. Those that became closer to me than this one. Places where it felt more lively, where the food, the culture, and people painted a lot of colors and made the space vibrant. Scandinavia chose to be white and still stays like that. There is not much of life in white perhaps, but white feels stable. Sometimes with all the fun and party, there needs to be a place to just be, knowing that when you come back nothing would’ve changed! This Scandinavia tour feels that way in our array of tours.
I often tell people in the bus when I speak about Scandinavia, ‘Norway is like my father’, it teaches and then it teaches again. It loves in ways which do not show. When I go back to it after a while it shows no other emotion but a subtle smile. When it has to call, it calls, does not scream! It feels like there can be a system and yet not feel mechanized when I travel to Norway every year.
I haven’t encountered so many Scandinavians in the 10 years as I have perhaps Croatians or Peruvians in a run of two years or Iranians in a month. Scandinavia is about the collective, and not so much about personal. The way of life becomes the person itself, and knowing how the people live here, is knowing them. True, that given an option I would not choose to stay here and choose a warmer place, both in terms of weather and people. But then I would keep coming back, just as Scandinavia would like me to.
Today would be my last day here in Norway for this summer. The sky has been uncharacteristically clear over the past few days. When I talk to the locals they say that an entire week of summer in an entire country is rare. In Scandinavia, where midsummer is a bigger holiday than Christmas, clear skies are a reason to celebrate. For me, just being in Scandinavia does it!
