Norway in the Summertime

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"Everyone should travel. No doubt about it. End of discussion."

Are three phrases I use in sync in my vocabulary quite often. With that being said, I have been fortunate enough to visit countless states and countries across Europe ever since I was in my mother's womb (no that is not a typo, I recall my mom always telling me that when I was younger). I pretty much hit the jackpot in the parent department, because my dad is a commercial airline pilot for American Airlines. Do you know what that means?

FREE FLIGHTS

Okay, not exactly free but I won't get into the technicalities right now.

Anyway, one country that I get to visit at least once a year is Norway. Rewind to a back story: my dad is originally from there. He came over to the United States after he graduated college when he was only 20 years old, to attend flight school. He left behind his friends and family to start a journey that would alter his life (and mine for that matter) forever. Once he met my mom and they started their family, they knew the importance of their children growing up and knowing their family across the Atlantic. So, whenever my brother and I had long breaks from school, Christmas and summer, we would begin our long trek to the motherland.

Now that I'm 22, traveling has become second nature for me. This makes planning our family trips even more intense than before. Getting to spend time in Norway at my grandparents house used to be the vacation in itself, now my dad has decided to start checking off his hiking bucket list that he was never able to do before he moved to America. Which means that I get to be his copilot on these new adventures. In the summer of 2015, we set off on our first exploration. It was a doozy. My dad decided that we would hike the famous Trolltunga (troll's tongue) mountain, which was a 10 hour experience. I repeat: a 10 hour experience. When we started the hike, it was about 70 degrees and sunny out. As we slowly made our way up the mountain, the seasons began to change until we were knee deep in snow and only 1/4 of the way to the top. It was our first time without any prior training, other than little 1-2 mile hikes here and there throughout the years. I can tell you that after that day, I knew I was going to be addicted to this for life.

Since then, we have traveled to hike in Hawaii, Seattle, back to Norway again to climb up to the tallest peak in Northern Europe: Galdhøpiggen, and plan on heading out west to Utah to hike Angel's Landing in Zion's National Park in the future. We have also slowly started to recruit our family to join on the excursions and it has been the best bonding experience to share your blood, sweat, and tears (yes blood, from the many blisters) alongside your kin.

I can't wait for the day to come when I get to have my very own copilots by my side, fighting their way to the top for that brief, but breathtaking view of the world...

...Only to struggle back down the mountain and ache for the next few days.

#travel #adventure #family #hiking #tourism #summer #winter #norway #seattle #washington #hawaii