🛡️ Travel Journal Day 4, Is it already day 4?

“Where I met the fish and swam with them and my thoughts ran free.”

📅 Date: July 12, 2025 – Day 4

📍 Location: Grimen Campground, Bergen – next to Grimevatnet

🌦 Weather & Scenery:
Today’s weather was like a perfectly layered folk song—steady and rich, with pauses where the light hung just a little longer than it should have. The sky had a gentle haze over it in the morning, softening the sharp angles of the cliffs and treetops as I left Flåm. As the drive went on, the clouds drifted apart, revealing slices of blue overhead and teasing glimpses of golden sunshine that reflected off the wet roads and glassy water. The air by Grimevatnet smelled like pine, lake moss, damp earth, and firewood, like the whole valley had exhaled. It felt ancient and quiet and alive.

✍️ What I Did Today:
The day started with a sense of “where am I, what year is it?” thanks to yesterday’s accidental nap-turned-coma. After waking at midnight in Flåm and resetting with a shower in the dark like some cryptid backpacker, I pulled myself together and hit the road.

I drove out of Flåm feeling refreshed but disoriented. The Flåm Railway was still buzzing in the back of my brain—those stunning views, the winding climb, the waterfall stop—and, of course, the soundtrack of entitled tourists complaining that a train... was being a train. Still, I tuned them out and enjoyed every moment. Worth every krone and every sigh I ignored.

As I drove toward Bergen, I saw cows crossing a river. And I don’t mean one or two—it was like a slow-motion pastoral stampede. They moved with such calm purpose, like they had someplace very specific to be. I actually stopped the car to watch. It wasn’t dramatic or chaotic. It was just... peaceful. Oddly cinematic. Norway, you win again.

Food today was an unexpected emotional journey. I picked up a chicken pesto pizza, not something I would’ve ever chosen in my picky-kid era, but something I actually enjoy now. It was the kind of food that’s somehow both hearty and fresh—flavorful without being greasy. I only ate one slice because my stomach’s been on this weird minimalist strike lately, but wow. Grown-up me is proud. I followed it with a glorious slice of red velvet cake, which looked like it belonged in a dessert commercial and tasted even better. I ate it slowly, like it was a love letter to myself.

And then? I did something I haven’t done in a long time.

I swam.

In a lake.

Grimevatnet.

The water was cold but not shocking, and after the first minute, it stopped feeling like a test and started feeling like a baptism. The fish kept their distance, but I swear one came close enough to judge me. I floated on my back for a while, staring at the clouds. Let myself breathe, weightless, in a country that still doesn’t feel real. I swam with the fishes—but in the best possible way. Not the mafia way. The main-character-of-a-Nordic-indie-film way.

I ended the day at Grimen Campground, where I wisely upgraded to a cabin. After last night’s tent assembly acrobatics and a flip-flop puncture that’s going down in my personal lore, I figured I’d earned solid walls and a mattress. The cabin is small but perfect—basic comforts, clean linens, and a view of the lake that I keep checking to make sure it’s not a painting.

🌟 Standout Moment:
Floating alone in Grimevatnet. No phone, no camera, no sounds but birds and distant laughter from other campers. Just me, the water, and the steady hum of peace I haven’t felt in years. A very close second? Seeing cows ford a river like extras from an arthouse film.

🎵 Song of the Day: “Send Me On My Way” – Rusted Root
Why it fits: This song captures the quirky, optimistic, wandering spirit that today turned into. It’s upbeat, it’s weird, and it carries you forward, just like I felt—beeped at by Daisy, cheered on by lake trout, and floating between one moment and the next.

🗣️ Quote / Saying of the Day:
“Swimming with the fishes—but in the good way.”
Alternate: “If you’re driving the actual speed limit in Norway, you’re either a tourist or already dead inside.”

🔥 Daily Prompt – Reflection:
What’s something you used to avoid or dislike that now brings you joy?
I used to be terrified of discomfort. Cold water? No thanks. Food with green sauce? Hard pass. Sleeping in a tent or being far from indoor plumbing? Laughable. But now I find myself chasing these moments—leaning into the unfamiliar, accepting a little discomfort in exchange for the stories it gives me. There’s something liberating about letting go of the need to always know what comes next. Today I found joy in a lake, in a fish’s curious eyes, in a cow's casual river crossing. And I wouldn’t have seen any of it if I was still the me from ten years ago.

❤️ Gratitude / Silver Linings:
Hot showers. Cold lakes. Red velvet cake. Pesto on pizza. A cabin that doesn’t judge me. Cows that reminded me to slow down. A car that nags, but carries me anyway.

🐉 Free Thoughts & Wandering Mind:
I think I’m learning to let go of the “ideal version” of this trip. Trolltunga didn’t happen. My suitcase is falling apart. My flip-flops are toast. But I’ve gotten something better—stories I didn’t plan for. Moments I didn’t expect. I think we hold on too tightly sometimes to “how it should go,” and miss the odd, lovely curveballs the world throws us. This trip is messy and wonderful and deeply human. I’m tired, a little sore, and constantly being beeped at by a judgmental Hertz car—but I feel more alive than I have in a long time.

🏕 Closing Note:
Day 4 gave me cows, cake, cold water, and clarity. I swam. I laughed. I yelled at a car. I watched a lake shimmer.
And I lived to do it all again tomorrow.