Hey my name is Mer and I just turned 21. Back in 2017 my friend dared me to find a date in Norway while me and her were cycling across the Netherlands and Germany. So I decided to just cycle across Norway and Sweden because I was broke and had no where to live for the summer. I've posted a link to a blogpost showing more in the comments! Anyway I nearly got kidnapped a few times - once when I slept in a train station and a strange man found me at 1am and another time while I was hitchhiking. Some dude took me in his truck and I seriously thought I was going to die. I wasn't too pleased about sleeping on the floor most nights and I accidentally cycled down a 800m waterfall only to find out I went the wrong way.

I found a date after being escorted in a BnW bus (waterfall tour included) when he dropped me off in a small town. Here I met a hitchhiker and decided to camp with him the night after seeing his face. We camped in a children's play hut in a park - he was a good date. There were plenty of crazy moments on this trip - from making friends with strangers, to sleeping on the street and waking up in the middle of the night with people standing over me.





In relation to the date - being in danger and so on here is a little edit from questions asked:





I thought the people in Norway were lovely! Same with Sweden, however I found the Swedes less inclined to help - they were a little skeptical. I didn't mention this stuff in my blog because I wanted to keep it a little PG. Perhaps I'll edit it and add more. I got into a truck with a guy that kept insisted and he didn't really speak English. He was driving and driving and kept screaming on his phone - he also made me take off my shoes haha. He tried to tell me we were making a quick stop and pulled into a small side road where he pulled up to another trucker. They rolled down the windows and exchanged in their language. While doing this the driver pointed at me and made a kind of slit throat gesture - which led me to text my friends and ask if I should call the police or escape. Turned out fine in the end - but I was hugely scared. Another time I hitchhiked to a hard to get to train station. I had to take the train through the mountains to get where I wanted to go. Turns out like 50 people live in this town and no train was coming for the day and I wasn't sure if it ever was. So I slept on a bench in a little hut which was the station. About 1am this man comes in with his dog and tells me he lives there because he doesn't get on with people. He tells me stories about people accusing his dog of being violent. He wouldn't let me sleep and I kept insisting too - I would have left but there was no where else to go haha. I got the train the next day ;) Also times I woke up on the street with scary dudes staring at me.... I didn't like sleeping rough most times, but in safe places it was fun.

One location that amazed me was Odda and also ummm my Norwegian is lacking. It is a bike trail - anyway I mostly just enjoyed being along the fjords.

And the date: I had to take a bus but instead a man in BnW picked me up and took me on a brief waterfall tour. It was his day off, but he took me anyway. Not even sure he was a bus driver haha. He dropped me off in a small place and in my view was a some people at a bus stop. I started talking to one of them to see if they were travelling too and he said he was hitchhiking across Norway. I was meant to keep cycling for the day, but instead I stayed with him a night (actually 2) cause I liked his face. We chatted, I sang him I'm a little teapot and then we decided to camp. Some guy in the last town told me of a good park to camp in by chance, so we found it and it turns out we didn't have to camp on the grass. There were little children's huts and we set up there. We talked and were about to go to sleep, but instead we had a little romance. I will treasure the time I spent with him, was quite random and funny.

:)





Anyway, if you have any questions please feel free to ask!