Imagine a world where the sun doesn’t rise, while the wind howls and bites as a blizzard strikes, making a joke of your mission to dig out the car so you can get to the office and a hot cup of anything, but preferably a coffee, stronger than dynamite and blacker than the morning night.

The winters up north are long.

I keep wondering what makes me stay here.

Spoiler alert: It’s the summers.

I can almost feel the summer coming. It greets me from the eyes of everyone I meet. I hear it as the seagulls return north to sing atop my roof. I see it in the sunset afterglow outside my window… or could it be a creeping sunrise?

I can almost taste it.

Springs are nonexistent beyond the arctic circle. Summer fever, on the other hand, is a very real thing.

If it wasn’t for the fact that this particular mood gets fueled by a wild sun energy that pumps through your system at every waking hour, it could be mistaken for spring fever.

Also, summer fever tends to afflict people until august-september.

Which is wonderful.

I’m joyously looking forward to it.

Enter the never-ending summer day.

I’m prepared!

• A photo post featuring my first summer in Finnmark – the northernmost county of Norway – 2015 >>>

2018 was obviously a turbulent year. Not that I was a very active blogger, but those times I actually posted something… it wasn’t very a bright input, in any way.

I’ve been struggling with motivation, love, self esteem and blah, blah, blah.

I don’t really want to focus that much on the bad stuff, or manifest that negativity into written words. The fact that my sad musings are excruciatingly embarrassing for me to read now, is partly the reason for my change of course.

I find myself thinking increasingly about how my thoughts, all-consuming as they often feel, actually matter very little.

It’s like waiting for a phone call from a romantic interest. As your head fills with worry about being undesirable and vague speculations about whether the belated caller experienced an accident, the person in question might very well be sleeping.

Giving into negative thinking leads to unhappiness, while positive thoughts pave the way to self-delusion and disappointment.

So I’m trying to think as little as possible. Stopping my train of thought as soon as I realize I unintentionally boarded it, I instead decide to do something which brings me satisfaction.

Light and carefree, that’s how I would like 2019 to be.

It has everything to do with this blog. Enough of tragic words. I’m still as moody and conflicted as most people, but I really want to focus on something else. The plan is to count my blessings and give every one the appreciation they deserve.

Without thinking too much.

Traveling to a new place is always exciting, even more so when you’re arriving in the middle of the night with no one coming to pick you up.

Fortunately I’m not entirely on my own. I’m traveling with wonderful Caroline, my best friend and partner when it comes to exotic adventures. She is actually the main reason for why we are going to Kenya. Caroline is writing a master paper about how Kenya has prohibited plastic bags – while I just tag along. I’ve never been to Africa or seen a giraffe before, and I desperately needed a vacation. Deciding to join Carol was easy.

And this is how we came to be at Jomo Kenyatta Int. Airport at 02:00 AM.

(No photos from these moments, because I really didn’t feel like packing up my camera).

You can imagine we were somewhat stressed concerning how to get to Nairobi city. It turned out the the airport is prepared for travelers like us. In some 15 minutes we got ourselves Kenyan SIM cards, local money and a taxi to the apartment where we are staying for the next couple of days.

Check out all the elephants on the cash! I wonder what other money pictures they have over here!

I’m guessing this little story is about how you shouldn’t worry, especially when your sole reason for worrying is that you don’t know any better, or lack knowledge or experience.

Trust the world and the people in it – everything works out 😉