Travels coming to a close: some random thoughts on my journey (pt. 2)
My last week in Buenos Aires was spent in the same place my trip had begun-- a hostel in San Cristobal called La Casa Pichincha. In some ways it seemed that time had begun to run backwards. When I awake each morning, I give myself a countdown to allow myself an extra minute of rest while ensuring I don't fall back asleep or stay in bed all morning. On my last morning in Buenos Aires, as I counted down from thirty, I had the uncanny sensation that the moment of my rise was not ahead of me but behind me, and I was being pulled down into that moment as by a form of magnetism. I rose, hailed a cab, and was off to the airport, taking my last glimpses of Buenos Aires through the window.
I ran into some trouble at the airport-- my bags were 19 kilos too heavy to bring on the plane or to stow without enormous fees. This was my own fault of course. I had about thirty books crammed into my bags, a giant bottle of vodka, several vinyl records, multiple containers of Dulce de Leche, and even a two-kilo bag of salt I'd taken from the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. Obviously, some things needed to go, and I ended up giving away every last one of my books, the vodka, the records, and five articles of clothing. I kept the salt. The random strangers in the airport were appreciative of the unprompted gifts, and I was glad all the stuff seemed to find the right home.
My first flight landed in London at the Gatwick airport. I had a long layover-- not enough time to go into town and see anything, but long enough that I knew I needed a cigarette break. I spent half an hour going through customs for this purpose, explaining to the customs officer that the purpose of my visit to the UK was a five minute cigarette break, that's it, I swear. Besides nearly getting locked out in the underbelly of the airport, the break was satisfactory. I crossed through security and customs again, got the exit stamp on my visa twenty minutes after I'd gotten the entry stamp, then I waited the remaining couple hours for my flight to Oslo, meanwhile writing a Steemit post called Adios Argentina, Hallo Norway!
Norway ended up being quite stressful for many reasons. I was missing Buenos Aires and wondering if I'd made the right choice by leaving, the price of food was absurd, I'd been drinking regularly for several weeks and now needed to taper off, and worst of all Shirin was overwhelmed with work, and it seemed that my being there was doing more to drive her crazy than to make her feel better. I found out later that she was mad at me for seeming distant while I was in Buenos Aires, but at the time it seemed like she just didn't like me anymore and that she was wishing she hadn't invited me. It made me miserable. In any case, Norway was still beautiful, and even though the circumstances were stressful there was no denying that it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. That fact alone was enough to get me through it, and everything started to look up near the end of the trip, when Shirin got off work and we were able to do some genuine adventures together. We met up with a friend of hers to climb Priekestolen, then we met up with two other friends of hers to spend the weekend on the island of Jomfruland.
After that, we were off to Bangkok, and on our way to Vietnam...
TO BE CONTINUED