Magic

I just got back from the far north of Norway yesterday.
I don't even really know how to describe how amazing the experience was.
For my final project this semester, we could go anywhere we wanted and write about anything we wanted to in Europe.
I, and another girl from my class decided we wanted to go to the north of Norway, to an area called Finnmark to do stories about the Sami, the indigenous people of northern Europe.
It took us a few days to get there because we tried to do it as cheaply as possible. We took a 3 and a half hour bus ride to Copenhagen. Then a 10 hour bus ride to Oslo. Then a 2 hour flight to Alta. And finally a 2 and a half hour bus ride to Kautokeino. It was really hard to plan it all because the last bus we had to take only ran every two days.
We hadn't really set up places to stay. I was in contact with this guy I found on the internet who was going to try and see if he could find us somewhere cheap to stay. Norway is REALLY expensive. And the town we were going to had one hotel but it burned down a few years ago and was never rebuilt. So the other other option was some sort of motel with cabins for tourists to get the real experience of being in the north, I guess.

So we were on this final bus ride from Alta to Kautokeino. Well, I call it a bus but really it was a minivan. There was only one other person on the bus besides the two of us and after a few minutes she started talking to us.

She eventually asked us where we were staying and we told her we weren't really sure but we had some possibilities. She gave us this funny look and pulled out her phone.
"I'm going to call my sister," she said.

She talked to her for a few minutes and turned to us and said, "she says you can stay at her place."

We had a room in the basement complete with our own washroom. And her sister was so great. We immediately felt at home. The town was about 3000 people and most of them were related to the woman we stayed with. She knew everyone! And helped us so much with people to contact for our stories. And she actually worked as a translator for the municipality. How we got set up with someone like this, I don't know, but it was amazing.
And things were easy like the whole rest of the time.
I got to live in 24 hour sunshine, see reindeer, eat reindeer, go to a music festival in Finland, hang out in a Finish sauna, drink sacred water, hitch-hike for the first time, party in a lavvu. And more.
I feel like I can't even really write about everything.

It was magic.