I kicked off my new year’s resolution by entering the Spiritløpet in Sola, near Stavanger in Norway. Truth be told, I was pretty nervous- this was my first race since my injury and also the first time I’d travelled somewhere abroad completely alone.
To add to my nervousness, I had decided to find a place to stay through the Couchsurfing website. I first learned about Couchsurfing from my good friend Mark, whom would often have people staying with him. The idea is that instead of checking into a nameless, faceless hotel, you stay in someone’s home and get to experience their country and culture in an authentic way. Most people, anywhere in the world, would be happy to have a friend’s friend stay overnight if they were in town- Couchsurfing takes that idea and extends it to strangers or, as your mum called them on your first day at school, friends you haven’t met yet. Through Mark, I’d met a lot of Couchsurfers before and had opened my home to a few people travelling through. I’d been to Couchsurfing meets, where local Couchsurfers get together, make friends, arrange language classes, hiking trips, cinema dates and I’d taken plenty of foreigners on tours through the lanes and parks of Glasgow’s West-End. I had not, however, ever taken myself off and stayed with someone else.
On the flight over I suddenly realised I’d forgotten to tell anyone where exactly I was going to be. Thankfully Norwegian airlines has free wifi on-board (hurray!), so I quickly emailed my housemates with all the information I had about my host and included my Couchsurfing login details so they could get into my account if I didn’t come home. Its like hitch-hiking, most drives will be fine, but there’s always the tiny outside chance of getting picked up by an axe-murderer, right? On this occasion, I obviously lived to tell the tale.
My host, Andreas, met me at the bus stop and we walked to his house in the freeeeeeeeeezing cold and gale winds. When we got home we had a cup of tea and made polite getting-to-know-you conversation, before making up a bed on the living-room floor for me (Andreas did have a spare bed, but another Couchsurfer had beaten me to it!). It was late and Andreas had work in the morning, so after helping me translate the Norwegian instructions about where I needed to go in the morning to pick-up my race number, we turned in for the night.
The race went well and after driving back to Stavanger, I headed back to Andreas’ house and thought about what I could cook for dinner. In the world of Couchsurfing, it is pretty common for the guest to cook a meal and often a meal from their culture if they can get hold of/remembered to bring the right ingredients. Wonderfully for me, Andreas was already a fan of haggis (one of many great Scottish inventions) and had some in his freezer which we defrosted for me to prepare for dinner. I cooked up the haggis, with the clapshot, whisky sauce and a bit of broccoli, followed by some delicious traditional cranachan- see the recipes here. Shopping for all my ingredients was a bit of an exercise in language and picture deduction, but I’m proud to say I got everything I needed and only had to ask for help once- mostly because they don’t colour code their single versus double cream in Norway in the same colours as we use in the UK.
Andreas, Jay and I sat down to our whisky-laced meal with some red wine and more whisky, and spent a great evening swapping travelling tales from around the world- Andreas has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, from the Caribbean all the way to Norway; and Jay has hitch-hiked and couchsurfed his way across Europe with a suitcase in one hand and saxophone in the other!
We sampled heavily from Andreas’ whisky collection and the time came when I had to put Runrig on the stereo and sing Alba VERY LOUDLY. Well, just the chorus bit. Well, really just the “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaalba” bit, as I don’t know Gaelic so it’s the only bit I can sing with confidence.
Many hours and drams later we all got off to sleep and in line with Norwegian custom, had a long lie and a lazy day on Sunday. Jay took me on a stroll around Stavanger, showing me the sights and grabbing a water in a pub when our legs got too weary and our heads hurt too much. There was time for a delicious risotto, with home-made sausages from Andreas, before I had to head back to Sola for my flight to London and my journey back to reality.
As a first experience on Couchsurfing, I am absolutely converted and can’t wait to get to France in February and make some more friends there.
RUNNING RACES, IN DIFFERENT PLACES 