DAY 4

(Apr. 26)

 

It is a very big day.  As usual the Norns wax prophetic; as I draw Laguz, which means water…which I will be over for at least 7 hours.  There is more to Laguz though; it also means mystery, the unknown which lies beneath the surface, the subconscious.

I’m not exactly sure what day it is now, what I do know is that it is 2:12 in the afternoon, and I am in Sweden.  The flight from Newark was good, on a huge plane.  It was a seven hour flight but I couldn’t sleep, I watched three movies instead, and took advantage of the free airplane booze. 

It was really wonderful to see Europe again, I had not seen it since 1985 when I left Germany after serving three years in the Army there.  We flew into Dusseldorf over Ireland and England.

We landed in Gothenburg Sweden.  Believe it or not, even though I was standing in Sweden on the verge of one of the greatest adventures of my life it had not all sunk in yet, it was still very surreal and hard to wrap my brain around, but nonetheless, there I was.  We took a bus ride then and wound up at a hotel.  I was very tired and took a nap.  When I got up we were gathered together to be issued our Helly Hanson gear.  I had never heard of Helly Hanson, but apparently it is a big deal with skiers and other outdoor enthusiast.  The really awesome thing was when I got back to my room and was looking at it, I noticed that some of it was adorned with a Valknut (an Odinic symbol), and the name Odin.  It made me feel like it was all meant to be.

We ate at the hotel then.  Swedish meatballs? No.  Lingon berries? No.  Any other food resembling Sweden?  No.  Tex-Mex buffet? Yep.  And not good Tex-Mex buffet either.  Oh well, at least I was almost in Norway.

Today, Amy told me tearfully that even though she just met me…she wishes she would have had me for a father.  I was so touched and moved by that…I barely knew what to say.