I Wrote this two years ago and posted on Facebook. Now, republish on this blog. I only finished 1/3 then, but will complete before going back to Scandinavia to visit this summer, with my son this time. I hope him to obtain his master degree there after graduating at University of Washington in 2018.
Prologue
"Hi, it's me." The man was calling the woman who was thousand miles away.
"I am waiting for your call. When are you going to arrive?" The woman asked on the phone, pretending calmly but still was not able to hide her excitement.
"2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday. I decided to fly to Copenhagen. Is it fine for you?" The man felt a little bit discomfort to ask because he changed plan.
"It's not a big deal for me. You know, it's even closer than Stockholm." The woman actually didn't care: "So, I will pick you up at Kastrup."
"With your Volvo?" The man teased because he knew what could trigger the woman to recall.
The woman kept silent for a couple of seconds, then laughed: "Yes, but 850 had died long ago."
"Huh, I still miss that car, it's so pretty in my memory." The man felt so sadly.
"Of course, it's pretty, especially when you drove it without a driver's license." Only the man knew what she was talking about.
"But I will drive during this trip, you know it, right?" The man argued.
"Sure, as long as you still feel comfortable to drive stick-shift." The voice of the woman seemed from a mom to compromise to her little son. "I definitely prefer to be a passenger for two weeks."
"Deal." The voice of the man sounded from a little baby to be pleased with a candy.
The conversation was ended and the phones were shut. They hadn't seen each other for a long time but it sounded they had just held other's hands yesterday.
The man went back to sleep because he still needed to go to work the day after.
The woman pushed the door open to get out of her S80, it's time to walk into the office building of her bank where she had been working after graduating from college.
Day One
As usual, the Man dropped his car at off-the-airport parking lot, and then got onto the shuttle to go to terminal. When he checked in the bag, the girl at the counter smiled to him: "Have a nice trip to Paris!" He recalled that another girl working for the same airline greeted him almost the same the year before. The destination for that trip was truly Paris but it was only a stopover this time. However, he didn't want to embarrass the pretty girl, so just smiled back without any elaboration.
While 767 was flying over polar route, he recalled the last time he had flown to Copenhagen was back in the summer in 1996. It was a direct SAS flight from his hometown where he was born and at that point of time when he was on an assignment. He couldn't remember the model of the airplane he flew then, but it was wide-body for sure. Wow, it's already 17 years past! During those years, the city closest to Scandinavia he went to was Hamburg but he just never thought about to drive several hours more to get onto the peninsula. It's a wonderland but also brought him mixed feeling.
Maybe the destination for this one was not Paris; his impression was that it was much faster to land than the year before. The flight arrived at Charles De Gaulle almost right on time - 10:55 in the morning on Saturday. He followed the passengers' flow to walk into Terminal 2E. It seemed he still had almost two hours to get on board the next flight. Going through the duty free shopping area, he was thinking if he should buy a gift for her but eventually he didn't. It might not be necessary. He was confident in himself being the most valuable gift, huh, he laughed at himself. However, he did buy a cup of coffee in the same eatery he had had the breakfast the year before. Compared to Grande Latte at Starbucks, it was definitely tiny. He had already known it.
Going through a long hallway, he arrived at Terminal 2F and the waiting area for the next flight to Copenhagen caught his eyes immediately. The airline had started boarding the passengers...
It was so close from Paris to Copenhagen, so just took less than 2 hours. He had never flown this route before but he knew it would pass through Brussels, Cologne and Hamburg if he drove. From sky, he wasn't able to tell and flight attendants didn't mention.
As soon as the airplane was approaching up above Copenhagen, he started exciting. He recalled his first impression of the city 17 years ago was those beautiful red roofs of the buildings all over the places down below. He didn't know if this flight would fly in the same direction as the other one had done. After a couple of minutes, he would figure out the answer was positive because he did view those roofs, the same beautiful as before.
Not like the year before, he did hook up roaming function with his cell phone carrier this time. As soon as the airplane touched down and passengers were allowed to turn on their electronic devices, he punched the keys...
"Hello?" He heard her pleasant voice. Though they had talked on phone for millions of times in the last couple of months, he suddenly realized that she was so close to him and her voice sounded mature than those years when they were still in 20s.
"You know it's me, right?" He tried to be relaxing.
"It doesn't show your number on mine, but I can sense." Her voice was actually very relaxing, he could feel it. He didn't know that she had been still very anxious a couple of minutes ago.
"Will you see me at bag claiming area? I don't know how long it will take to go through Border Control.” He didn't need to go through the control point at CDG, so had to do it at Kastrup anyway.
"It's so odd that you are in Terminal 3, generally flight from CDG landed at 2."Apparently she didn't plan correctly, "Anyway, I will be in the bagging area before you come out."
They both turned off the cells. All of a sudden, he figured that he couldn't wait for one more second to see her...
Day Two
The woman was waiting right outside the bagging area and looking at every passenger coming towards her direction. She was a middle-aged but still very pretty woman in a very good shape. From her back, you won’t be able to tell her real age and may guess she is a 20ish young girl. That day, she didn’t dress up as she had to do everyday at work. She actually was trying to wear the same as that in the day they had the first date back in May in 1992: a pair of white Adidas running shoes with golden strips at sides; a brown jean and a sweatshirt with the name of the city where she had been living since 17 years old in her fresh year in college on the chest. In addition, she also made her long hair a ponytail that was exactly what it was 21 years ago.
“Oh, it must be him!” She murmured to herself as soon as she saw a man pushing a cart with two pieces of travel bags on it towards her. “He looks still so young like a boy.” She touched her wrinkles for a second: "Do I look like a grandma?"
What she worried was definitely pointless. When the man locked his eyes onto her, he immediately recognized that was the girl he had lost for so many years. Actually, his heart was pounding and he felt the blood circulating through his body much faster than a minute ago.
When they got close to each other until an inch away, they stopped for one or two seconds, then the man pushed the cart away, raised his arms to hold the woman so tightly as if she would disappear into the air if he hadn’t.
The woman didn’t do anything but stood there to enjoy the moment. A couple of seconds later, she slowly raised her arms to hold the man as tightly as he did. Meanwhile, she felt her tears dropping on the man’s shoulder.
“Jag alskar dig.” The man whispered to the woman’s ear.
The woman was puzzled first. After seeing her man being grinning, she realized that he was kidding.
She knocked on his forehead and returned: “Je t’aime aussi!”
It’s the man’s turn being lost for a second. This was definitely not his mother tongue and what he said to her in that spring. But then, he got her point: she was confusing him as a lovely revenge because he just came over from CDG.
This brief exchange seemed to bring them back to 21 years ago. They were teasing each other all the time by playing this sort of verbal games. Was there any game funnier than confusing each other with different languages between lovers?
“I am going to learn more this time. After so many years, I forget almost every word I learned from you.” He sounded very regretting.
“You may want to stay here longer this time, so you can be fully functional.” He couldn’t tell if she really meant it or was just saying.
“I had already wanted then.” He sighed.
Walking out of the automatic door of Terminal 3, she went away to get her car and he was standing to wait... After loading the bags into the trunk, he stepped into the car and sat on passenger’s seat.
“It is stick shift!” He exaggerated: “Let me drive, I need to practice!”
“I know you always want to drive, it actually is your personality.” She judged while thinking something in her mind.
“It’s a very nice car and I still remember that you took care your car very well.” He made the comments and as if going back to 21 years ago again: “Anyway, I was serious on the phone, yes, I missed that old car very much. Tell you the truth, after so many years not driving manual car, I miss the feeling of switching the gears when accelerating.”
“Yes, I remember that you said to me then it made you feel controlling the car and even the road.” She tried to pull all those unforgettable memories out of her brain. “At that moment, I found you were such an interesting man who always tried to make something out of nothing.”
“So, you won’t let me drive, will you?” The man cornered the woman but not really seriously. He would like to enjoy watching her to drive. It would send his memory back to the first time when she picked him up at the hotel he stayed in that May.
“You will have a lot of time to do it in the next two weeks. “ She started driving out of the area of airport while talking to him: “Do you remember our plan? Today, we will drive to Nyborg and stayed in that hotel you booked online.”
Yes, the man remembered. They planned not to waste time in Copenhagen upon his arrival. They would enjoy the last 3 days in this wonderful city before he was leaving two weeks later. He heard that Copenhagen had become a truly international metropolitan since late 90s and many amazing things hadn’t been available prior to mid 90s. So they would drive to Nyborg to stay over that Saturday night. On Sunday, they would need to reach the port of Hirtshals before 9pm to catch the ferry to Bergen. Depending on what time they would get up to leave Nyborg on Sunday morning, they might stop in Odense to visit the church and have a lunch on waterfront in Arhus. Before boarding the ferry at night, they hoped they would have time to walk along the beaches to view the sunset hand in hand.
It only took her 5 minutes to get on E20 near the airport, then the freeway would take them to the destination tonight.
“Oh, I forgot to mention. The first look I put on you, I had figured that you dressed almost the same as that day you picked me up at my hotel.” He tenderly massaged her right hand that held the stick as she got used to.
She was so happy her effort being paid attention to, so returned him a glamorous glance: “You noticed! I bet you would. Can’t forget me, can you?” She turned her vision back on road right away, kept saying: “However, none of them are originals. See, this shirt, I just bought two days ago, but the color is the same as the original one at least.”
“You look still like in 20s, sweetie, if you kept those till today, you would still be able to fit in.” He didn’t flatter but did think so.
“I know I have been able to keep the shape but years don’t forgive aging anyway.” She sighed. “But after talking to you for a while, I found our hearts are still young. Tell you the truth, I don’t feel any difference now than the day we traveled to Malmo in that May.”
“Same here, baby.” He concurred. “But there is a difference.” He intentionally paused to see her reaction.
She apparently had got back their tacitness: “You complained why I parked the car in the train station.”
“But you explained no one needed to drive to Malmo since that was the town everyone prefers walking around.” He followed: “Anyway, I just love driving no matter where to go.”
She seemed seeing him shrugging his shoulders with dismissive expression on his face in front of the train station.
It was almost 5:30pm Central European Time, but the sky was still very bright and they could see the sun hanging pretty high in the sky when the car was running to west. Though it was early in August when many places were still extremely hot, the temperature was around 20 degree maybe even lower here. It’s why she never felt too warm dressing the sweatshirt and he had to put on a jacket that he took over from the back seat he had thrown there before sitting into the car.
Route E-20 starts from Ireland in the west and ends in Russia in the East. Most parts of this passage are two lanes freeway and traffic wasn't very heavy, especially at weekends.
Recalling their common memories while appreciating the picturesque scenes out of the windows, they approached Great Belt Bridge in Korsor after one hour and a half when they left Copenhagen Airport. It’s about almost 6pm.
“Let’s stop for a minute and snap a couple of pictures before getting onto the bridge.” She stopped the car in a parking space where it was very close to the water.
“I read that this bridge connects Baltic Sea and Kattegatt.” He asked her.
“You can describe it like that.” She responded: “Somehow, Kattegatt could be called Bay of Baltic Sea but we don’t like this term.”
“It’s beautiful and magical anyway.” He lauded.
They took a couple of pictures including one with both of them in. Of course, another tourist happening to pass by took for them with the bridge in the background.
Driving through the Great Belt that is also called East Bridge, they were connected onto West Bridge. After driving off the bridge, they arrived in Nyborg. The hotel he booked was on a street named “Christianslundsvej”. Leaving Route E-20 from Exit 45, she turned several turns to pass through two or three streets, they finally parked in front of the hotel.
It was a 4 stars hotel, so sort of luxury. The man told the front desk his last name and showed the passport. In a minute, they had got the key to the room.
The room was spacious and very clean. Though the window wasn’t open to the ocean but the green backyard was fascinating as well.
It was the first time they had chance to be intimate after they saw each other again after so many years. After more than two hours talking and touching, they had closed their gap to none. So without any hesitation, they fell into the bed and started searching other’s wildness…
After half an hour’s craziness, they satisfied each other thoroughly and realized that they both were really hungry. Taking a quick shower together, they walked down to the restaurant.
Though through the humongous windows, they were able to watch the quiet surface of the Ocean sitting inside the restaurant, they still opted to sit outside. Both of them ordered 4-course Danish dishes on Gourmet Menu for dinner:
· Lightly salted Lumpfish Roe
· Steamed Halibut
· Rodbedeconsomme
· Crisp and Warm Camembert
Certainly, before the main dishes were served, they definitely needed to drink a couple of glasses of wine, so a bottle of Nyholmgaard Vin – Festivo 2010 was ordered. Being in Denmark, you must drink Danish wine. That reflected his philosophy of global traveling: acting as a local. She had totally got this about him 21 years ago: even in her hometown she had grown up until 17 years old, he always tried to decide what restaurants they should go and what entrees they ought to order. Sometimes he was right on but some other times he was totally funny. She didn’t care what he was trying to act, actually, most of time, she liked watching him attempting and struggling, and it’s fun for her.
The meal was delicious and he was a little bit drunk after drinking half a bottle. She actually was still very sober after finishing the other half. Yes, she had been always having much more capacity of taking alcohol than he had. It had been proved in many occasions back in that year.
Signing the check with their room number, he noticed that the waiter was obviously surprised that they didn’t leave leftover on the table, even a last drop of wine in the bottle.
“It’s really a nice dinner and the view looks marvelous too, don’t you think so?” He asked her.
“Yes, did you pay attention to that waiter’s gaze?” She asked back: “He must wonder if we were fugitives without eating a meal for days.”
Back to the room, he felt much less headache than earlier caused by that half a bottle of wine. They stared each other for a second and knew what other’s desire was…
“Do you recall how many times we did in that small hotel in Malmo” After another round of wildness, she whispered to his left ear right on her lips.
“Five?” He laughed. “It is only 8:30 now.”
“We can’t get up and leave too late tomorrow and we are no longer that young.” She laughed too.
She didn’t really know what she wanted: sleeping well through the night or perfect storms coming back all the time…
Day Three
It was Sunday morning in Nyborg where the weather was very shinny but pretty cool in late August. The man opened his eyes and looked through the windows. Though they kept the windows closed, he still could sense the fresh air circulating outside.
The woman was still in dream while her head on which the beautiful long hairs spread on the man’s chest was on his shoulder as if it was a comfortable pillow. She had kept this position almost the entire night.
The electronic clock on nightstand told the man it was already 8:30am. Though, they had a plenty of time to drive from Nyborg to Hirtshals before 9:30pm to catch the ferry, it’s always better to be fully prepared. The man tapped on the woman’s cheek, and whispered:
“Honey, do we want to get up to leave or do you still need to be in bed for a while?”
The woman actually had waken up, she just wanted to enjoy this harmonious and romantic moment a bit longer.
“I want one more round of attack.” She was never shy with this man because she knew this was always what both of them desired the first thing in the morning when they became conscious.
“Wow, I am too old now.” Though he was teasing, he had started taking actions. Probably they had got their feelings back as they had in early 90s, tested out each other’s abilities, this round was truly wild like two animals…
Grabbing pieces of breads and drinking cups of fresh juice both made in Denmark, they drove out of the hotel parking lot and headed to Odense on E20. It was 9:30am and the sun had popped out in the sky for quite a while.
“Do you still remember that day we drove from Goteborg to Stockholm?” Actually the man was driving and his woman couldn’t help watching him.
“How could I forget it?” The man was triggered so excited by the question. “That was the first time that I drove in Scandinavia.” He paused for a second and smirked to the woman, “without a valid driver’s license allowed in Sweden.”
“Yes, I was a little bit scared at the moment you insisted on taking over the wheel, I recall it was probably around Norrkoping.” The woman tried hard to search into her memories.
“Don’t you forget I have photographic memories?” The man called her nickname he actually gave to her in those years with pride, “You are right, we didn’t stop in Norrkoping but we had been talking about Brolin right before I begged you to pull over and hand over the wheel to me.”
“Oh, yes, Brolin was my most favorite active national player then and he probably was the only Swedish player you really knew at that point. Right?” The woman thoroughly memorized.
“Correct, he left a great impression to me during 1990 world cup, especially his signature celebration after scoring – jumping with spinning. That great impression led me to follow him while he was playing for Parma in those years. Plus, he wore No. 11 that was my number as well” The man was always passionate talking about the sport he had been trained for since 5 years old after his uncle bought him a small football as birthday gift.
“But you hadn’t known that he’d played for IFK Norrkoping until I told you then.” It’s her turn to show her pride of knowledge and memory.
“Definitely, I only knew a drop of water in the ocean of Swedish football then.” The man admitted, “You did mention that one of the nicknames of that club was Peking, which really amazed me.”
“Well, that might trigger you to demand to drive.” The woman pretended that she regretted that she had that conversation with him 21 years ago. “Football and your hometown motivated you to take control at that moment.”
“Not really, you know it. I just felt I did want to do something.” The man turned his face to the woman to show his appreciation in his eyes, “You had been driving 300 kilometers from Goteborg and showed me all fascinating scenes along the road in the past 3 hours up to that point.”
“You are not telling me that you wanted to take over just because you really cared about me, are you?” The woman tapped on his shoulder teasing.
“Do you want me to be honest or diplomatic?” The man didn’t answer directly. They were playing this verbal game again but with all of the beautiful memories...
There were only 30 kilometers from Nyborg to Odense. On Sunday morning, they rarely saw a car on this part of E20. It only took them half an hour to drive away from the freeway to land on Danish Route 9 and eventually entered city of Odense.
Odense was a 1000 years old historic city and ranked 3rd in Denmark. Though they didn’t plan to spend too much time here, there were still several places they wanted to visit:
“Andersen’s Museum is a must-see for us, isn’t it?” The woman reminded the man.
“Certainly, as we exchanged the first time we met, we even could claim that we both grew up with his fairy tales.” The man confirmed, “However, I read in Chinese, you in original – Danish. That’s probably the only difference but might make a lot of differences.”
“Yes, I am not sure if there was a lost in translation when you read those stories. To me, I can but generally don’t read Danish. Since my mom is Dane, she read his fairy tales in Danish for me when I was a kid. This probably drove me to read the original book when I grew up a little older.” Her words reminded the man that she was half Dane that he almost forgot.
“I still can recall the cover page of his book translated in Chinese I read at age of 10 or 11, it was black bold name of the book with light blue background. But I lost that book and wasn’t able to find that version online any more.” The man sounded very regretting.
Parking the car in the nearby lot, they walked into the Museum through the entrance. This was the first time for the man but not for the woman. She naturally became the tour guide for him. It was a little bit surprising to the man that the whole museum wasn’t as small as he originally had guessed. It had pretty good size of each section. They stopped at “The Age” first to learn about the great author’s life.
Then they compared their heights with Andersen’s in his portrait on the wall. Andersen was 1.85 meters tall that might not be super today but back in his days, his height was 25 cm taller than national average. This drew a lot of eyes on him then.
They wandered in the room of “The Work” for quite a well and exchanged the opinions on his famous fairy tales such as “The Little Match Girl”, “The Little Mermaid” and, particularly “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, which was one chapter of the English textbook both of them learned in middle school. It was pretty interesting both of Chinese and Swedish educators selected the same story as the content in their classes back in 80s.
In gift shop, the man bought a set of postcards as souvenir. The saleswoman told him if they had come half a month earlier, they would have caught the event of “Hans Christian Andersen’s Parade”.
Without being disappointed, he smiled to his woman and said: “We will have a lot of chances to come in future, correct?” "You said the same thing 21 years ago in another occasion.” The woman shrugged.
It’s already 12:00 at noon after they walked out of the Museum, but they still planned to visit Odense Cathedral that was 1 kilometer and a half away. They hesitated for a minute but decided to drive there to save half an hour anyway.
5 minutes later, they parked in front of the Cathedral and snapped a picture. It was probably the one of the most significant gothic architecture in Denmark. City Hall was right next to it, so this area could be considered central place in Odense.
“As you said, we will have a lot of chances to come. Can we get on road to Arhus now?” She had started calling his name, she actually intentionally wrote his name to make it more like Swedish in those years.
He knew she was teasing him. Though they were not hungry at this moment, it would take more than 1 hour and a half to arrive in Arhus. Their plan was to have a lunch by the water over there, so it was time to be on the road. On Sunday, they didn’t know how many restaurants were opened there.
Driving through several local routes, they got onto E-20 to West. Since both of them had never driven from Odense to Arhus before, they focused on the road more than earlier. After probably 40 minutes, the woman raised the voice: “See, turn right onto E-45 there, hi, you need to switch to the right lane now.” She was right, the man followed the order to turn the car onto E-45 towards Arhus.
“This road actually extends to Goteborg.” The woman said to the man, “Do you remember I drove you to a small resort in forest close to the city that year?”
“Yes, I remember and we stayed in that resort for a night. It didn’t have many fancy facilities but was very quiet and neat.” The man really enjoyed the memory without willing to come back to reality.
“The road I drove through that day was part of today’s E-45 but back then, it was National 45.” The woman explained, she bet the man wasn’t able to remember that road.
“So, it was extended and renamed in Sweden after I left, right?” The man asked.
“Yes, this only happened several years ago and this road isn’t really a freeway in Sweden.” The woman answered.
“As you know, compared to US, even freeway in Europe is generally narrower. However, roads in Scandinavia is much more loose than on Continent. Plus, you guys rely on public transportation much more than us.” The man made the comments based on his experience in the past 15 years in US.
“I feel a bit funny when you have been talking like an American in the last two days. My memory is still being held to a Chinese boy even you had been bragging yourself a global citizen then” The woman followed her own thought as if she had gone back 21 years ago again, “Yes, a boy in my eyes, a handsome, immature boy.”
“Hi, hi, you are only a couple of months older than me.” The man protested, “No wonder am I still a Chinese boy on your mind because I remember, in those days, half of my topics were about China and Chinese. But today, probably 95% of my topics are about US because those are the things I know the most and the best.”
“I don’t know if it is good or not, you always can fit yourself into the new environment very well as if you grew up in it in the first place. Do you remember Gamla Ullevi, oh, the old one?” The woman asked while massaging the man’s right shoulder slightly, she might try to relieve his pressure.
The man freed up his left hand from the wheel and patted on her hand: “I am ok, don’t you forget that I enjoyed driving very much and am still now.” He paused for a second and answered, “Of course, I remember that night when we were instroduced to know each other at the match.”
“I know you wouldn’t forget that. Anyway, my point is that I had thought you had lived in Goteborg for at least several years after you talked to me for 15 minutes. I couldn’t believe that you were only in town for a week given that you had already known so many things about Goteborg.” The woman was still impressed.
“I like digging into everything in a very short period of time when getting into a place. Even I was there only for a week, I had walked through almost every corner in the center of the city and read as many references as I could.” The man tried to impress the woman again as he had done 21 years ago, “We did have a very pleasant conversation that night, that’s probably why we wanted to see each other the following week again. Tell you the truth, what I was impressed the most that night was how beautiful you were.”
“You were a typical boy, like chasing beautiful girl.” The woman accepted the man’s flattering anyway.
They were so excited to mutually recall those unforgettable conversations, would have missed the turn to Route 501 if the woman hadn’t suddenly realized when she saw the sign.
Their original plan was to find a restaurant by Kattegatt in Arhus, but eventually they decided to try Det Glade Vanvid recommended by a friend of the woman. It was located by the water but inside the bay. However, it served traditional Scandinavian buffet on Sunday.
“I heard that they serve all inclusive 3-course Danish dishes in addition to wine, coffee, tea and dessert for dinner and they are very delicious as my friend told me.” The woman made the comment after they selected foods from the buffet counters and sat down at the table by the window through which they could see the water.
“You sound a little bit disappointed.” The man could read her mind, “Unfortunately, we can’t wait until evening. Let’s do it next time.”
“Yes, a little bit disappointed but we will have so many dinners waiting for us in the next two weeks.” The woman concurred, then, she changed subject to ask: “Do you still remember the first time we had lunch together?”
“Sure, you asked me to decide what type of food I wanted and I naturally thought about seafood that on my mind was the most delicious food and worth buying for a pretty girl.” The man recalled, “It was in a church-like building, a sort of fish market as we have in Seattle. I hadn’t expected that you took me to such a causal place but the seafood was so delicious, I can’t deny even today.”
“It is Feskekörka with a long history in the city.” Apparently, the man didn’t remember the name, so the woman reminded him, “It was a very sunny day in May and surprisingly warm, so we sat outside pretty comfortably. Do you remember that?”
“Of course, it was a Saturday. After the lunch, you would guide me a tour to your Alma Mater, Goteborg Universitet because I was searching a possibility to enroll a graduate program there.” The man recalled every detail, “And you dressed a sweatshirt with your school’s logo on it!”
“You got it.” She agreed, “There was an American couple who came from Houston sitting next chatting with us from time to time. You partnered with an American company then, right? So, you actually had known much more about US than I had even in those days.”
“Actually, several years before I went to Goteborg, I had applied several schools in US and got accepted with some pre-requisite conditions when I lived in that region. If I hadn’t changed my mind several times on academic options, I would have resided in US long ago.” It wasn’t clear if he regretted or not, “Anyway, if that had happened, I wouldn’t have got to know you. Honestly, I really miss Goteborg. You know, Stockholm is fantastic and actually your hometown. I enjoyed having fun there in that summer but Goteborg was like a home though I didn’t live there long either.”
“Goteborg actually is a sister city of Arhus, so we are in her sister’s house now.” The woman joked. “Ok, are you full? I am. Let’s take a walk around the harbor.”
“It is a college town you probably would love it if you lived here.” The woman said to the man when the car approached the city. “The flagship is Aalborg Universitet that has a very respected program in Comparative Welfare Studies.” She knocked on his right arm slightly.
“I got you, Scandinavian nations have the most complete welfare systems in the world as I understand, it makes sense their colleges having the best related programs.” The man interpreted the woman’s implication.
They passed the bridge and switched to E-39 after 10 minutes. It took them another hour to get onto local route to Skagen. The reason they planned to go there was it being a very favorable vacation spot for Scandinavians around the area, mainly Danes and Norwegians.
Walking along the beach hand in hand, they seemed going back in 90s. When they approached Skagen Station, the woman started making the comments: “This is the north end of Danish Railway System and was probably built 100 years ago.” Paused a second, she continued: “Actually, I had planned to take trains for this vacation with you instead of driving. We could be on the train to Frederikshavn, then got on the ferry to go back to Goteborg.” She shrugged again, “Anyway, you like driving. It is not a big deal for me to drive from Goteborg to Copenhagen.
“But don’t you think driving through the peninsula is more fun and convenient?” The man argued.
The woman smiled: “Yes, I have to agree and do enjoy it. Who else wouldn’t enjoy this when she had a designated driver?”
“I heard not only Danes like coming here during the summer, but many Norwegians take ferries from the other side of the water to come here as well.” The man stated.
“Yes, it has been a pretty popular vacation town for a long time as I heard. However, I came here only once in my life, and it was in July. The temperature in the water wasn’t very warm, so I didn’t swim.” The woman shared her experiences.
They kept walking along the streets that were gradually away from the beach. The houses were neat and the atmosphere was harmonious. After being silent for quite a while, the man suddenly realized that they must leave for Hirtshals. “Hi, it’s already 6pm, we need to go.”
“Oh, it may take us an hour to arrive in Hirtshals if the traffic is not great. Do we want to have a quick dinner there before boarding?” The woman also realized that they might spend too much in this amazing beach town.
“There must be snacks on the ferry but it’s better we can have the dinner in that town.” The man planned.
They jogged to the car and drove away.
Surprisingly, the routes 40 & 597 were extremely quiet. “I thought there must be many tourists on the road to go taking ferries back to Kristansand, especially at Sunday night like now, but just realized it is already late August, fewer Norwegians come over.” Said the woman.
“Well, we probably will be in Hirtshals within an hour, so we can have an hour to eat and walk around.” The man feels pretty comfortable anyway.
It’s 6:15pm, Sun was still relatively bright. As it was not a freeway, they rolled down the windows without worrying speedy flying objects rushing through to hit their heads. As a result, warm breeze blew onto their faces, as if they had softly touched each other’s.
Watching her man comfortably directing the wheel with smile while staring on the road, the woman imagined that they had lived together forever since 21 years ago. This evening were just on a normal Sunday, they just had had a wonderful and pleasant weekend vacation and on the way home.
Why didn’t we stick together when we had so many opportunities at young ages? Was it because both of us had strong personalities and weren’t able to compromise? Or didn’t we love each other as much passionate as we thought? The woman asked herself in her mind.
During the same period of time, what the man was thinking was quite simple: Wow, it was such a wonderful Sunday evening in Scandinavia. I would love to be with her forever in it.
Just like the man expected, they arrived in the small town of Hirtshals at 7pm, the Ferry wouldn't leave the dock until 9pm. They had a quick dinner at a local pub, then walked around the town for half an hour.
At 8:30pm, they had been in the line waiting to board the ferry that would take them to the 2nd largest city in Norway – Bergen.
Day Four
Getting on board MS Stavangerfjord, the ferry would take them from Hirtshals to Bergen, they left the car in the parking level and checked in the room first. Then it was already 8:45pm, the ship would be leaving the port in 15 minutes.
Though this was her territory, it was supposed that she would have arranged everything for the trip, he really wanted to show his capabilities to please this woman he had lost for 2 decades. Before coming to Scandinavia, he had booked the tickets on Fjordline.com, the expert managed transportation on water between Denmark and Norway. Even it was only one night commute on the sea, he would like to make it another unforgettable experience for both of them.
The room was called Mini Lux providing a double bed, a sofa bed, shower and toilet with sea view.
Though it was only 11 square meters, when opening the door to walk into the room, she was still pretty impressed: “Wonderful! I didn’t expect that it was such a comfortable room!” She lived almost all of her 47 years on the peninsula, but had never taken the ferry on this line.
He was also satisfied. After driving the entire day, he felt a little exhausted, so dropped his body onto the sofa bed.
While he was losing his consciousness for half an hour,she lied onto the big pillow on the double bed and turned on the TV to watch a show on a channel. The ship had started leaving the port and floated onto North Sea…
“Do you want to go to the lounge to have a glass of wine or just straight to fall into sleep?” Noticing he opening his sleepy eyes, she asked.
“It’s still not too late.” he glanced his watch on the wrist a second, then was re-energized: “Let me take a shower real quick, we can go grabbing a drink.”
The space was pretty small, so they were not able to do it together to save time while having fun. he did it first and waited her to finish. Putting on causal but clean cloth, they walked into the area of Bungalow Wines & Tapas.
The bar also served pretty delicious foods, but they had had dinner in Hirtshals, so just ordered two glasses of red wine.
The pianist was playing at the corner. He trigger the man to recall something in his mind.
“Do you remember that year you drove me from Goteborg to Oslo to stay there for two nights?” he reminded her.
“Of course, that was the last time I drove to Norway in 20 century. Unbelievable, huh? But it is true.” she obviously remembered that.
“Before those two nights, I had never learned that Norway produced popular musicians.” he made the comment.
“Oh, are you talking about A-ha?” she really read his mind.
“Yes, you are so smart and know me.” he was a bit surprised. “Yes, we watched a MTV type of show on TV in the hotel in Oslo that was A-ha’s ‘Take on me’”.
“As soon as you started asking me that question, I had already figured out what you were trying to refer to.” he kicked her memory back in 1992 as well. “It had been an old song even back then but was still pretty popular, so we had a chance to watch it that night.”
“You know why I mentioned this to you?” he asked again but immediately answered by himself: “One day in last year, I listened to this song on a music channel while driving to work. I totally forgot the name of this song and even the name of the band. However, I did recall we watched that MTV together and still remembered what you said to me after I had learned everything about that song and the band from you.”
Not awaiting him to repeat what she said in that night, the woman smiled and repeated herself: “Take on me!”
“You are right! Since I recalled what you said that night, I figured out online and retrieved all A-Ha’s songs on YouTube.” he was pleased by his own memory.
“Did you find any other songs you like?” she showed interest maybe because they were heading to Norway at this moment. “I remember I started becoming a fan of Ace of Base that year though they hadn’t been popular as they did later. Main reason I was getting into their music probably was that they were from Goteborg. However, you seemed really touched by ‘Take on me’ that night.”
“Yes, I was touched by that song very much that night but never had had chances to listen their other songs until I started searching on YouTube.” he searched in his mind as well, “I did find another I really like, and its name is ‘Time and Again’”.
“Is it good? I don’t know much about their music either.” she seemed wanting to learn more too.
“It is slow but very meaningful, triggers to recall a lot of friends in the past, definitely including you.” he was staring into her eyes. “Let me sing for you when we go back to room.”
Just like this, they kept talking about all those beautiful memories and stories in the past until waitress reminded them it was almost midnight.
Lying on the bed, she demanded: “Hi, sing that song for me.”
“The sun brought me, the moon caught me
The wind fought me, the rain got me
The road sent me, for years bent me
The stars overwhelmed me time and again
He sang to her right ear lightly but clearly.
“It is truly a beautiful song and also triggers me to think about a lot of friends in the past.” she agreed with him, “Yes, definitely including you.” She sort of teased him.
They tightly held each other for quite a while silently.
“Take on me.” That was the last she murmured before both of them falling into dreams…
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