The story

Stories are an innate part of people. Every culture has its own forms of myths, epics and poems. Going to Norway, I thought I would learn a lot about Vikings and familiarize with the Edda. I was mistaken; the only time I encountered the Edda, was when I passed a big ship in the industrial site of the harbour that was named after the prose. Sometimes myths are a bit harder to find in the modern world.

Despite that, travelling is never without stories. Every person has his or her own tales – tales they like to tell. Tourists naturally have a narrativistic approach. Having a good story to tell is not one of my main reasons for travelling, but being part of a story is.

To communicate with my friends and family back home while living in Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Norway, I kept a travel blog. Perhaps a quite postmodernistic approach – due to the central role of internet and mass-communication – but it is very effective when living far away.

In addition I wrote a travel diary. Though this was not meant to communicate with anyone, I wrote it (without the intention) as if it were supposed to be read by someone else. With descriptions of cities and food and richly illustrated with maps, tickets and cards it almost appears to be a travel guide. But then a personal travel guide, with my own stories. When I read my diaries now, on a rainy day, I remember every little detail of it and I can drift off – dreaming of exotic places and stunning fjords.

A collage from bits and pieces of my travel diaries