Good to Be Back

I have returned home from my favorite craziest adventure – Summer salsa festival in lovely Rovinj – and I keep on repeating one phrase. “So good to be back”. Wow. I am surprised.

Usually I turn my nose away from the everyday reality (from the need to clean the house, shop my food and cook it myself :)). I post the vacation photos, the feeling of missing it already playing on the strings of my heart. This time, however, I just feel loads of gratitude to the place and the event – but I don’t want to get back into my past emotionally. I enjoy every moment here. And I want to live in my emotional present. To connect with my life which is only happening here and now.

This year – like never before – I am love with my home, my city and the country I live in. I am so used to the feeling of “yuck, this gray and cold place again” – that I even get surprised by my sudden “oh, Scandinavia, how lucky I am to experience this my Norwegian adventure” (adventure? Since when has it become an adventure??? :)) And here are my reasons to love it.

Walking around in Oslo and visiting the old sights. Like the famous Opera of Oslo which looks like an iceberg and where you can walk all the way up and on the roof. Here on the roof of it. In the sudden mimicry with the background 🙂

Visiting friends who live outside of the city. Going crazy about their garden. Eating barbecue on the terrace – with the view of the fjord and the boats. Imagine eating breakfast in this garden! Ok, yes, the warm summer days are not so many in Norway – but they are even more precious then 😉 This year, however, is the most amazing in the last 50 years. Not enough that we had real summer with the sunshine and the heat already in May – it goes on after a short break. It was even better than in Rovinj which was stormy and rainy, making us pull on all our Norwegian clothes. While Oslo bathed in the sunshine and temps up to +30 – making me wanna cry “Give the sun back! It belongs here!” I just wonder how many Norwegians regret now about having travelled out of their country for vacay :))

Well well. But let me start with my list. Of reasons why I love to be back 🙂

1. Getting back to my writing corner. My favorite coffee cup and my favorite note book! It feels so right to be in this chair! And the light nights over the peaceful backyard – this is so Scandinavian. Though I prefer dark summer nights, because this makes me feel like in my dear Ukraine – but I don’t mind a light night, as long as it is warm. It was almost midnight in this photo – I was reading on the balcony under my flower pots. Do you have a better image for summer hygge? :))

my favorite practice

a night on the balcony

2. Walking in Oslo, hand in hand with my partner in crime, looking into the backyards and discovering new terrace bars there. Instagram-friendly as a bonus. Mental note: come back here for drinks. The hallway bears a shield with Explorers HQ. Now I know where I belong :)) And the typical Oslo architecture, lit up by the sun, makes me wanna snap it – again and again.

an Instagram-friendly terrace

Explorers HQ

Oslo facades

3. Getting hungry after our walk, trotting in the multicultural immigrant hood of Grønland thinking of food – and suddenly remembering about the colorful terrace of “Dattera til Hagen”, a place popular among east-end hipsters and teachers of the school where I worked. Nice atmosphere, instant color candy to my eyes, and the food is oh so good.

This young and hip place

Colors in every detail

4. Driving outside of the city to visit our friends. To Asker commune, which is just 30 minutes by car from our home. Before setting for the barbecue meal we head off for a little walk to a beach. Which suddenly turns into walking in the woods, climbing over stones and tree roots. There is Asker Marina before the woods – and it is a must to stop and take a pic (I am proud to share the name and to take photos of it wherever I can :))). After some 20 minutes in the woods, almost lost – we find this tiny secluded beach. With no bikinis with us, we just bathe our feet in the water, drying them in the sun, talking about human history, forgetting our time.

say my name :))

a tiny hidden beach

5. The flowers from our friends’ garden. It is all dreamy little place, full of summer smells and colors. I get carried away to the dreams of my own garden, while smelling and snapping (which is just another way of enjoying flowers, no? :)) This is so Scandinavia Dreaming :))

And the last, but maybe, the most important reason why it’s good to be back. The secret behind my happy selfies – with him I need no filters :))

unintentional color coordination

What about you? Are you happy to get back after some nice vacation – or is it boring to return to the routine? What makes you happy when you come back home?