With such size fish, we only feed a cat

by Tetiana Haidym (Ukraine)

Making a local connection Norway

There are two types of people you can meet at Couchsurfing. The first one is “I’ll give you a place to stay but don’t bother me with anything since I’m doing this to clean up my karma or because of another mysterious reason”. Kai was definitely the second type which I would describe as “I would share with you everything, including my home, food, stories, and lifestyle and at the end of the day we will become family”. We just crossed the Arctic circle with two best friends of mine after three weeks hitchhiking trip on the West coast. So, when our host Kai asked what we want to do here we answered that anything but not climbing another mountain. So, in two hours we were trying to push three meters boat to the crystal clear fjord near Tromso to catch some fish for the dinner. After five minutes of fishing, I caught the first cod in my life and it was the most beautiful fish I ever saw. Its scales gleamed in the sun and the yellowish tinge seemed golden, all the seagulls around flew to our boat and began to whirl, waiting for them to be fed. My cod's weight was about one kilogram, so I was very proud of myself. I exclaimed: - We need two more and the dinner will be wonderful! Kai was just laughing: - With such size fish, we only feed a cat. Kiss it, ask to bring bigger friends next time and release. I was just shocked because my brother was always happy to catch even a 15 cm fish in our village in western Ukraine. Seconds after I released my fish and noticed the big fins in the distance of two kilometers, which were moving above the water. - We should go there if we want a bigger fish! - Well, I don't think you can pull a whale with your fishing rod. - Kai answered. At that moment, I realized that the most fantastic thing just happened to me. I am a few kilometers away from a real whale in a small fishing boat watching mountains and trying to catch a fish to cook dinner with my friends. I would consider it the best moment of that trip if we wouldn’t see Aurora lights 6 hours later. The next day we were gathering blueberries just in three-meter distance from the wild deers who didn’t care about our presence in their forest. It sounds like a fairytale for a girl from Kyiv suburbs, but it’s an amazing reality of living your cozy lifestyle above the Arctic Circle. The most amazing thing I learned about Norwegian people is that they love nature, care about it and enjoy it a lot!