Going to Norway (With Your Help)

In the style of Motorcycle Diaries…

• The plan: Travel in Summer 2007 to the northern tip of continental Europe, Nordkapp in Norway, up via Norway and back down through Finland (Planned Route)
• The method: Hitch-hiking, couch-surfing, improvisation
• The goal: To (re-)discover my identity by interacting with nature, people and challenges. And take lots of beautiful pictures

Last year, I was sitting in my room watching The Long Way Round, when a scene from the movie wowed me. If you don’t know The Long Way Round, it’s a video-documentary of Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman travelling from London to New York, but the long way round, basically around the world – through Western Europe, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada and USA. In the scene that wowed me, they’re in the middle of the Kazakh desert, staying in a camp for the night. It was the middle of absolute nowhere, the sun was setting, it was absolutely peaceful, and boom, I was envious. I wanted to experience something similar.

At the end of the series McGregor said, he hopes it inspires people that crazy adventures are possible, and that they should not worry about the what-ifs, because the what-ifs are what make it exciting.

I don’t remember how I decided I want to go to Nordkapp. It was a few months later, I think I was I was playing with Google Earth, when I wondered about Europe’s nothernmost point. Googling about the place and Norway, I fell more and more in love with the nature. Life was boring me and I felt I needed an adventure, so I began playing with the idea of hitchhiking to get there. I fantasized about the trip, spending hours looking up pictures and travel information on the internet. Sometimes I’d dismiss it as being impossible, just a fantasy. Yet sometimes I think I’d regret it if I drop yet another idea because of… the what-ifs.

So, here I am, making a decision to go ahead with this adventure.

Because this is supposed to be an adventure, I’d like to go low-budget as possible. Travel and accomodation will be free . But I still need to eat, and Scandinavia is an expensive part of the world, and according to my calculations, I will need about a thousand Euro for 2 months of supermarket food and some camping equipment. Expensive huh?

Unfortunately, I’m just a penniless student, struggling to survive. So as an experiment, I’d like to see if and how web-marketing really works. So I hereby ask you, citizens of the web, to donate to fund my trip.

Wait don’t stop reading! We all know nobody likes to give away money for nothing in return, so I’d like to offer you posters of, what else but, the beautiful Scandinavia. So here’s what I have in mind:

• for 20 Euro / 25 USD, you get 2 posters
• 40 Euro / 50 USD; 4 posters
• 60 Euro / 75 USD; 8 posters
• 80 Euro / 100 USD; 12 posters
• 100 Euro / 125 USD; 16 posters
• Even more money? Let’s negotiate.

The posters are approx. 16 ” x 12″ (45 x 30cm) big, and shipping is free.

What else do you get when you donate?

• my eternal gratitude
• an honorable mention on the website I will make documenting the trip
• did I mention cool posters?
• you also get to force me to go on this trip, because, hey, if you’ve donated expecting posters, then I have to keep my promise!

And, should I get more money than I need, I will donate anything extra to the Red Cross to help their efforts in Darfur.

So please, donate! And tell your friends!
Donate (Euro)^*/**
Donate (USD)^*

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. My adresss is netsharc at Google’s Mail service.

* Using PayPal. If you have better alternatives, please do let me know.
** If you are in Germany, you can also ask me for my bank details, a direct transfer would be cheaper.

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