It was pre-decided that we move towards the west coast of Sweden because of two reasons. The first was that Gothenburg (in Swedish Goteborg) separate of being the biggest student-community of the country also had most of the Macedonian we knew settled there. (Among them my elementary-school friend Dimitar Shishko Kovachevski and Blagoja Vuci Vucidolov with his wife Niki.) The second reason was that we wanted to get to Oslo, the capital of Norway and have a pic in front of the Academy where one day one of us will receive the Nobel prize for whatever. The whatever could be only for Literature or for Peace because nothing else we would ever qualify for.
By the time we hit Gothenburg we had some 2,820 km on the clock and were getting a little burdened with impressions and images though not tired yet. Another 800 km to Oslo at the southernmost corner of Norway - would be OK but than we will need a very quick descent (via Wien) back home, a tantalizingly long new 4,600 km to cover if we continue up. This is all math, there is no travel involved: You relax in a comfortable, so intricately furnished room in a private house of a family, obviously affluent, renting its capacity to never seen backpackers who could be thieves or murderers and you contemplate, with piece of paper and a ball-pen in the hand what would those 1.700 km to Oslo and back change? It was obvious that Marija was against continuation because she said: -You were always so poor in math. If we decide to make Gothenburg the point of return we will have a round trip of some 5.700 km. and only about 2.600 to cover. If not, if we go on to Oslo, we will be faced with 4.600 km to cover. It is too much. Insane. Being questioned on my strategic wisdom and leadership potential infuriated me. Somehow, you must have noticed that too, people dug in in their trenches once their wisdom is questioned. Marija could have achieved much more if she said she felt uneasy, that she had a terrible back-ache or suspect she was pregnant, anything, for Pete's sake but blatant doubt into my ability to count kilometers and money for hotels and food. So, the next day we moved towards Oslo. That is how we wrote off direction Stockholm, Upsalla and the Swedish north-east. (to continue)
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