T – 4 hours

A few months ago, I was planning a train journey to go visit my girlfriend in the Oslo area. However, when entering her addres into Google Maps, the service opted in a characteristic bout of dubious helpfulness to calculate the travel time not by trains, planes or automobiles- but by that most humble and delightful of modes of transport: by bike.

Now, at first glance this seemed ridiculous. The journey from Stockholm to Oslo by even moderately bike-friendly roads is over 550 km. For the Europeans reading this, that’s about the distance from the Netherlands to Austria as the arrow flies. For any Americans reading this, it’s about the distance from Seattle to Missoula. Granted, those comparisons are misleading because it’s comparing the length of the road to lines on a map, but they serve to get across the basic point: This is a ludicruous distance to bike just to visit a loved one, a proposterous idea, and Google Maps should be ashamed of itself for suggeting such a thing.

So anyway, I’m hoping to bike through Oslo in a week, I expect to do so within two weeks, and I plan on taking it at a leisurely pace while enjoying the Swedish countryside. Because come on – if I didn’t follow this ridiculous idea to its logical conclusion now, I’d regret it for years to come. I’ve bought food and supplies, planned the route, planned for every contingency I can think of, and after months I am now faced with the mixed excitement that inevitably follows when a big day arrives and beautiful plans threaten to become reality, conditional on one’s making it so.

Join me on my adventure, as I explore the wonders of the Swedish countryside, rediscover the joy of camping, and probably reevaluate my relationship with bikes several times over – it will be fun!
– RQLexi