Episode 4: Sevval

"The first time I went abroad without any adults, I went with my sister. She’s five years older than me, but we’re the same age, mentally. If anything, perhaps I’m more mature. I help her with things, life experiences and stuff... The entire family is aware that I’m a little more mature. Even my mom says it! We went during the last winter break. We wanted to go somewhere relatively close, so, we went to Norway. I planned everything. My sister’s useless in that sense (don’t tell her!) – she made me do everything, even though she’s 23.

We went to Oslo first, and then to Trondheim. It took six hours to travel from Oslo to Trondheim by train. I love trains! It’s a relaxed way to travel. I’ve never felt more peaceful in my existence, not even kidding! Trondheim is such a beautiful city! We wanted to go wildwater kayaking there. We would meet our kayaking guide at night. It was around eight P.M., very dark, very cold. It was freezing, it was snowing, my sister and I were holding on to each other. We didn’t know where meet our guide, but we did really want to go kayaking.

Our guide was nowhere to be found. We came across a car. There was a guy inside. He looked at us in a rather ominous way. We walked past him before we realised he’s our guide. We went up to him and we paid. He gave us wetsuits. They were so tight and so difficult to put on! We looked so ugly! I’ve never looked that ugly in my entire life! My head looked twice as big as normal! My sister never even cared to turn her headlight down. It shone up the entire time!

The boat was very wobbly. I had to steer. The guy gave three sentences of instructions, and then he thought we were ready to go. We sat down and prayed. I thought we were going to die at that moment. I thought he was going to abduct us and sell our organs. He looked kind, but it’s always the kind ones you need to look out for. He looked very strong. He could probably strangle us. I thought: 'This is it. We’re not going to see the hotel room again.'

I was freezing my ass off! We took the long route – there was a short route and a long route. The guy said: 'If it’s going well, we’ll take the long route.' He thought we were doing well. He didn’t give us a choice, really. It’s worth it, I guess... We’d paid, after all. We thought that he probably knew what he was doing. Once we returned unscathed, I got twice as religious as I already was. In the end, we were very happy to have done it. We’d never done anything like that before. And now, my sister wants to go bungee jumping! I think I’ll try it. Just do a little prayer, and I’ll be fine."