Role Reversal

Yesterday Michael and I had a conversation. It went something like this:

W: Where are we staying tonight?
M: I don’t know, why?
W: Oh, I just thought you had something booked already.
M: No. You spent two months traveling Europe and never had anything booked before you got there.
W: Yes, we always had something booked.
M: You did? You never told me that. Oh well, I guess we’ll just figure it out.

You might imagine my surprise if you know Michael at all. He’s very organized and much more “with it” than I am. Usually I’m the one just rolling with the flow (mostly because I never know what’s going on) and telling Michael to just go with it. This tends to stress him out a little, but again, he’s an adjuster. It was me, however who had to do the adjusting last night. We didn’t even really know where we were going. Once we picked our destination, I was a bit panicky at the thought of not knowing where we were planning to sleep. However, I was reassured when we saw a beautiful poster on the train to Flam that advertised the Freteim Hotel; an upscale and very classy looking hotel. Secretly my heart smiled as I thought, “he won’t want to hike all around looking for a room at night.” And with the Freteim Hotel only being a 30 meter walk from the train station, it was shaping up to be a perfect solution! When we got off the train in the tiny town of Flam, Norway at 9:00 pm we happened to see another sign for a pension house (B &B). The frugal person that I am trying to be decided it would be ok if we checked there first. Unfortunately, no rooms were available. I was happy because I knew this meant destination Freteim Hotel! I was mad because this meant I had to climb (I use this term loosely) up the hill back towards town again. As we walked into the glass atrium of the hotel I already pictured myself asleep in a plush feather top bed with a down comforter wrapped tightly around me. “Sorry, no rooms available.” I’m sorry? I think I misunderstood you. As quickly as I pictured myself asleep in luxury, I saw my options vanish. The child-sized seats in the kids’ play train we passed on our way to the pension house were looking like a sure bet. After the receptionist called the youth hostel and another apartment with still no luck, I began to feel my eyes start to burn.

After a few seconds of awkward silence and a few jokes about Mary and Joseph, she said, “There is one more thing I can check. We do have a little house up the street that we use to rent rooms to fishermen. You could stay there possibly. It’s clean.” Well, needless to say we hiked the 10 minutes up the street and found our 8 x 8 ft. room. The good news is that it only cost us 350 kroner. That’s 70 dollars for a bathroom sized room. But, at the end of the day, we praised God for a roof over our head (albeit a small roof) and an experience to laugh about.

P.S. Michael was up long before I was, making a reservation for our next location. I’m writing this from a much upgraded abode. Love you all!