Unexpected Journey - 1. UJ Chapter 1

“Hi Mum, how was your day, and how come you are home early?” I asked when I entered our modest two-bedroom house, in the outer eastern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia.

“Good dear, now take a seat, because I have something that you need to know, and I cannot delay this any longer,” my Mum responded, as she took a sip of her tea at the dining table.

“Ok! So what is all this about Mum, you have never sat me down at the table to talk, this must be serious,” I said as I sat down and then spotted the envelope on the table in front of her, which was face down, so I could not see who it was addressed to.

“You already know, that a great uncle of yours, on my side of the family, has been responsible for you having a top-class education and that he covers all of your school fees, and a bit more to cover any extra expenses…” Mum began, and I nodded my head in understanding.

“Well, I received word today, from the family law firm, that your Great Uncle Jakob, passed away a few weeks ago, and that he was buried in his home town of Sponvika. Anyway, it appears that you are the main beneficiary of his will. I have inherited Uncle Jakob’s house in Sponvika, but your inheritance is a little more complicated, as it has conditions attached to it,” my Mum explained.

“Ok, what conditions and where is Sponvika, sounds like is Russian or Scandinavian?” I asked unsure if I wanted to know the answer.

“Correct on your second guess, it is in Southern Norway, just across the water from Sweden, I have been there a few times, it is very beautiful, but it can also get very cold there,” Mum replied.

“I have Norwegian ancestry? How come you didn’t tell me this before?” I asked.

“That is a long story and involves a large family disagreement, between my father, his brother - Uncle Jakob and their parents, who did not approve of my father marrying an Australian fair maiden and moving to the other side of the world.

You have inherited the Norwegian good looks, with a strong build, blond-brown hair and blue-green eyes from your grandfather, and I have only seen Uncle Jakob twice, with the first time being when my parents were killed in that car crash, and I travelled to Norway to meet with him after the funeral, and the last time was about 18 months ago, here in Western Australia.

I had not expected to inherit anything from the family in Norway, because of the family disagreement, so I was quite surprised when I received a large envelope with two letters in them. One for me and one for you,” Mum announced.

“Ok, so what are these special conditions, before I find out what I have inherited?” I asked.

“We both have to travel to Norway, and you are to complete a 14-day sailing journey, as a trainee, onboard a sail training ship, once you have completed that journey, you will be informed of your inheritance,” Mum announced.

“What the hell? I’ve never been on a large boat, let alone a bloody tall ship? The last time I was on a ferry, I was violently seasick, and that was just a trip over to Rottnest,” I said.

“Yes, I remember that trip well, I wore most of your vomit, but you were only six years old,” Mum said as she screwed up her face remembering the mess I had caused.

“So, do you think that in nearly eleven years, I may have grown out of being seasick? I’ve never been on a ferry since that time?” I said to Mum, who chuckled, “Well we will just have to wait and see, won’t we. I suggest you start packing, as we will be flying to Europe a few days after you finish your final exam” Mum replied.

“Oh great, that is all I need, on top of the stress of my year 11 exams,” I grumbled, as I stood up and headed to my room to do some studying.

“Yes, that is what I have been trying to tell you, my great uncle died recently, and to inherit whatever he wants to pass onto me, I have to go on this tall ship sailing trip,” I said, explaining the situation to my two only school mates, Daniel and Curtis Kingsley, who are first cousins, and in the same year as me, when I was at school the next day.

“Wow, that sounds awesome, I wish I could do something like that. I asked my Mum if I could go on a sail training trip on the STS Leeuwin once, but it was so damn expensive, and Mum thought it was a waste of money” Curtis replied, sounding disappointed.

“No way will you get me onboard one of those, they make you climb up the masts, and that is way too high for me,” Daniel said as he shivered at the thought.

“Anyway, I am leaving just a few days after we finish our final exams, and it is a 14-day trip, which will put it very close to Christmas, so I am not sure where I will be for Christmas this year,” I said to my two mates.

“You never know, you may find a cute boyfriend while you are onboard” Daniel teased, which made me blush, “Or girlfriend, I do swing both ways you know… well, I think I do” I replied.

“Yeah right, I saw you looking at some of the guys when we are training with the swim team, you got it bad for some of them” Daniel teased.

“I have seen you doing the same thing mate, so don’t you dare start rumours, or I will do the same with you,” I said to Daniel, who decided to close his mouth and remain quiet for the rest of the lunch period. With exams being so close now, we now had no more classes, and we were spending the remaining two weeks before exams, in the library, studying hard to remember everything that we had learnt in the past year.

Apart from being in the swim team, the Kingsley cousins, are also in the same team as me in hockey, athletics, orienteering and tennis, and we are rarely apart, except for when I am in Advanced Maths and Business Studies, and when we go to our separate homes after school.

On weekends, we often get together and go mountain bike riding up in the hills, often making it an overnight camping trip, when the weather is good, but with exams approaching, we didn’t have any spare time on weekends at the moment.

When I arrived home that afternoon, Mum was home early again, and this made me wonder, what else could happen to make my life difficult. The letter that was on the table yesterday, was back on the table again, and this time, there was another letter, this one was an A5 sized express post envelope, and I saw that it was addressed to me, so I dropped my backpack on the ground in the lounge, and slowly approached the dining table.

I stared at the envelope for quite some time, before I sat down and pulled the envelope closer to me, and withdrew my hands, and stared at it some more. “Well, you are not going to find out what’s inside, until you open it,” Mum said to me, and I sighed loudly and hesitantly reached for the envelope, just as the back door opened and closed.

“Hi, Ms Madsen, Matt told me about his pending trip on the tall ship, but he neglected to tell us where it will be,” Curtis said, as he walked inside and sat down opposite me. “Hello dear, do you want some afternoon tea?” my Mum said, treating Curtis as part of the family, as he spends some much time over at my place.

“Yes, please Ms Madsen, my Mum is still at work, I found a note from her, saying that she will be working late, and to asked if I can have dinner here please” Curtis replied, and Mum smiled.

“You know you are always welcome here, now can you get your best mate to open that envelope, so we can find out what is inside” Mum said, and I groaned in annoyance, as I picked up the envelope, and carefully opened it up, and glanced inside, before tipping out the contents, and I immediately smiled, when I spotted three airline tickets.

Firstly, I picked up the smaller folder, which contained two tickets for the 14-day tall ship journey, from Tonsberg - Norway, with stops in Copenhagen - Denmark, Lulea and Gavle - Sweden, Helsinki and Oulu - Finland, and ending the journey in St Petersburg - Russia, with the names M.J Madsen plus one on the tickets.

By now I was smiling broadly, and I opened the airline fight tickets, with the first one read ‘Passenger Matias J Madsen’, the second read ‘Passenger Agatha M Madsen’, while the third ticket read ‘Passenger 1 Adult’, with all of the flights going from Perth to Oslo, via London.

“I am glad that we went on that school trip to New Zealand last year,” I said to my good mate, who looked at me puzzled, and I could see Mum grinning, having realised what I was about to say to Curtis. “I am not sure if I should respond to that, this could be dangerous” Curtis responded, which made Mum and me laugh.

“You remember at lunchtime what you said to me when we were talking about my pending trip?” I asked Curtis.

“Yes, I said something like, awesome, I wish that I could go on … wait … you can’t be serious?” Curtis said when he realised what I was saying.

“You bet my friend, I have two tickets for the 14-day tall ship journey, along with return flights and accommodation for the whole trip” I announced.

“Wow, this is incredible, but wait, where exactly is it we are going to do this tall ship experience?” Curtis responded, and I handed him the tickets for the ship. “Norway, we are going to Norway?” Curtis squeaked, looking quite shocked at the news, and I noticed that Mum was now whispering into the phone, and held it out, so the caller could hear what Curtis just said.

Once Curtis had calmed down, he spoke to his Mum on the phone, who agreed to let him come with us on this trip of a lifetime, and after the call, Mum explained the whole trip to us both in detail.

Leaving Perth at 7.20pm on the Tuesday evening, of the 19^th of November, 4 days after the exams are over, we would arrive in Heathrow, London 18 hours later, just after 5am the next day, as it is a direct flight, and with just a 1 ½ hour stop over, we board a flight to Oslo, Norway, which will be a 2 ¼ hour flight, arriving at 10.45am local time.

Three days later, on a Saturday morning, Curtis and I will start our 14 days of sailing onboard a tall ship, arriving in St Petersburg on morning of December 7^th, where Mum will meet us there, and we will stay overnight, looking around St Petersburg, before we fly back to London the next day, for a 6 day break, to explore some of London and England.

Our flight home is on the 14^th of December, leaving at 7.05pm, with one stop in Singapore for 4 days, so we could explore the island nation. The following day, when Curtis and I told Daniel that we were both going on this tall ship journey, he didn’t believe us at first, and during the morning, he asked a whole lot of questions, and by lunch break, he was convinced that Curtis was coming with me on this trip to Scandinavia.

Suddenly the day came, that we started our exams, and for the next ten days, I struggled through the exams for each of the 7 subjects, those being Advanced Mathematics, Business Studies, English, Physics, Biology, English Literature and Environmental Science.

By the end of it, I was exhausted, and all I wanted to do was go home and go straight to bed, but unfortunately, I had to wait for Curtis to finish one of his exams, which ends two hours after mine ended, as he would be coming over for our final planning meeting, before we set off on our adventure.

For the next three days, I slept as much as I could. And in between that, I ate, did a final check on everything that I needed for the trip and began to pack. With Curtis’s mum – Anne having to work on the day of our departure, she arranged for Curtis to stay overnight at our place, and Anne came over for dinner, to spend a few more hours with her son before we leave the next day.

With our flight due to leave in the afternoon of the 19^th, I was feeling very uncertain about this journey, knowing that in a few days’ time, Curtis and I would be boarding the tall ship, for our 14-day Scandinavian Adventure, and I was worrying that I would be constantly seasick all the time.

The flight to London, was very long and uncomfortable, although I had Mum and Curtis to keep me company for the long journey, with us being in Premium Economy, that gave us slightly wider seats and more leg room, which I was very happy about.

With no time to waste, we had to make our way to the adjoining terminal, so as to get to our second flight, and we had about twenty minutes to rest in the boarding lounge before we boarded the flight. With it being our first time in Europe, I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to spend some time looking around London before we had to dash off to Norway, but Mum assured us that we would have a few days to explore on the return journey.