Culture Shock

As I set on the beach near Mastichari, Greece, I reorganized my bags thinking I had entirely too many clothes. I thought to myself, "A dress? Do I really need a dress? I haven't warn it once in over four months." And then I left the dress behind.

I stepped off the plane in Norway, zipping my coat up and keeping my eye out for some Norwegian climbers that I knew would be getting on the same bus as me into Oslo from the outlying airport. Everything was as expected so far, albeit dark and I couldn't actually see anything besides the people. Ingebjørg and three of her friends met me at the main bus station. Four nicely dressed, pretty girls. We decided to go for a drink. I sucked it up and didn't think about the fact that my last "shower" was a dip in the ocean (actually, my last two). Or the fact that I was carrying a huge backpack. We walked into a bar that could have been straight from Phoenix...a trendy, microbrewery. I looked around, staring at all these strange people in jeans and normal clothes. I noted there were numerous good looking guys too.

It was at that moment that I realized a) I haven't been in any cities in quite some time (albeit Oslo is not a huge one); b) I haven't needed non climbing clothes for an equal amount of time; c) men in "normal" clothes are quite attractive and d) I was back to Western Civilization. It felt really strange.

I was pleased though by the fact that I hadn't started tossing out any of my non-climbing/outdoors clothes just yet!