Newsflash: American Girl That Was Lost in Norway After Train Breaking Down Has Been Found!!

April 5th, 2007

One, Patrisha Thoreson, a Minnesota native, was staying with some Norwegian friends during her spring break in Norway. She was traveling alone from one friend in Trondheim to another and was planned to arrive in Lillehammer 8:40 the afternoon of April 5th, 2007 via train. She had, previously taken the train from Lillehammer to Trondheim so the trip wasn't new to her.

Suffering from motion sickness, the American 18-year-old slept most of the journey so as to ease the sickness. "I was woken up around 7:30 and was told we all had to get off the train because of electrical issues." States Thoreson, "An announcement was played and said that we had to get on buses to Hamar and then catch another train from there." Or so she thought. The message had been in Norwegian and it is assumed that Thoreson either misheard or mistranslated because what happened was not correct. Thoreson proceeded to follow a group of fellow travelers onto one of the waiting buses. "I found it kind of weird that we drove past the small town that my friend lived in," said Thoreson, "It just didn't make sense to me."

9:40 p.m, an hour past the time she should have arrived in Lillehammer, Thoreson ended up in Hamar, an hour north of her intended destination. "I noticed there was only a train to Trondheim and a train to Oslo, I figured it wouldn't make sense to go back the way i came so i got on the Oslo train and asked a fellow passenger, just to be sure, if this would get me to Lillehammer because I was starting to get skeptical." The other passenger revealed to Thoreson that she had gotten on the wrong bus as this would only take people to Oslo.

With a sense of doom in her stomach, Thoreson got off the train and proceeded to the train station to see if she could find some help. Being it is Easter season, everything is closed and Thoreson had no luck in finding any personnel in the offices. Without a phone or even phone numbers, Thoreson had nothing else to do but go back to the train and find help. That help came in the form of a Railway official, clearing the train to leave. He was kind to Thoreson, noticing the fact that she was a "tourist" and arranged for a taxi to take her to Lillehammer, courtesy of the train station.

Thoreson arrived in Lillehammer at 11:00 p.m, almost 2 1/2 hours after her designated arrival time. "I didn't expect to see my friend still waiting for me, but I looked anyway."

Her friend, one, Mari Anette Jørgensen, had waited an hour for her foreign friend but, finding no one, she called home in a panic and was consulted to return as she couldn't do anything about it there.

While Thoreson roamed the streets of Lillehammer looking for a phone book and pay phone to try and make contact with her friend, Jørgensens father drove to Hamar looking for her and, not finding her, phoned the police in Hamar, Lillehammer, and the small town that the train-bus shift had occurred. "We were all so worried about her," says Jørgensen, "We couldn't even imagine the fright of being lost in a foreign country with no way to contact anyone."

Meanwhile, having no luck in contacting anyone, Thoreson returned to the Train station, prepared to spend the night there until morning when there would be people there that could help her. "I found a comfy looking bench and sat reading my book, just passing the time."

Thoreson did not have to spend the night in the train station, however. Around 12:30 a.m. two police officers came and, after confirming that she was the lost American in their reports, they told her that a man was coming to get her. 1:00 a.m., Thoreson was picked up from the train station by Jørgensens father, almost 4 1/2 hours after she was originally going to be picked up.

"It was definitely an adventure," states Thoreson, "I am just scared of how my family is going to use this against me in jokes for ages now."

Written by Patrisha L. Thoreson

Blogging Press, Norway