Phantasmagoric Affair “It was a cold Tuesday in January 2016, day 4 out of 5 until I had to turn myself in for something I hadn’t done. It was late at night, I was on my way home from work. Suddenly, my phone started to ring. I peeked quickly, the number was unknown. I felt hesitant, but my curiosity made me pick up the call. Quickly, I pushed the phone against my ear and said ‘hello?’ On the other side a male voice answered with a strong Russian accent: ‘You have one day left.’ I replied squealing out of my throat: ‘what?’ ‘I told you, you have one day left’, he continued with a threatening tone before I panicked and hung up. I didn’t know what to do. I still had to change buses to get home. The darkness of the late autumn night surrounded me.” Victor first came to Copenhagen in summer 2012. “I came for Roskilde festival and spent some time in the capital”, Victor explains. From the moment he set foot in the city, he fell in love with it. “I immediately got the feeling of moving there someday.”
The names in this story have been changed.
Victor kept on coming back for Roskilde festival every year. In 2015, he returned home to Østersund after a great festival, as always. The following days, Victor had to deal with horrible post festival blues and an existential crisis. “I felt like I couldn’t find my direction anymore at home.” Østersund lays in Northern Sweden. Victor grew up there, surrounded by mountains and forests. “It is a part of me. But at that very moment, I’d chosen to break free. I couldn’t find my place there anymore.” Victor felt that the original spirit of the area was dying and becoming exploited by mass tourism. “I was thriving for a change. A new environment, challenges and opportunities. I followed my instincts from 2012 and set the sails towards Copenhagen.”