service but upon reporting for duty was able to talk his way out of completing it. Publication of Ikaros – ung mann i Sahara In 1957 Jensen's novel Ikaros – ung mann i Sahara (Icarus – A Young Man in Sahara) was published by Henrik Groth of Cappelen (with an initial print run of 6,000). It described quest for experience of a young man as he journeyed across the Sahara. It was reviewed by over 30 Norwegian newspapers and highly praised by a number of literary critics with Kjøv Egelund of the Vinduet magazine commenting that "Here is one of the year's most sensational works of fiction. Sumptuously rich, brightly talented, fascinating. Ihlen thought they had a committed relationship with long held plans to travel to Greece but later that same year one evening out of the blue Jensen introduced her to another young woman at the Theatre Café in Oslo and informed Ihlen that there would be no trip to Greece as he was leaving tomorrow with the other woman for Egypt. Ihlen stormed out and made her way in a stage of shock back to where she is staying only to be woken at 4 o'clock by Jensen at the doorstep saying, "We're going to Greece! It's you I want to travel with!" Hydra In mid-November the reunited couple over her parents' objections departed by train for Greece with plans to be away for a year, with Jensen intending to spend the time writing. Disembarking from the train in Hamburg they purchased a second-hand Volkswagen Beetle. Driving south they visited Venice and Rome before passing through Yugoslavia into Greece. On the way south from Thessaloniki Ihlen was forced to have an emergency operation for appendicitis in the village of Lamia. Ihlen remained in hospital for a week recovering and it wasn't until December that they reached Athens where they stayed with their friends Per and Else Berit who had moved there the year before. Jensen had originally intended that they rent an apartment in Athens, but their friends suggested they could live more cheaply on the island of Hydra, which was three hours away by ferry. After visiting Delphi the couple drove down to Erminoni in the Peloponnese where their landlady at the place they stayed allowed them to park their car in her garden. It was from here that they took a ferry to Hydra. After initially