Round trip in Norway

The last weeks before I flew back to the Netherlands I traveled around in Norway. After I said goodbye to my friends, the city, the mountains and the university the big trip started. On an early Saturday morning we (two Germans and me) took the train to Gol. During the journey we had amazing views over a snowy landscape surrounded by mountains. As we got closer to our destination, the amount of snow increased. However, at the place where we had to get out, there was hardly any snow. We arrived at a abandoned train station, from where we took the bus to the ski resort (Hemsedal). Fortunately, we faced more snow over here, but we were told that only five (out of fourty) sloped had opened. But we had lots of fun in the snow and enjoyed the skiing quite good. Every day we started skiing around 9/10 o’clock in the morning, during the breaks we drunk a cup of hot chocolate and late in the afternoon we went back to our cabin. This was a typical accommodation on a ski resort and was situated right next to the ski lifts. It was a cute wooden house and all facilities were available, so this resulted in a perfect accommodation where we had the opportunity to relax after skiing.

After this week we continued our trip to Oslo. During the two days we spent in this city we visited all highlights, but actually there are not so many special things to see. We visited amongst other the beautiful Vigeland park, the Opera and went to Holmenkollen (the ski jumper situated in the outskirts). We spent the remaining hours on shopping, something we hadn’t done during the last few months. Unfortunately, we had no space left in our luggage, so we couldn’t buy a lot of stuff.

Our trip was continued to the northern part of Norway, to Tromsø. This is one of the biggest cities in the northern part of Norway and in this period of the year there is lights for only two hours a day. It is getting ‘light’ at 11 o’clock in the morning and one hour later it is already getting dark. It is quite strange to experience this, but very special. We did different activities during our stay in Tromsø, like dog sledding and snowshoe hiking. We decided to do the latter on our own, so we hired the snow shoes and took the cable car up to the top of a mountain. When we were here we had an amazing view over the whole city and at the other side were only mountains. We walked around with our snow shoes and we fell quit e frequently in the snow. It was a lot of fun! Every evening we took the bus to certain places to chase the northern lights. Different buses took us to dark places and we have seen the northern lights (again) as the sky was very clear. It was wonderful to perceive this natural phenomenon again.

After a few days we left Tromsø and took the post boat (Hurtigruten) to the Lofoten. The Lofoten is a peninsula and is known for its steep and sharp mountains, fjords, fishing villages and beautiful nature. We hired a car and drove around for a couple of days. The views we have seen were amazing and rather indescribable. Especially the western part of the peninsula was so beautiful. But there was only three hours light per day, so we had to hurry to see all nice places. Actually, the best period to go to this island is during summertime. So this is one reason to go back!

I spend the last days of my exchange in Norway in Bergen and I took the time to say goodbye to the city I have lived in for the last months. I met some friends, we had our last coffee together and after two days it was time to go back to the Netherlands. I was really looking forward to see my friends and family again, but at the other side it was hard to leave all nice people I have met during my exchange. To be short: it was a great semester, with great people in a great environment. I have enjoyed every moment (and still do) and will never forget it!

Finally, I would like to thank you for reading my blog(s) and if you have any questions or want to get more information about Norway, feel free to contact me.

Best wishes,
Leonie