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

Time to travel around!

Tomorrow, the last day of my exchange in Bergen will start. I am done with all my exams and course paper and this means that it is time for travelling around! Last weekend a friend of me visited me and I showed her the best places of Bergen. Unfortunately, the weather was quite bad. It was raining, storming and it was quite dark and foggy during the whole day. Thus, typical weather for Bergen… As a result, we visited almost every coffee bar we faced. We talked about everything and had a lot of fun together. The last days I spent a lot of time at the university in order to finish my last paper and now I am done with all my courses. In other words, time to travel around!

Since I have still three weeks left before going home I planned to travel around in Norway. Together with two German friends we will go skiing for one week at one of the largest ski areas in the country. Currently, skiing in Norway is not that popular but the interest is growing over the last years. After one week, we will continue our journey to Oslo, where we stay for three nights in order to relax and enjoy the Christmas atmosphere in the capital. After this, we will fly to the northern part of Norway, to a city which is called Tromsø. Tromsø is one of the biggest cities in the north and is situated above the arctic circle. We will stay here for a couple of days and continue the trip by taking the well-known post boat, the Hurtigruten, to the Lofoten. The Hurtigruten drives all year long along the west coast of Norway. It starts in Bergen and ends in Kirkenes (close to Sweden) and this whole trip takes 12 days in total. The Lofoten is an archipelago which is situated along the west coast and is known for its wonderful nature, sharp mountains, fjords, lakes, snow and much more exciting environment. In addition, there is a chance to see the northern lights, though you should be lucky to watch them. So fingers crossed. After a couple of days, we will travel back to Bergen, pick up our luggage and on the 22^nd of December I will fly back to the Netherlands.

These days I am busy to say goodbye to everybody I met, enjoy the last parties and collect all stuff I need to take for the trip. I am really looking forward to it! Afterwards, I will post my last blog in which I will tell you about all experiences during the trip.

Finally, if you have any questions about Bergen and or Norway, feel free to ask me. The best option is to send me an e-mail or contact me via Facebook as I don’t check the responses on this blog frequently.

Exams and more

Most blogs I wrote so far are about travelling and other exciting experiences I had in Norway. But now I get closer to the end of my exchange, I need to take part in the exams for the courses I took. And that means that I have to start studying. Studying… What is that? The last three months this word hasn’t passed by frequently, so this meant that I had to change something drastically.

It started in the beginning of November as I had to prepare two presentations during that week. I met a couple of times with my group mates to discuss the topic and divide the tasks. This worked out quite good . The only thing was that I was quite nervous to present about a specific topic in English. However, I assure, as you speak English all day long it is not hard to present. The more you speak English, the better you will learn the language and after a while you get used to communicate only in English. It is the only language everybody is able to understand, so there is no choice.

Next to this, my exams started last week. The weeks before were quite busy and I spent a lot of hours in the library. But it is like what I usually do in Tilburg: studying the whole day, having breaks and lunch with friends in between and in the evening there is time left to relax a bit. It is quite common that we cook together and forget about all study-related things for a couple of hours. So this combination ensured that I survived the last weeks. My first exam was last Monday, it was Norwegian. Since I attended almost all classes, prepared myself well-enough and I really liked the course, the exam was not hard for me. Moreover, the Norwegian language is quite similar to Dutch and German, so I this didn’t cause any problem. Next to the written exam, I also had to take part in an oral exam. During this exam I had to speak 10 minutes in Norwegian with another exchange student. Five minutes before the exam I met my exam mate, so we were able to discuss where to talk about during the exam. We were assessed by an independent observant and our teacher was in the room as well. The only thing we had to do was talking in Norwegian all the time, ask questions to each other and answering them. At the end, both of us could be satisfied with it as it went quite well. Furthermore, I have two other courses for which I have a written exam. One of them (Purchasing Strategy and Supply Chain Management) I already had last week and now I am busy preparing myself for the final one (Quantitative Risk Management). It seems to be that the exam will be hard, so I won’t get bored during the next days.

Fortunately, a friend of me will visit me this weekend and I am really looking forward to that. I will show her around in Bergen, the way we party here and of course we will meet with my friends. Like the Norwegians say: jeg gleder meg!

After this I only have to finish a course paper for Social Media Marketing Research and then the semester is already over. To end my exchange semester I am going to ski in Norway for one week and after that I will travel to the northern part of Norway for about 10 days. I will tell some more details about this in my next blog.

Ha det bra!

Northern light and more

I would like to start with something surprising: last Monday I saw the northern lights and I was really overwhelmed by this appearance! During the day it was very nice weather in Bergen. The sky was clear, blue and the sun was shining. Since we thought this should be the last sunny day we decided to have a barbecue. As usual everybody took some food and this resulted in an extensive dinner from the most nasty German sausages to the best Spanish tapas. It was a wonderful evening and those are, especially at the end of October, quite rare in Bergen. After dinner, around 10 o’clock, a part of the group went home, but I decided to stay together with a Russian girl and an Austrian guy. While talking about culture differences, habits, and our experiences, we watched the stars. In the meantime, it was midnight and gradually it was getting colder. Then something weird happened. The sky became much lighter and it looked like we could see each other better. A green light appeared slowly, became stronger, and moved relatively fast. The light was mostly green, but sometimes there were also blue and red parts in it. We couldn’t believe it, but it was the northern light! The polar light, which everyone hopes to see in the northern part of Scandinavia during the winter months. It was Monday, October 24^th (actually is was Tuesday early in the morning), we were located in Bergen (in the southern part of Scandinavia) and the appearance of the northern light was a fact. It seemed like a dream, but it was real!

Life at NHH, in Bergen and Norway

As far as I can remember, last time I wrote in particular about travelling in Norway. I travelled a lot around the country in both August and September and that has been a good choice. Now, about three weeks later, I can proof this for sure. The last weeks it is getting colder and colder, it is raining and blowing even more, and in some places which are not far away from Bergen, is it even snowing.

Next to this, from the last weeks on it is becoming busier with presentations and deadlines for assignments. I would really recommend to travel around during the first months if you are planning to go on exchange during the fall semester. But if I am honest, in June and July Norway is at its best. About three years ago I made a round trip through the southern part of the country (in July) and that was amazing! I saw the most beautiful sceneries, enjoyed the wonderful nature and luckily de sky was blue most of the time. This trip was one of the reasons that I wanted to go back to Norway for an exchange. As I have already mentioned in one of my previous blogs, the best option in Norway is to discover the country by car as then you are able to go wherever you want and you will reach the most magnificent places.

Unfortunately, this time I won’t be able to tell you something more about trips in Norway. The last weeks I really had to study and work on my assignments as I hadn’t spent much time on this before. But of course, this is also an important part of my exchange. Last week I finished the assignment for Purchasing Strategy & Supply Chain Management, presented it in class and now I only have to pass the final exam. For another course, called Social Media Marketing Research, I also have to do a research project and present it afterwards. But this is one of my most interesting courses since it is applied on practical business issues. It is about the role of social media in business which is considered as one of the most important things with regard to doing business in the future. My third course, Quantitative Risk Management, is a hard one. It is a kind of combination between finance, statistics and mathematics. Finally, I attend the Norwegian language course. It is nice to learn this language as you are able to understand things in and around the whole country. Furthermore, is quite similar to Dutch and German, so therefore I don’t need to put a lot of effort in it.

Travelling and studying

In my previous blog I wrote about the benefits which Norway offers. One of these are the surroundings and during the last couple of weeks I enjoyed it as much as I could. I spent a lot of days in the mountains, were I watched magnificent landscapes and beautiful nature. Sometimes we went for a hike to one of the mountains around Bergen, but I also participated in several weekend trips with other international students. Since the distances in Norway are large and the timetables of the public transport are quite irregular (especially in small villages), organizing a trip isn’t as easy as I thought. Almost all cities in Norway are located along the west coast, next to the sea. But in the middle of the country are a lot of interesting places, which offer glaciers, waterfalls, fjords and other beautiful environment. The best option is to hire a car for a couple of days, book a cabin on a camping and tour around the country. So this is what we did! 

Welcome to Norway!

Exactly three weeks ago I left the Netherlands and went off to Bergen (Norway) to stay there for a semester. I packed my bags, said goodbye to my family and took the plane to Bergen. Packing my bags was not as easy as I thought, since I had to bring clothes, shoes and other stuff to be prepared for all different types of weather. The weather for the most places in Norway is quite unpredictable and can change rapidly. In order to be sure to have enough space I decided finally to take two suitcases with me. When I had some space left I filled it with some food. You have to realize yourself that in Norway everything is very expensive, especially meat, fresh vegetables and alcohol.

Anyway, next to this the country offers only benefits! Let me start with the magnificent surroundings, landscapes and nature of Norway, and especially Bergen. It is never far to go for a trip in the mountains for hiking or to enjoy the amazing scenery of the environment. Bergen is known for the seven mountains around them and together with other international students we regularly climb one of those. When you are on the top you have amazing views over the whole city.