Norway
Tourist in my own country
Being a touristic or an exchange student abroad has been one of my favurite experiences in the last few years, and it was only when I came back to Norway country that I realized how beautiful it is.
Join me in my travels as a tourist in my own country.
A cold night in September, a group of international students and myself decided to go to the nearby island Lofoten by ferry. Ten years before us two guys had camped on a beach for four months and made a hut. We wanted to find the hut in Kvalvika and see for ourselves what it must have been like to live isolated on the beach. The trip showed my a totally different Norway than the one I had grown up in. A dark, quiet and rainy Norway, but it also showed me how interesting every corner of our country is to someone who is new to it.
The night hike to Kvalvika
I used to think that Lofoten was just one city or small town, until I discovered that there are communities of people living in the tiniest places you could imagine. Our trip to Værøy in the Southern part of the Lofoten Islands was one of the more exciting experiences I had in the spring of 2023. As we arrived at Værøy with the first ferry in the morning. we counted the hours until we had to be back. 10 hours. 10 hours was enough to walk through the local town, climb up the mountain and down on the other side, swim in the freezing water while observing seals, climb back up the mountain and run to the ferry. My international friends were amazed by the nature, and I was amazed as well.
Ten hours on Værøy
The winter arrived in Nordland county, and a group of people invited me to go hiking and camping in Rago national park just a few hours by bus from the city of Bodø. With heavy backpacks we climbed up the mountain while noticing the gradual transition from late autumn to early winter. The view from the mountain is something that I had not seen before. It was a breath of fresh air between studies. Who could imagine that living and studying in Bodø could look like this?