First of all, dear exchange students: where do you come from? I’m asking you this because I’m quite sure that you’re from a place that would never bring you this close to Northern Norway and the Lofoten Islands. I mean, of course you never know where life will bring you, but still, would you miss the chance to visit one of the most breathtaking places on Earth, while you can reach it so simply? Here is a list of facts about my trip to Lofoten through ESN Vaasa in cooperation with Timetravels, let’s get it started!
- The bus trip is long, in the best possible way
The bus trip to Lofoten started from Vaasa, at 15 at the bus station. I had my small luggage with me and a backpack with all the food I needed: Norway is very expensive, I can tell you now that I live here, it’s crazy expensive. Getting back to the bus trip, I was the Group Leader of ESN Vaasa together with Minna, sitting on the front of the bus. The Timetravels guides joined us and I sat next to one of them. The arrival time in Svolvær, a small city up in Lofoten, was the morning after at around 9, which means the trip was more less 16 hours long (I also brought a pillow of course). The ride is through the night, so if you manage to sleep you don’t realise it’s so long, and I dare to say that it is long in the best possible way because in that time you get to know the people around you, you talk, play games and have fun with your friends and get to know new people. For example I got to know the Timetravels guide and found out that we had so much in common, and I was so inspired by his lifestyle and stories. What I wanna say is: the adventure starts in the bus!
- Fishing in the fjords
How much do you know about Norway? You can probably guess that there was many fishermen in the previous times and still the fishing industry is a big deal in Norway. Well, during this trip I got to visit the fjords on a boat, which was one of the highlights of the trip. After we got on to the boat, the man gave us good clothing that can be used out on the sea so you don’t get wet and cold, which saved my life. The mountains were spectacular, and the trip was just the most awesome time of my life, I was chilling on the boat sitting on a plastic chair enjoying the most amazing view, under the sun (hopefully you’ll get as lucky too!), and I was so in peace with the world and life that I felt the adrenaline rush and the feeling of awe filling me. It was one of the best moments of my life.
- Northern lights between the mountains
Again, we got lucky enough to see the northern lights, the point is that you definitely improve your chances to see them the more north you go, and it is important that the sky is clear with no clouds. So, take that possibility into account when deciding if this trip is worth it. I was at the phone with one of my best friends (Hi Kristiina, I love you!), outside of the cottage where I was staying, telling her about the amazing experience and the adrenaline rush of the whole “being in northern Norway”, when I started to see green clouds in the sky. And at a certain point the clouds were definitely not clouds, because the green exploded and they started dancing. I went in the cabin and shouted “Northern Liiiiiiiights” and then everybody went out, also the students from the other cabins, and there was 30 minutes of people going all over the place taking pictures and being excited. I can’t compare the northern lights to the other ones I’ve seen, because each one is different and beautiful in its own way, but these were so special. Good luck, hopefully you’ll see them too!
- Kayaking for the first time!
In Svolvær I discovered kayaking. First of all, let’s say I wasn’t in my ideal physical shape, but that didn’t stop me from learning and having an awesome time. It was one of the coolest experiences, we were following the instructors who brought us all around the coastline for around one hour and a half, showing us and explaining interesting facts about the habits of the people in the region and about how the fishing works. Cool. Super cool. Now that I live in Norway, I’m actually planning to go buy some kayaking equipment and go all over the coast here in Kristiansand, because I loved the Lofoten experience so much. Soon enough spring and summer will come ❤
- Viking Museum
Who loves the Vikings? I love everything about norse tradition, folklore, tales and history, vikings obviously included. For example, I was so obsessed with the tv series that in April/May 2017 I started studying Norwegian by myself on Duolingo, and I wanted to build a viking ship all by myself. I know, I usually get carried out by my imagination and crazy ideas. But for those of you who understand what I’m talking about, this trip also gives you a fair amount of history treats, with the visit to the Viking museum. Part of it is closed, part is all reconstruction of how a viking era village looked like. I went through the whole outdoor museum, got on top of the viking ship (yes, a freaking VIKING SHIP), took loads of Instagram worthy pictures 😉 and had the most awesome time. I actually started feeling like I didn’t want to go away from Norway at that point. I was like “This is my place! This is where I have to be! The sea calls me! LET’S GO RAIDING AND PILLAGING”. But then Minna told me “Eleonora, we have to go, the bus leaves in 15 minutes” and brought me away.
- Easiest way to visit the most famous places in Lofoten
Now we go straight to the reason why you should actually join the trip with ESN and Timetravels. Try to figure a way to do the entire trip and all the activities by yourself or with a group of friends. First of all, it’s not gonna be as much fun, second of all, can you imagine organizing a trip like that? It’s gonna get as expensive as the trip with ESN, or even more. Plus, you would have to drive yourself, which can become exhausting, and you should check the most panoramic routes, and so many other things. In the Timetravels trip, the bus brought us to the most iconic places in Lofoten, Reine and Ramberg for example. Now, whenever I search for “Lofoten” on Google, I see those places and I can say to myself that “I’ve been there”, which is the thing I am so grateful for and proud of. What are you waiting for?
Thank you Minna for the pictures ❤
Look Into My Ice 
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