In my first few weeks of living in Bergen, I met a girl from Belgium living a few floors above me. We chatted about how we were getting adjusted to the country, and she told me about her a trip she took right before the semester to Lofoten, an archipelago in northern Norway located in the Arctic Circle. She described it as, “the Alps in the ocean,” and one of the most beautiful places she had ever seen. I thought the photos she showed me were amazing, but I wrote off traveling to Lofoten in my head. In the hecticness of adjusting to a new country, meeting new people and recovering from jet lag, I felt there was too much to do right here in Bergen to go anywhere else. Luckily last month, a few of my flatmates convinced me to get out of Bergen with them. Where to? Lofoten! I’m extremely glad I decided to go with them. It was one of my favorite moments in Norway so far.

Traveling to or from Lofoten one way takes an entire day. First, a flight from Bergen to Trondheim, a flight from Trondheim to Bodø, and then a scenic ferry from the port town of Bodø to the archipelago. We arrived in the village of Moskenes in the middle of the night, picked up a rental car, drove to the island of Vestvågøy, and crashed until morning at our cabin.

The islands were unlike anything I’ve seen or experienced before. It was a beautiful place, and it struck me as a place of contrasts. There were peaceful, sandy beaches with crystal clear water surrounded by sheer cliffs jutting out of crashing waves thousands of feet below. During one hike, I experienced hail, rain and clear sunshine in under two minutes. Little fishing villages dot the landscape, hugging onto little pieces of land poking out of the sea and connected by a web of thin bridges. It can be bitterly cold and windy, while other islands can feel almost warm when the sun is out. Lofoten was an amazing place to hike and explore, but it was also a place where I found myself reflecting. The vastness of the rugged nature made me and my everyday concerns feel very small in comparison and I gained a lot of perspective when talking with my flatmates about their own countries and cultures, goals and hopes for the future while we made dinner or sipped our before-hike coffees.

Since going abroad, I’ve felt many small moments similar to this – like playing Yahtzee in the evenings with my flatmates, watching a rare clear sky while riding the light rail and jogging along the lakes that dot Bergen. For anyone thinking about studying abroad, I’d really suggest cherishing these little, peaceful moments of your experience and I can’t recommend Norway enough as the place to do so.

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Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: University of Bergen