A Postcard From... Norway
A week spent in what is now one of my favorite places on earth!
Norway has been at the top of my list of places to visit for a long time, and I can tell you now, it did not disappoint. Spoiler: it was my favorite place out of everywhere Ami and I visited all summer. Maybe it’s my Nordic roots (honestly, I’m not sure why anyone would have wanted to leave) or just the sheer beauty of it all, but I cannot wait to go back. Ami made a recap video of our whole trip, which you can watch on her Instagram here!
(Note: due to the substantial amount of photos, this post is probably best viewed on an actual web browser vs. email- but either way, thanks for reading!)
The Lofoten Islands are an archipelago above the Arctic Circle, and it is quite a journey to get there. But before our journey north, we decided to spend a couple of nights in Oslo to explore the capital city. We landed in Oslo around 10 p.m., shuffled our way through customs, picked up our bags, and headed into Oslo proper to search for our hostel for the evening. Trying to be quiet, as it was almost midnight, we snuck into our room and had to stifle our laughter when we found ourselves stuck in a room with one of the smelliest people of all time. It was a combination of “you’ve got to be kidding me” and disgust (we promptly opened the window).
We only spent one day in Oslo but made the most of it. Norway is known for its cinnamon buns, so we promptly headed to a wonderful bakery for breakfast before continuing on our way. There are tons of beautiful buildings and museums to explore in Oslo, but as it was peak summer, we opted for outdoor activities—passing outdoor saunas, heading onto the roof of the Opera building, and eventually landing at the public dock/swimming area for the afternoon (where we may have accidentally burnt ourselves to a crisp—good way to start off the trip). We had the best ice cream of our lives from a pop-up ice cream food truck (as we continued to rate ice cream throughout the summer, we decided this place was our number one of all time). We ate a lovely dinner outside before heading to bed early to start our trek to Lofoten the following day.
When people say "planes, trains, and automobiles," it’s normally a figure of speech. Not for us. We took the train from Oslo to the airport, flew from Oslo to Tromsø, took a bus to the rental car center, and then proceeded to drive 8 hours to Lofoten. I’m not normally one for long road trips, but this was the quickest, most beautiful 8 hours of my life. I’ve also never been through so many underwater tunnels (to be honest, I didn’t even know they existed)—the longest of them being almost 5 miles long.
Our hostel was an old “house” over the water, with a janky kitchen, a bathroom that flooded every time someone showered, a bunk room, a small private room with a single twin bed, and a loft—where we would spend the next few days. Could we stand? No. Did we love it? Absolutely. Even though we had no door, it felt like our own private space since we weren’t sharing it with anyone else.
We came to Lofoten for one main reason—to midnight hike. As Lofoten is above the Arctic Circle, the sun does not set in the summer. There’s about a month when the sun truly doesn’t dip below the horizon, which we missed by a few days, but the sky still never went dark. We were in for 5 days of 24-hour adventure.
Our hostel mates were a handful of girls from Australia and a guy from the Bay Area who had been there for a few days and warned us that tennis shoes would not suffice for hiking here. Us, being Pacific Northwesterners, growing up hiking the gorge and surrounding areas in nothing but tennis shoes, were smug... and quickly humbled. I completed a half Ironman earlier in the year and had just walked over 500 miles on the Camino—I was not out of shape, but I had never struggled so much in my life. Luckily, we could laugh about it together, but if I were to ever visit again, I’d be on the stair stepper for months before going.
None of these hikes were overly long, but they took us much longer than anticipated because they were all straight up. The vertical on these hikes is unlike anything I had ever experienced. Meanwhile, the locals and other Europeans were basically running up these hills like it was no big deal... let’s just say we took the scenic pace.
Hikes
Nonstinden (Ballstad) - 3.24 miles, 1,137 ft gain
This was the singular day hike we ended up doing, and it was within walking distance from our hostel! It was also the hike where we learned we might have been in over our heads, as this was the smallest amount of elevation we’d be gaining, and our tennis shoes were not the right footwear. Going down with the lack of tread from tennis shoes was significantly harder than going up, as the trails, being dry dirt, were quite slippery. Luckily, I had brought my Camino shoes with me; although extremely worn down, they were better for the future hikes we went on.
Putting the lack of traction and endurance aside, the views did not disappoint—one side overlooked the ocean, and the other overlooked the coastal “town” of Ballstad. Although a bit worried about the difficulty of the other hikes, we were excited to do more.
Offersøykammen - 2.25 miles, 1,513 ft gain
This was our first midnight hike! We didn’t know how “dark” it would get, but knowing the sun would “set” around 12:45, we started just after 11 p.m.… in total light. Talk about messing with your circadian rhythm—it was awesome.
This was a two-part hike. We climbed the first moderate ascent, made it to a beautiful viewpoint, and ran around taking photos and videos, thinking it was so much easier than the first hike. Then we turned to see what looked like ants crawling up a steep hillside and realized we were not even close to being done. With that, we headed toward the start of the second ascent and were humbled even more than during the first hike. I still don’t understand why it was so challenging for us, but I’m chalking it up to the fact that Europeans are just built different.
The views were stunning, and it was so cool to see the sun “set,” though it never gets past dusk. We struggled our way back down, and on our drive back, we saw a couple of moose wandering through a field! I had never seen a real moose before, and it was a very cool experience. We ended up going to bed after the sun rose (which was at 1:45 a.m.).
Reinebringen - 5 miles, 1,909 ft gain
This is one of the most well-known hikes in Lofoten, and for good reason. It is absolutely stunning and “paved,” so to speak. 1,978 stone steps have been put in, and although it is one big stair climb, the steps definitely made it easier (in my opinion) compared to slipping on the dirt like the other hikes. There were more people at the top than we’d seen the entire time we’d been in Lofoten, but it did not detract from the view. Watching the sun dip below the horizon and seeing the sky turn into beautiful colors while overlooking the archipelago was stunning.
The Lofoten Islands are massive, so this hike was over an hour away from our hostel. By the time we descended and drove back, it was 2 in the morning. However, we were hungry and had cinnamon buns we’d bought earlier to warm up and eat. So, we headed out to the dock to enjoy the wee hours of sunrise while hyping ourselves up on sugar. Needless to say, extreme exhaustion mixed with a healthy dose of sugar didn’t have us going to bed until 4:30 in the morning. At that point, we should have just stayed up all night, but we figured we’d need a bit of sleep.
Festvåtind - 3.12 miles, 1,900 ft gain
I have a love-hate relationship with this hike. To the guys that RAN past us, I just want to ask how. This hike literally rocked us—and by that, I mean we were climbing hand and foot up the vertical rock face this hike consisted of while local folks quickly jaunted up these boulders like mountain goats. Getting down was even worse, and I’ll leave it at that.
However, we can take our slow pace and say it was to our advantage, because for the 30-45 minutes we hung out on top, there were no other people around. Maybe Mother Nature or karma—or whoever you want to thank—felt bad for us, but the views made it worth it. There is no real way to describe the shades of blues in the water and the color of the midnight sky sun, but we were amazed every evening.
From midnight hiking, our sleep schedules were shot. The perk of the hostel loft with no windows was that we had no trouble sleeping through the 24 hours of light.
During our waking hours, we drove all around Lofoten, exploring local shops, bakeries, restaurants, and beaches. The Lofoten Islands are massive, and I’d highly recommend renting a camper van and driving from place to place, sleeping in a new location each night, because we spent a lot of time in the car. Luckily, it is so stunningly beautiful, it made the car rides worth it.
A Few Favorites
Unstad Arctic Surf: This is a cute, little surf lodge with board and wetsuit rentals, a few accommodations, and the best cinnamon buns Lofoten has to offer. Although quite a drive from our hostel, we came more than once because life is too short not to eat the best cinnamon bun ever. We thought about renting surf gear, but as there were no waves and the water temperature is in the 50s, we passed.
Haukland Beach: The water in Lofoten is a vibrant shade of light blue, and this beach is one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever been. There are hikes around this area that we didn’t get to, but I would definitely do if I went back to see the beach from above. The water was freezing and filled with large, red jellyfish, but we had to get in to say we did. This also happened to be the least crowded beach we’d end up seeing all summer.
Anita’s Seafood: This might be my favorite restaurant I’ve ever been to. The location, food, and dessert were nothing short of phenomenal, and that’s really all I have to say. I got their infamous fish sandwich followed by a couple of Norwegian desserts. Sitting at a lone picnic table on a dock overlooking a bay made for one of the best dining experiences of my life.
Henningsvær: This is the small town that the Festvåtind hike overlooks and is filled with local shops and cafes. We came here looking for Norwegian sweaters, which we quickly learned are out of our price range, and the reason I am now attempting to knit my own (a project that makes me realize why they were so expensive. I cannot count how many hours I have put into this so far). Overall, this was a great place to walk around and although we didn’t end up eating here, the restaurants looked great as well.
Overall Norway holds my list of favorites from the summer - favorite ice cream, favorite beach, favorite hostel, favorite hike, and favorite meal. Needless to say, even though I checked it off my bucket list, it still sits very high on the top of the list to return to one day.
The boulder hike was ridiculous!!! How could you even tell there was a path?!