Norway was one of my favorite destinations on my travels this summer. I met the most interesting people during my time in Scandinavia. Everyone was very outdoorsy and adventurous and like minded in many ways.
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I decided to focus my piece on some fellow travelers I met while staying in Oslo. Anker Hostel is a central hub for travelers and the starting point for a lot of adventures. There I met Katie and Jesse who set off on a six-week bike tour across Norway, Sweden and Ireland, with nothing but their bikes and camping gear. On a whim I decided to join them for two days. I was increadibly unprepared. I rented a bike the night before, packed my bare essentials in a plastic bag and left all my belongings with a friend/Airbnb host I had stayed with on my first nights in Norway (who was one of the most wonderful human beings I had met while traveling). It was pouring rain the entire time we were on the road (and I was insanely grateful for my waterproof hiking boots that I was cursing at in the beginning). I was never much of a biker so this was definitely something I’d experience before and never imagined doing. We biked 55 miles on the first day, camped for the night, and parted ways in the morning. I did the return journey on my own, with just the rain, the mountains and my spotify for hours on end.
After making it back to Oslo on my own, I joined another friend I’d met at Anker, Brendan (Jesse’s bunk mate!), on a journey to Odda to hike the famous Troll’s Tongue. Still sore from all the biking, we got on a bus the following morning to get to Odda for a whole day of travel. Troll’s Tongue is an arduous 13.7-mile (22-kilometer) hike round trip, which culminates at a viewpoint with a large rock sticking out on top of a fjord. We woke up at 5 in the morning to beat the crowd and booked it up. It was really steep at the start but once you got above the tree line it was pretty pleasant.
I’ve been to a lot of countries this summer and I wouldn’t return to most of them – because I’d want to experience somewhere new where I haven’t been yet. Norway might be the exception. If you like camping and the outdoors, its a destination you shouldn’t miss!
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