It is 23.00 and I am approaching the small city in Norway – Levanger. It is dark and out of the train you could see only the fields and darkness. It is a little bit scary to go to the place you don’t know to the people you have never met before. When I arrived at the railway station I met 4 people smiling atme with the Norwegian flags. I got a really warm meeting, and we sat in a car and went to our community place. From that moment my journey around Norway began.
I opened a new world, the world of funny, interesting, kind Norwegians. From our first day at the University we realized that we will go to hike much. And the first, important phrase that our teachers told us, which is still in my heart: “There is no bad weather, only the bad cloth”. This is true, the weather in Norway doesn’t spoil you with the sun, it rains a lot, but this is nothing in comparison with this magnificent and amazing nature in Norway. Our city was surrounded by the blue fjord, which is so pure. Norway is the country of fjords, mountains and fresh air; you can feel it everywhere.
During my exchange program I met all of those funny and interesting students. We studied Nordic perspective on teaching and learning, but our learning was mostly in the hikes. We canoed, climbed, hiked, slept at school and had fun. Everything was easy, in Norway, being a student you don’t worry or think of difficulties. You just take a moment and discuss this or that funny story with other students. There were 11 students from different countries: France, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Check Republic, and Russia. So you have a good practice with your English. Our teachers were very open and friendly, the laughed and were kidding us when let us canoe by ourselves, didn’t tell us what to do in the forest, so that we should have learned how to make everything by ourselves and gave us the opportunity to see a Norwegian world internally (we met an old woman who told us her story about living 75 years in her house in the village and keeping the farming house). We plunged into the culture of Norwegian people: got acquainted closer to reindeers, reindeer gathering, Saami people and saami living (gamme, school, customs their songs), we met alpacas and made Christmas crunches by ourselves.
I strongly advise to visit Lofoten islands (with its virgin Nature, troll Mountains, deep and wide fjords), Flatanger where you will get acquainted with salmon farm area and have a majestic trip on a quick boat, there you can find a cave Hanshelleren (to which the climbers from all over the world come) – a paradise for climbers. Visit Roros – an old and cozy city, Bergen – mountain city. And at the end I would love to say that all the Norway is different, you can note how the landscape changes from place to place Norway touches your heart.
Published in 2019.