As I am a quite thoughtful and melancholic person, I thought back to my time in Norway, probably one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life so far. I have lived in Stavanger for 6 months. I did not earn much money, but my ultimate goal was to explore the fjords, spend time outside in nature and just be amazed by the many beauties the Norwegian nature has to offer: Fjords, mountains, forests, lakes. You just need to spend two nights out in nature and you can pretty much experience everything of it in a nutshell.
The pictures below are the excerpt of my first night out in the Norwegian fjords, more precisely in the Lysefjord. As I had visited the famous Preikestolen already, it had has been time to go off the beaten path to get a more genuine experience than just visiting the region's main attraction. Hence, my flatmate and I decided to set out and follow along the Lysefjord trail.
At that time, I hosted other travellers at my home in Stavanger. So did I for those 3 days, but unfortunately I could not accept the Couchsurfing request I received. I would have loved to, but I already prepared my hiking trip and told my guest about it. But as fate wanted it, I exactly met this guy, whose request I declined in the mountains. That's just crazy what coincidences you run into in life. Anyway, in the beginning we even did not realise that, but after a while -after he joined our hiking party - we figured it out and just laughed about it out loud.
I also had to learn that he has not been really prepared for a night out in the cold Norwegian fjords - yes, even in summer they are cold. So I quickly transformed his Couchsurfing request into a Tentsurfing request. Because that is most likely the biggest lessons I have learned in Norway: Out in nature, everyone is your friend. You have to hold together, share your belongings and keep any kind of reservations and prejudices to yourself. So I offered him to stay with us that night, shared our food with him and invited him to my tent. As he did not have much isolation material, I even offered him half of my very small one person sleeping mattress. It was cold, but we made it. The next morning, we continued our hike and he made his way back to Stavanger.
