Lofoten Islands

Monday was an early rising kind of day, at 6:45am I hopped on a bus with 15 friends and we drove 3 hours south to Lofoten Islands.  These are island within the Arctic archipelago, which are quite unique because, although being above the Arctic Circle, they experience a surprisingly mild climate.  The region is stunningly beautiful!  One of my friend, Remi, is from there and prepared a wonderful 3 days for us, he was such a good tour guide!

The first day included a nice little hike that took us up to see an amazing view of the fjord, mountains and the small islands.  It was indescribably beautiful!   Remi had lent us all a flag from our respective countries so we got some epic pictures of us with them at the top.

After that we went to the small village of Henningsvaer (population 600).  It was such a nice little place and it is famous for its fishing.  We saw fields of stockfish drying on wooden frames... quite the (stinky) experience!  Then we headed back to our house for a yummy BBQ.

The next morning we were tired from the hike the day before so we instead drove around all the islands.  Every community has a unique piece of artwork dedicated to them by international artists.  We saw two of them; one was a large mirror pointed toward the beautiful mountains to display the gorgeous  nature and the other was a face that, depending on which way you looked at it, faced the mountains or the ocean.

We made it to a beautiful big white sand beach.  If I was just looking at the sand and the ocean I could have sworn I was in Mexico.  However, that feeling was ruined when I dipped my feet into the cold Arctic waters and saw the snow on the mountains.  Those of us who were brave enough waded out to our hips to sit on a big rock island.  The Bulgarian stripped down and went for an actual swim!  The water was SO cold and the view was SO amazing! We ended our time there with a bonfire on the beach to warm off our poor legs.

After the beach some of us who weren't to tired went to explore a cave.  It was thanks to Remi that we knew about this place because apparently it is just known by locals.  We had to crawl in through this tiny hole in a rock face and squeeze our way through a narrow passage.  If I was just an inch more around I would not have fit.  It was truly incredible and definitely the best part of the trip for me.  When we looked up, there were ginormous boulders just resting on almost nothing, it was a bit scary but we were assured that they had been there and not moved for years.

The next morning we slept in, cleaned up the house we had rented and piled into the bus again.  It was raining and no one really seemed motivated to do much so we drove home.  I felt like sleeping but the view was so gorgeous there was no way I could take my eyes off the nature and mountains.  On our way back to Harstad we stopped in a very interesting town.  I don't remember the name but the town had decided at one point to paint all the buildings bright blue.  Halfway through some people decided it was a silly idea so they kept their houses/buildings their original colour.  Now, the town looks ridiculous as alot of the buildings are bright blue and the rest are normal looking.  We stopped here for a walk around and to taste some burgers some of us had been craving, mmm.