Going North by Sietse van den Nieuwenhuijzen

Going North

Photography & Design by Sietse van den Nieuwenhuijzen

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Photography and Design by: Sietse van den Nieuwenhuijzen

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“Only regret the chances you didn’t take”

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Introduction With this quote in mind, I decided to sign up for my exchange period abroad. After a failed attempt to go to Cape Town, South Africa, the previous year, the urge to go abroad was stronger than ever before. Choosing my destination proved to be not as easy as I first assume. I wanted beautiful nature, great weather, a prestigious school with film subjects, not too expensive, with a lot of other international people, I wanted to explore a new country and I want my friends and family being able to visit me. Unfortunately, such a place did not exist. I decided to renounce the great weather and cheap countries. I quickly realized that meant I probably had to go north.

After an inspirational talk with a friend who at the time was spending 5 months in Oslo, Norway I decided I wanted to go there. Once decided there was no going back, I was going to Oslo one way or another, other countries where no option anymore.

On the 19th of march 2018 was the day I received a very important email, I was accepted as an exchange student to go to Westerdals, School of creative arts in Oslo. And so my journey and the birth of this book began.

Enjoy!

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OSLO BErgen Stavanger Drammen

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Torsby Stockholm ICeland Sognsvann 7

Norway

I moved to Norway at the beginning of August 2018, the start of a new adventure and a new phase in life. It is a country with amazing nature and beautiful cities. Norwegian people seem distant at first but once you get to know them they are very welcoming, kind and fun. They love everything that has to with outdoor sports and adventures. The six months living in Norway were truly amazing. In this book, I want to share my pictures and stories with you.

Statistics:

Population: 5,26 million Surface Area: 385,252 km2 National Language: Norwegian Capital: Oslo Currency: Norwegian Krone Founded in: 12th century

Interesting fact:

The Norwegian capital has been the proud venue of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony every year (with just a few exceptions) since 1901.

The other Nobel prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Physics and Physiology or Medicine take are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden.

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Oslo Oslo is a great city to live in, with about 630.000 people its one of the smaller capitals in Europe and with being twice as big as Amsterdam in terms of the surface it’s a very widespread city. The geographical location of Oslo provides them with a great fjord, harbor, and islands in the south. Mountains, lakes and ski slopes are in the north and are all connected with their metro system which makes the city so diverse and interesting.

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Summer in Oslo In summer you can explore the Aker Brygge area, Holmenkollen, Karl Johans gate and more. Norwegians love the sun since they don’t get very long summers, so they try to enjoy it while it lasts. Hiking in the many nature areas around Oslo is a must do when the weather allows it.

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National Theatre

Holmenkollen

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Kringsj책

On the left, you see an aerial shot of Kringsj책, the student village where I lived. This small area is home to many international and Norwegian students. Kringsj책 has its own bar, gym, supermarket and metro stations, so its only 15 minutes to the center of Oslo. There are ofter student parties and other events going on there and its only 5/10 minutes away from Sogn, another student village.

Kringsj책 is also very close to Sognsvann, a beautiful lake, but more about that later.

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The Opera House This beautiful building is one of the most iconic buildings in Oslo. Build in 2008 by architecture company Snøhetta in a modern style. It is the home of The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet and the national opera theatre. The Opera House is located near Oslo central station and is built in one of the two bays of Oslo which connects it directly to the sea. The location provides a beautiful view from the top of the building (see page 26-27).

In summer many tourists and Norwegians take a few drinks to the top of the slope and sit down to watch a beautiful sunset together.

The inside is as beautiful as the outside, with a modern style and many windows it feels like an oasis of peace where art is to prevail. With great halls and podia, this is where the best of opera and ballet is performed.

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Vigelandpark

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Majorstuen metro station.

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Inside the castle of Oslo

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Exploring the islands around Oslo From Aker Barygge you can take the ferry to multiple islands. The biggest one is Hovedøya and is just 5-10 minutes by boat. Here you can walk around the island, visit the ruins of a monestry or go to one of the many beaches used in summer to swim or get a tan. Besides Hovedøya you can visit a few other smaller islands that are inhabited such as Gressholmen or Lindøya. These islands are great to explore and often give the opposite surroundings than the busy city, and that just 10 minutes away. You can experience amazing sunsets here, especially in Autumn, but be aware of the ferries. You wouldn’t want to miss the last one returning to the mainland.

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Bergen The city where it rains 240 days a year and is, therefore, the rainiest city in the world. But when the clouds disappear a beautiful city reveals itself, surrounded by seven mountains it is a unique sight.

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unding Bergen.

On top of mount Ulviken, one of the seven mountains surro

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Mount Ulvirken

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Mount Fløyen

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ON top of Fløyen One of the most fun things to do in Bergen is to take a little train up mount Fløyen where you have a spectacular view of the city. This train leaves from the center of Bergen which makes the train ride extra special. On top, you’ll find a restaurant and a platform to overlook the entire city and fjord. This view is especially spectacular during sunsets with (almost) clear skies since the sun sets right over the fjord which creates a beautiful golden hour glow over the city.

From the viewing platform, you can do multiple hikes up the mountain leading you away from the tourist crowds and into nature. On page 9 you can see the picture I took from the top of this mountain.

On this route, you will find many beautiful smaller lakes and trails (page 34).

This place is a must do if you find yourself ever in Bergen and you might pray that it doesn’t rain.

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Stavanger Stavanger is the third largest city in Norway and is entirely built around the oil found in the ’60s and ’70s. It’s close to the start of the Preikestolen trail, a very popular hike to a huge stone platform overlooking the biggest fjord in Norway, The Sognefjord.

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PReikestolen Preikestolen is a stunning platform looking over the on of the biggest fjords in Norway, the Lysefjord. The platform itself is about 25 by 25 meters and it rises 604 meters above the water of the fjord. The hike up there is about 2,5 hours and is wonderful on itself with beautiful views on the way. Together with a group of international students from the Erasmus student network, we took the bus from Oslo overnight to get to Stavanger at 7am. After visiting the town we hiked up to preikestolen to admire the magnificent view.

Once up, it was extraordinary how fast the weather changed. We got mist, rain, and sun all in less than two hours.

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Drammen Drammen is a small city just outside of Oslo, a non-touristic average Norwegian city, and therefore worth a visit. This city is well known for its environment and urban development and has won more awards for this than any other city in Norway.

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Sweden

In the five months that I lived in Oslo, I visited Sweden twice.

The first time together with twelve friends, we rented a cabin in the woods. The second time we went to visit Stockholm to take the boat to Talinn, but that didn’t go as planned.

Sweden is a beautiful country and differs in many aspects from Norway.

Statistics:

Population: 10.2 million Surface Area: 450,295 km2 National Language: Swedish Capital: Stockholm Currency: Swedish Krona Founded in: 12th century

Fun fact:

The Swedish Tourist Association created the ‘Swedish number’. When anyone dialed the number they were connected to a random Swede and could talk about anything.

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Torsby My first trip to Sweden was to a small city called Torsby in the middle of a beautiful nature area.

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Stockholm After missing the boat to Talinn, we were stranded in Stockholm for 4 days.

Not a punishment to be honest.

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Nordic Zoo Skansen.

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Iceland

Iceland is the closest thing you can come to another planet. Driving through incredible landscapes behind every corner is just breathtaking. I visited Iceland in 2010 and now that I went back in 2018 it was even better than I can remember. It is almost unbelievable that so many beautiful sights are so close to each other. The nine of us spent five days on this amazing Iceland and enjoyed every minute of it, especially the ones where the sun was shining. A big part of this book is dedicated to this country since it was the highlight of my exchange.

Statistics: Population: 348,580 Surface Area: 103,000 km2 National Language: Icelandic Capital: Reykjavik Currency: Icelandic Krona Founded in: 874 AD Interesting fact:

There are no surnames or family names in Iceland – Icelanders use the traditional zlast name that is comprised of their father’s (or mother’s) first name with the addition of -dóttir or -son.

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Iceland

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Kirkjufell 73

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Hellnar

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From Left to right: Marc, Lea, Sebastian, Heloise, Eddy, Oliver, Miguel, Adam and Sietse.

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The Group With this incredible group of 9 people from Spain, France, Germany and The Netherlands I set off to Iceland to enjoy many wonderfull moments together. A trip none of us are likely to forget any time soon. Thank you all for the amazing time in Oslo and Iceland.

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The Lighthouse Just left of this picture is a lighthouse which is placed there because this is the most western point in Iceland.

To get there we had to drive a bumpy road with many big rocks and holes in the road and with Louise (more about him later). Looking at the picture it might seem like it’s during sunset or golden hour, as photographers like to call it. But in Iceland during the winter the sun is only showing itself for a few hours a day so the sun stays low on the horizon almost all the time. This picture was actually taken around midday. This was very exciting for the photographer in me.

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The ICe LAke The ice lake is a big lake near the southern coast of Iceland with massive pieces of solid ice floating around.

The amount of ice varies a lot depending on what time in the year you visit. It is an amazing sight and especially early in the morning, it provides breathtaking views. The sand next to the lake is pitch black which makes this magnificent place even more special. I recommend walking over the hills further down the lake it is not where the big pieces of ice are floating around but getting away from the groups of tourists and the car parking does get you a lot closer to nature. Just sitting there looking at how the light reflects on the lake and illuminates the glacier behind it is very suiting. Especially with sunrise you can see the light changing gradually.

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Svartifoss 92

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A Tribute to Louise

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Louise was the name of our rental car in Iceland. This Dacia Duster had many deficiencies but it also had character. We drove more than 2000km with it in less than five days and we started to love this car despite all its flaws. One of its most humorous flaws were the lights, when I drove In the early morning and it was still dark the headlights were essential on Icelandic roads since they don’t have road lights, however when I was about to turn right and put on my turn signal all the lights would die apart from the right turn signal. As you can imagine this was quite a shock at first and very confusing for our friends in another car behind us. further more, the third gear, the locks and bluetooth radio were all broken. However, Louise did get us through some rough terrains and when we needed it the most it was there for us. Thank you, Louise!

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Black beach, Southern Iceland

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Skรณgafoss 100

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Sognsvann Sognsvann is the name of the lake only five minutes away from my house in Oslo.

I often went there to run, take pictures or fly my drone. Me and my friends had many bonfires under the sky of stars there. It was a calm and peaceful lake, a great place to clear your head and enjoy the nature. That is why I dedicate this last chapter to the three seasons I experienced at Sognsvann.

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Summer 107

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Autumn

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Winter 115

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“Seek Discomfort”

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The END

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