Hovedøya, a little island in the Oslo fjord

Hi there, Erasmus people!

Today I will tell you about something really cool - the islands in the Oslo fjord, mainly Hovedøya (the Norwegian pronunciation is absolutely crazy).

This is one of the Norwegian islands which are located in the fjord. You can see them from the port and from the Opera House. They´re not very big but it is nice to go see them. People actually live there! I guess they have adapted to their surroundings and learned how to be self-sufficient because there are no shops to buy things from. Imagine that!

The first thoughts that came to my head were abandonment and loneliness when I thought about the people who live there. I am not critical, though, because I admire those who live there, especially in the winter, wow!

One day in March we decided to go visit the islands.

To get to the islands you go on one of the ferries which stop on Oslo's port. All the islands are linked with this boat. I was surprised how quickly we got to the island!

The ticket for the ferry costs about the same the ones you need to go on the metro or the bus.

On the metro you can take the risk and go inside without paying but I don't recommend doing it on the ferry because there are constant control and checks. If you look like a student, I can guarantee a control! I remember once, the guy came to us and asked for our tickets. When he saw us looking for them, he told us it was fine and left. Lucky for us!

We waited for the ferry at the port, we got on and the first island was Hovedøya. We saw on the map that it was the biggest one so we decided to visit just this one. It took about 5 minutes to get there. It was quick, easy and comfortable. When we arrived, we walk along a pathway and there was still a bit of snow on it so we had to walk carefully.

We walked around between houses and discovered the ruins in the middle of the woods. We found a placard telling us that those ruins were an old monastery. We took some photos and continued ahead.

We were very lucky because as you can see on the photos the weather was really good. It was sunny and warm.

Afterwards, we went ice skating. We spent most of our time there. We enjoyed the weather, we took photos and had snowball fights. There were two mothers with their children spending the morning there, too.

The island was a small place and most of the area was filled with tall trees.

If you go to Oslo and have enough time, you should visit one of those beautiful islands. Their names are:

• Hovedøya
• Lindøya
• Bleikøya
• Rambergøya
• Nakholmen

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