The best adventure you can imagine for yourself! It wasn't just an internship in computer science where I could finally go in the direction I wanted (databases, data science), it was an adventure where I pushed my boundaries and met new people!
I always wanted to go to Ireland and when I saw Norway announced, I investigated it and fell in love with the country. In mid-September, the time had come, I packed my suitcase (way too full) and flew to Bergen. I brought clothes, a sleeping mat as well as a sleeping bag. Also, very important are hiking boots, a hiking backpack, and a rain jacket. Bergen is the city in Europe where it rains the most, but I was really lucky with the weather. Of course, there were many rainy days, but on weekends the weather was mostly good.
IAESTE Bergen found me a room at a family's house. The lease was for 3 months, but another IAESTE trainee was able to live there for the first half and I was able to live there for the second half. I shared the kitchen with the family, the bathroom only with their son. All in all, it was very interesting, as I also learned a lot about Norwegians themselves. The room was a bit outside Bergen (3 ½ hours on foot), but it only took 17 minutes to get to the city center by bus, thanks to the tunnels through all the mountains.
I worked at HVL (Høgskulen på Vestlandet) as an Applied Mathematics and Data Science intern. For the most part, I was allowed to work independently, and because I was in an open office with only international and local PhD students, I also had good company over lunch and at a games evening after work. The job itself was also very interesting, as I had a lot of freedom to carry out my tasks and to have productive discussions with the professor responsible for me in weekly meetings.
But the really good times started after work. Since Bergen is surrounded by seven mountains, I had firmly resolved to climb all seven. I climbed the first ones with another intern from the Czech Republic after work, but she left after 3 weeks. I did three on my own, which was nice though, because otherwise I wouldn't necessarily go into the mountains and go hiking on my own. It's a whole new experience. Also exploring the city and Bryggen with an E scooter is something I did a lot. There is an outdoor swimming pool by the sea called Nordnesbad, which was also a very nice experience.
On the weekends I mostly did hikes with overnight stays. The first weekend I was in Finse with three other IAESTE interns, there we stayed in a cabin and hiked to a glacier. My fitness was much worse than that of the others, some of them had been there for 2 months and had of course done a lot of hiking. But over the weeks I really noticed how it improved. On the second weekend we went to the mountain Bakkanosi and camped at the top, the sunset was very magical and we had pasta, pesto and wine. As the mountain is not very touristy, we were alone. The third and fourth weekends I explored parks in Bergen, a church, a castle and the surroundings of my accommodation. The fourth weekend we hiked up Gullfjellet and saw snow already, you could get there by bus for not so much money.
On my penultimate weekend, I went on a cabin tour with 4 Erasmus students from Germany/Austria, a trip I can definitely recommend. We walked 20 km in deep snow from one cabin in Finse to the cabin in Hallingskeid, where we were all alone and could see the northern lights at night.
I extended my stay because I had the opportunity to go to Stavanger. Four of us had an Airbnb and did day trips, to Preikestolen, where we waited 2 hours for the clouds to go away. That was definitely worth it! And to Kjerag, which was a really nice and adrenaline-filled experience. Luckily, the internship salary was also "Norwegian" and covered all my expenses and travel (which can be cheap because nature is free).
All in all, I can highly recommend Bergen and the nature, the people are also very nice. You get to know yourself in a new way and have the opportunity to experience a lot - I even got a tattoo!
