Summer throwback

With it already being mid-august, my summer holiday has gone past a lot quicker than I expected it to.

Although I actually have over a month left, I am now back in Oslo and with grey skies everyday the summer feeling is slowly drifting away.

I don’t know if it’s a particularly British thing that summer holidays are so long at university, but I guess it’s more of a Norwegian thing that summer holidays are shorter. Apart from our last year in high school when we finish rather early, we usually finish around the end of June and school usually starts the third week in August. Universities in Norway actually start this week!

This year I was lucky/unlucky enough to have all my exams within the first week of the exam period - meaning that by Friday 22nd May I was free from university work until the new term starts in late September. As nice as it was to finish my exams, I was the first one in my flat to be ‘free’ from exams, and this obviously led to a lot of spare time.

The weather forecast for Southampton said sun, sun and more sun, and the Oslo forecast was saying rain and low temperatures, so I decided to not go home straight away and instead explore a bit of the south coast of England.

Thanks to living at the new Mayflower Halls, located around two minutes away from Southampton Central station, I basically just had to pick a location and go! I would really recommend arriving in Southampton early before term starts, or staying on late once term ends, so that you can explore. From Southampton Central there are direct trains to Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Brighton, Poole and other local places on the coast.

As soon as my flatmate Miranda finished her exams, we went on a day trip to Bournemouth.

We enjoyed Bournemouth so much we already know we are going back!

However, since I hadn’t ordered tickets back to Oslo until the 12th of June, I also had a lot of time to explore more of Southampton, and just go to places I usually don’t have the time to go to during term time. This included loads of trips to the docks and parks.

Celebrating my flatmate Milly’s birthday at Banana Wharf, Ocean Village.

Then the time came for me to leave Mayflower Halls and England…

Coming home and seeing my friends and family again was obviously really nice, especially since Oslo decided to stay sunny until I left for Bucharest!

 

I went on a Cabin trip to a place in Norway called Fredrikstad with these lovely ladies. (They will get very angry if I don’t refer to them as “beste chicksa” so, beste chicksa!)

Oslo sunset at … 10.30pm?! Yes, we get some long days here during the summer!

Boat trip on the Oslofjor.

My best friend Ina’s boyfriend came all the way from Minnesota, USA to Oslo! 

Cycling with my dad to the “beach” at Bygdøy here in Oslo.

And finally, a month well spent in Romania with my mum!

This pretty much sums up my summer until now! I hope you have had a lovely summer so far.

If you are starting at Southampton in September my next blog post will have some tips about our Open Days in September. Stay tuned!!

Alexandra