Kreamy Vegan

A little feast with my friends at a cozy cabin in Beitostølen, Norway

In September, it starts to get slightly chilly in Oslo, Norway. When it gets darker and colder day by day like this, I long for a cozy cabin stay and activities. Chilling by the fire with a blanket on, chatting, playing a board game, you know. Those little cabin things.

Day 1. Arrival in Beitostølen

My friends and I drove all the way from Oslo to the cabin in Beitostølen on Thursday evening. Our journey to this charming mountainous haven was filled with anticipation, and we couldn’t wait to explore all that this scenic place had to offer.

We arrived at our cabin when it was pitch black darkness. We had our phone light and found the cabin we were going to stay at. Although we couldn’t see anything else around, we could already smell the fresh air and hear the beautiful sound of the wind. When we got to our cabin, it was freezing inside. The floor was ice cold, so we went around the 3-story house, turning on every single heater we could find. The cabin was large with seven bedrooms, looked cozy with a wooden floor, wall, and ceiling, and most importantly, it had a sauna! Before going to bed, we put a fire in a fireplace. We sat by the fire in the living room and opened a bottle of well-aged whiskey. We cheered, and as we were having a small chat, the alcohol in us, the fire, and the heater warmed us up pretty well.

Day 2. Working and BBQ dinner

I had a wonderful night’s sleep. My husband and I stayed in a room where there was no heater but that was perfect. We got just enough warmth from the house and some fresh, cold forest air from the window! I woke up from the natural light from the window in the morning. I was excited to see outside, and I saw beautiful mountains from far away from us. The cabin was situated within a cabin village and there was a hiking trail right next to it.

I made coffee and went on my laptop to start working. I went to the second floor into an empty room as my office. It felt really cozy to work there! I felt more productive working in the cabin. Other people started to wake up in the morning and got to work as well. The day went by so quickly. I baked some pre-made bread in the oven and made some PB&J sandwiches. I used some apricot jam this time, and although that wasn’t my favorite, I fell in love with this new type of bread that I bought! I’m definitely going to eat more of that later.

Once we were all done with our work, we started on a barbecue for our dinner. I cooked some doenjang jjigae and prepared some salads while some guys were grilling. Some of us had meat, while the others, including me, got some vegan meat that was mouth-watering.

One of our friends was into making cocktails these days, so he whipped up this cocktail, Pimp’s Cup, as a start. We lit the candles on the dining table once we were done. We finished almost everything on the table! We continued our nights with more cocktails made by our bartenders, Whiskey Sour, and Tom Collins.

Day 3. Hiking Excursion to Melbytjednet

We were very lucky with the weather! The weather forecast predicted today would be a rainy day, but it was just a grey sky. So today, we set out on a thrilling hiking expedition through the magnificent forests in Beitostølen. We simply started with a trail that started from our cabin, which led us through lush meadows and wide fields where we could get some sun and see the overview of Beitostølen.

Among many other wishes, I was hoping to pick some berries during the cabin trip. To my pleasant surprise, there were so many berries on this land! I could find a lot of tyttebær, or lingonberries in English, here which is not very common. I’ve only seen mostly blueberry fields with some lingonberry bushes near the Oslo area, but this place had so many lingonberries scattered all over the fields. They looked like little red pieces of jewelry on the ground. As we were hiking, I picked some berries on the way. This was honestly one of the highlights of the day!

The hiking was successful, and I felt it was just enough exercise. After a delicious and satisfying dinner, we went out and took a look at the night sky… It was absolutely stunning. There were so many stars and I saw the Milky Way with bare eyes for the first time in my life.

Then I had the privilege to use the sauna by myself, as I was a woman without any swimming suits to wear in the sauna. I used this famous technique of changing my body temperature dramatically for my health. I was in a humid sauna of over 100 degrees, took a cold shower, and then repeated it five times. Wow, that felt amazing. After that beautiful relaxation, I felt drowsy all of a sudden! I felt like my shoulders and eyelids were getting heavy. So I went straight to sleep.

Day 4. More berry picking and back to Oslo

I woke up at seven in the morning by the natural sunlight, very refreshed. The first thing I had in mind when I woke up was that I wanted to see those berries again. I got up dressed and well prepared for the berry picking. I didn’t have to go so far from our cabin to find the berry field. It was within ten minutes of a walk, and I could find a whole field with blueberries, lingonberries, and crowberries.

It was serene. I could hear the birds chirping and a few people walking by periodically, but it was silent for the most part. There was frost on the plants, which meant the berries were also slightly frozen. When this happens, the berries have a slightly different taste than just fresh berries. But it was much easier to pick the ripe blueberries! I could take the berries with ease without popping the soft, ripe berries.

I felt like I truly learned the art of picking berries in the Norwegian forest. Breathing in the crisp morning forest air while picking berries that were shining from the morning’s golden sunlight was therapeutic. I was in the moment, absolutely loving every second of it. I was grateful that I was in the situation I was in.

I don’t know how long I was there—maybe an hour and a half. I ended up picking one kilo of berries! Combining the berries I picked the day before, it added up to one and a half kilos of wild berries. I didn’t know you could eat the crowberries so I didn’t pick them. But later I learned that it was possible, so next time I’ll be sure to pick crowberries in my basket too.

We packed our luggage and came back to Oslo later. It was a pretty good trip. I would love to go to Bessegen for hiking, which is very nearby. Until next time!

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