Personal story by Julia Atkinson
Before coming to the remote Norwegian mountains, I blocked out the hum of San Diego city traffic by following the instructions of my meditation app instructor. It told me to imagine myself immersed in nature every morning while breathing slowly in and out. Today, sitting cross-legged on a gazebo overlooking a rushing, teal-hued glacial river, I don’t have to imagine meditating in nature.
Flanked by stark, black mountains on all sides, I’m staying at Arctic Coliving’s Voss Mountain Lodge in rugged western Norway. Birds sing over the sound of ice cracking and melting down Mjølfjell mountain to stream into the Kleivelvi river. In the month I volunteered and worked remotely from the lodge, the sounds of city sirens and car horns became a distant memory.
A new coliving space in western Norway
This summer, Voss Mountain Lodge transformed into a coliving space for people to live, work remotely, and explore the mountains. A steep walk down from the Bergen train line’s Ørneberget stop, the lodge’s three main buildings lie next to the Raundalsvegen, or “Raun Valley Road” in Vestland county, Norway. The accommodation is located at the end of the 16-mile valley, and the lodge has a long history of bringing international travelers together. First completed in 1939, the lodge was the first volunteer-built hostel in Norway and originated as an international peace project.
The latest transformation honors the lodge’s international roots and introduces coliving. As the inaugural community resident, I worked a few hours per week setting up workspaces, cleaning the pool and filling it with clear, fresh river water, and organizing kitchen amenities to get the lodge ready for people planning to stay for longer. The rest of my time was free for remote freelance writing work and exploring Voss’s hiking trails, lakes, rivers and incredible scenery.
A town built for mountain adventure
Known as Norway’s adventure sports capital, Voss is a mecca for hikers, water sports junkies, and cyclists. The town holds the record for the most medal winners per capita of any place in the world. Every June, the town hosts Extremsportveko, the world’s largest extreme sports festival, a weeklong extravaganza of palm-sweat-inducing sports from skydiving to gravel bike racing. During this time, international athletes descend on the town for a week of mountain sport adventure.
Voss’s mountains and rivers are accessible enough for casual adventurers, too. Most mornings I worked from my desk, the river pulling my gaze away from my computer screen. On sunny afternoons, I ended hikes to Lake Slondalsvatnet with cold-water dips, my body disrupting a paper-thin sheet of ice coating the water, and jogged back to the lodge for a sauna session. On weekends, I walked out the front door and onto hiking trails up Mjølfjell and Lojosanberget mountains, nodding at hikers I met along the way. I experienced stillness in the vastness of nature, with only the sounds of my breath and the crunching of my hiking boots in the snow disrupting the environment. Without the lines and shuttle buses of Norway’s busier hiking areas, I was a small speck in the landscape, with rivers snaking along the valley below, rocky trails underfoot, and snowy mountains in the distance. Here, I could be quiet for hours.
The friends you make when volunteering
After days outside humbled by nature, I bonded with adventurers from all over the world over shared dinners and during late-night sauna sessions. Two British Argentine hikers, a father and son, regaled me with stories from a year backpacking in South America. A Dutch teacher, ten days into a 5-month hike across Norway, shared her philosophy for a happy marriage; her husband was an avid cyclist while she loved long-distance hiking, so they split up every summer for solo adventures and come back together in the fall.
One night around the wood-fired pizza oven, two cyclists explained the ins and outs of Scottish bothy (mountain hut hiking) culture, leaving behind a handwritten list of trails and tips for Cairngorms National Park. Two fellow Americans convinced me to join them for a day trip to Flåm, one of Europe’s most scenic train trips. After a few days or weeks of conversation, I had invitations to visit other coliving guests in Scotland, Belgium and the Shetland Islands. Our shared love of exploring nature in remote, quiet places connected us to one another.
Plus, I made creative connections with other guests. A recovering Irish football journalist, two years into a cycling trip through South America and Europe, delighted me with book recommendations and story ideas for an upcoming trip to Central Asia. A Berlin-based adventure filmmaker pulled me aside for an impromptu camera tutorial, giving me pointers on how to improve my nascent photography skills. We stayed in touch after I left, commiserating over the difficulty of creative endeavors, exchanging tips and encouraging one another.
Norway’s Constitution Day
On May 17th, I took a break from country life and traveled to Voss’s city center to celebrate Norway’s Constitution Day, the country’s largest national holiday. The day honors the 1814 signing of Norway’s constitution, a big step in the country’s eventual break from Sweden to become an independent nation.
The morning started with a children’s parade; kindergartners and stroller-wielding parents marching down main street wearing traditional Norwegian national dress, or bunad, adorned with gold and silver jewelry. The intricate patterns on each bunad signify the regional home of the wearer and are worn at regional celebrations all over the country.
Post parade, I joined the locals in drinking beer and eating hot dogs encased in lompe (Norwegian potato bread). Local high school graduates drove around town in Russevans, painted sprinter vans decked out in celebration, blaring techno music. Friends and neighbors passed at sidewalk cafes, greeting each other with hands full of ice cream and cotton candy.
Remote working in Voss: what to know before you go
WiFi
The WiFi was strong enough for video calls, streaming, and emails. On busy days, the WiFi slowed down slightly, but not enough to interfere with getting work done.
Best time to visit
I was there for the shoulder season, mid-May to mid-June, which had a moody, rainy vibe. Over the month, I watched the landscape change from patchy snow to rolling green hills. While I found the slower spring vibe perfect for writing-intensive projects, for warmer weather and a more social vibe, try the higher season of mid-June to mid-August.
Affordable off-season living
Accommodation is more affordable than the Norwegian average, allowing for longer stays. My expenses were limited to weekly grocery store runs (there’s one store within walking distance that has a decent selection of staples) and train rides to nearby towns. The prices for fresh fruit and meat are a bit higher than in central Voss, but communal dinners and groceries from larger towns cut down on the cost.
Coworking and coliving setup
Unlike some city coliving spaces, Arctic Coliving has enough space for coworking as well as solitude. You can reserve desk setups ahead of time and there are plenty of nooks and crannies to work and read solo between the lodge’s three buildings.
Accessibility
The lodge is right below Ørneberget train stop and regular trains run to Bergen, central Voss or Flåm. The walk is steep, so I wouldn’t recommend bringing rolling suitcases, particularly if it’s been raining.
What Voss taught me about remote work
Reentering nomadic life after a long hiatus, my unspoken fear was that I’d be lonely on the road. The best part of my time at the lodge was the people I met, and being there reminded me how quickly you can make new friends while living together in a beautiful place. Freelance writing can be solitary and lonely at times, so it was lovely to be in community with others in the evenings.
What I didn’t expect was to leave the lodge with new friends and new skills, too. As a volunteer, I learned to balance my time working at the lodge with my own freelance writing work, plus exploring the countryside. By the end, I’d mastered how to turn on a Norwegian sauna (it’s harder than you’d think!), become a pro at lighting fires, and knew all the staples of a traditional Norwegian breakfast.
About the author
An award-winning freelance travel journalist, Julia writes stories at the intersection of outdoor adventure and solo travel. Read more about her travels on her Substack, An Adventurous Life.
