When one typically thinks of Norway, images of majestic landscapes and fjords usually spring to mind. This past April, cinematographer Lila Baghzouz and 8 friends travelled to Norway for 2 weeks of exploration to create this beautiful travel video below that captured everything they saw along the way. We got to catch up with Lila after her trip to find out what about Norway was so inspiring to her.

What was your main reason for going to Norway?

I was in Iceland just 2 months prior to this trip and usually like to change the climate of a destination a bit, especially when the trips are this close together. In this case, a group of friends and I were throwing out ideas for another trip and the destinations went from the tropics, to Croatia, Germany, and before I knew it, I was back in the Arctic Circle again going to Norway. Norway was breathtaking to say the least.  Almost fairy-tale like. The scale of everything was a proportion that I never got used to – mountains so tall that the clouds looked like they were constantly at half-mast. In those two weeks, I went through more bridges and tunnels that I have ever experienced in my lifetime. Humans investing in laborious infrastructure just to get from one side to the other, over and over again. The landscape was the most beautiful obstacle course i’ve ever seen.

What was your itinerary while you were there?

We travelled for 2 weeks and started in Oslo. We drove to Bergen and the trip took 3 hours longer than expected since we were constantly stopping to shoot photos and fly the drone. In Bergen, we explored the town and went on a half day hike outside of town. I crashed my drone here and thought I had ruined it for the trip.

We then drove back to Oslo and took a historic route that led us to pass the Borgund Stave Church. Hard to believe we almost missed out on this gem.

From Oslo, we flew up north to Lofoten and spent the majority of our trip there. Our house was in the very charming, very fishy (literally) town of Reine.

The backyard of our rental house had an enticing dock. Eight of us jumped off this dock for our very first polar plunge experience. It wasn’t nearly as bad as i anticipated and we even went in for round 2. We spent the remainder of our time in Lofoten exploring the area by car, foot, and drone.

What did you find most inspiring about Norway?

The thing about Norway is that the sights I enjoyed the most were usually en route to our destinations – things that weren’t already pitched to me in internet photographs. The routes we drove had more tunnels and bridges than i’ve encountered in a lifetime. We were constantly crossing over bodies of water (fjords!) and driving through mountains that were too massive to drive over or around. Each time our car emerged from a tunnel, the light would bring us a new majestic environment, one after another. I jokingly compared this phenomenon as watching a television that only subscribed to nature channels, and each time we went into a tunnel, we were changing the channel.

During the trip, did you have an inspirational moment you captured in this film?

@1:11, We scaled this peak and out of the 9 of us, only 4 of us made it to the top. I had an orbital shot in mind that I was really hoping to capture but my fingers nearly froze when I was piloting the drone so I felt like I had very little control over it. Needless to say, how could you be disappointed about anything when you feel like you’re on top of the world? Oh yea, except you can’t feel your fingers so you have to rush down while imagining them falling off. After looking at the footage that night, I was pleased with how the shot came out and had to include it in the film.

What were some of your favorite locations you got to travel to while you were there?

Near Reine is a small town called, Å. I went for a walk and noticed a narrow ravine from the trail leading to the ocean. I flew the drone through it very precariously until I was sure I could use at least some of the footage. I then took the drone over the top of a nearby hill and discovered a lake that resembled a mirror. I landed the drone and trekked over the hill myself to witness it first hand. Words cannot describe how I felt when I reached the top of that hill.