weekend with

A Snowy Trip to Norway With New Friends

Photo: Giselle Keena

Weekend With is an ongoing Instagram series that features people we like photographing places we’d like to be. Follow @thecut on Instagram to join in, and tag your photos with #weekendwith when you travel somewhere new.

This past fall in New York City, 22-year-old photographer Giselle Keena (@gisellekeena) made some new friends who were visiting from Oslo, Norway. When they invited her to visit them, Keena, who had never been to Scandinavia, jumped at the opportunity. Scroll down for her photos from the trip.

Photo: Giselle Keena

“My Norway trip was simple and perfect. It was two weeks before Christmas during my stay. I spent most of the days just walking through the city. Change of scenery is so refreshing, and usually what inspires some of my best work.”

Photo: Giselle Keena

“My favorite thing to do when traveling is to sit and look around while drinking a cappuccino. I ended up getting coffee from Peloton, pictured above, more than once. This was after an afternoon coffee, and Oslo was already just about dark. The sun sets by 3 p.m. there.”

Photo: Giselle Keena

“This was one of the days we were able to go up the more residential areas. I feel like whenever I travel I usually stay in the heart of the city, so it was super cool to see the houses in the hills. The view was incredible, too. Everything was kissed with fresh snow. I love the cold so this was a highlight for me.”

Photo: Giselle Keena

“Of course the city had its charm as well. The hidden side-streets covered in brick were quaint. I found myself not getting sick of searching through Oslo’s little ins and outs.”

Photo: Giselle Keena

“Both of these people are waiting for the metro tram, one of Oslo’s forms of above-ground transportation. I caught this one snowy night on film.”

Photo: Giselle Keena

“One of the best parts about visiting people in other countries is experiencing the culture organically. One time I stayed with a friend of a friend in Munich, Germany, and on the last night of our stay her parents made us an authentic German meal and I will never forget it. This was like that — my friends in Oslo introduced me to their friends and I got to have fun in apartment gatherings that I would never have been able to go to if I traveled on my own. So fun.”

Photo: Giselle Keena

“Winter walks trying to catch the bit of sunlight.”

Photo: Giselle Keena

“One of my friends there said, ‘One of the best parts of traveling to other countries is going to the grocery stores.’ It’s so true.”

Photo: Giselle Keena

“Taken in one of the friends’ apartment during one of the gatherings. Truly, so much fun.”

A Snowy Trip to Norway With New Friends