Norway. November. Polar night. Why not?
We jumped on the plane after a whirlwind month of visitors whose names ALL began with J. I was tongue tied for an entire month. Special mention to Jojo, Judy, Joe and also my friend Julie who took us on an impromptu tour of the island.
The weather was about -5 degrees celsius when we got off the plane in Oslo, extreme layering took place immediately, followed by a long silence between Brad, Jojo and I. I am pretty sure we were all thinking the same thing, "why on EARTH would we come to Norway in winter...by choice?!".
...No one said a word until we made it to the warmth of our airbnb...
A day of museum visiting, reindeer meat sampling, Norwegian salmon eating, ridiculously expensive beer drinking and early sunset photography lay ahead of us. One visit to the Fram museum in Oslo and naturally, being an ENFP personality, I now want to become a polar explorer. Cute sled dogs, open seas, northern lights, penguins, seals, walruses, super cute winter jackets, months of no sunshine... What's not to love?
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| Polar explorers |
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| Viking Ship Museum, Oslo |
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| Norwegian explorers outside the Fram Museum, Oslo |
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| Akershus Fortress, Oslo |
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| Changing of the guard, Akershus Fortress |
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| Sunset at 3pm, Oslo |
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| 3pm sunset selfie |
Day 3. We arrived into Tromso, "the capital of the Arctic", got in a car equipped with winter tyres and headed out to Sommaroy, along the edges of frozen fjords and snow covered mountains. Jo and I certainly enjoyed the drive, even if Brad was holding onto the steering wheel for dear life with eyes the size of saucers.
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| Frozen Fjords along the way to Sommaroy |
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| The icy roads |
And so, our hunt for the northern lights began. We had stocked up at the supermarket - 3 days worth of food and beer cost us more than it does for me to live for 3 weeks in the Canary Islands. We also had Settlers of Catan with us; luggage space well filled.
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| A one-way bridge connects the island of Sommaroy with the mainland |
In the little sleepy town of Sommaroy with its 300 inhabitants, whom we saw nothing of, we decided to take a local whale watching tour. As we went to board the tiny boat, Brad and Jo (who both get violently seasick) assumed this boat would take us to the bigger boat in which we were to take the actual whale watching tour.
They were wrong.
We suited up in some warm, buoyant, amazingly fashionable overalls under the instructions of our tall burly captain and headed straight out towards Greenland, just the four of us. Full throttle.
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| Our boat & captain |
Well, as soon as we got to our destination, all thoughts of sea sickness were swept aside by pods and pods and PODS of Orcas and Humpback whales. My jaw fell to the ground and remained that way for the entire time we were there. I have never seen anything like it in my life. The Orcas were chasing these little birds that swam, and the humpbacks were chasing the herring.
The humpbacks even herded up the herring in packs, before blowing bubbles and then jumping up to catch them in their mouths. We were surrounded, and even our captain was absolutely loving it.
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| Bucket list dreams come true! |
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| Not quite quick enough to get them in focus, but you get the picture!! |
We all fell over on the icy footpaths a few times, the funniest part being that once you fell, you couldn't get back up without looking like you were attempting some sort of elaborate break dance move. And after a few beers, it certainly wasn't the most graceful sight.
We were all laughing until we found out that Jo had in fact broken her arm in the process. When we delivered her to an empty, very organised looking Emergency Department (it was so quiet that we had to check a few times that we were actually in the right place), we did not expect to pick her up with a cast on her arm. I think this is the last time Trevor will leave her in our care.... our bad.
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| Our patient |
As luck would have it, aurora activity was at a monthly low for our trip, which had been booked months in advance. The whole month of November prior to us arriving had seen magnificent displays - all of which I had been following on line. I mean, what are the chances. To top that off, the weather decided to close in. Meaning that, even if there was aurora activity (which there wasn't), we wouldn't be able to see it anyway.
We sat out in the car for hours on end through snow and rain storms, watching the skies just WAITING for the Northern Lights to pop out at us. Nothing. We googled all the best places to watch them and drove around a little bit.
Nothing.
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| Freezing in the car, waiting out a snow storm - boredom sets in while waiting for the lights to appear |
We retreated back to civilisation in Tromso, where the temperature was a mild 2 degrees celsius. There, we made the most of the 1 hour of daylight by running/sliding on the ice around to museums, Christmas markets and the local brewery.
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| The northern lights specialty beer - the keg ran out as they poured my pint. And so our northern lights curse continued... |
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| Luckily, it also came in a bottle! (an AU$15 bottle) |
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| An anniversary beer at the Mack brewery, Tromso |
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| Tromso cathedral in the blue twilight at 2pm. |
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| White Christmas in Tromso |
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| Tromso Ice Cathedral in the distance |
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| Tromso Waterfront |
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| Waterfront selfies |
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| Christmas Markets, Tromso |
We finally bit the bullet and took a tour out of Tromso with a guide who watches the forecasts/aurora activity and drives around chasing the northern lights. The weather forecast was horrible and so were the aurora activity predictions.
Well, the tour was worth every single penny. On our 1-year wedding anniversary, we finally saw the northern lights!
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| Photo care of 'Enjoy the Arctic' tours |
Jo was stuck in the Emergency department that night, so had to go the next night, and was treated to an even better display! We actually saw the lights from our hotel spa that night, too. Aaaaamazing.
And so began my new found addiction to the northern lights. I thought you were meant to tick things off your bucket list and be done with it... Well, I already want to go back - anyone want to come with me?!
Until next time, northern lights!
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| Flying out over the fjords from Tromso |
I have been dying to go to the Northern Lights!! Next time I am coming for sure!! X
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