North to Norway

I have just seen the Northern Lights. I cannot believe how awesome they are. I even cried a little! Backtrack a few hours ... 4am today I was out of bed, trying desperately to ignore my winter cold as I headed to Stansted Airport for the three-and-a-half hour flight to the city of Tromso in northern Norway. Tromso is about as far north as you can fly directly from the UK and is within the Arctic Circle. This means we are hoping for a White Christmas!

I'm here with three Australian friends who are all based in London ... we figured we might as go somewhere for Christmas seeing as our families are tens of thousands of kilometres away!

Views from the plane of snow-capped peaks were a great prelude to our arrival in Tromso. Stepping out of the plane onto the icy tarmac (-3C), we were surrounded by mountains and twinkling lights from snow covered houses across the harbour. It was like a scene from a fairytale. The sensation of crunchy snow underfoot was entirely new and exciting.

We dumped our stuff at the hotel (which, by the way, has amazing views of city lights nestled beneath great mountains) before taking a look around. Thoughts of lunch in a cafe were quickly dumped in favour of takeaway from a convenience store after acknowledging that warnings of Norway being expensive were well founded, even by London standards! To give you an idea, a Burger King burger and a glass of beer in a pub were about £5 each (that's more than $10 Australian). Ouch! 

It is a little disconcerting to find yourself in the dark at 2:30pm, but that's what happens this time of year this far north. You don't even get to see direct sunlight because of the high mountains surrounding Tromso. I blame the early sunset for my run-in with a footpath - I managed to slip on the ice and fall on the ground!

In the evening we joined an organised tour out of town to attempt to see the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis. Some of our fellow tour-goers were heading to the same location for dog-sledding, so we also got to see about 200 Alaskan and Siberian Huskies up close. While playing with husky puppies, the guide pointed out a subtle, green cloud-like light in the sky - this was the Northern Lights. Sometimes this is as good as it gets, but gradually the light seemed to grow in intensity and size. Within about 30 minutes we were twirling around finding the lights in different parts of the sky. Then came the climax, as the lights began streaking, rippling and moving across the sky, appearing all around in different patterns and with subtle hues complementing the dominant green. A veritable feast for the eyes! It was an extremely moving and profound experience that brought at least two of us to tears. You need clear skies and a bit of luck, but I highly recommend trying to see them if you ever get the chance!