2012.09.25 - Day 5 (Tromsø)

Day 5 of the trip consisted all of sightseeing around Tromsø. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, I headed to the town's tourist office to get some recommendations on what to do. I especially was interested in any Northern Lights excursions. The lady unfortunately wasn't very helpful and basically indicated that it was too early in the season for Northern Lights tours.

After some disappointment, I took a bus across the bridge from the island part of Tromsø to the mainland. From there, there is a cable car that travels to the top of a mountain where you can take in breathtaking views of the city. On the way to the funicular, I passed the "Arctic Cathedral" which is an interestingly shaped church that is one of main landmarks in Tromsø.

View of the front of the Arctic Cathedral

Side view of the Arctic Cathedral

At the bottom of the cable car

Views of Tromso from the top of the mountain

More Tromso views

Still more views from the top of the mountain :-)

Picture of me with the beautiful Tromso surrounding area in the background

Almost done with the mountain views

...and last one from the top of the mountain

While up on the mountain viewing the area, I ran into an English couple who had told me that they had gone on a Northern Lights tour the previous night and had seen spectacular views. I got the tour information from them and decided that on my way back to the city center of Tromsø on the island, I was going to go back to the tourist info center and inquire again.

When I went back to the tourist center, I asked again about the tours. She indicated that the one that the English couple had told me about was full. Getting a bit frustrated since she didn't even mention it earlier when I was there, I asked about any others since I had seen an advertisement for one when I was walking around the town. She told me there was another tour, but that one wasn't going until the weekend. I then had to pry until she told me of a third one. I finally got that this third tour was in fact running and had availability and that they had experienced beautiful sights of the Northern Lights the day before as well. I finally got the tourist info lady to book it for me. I wasn't sure why she was withholding all this info from me, but needless to say, she's getting a bad TripAdvisor review from me :-).

Since the Northern Lights tour didn't leave until about 7:15pm, I still had time to putz around the city. Someone had recommended the Polaria, the world's most northerly aquarium. "Housed in a very distinctive building that represents ice floes that have been pressed up on land by the rough seas of the Artic", the outside of the building was the only thing interesting about this aquarium. I only allotted myself an hour for this museum, but I ended up walking out after 30 minutes. There were very little displays and only a few tanks holding fish. There pride and joy seals was disappointing as well as they were housed in a small uninviting tank in the back of the aquarium with no windows or any links to the outside world (...poor seals).

The Polaria Aquarium

Some North Atlantic/Arctic fish that I thought looked cool

When I was done with the Polaria, I grabbed some food and headed back to my hotel to get ready for the Northern Lights tour. As the tour grew closer, I found myself more and more excited of the thought of seeing the magic of the green lights of the aurora borealis. The sky looked a bit cloudier then the previous day, but like the day before, it looked like the clouds were beginning to break. I walked over to another hotel where I waited to be picked up by the tour company. When the tour company driver finally arrived, I found that I was going to be accompanied by two other gentlemen. As I boarded the tour van, I realized one of the two guys was an American. We quickly began chatting and discovered he was from California who had traveled on a cruise ship up in the Arctic and was stopping in Tromso for hope of some Northern Lights activity.

After about an hours drive outside of the city, we arrived at a remote dark destination. We were greeted by what we found out to be the tour driver's (and company owner) daughter. Unlike her father, she spoke perfect English. She brought us to a tent-like structure where we were going to wait in warmth as it got darker in hopes of the Northern Lights. As we got inside the tent-like structure, we discovered that it was quite nice with a fire going in the middle, a ventilation system over it, and benches covered in reindeer skin surrounding the fire.

We sat down around the fire and introduced ourselves as we were served coffee or tea and some cake. I learned that the third gentleman in the group was from Greece. The four of us (me, the other American, the Greek and our guide) quickly bonded and were soon sharing stories and laughter. As we waited for it to get darker, the anxiety grew as we were told of the activity of the previous night. We went outside the tent every now and then to stare up at the sky. As we were on yet another Arctic island, the tent was about 100 m from the ocean. We would head down closer to the water where it was darker in hopes of seeing anything. As we looked up, there was a big clear opening above us, but clouds surrounding. We would go through a rotation of standing outside looking up for the Northern Lights and heading back into the tent to warm ourselves when we couldn't take the cold anymore (my toes quickly got cold and seeing that I still had four months of the sabbatical to do a lot of walking, I erred on the side of caution as to not get frostbite :-).

As the night passed on, we did see some green glows, but the clouds moved in and we finally had to come to the realization that we were not going to get the same show that everyone had talked of the previous night. After about 4 hours, we finally had to depart without seeing the magic that I had so hoped for. While I was disappointed about not seeing the Northern Lights, I still enjoyed myself being in a remote part of the Arctic circle in this cool tent with good conversation and good company.

Tent-like structure where we waited in warmth for the Northern Lights

The fire that awaited us in the middle of the tent

Playing with some reindeer antlers in the tent

When I finally arrived back into Tromsø, I noticed that the sky had begun to clear up. When I went to bed, the sky had completely cleared up. Unfortunately, the light pollution from Tromsø sometimes prevents seeing the Northern Lights. I went to bed thinking..."if only we had waited another hour or so" :-(. Seeing the Northern Lights in its majesty was not meant to be for me on this trip. However, even seeing the green glow and the experience of waiting to watch it helped me sleep a bit better.