Tromsø, Norway - Arctic Beauty

Tromsø, a city in northern Norway is a major cultural hub above the Arctic Circle.
I'm aware that I may tend to use various forms of the word 'nice' a lot, but this part of the world is seriously one of the most beautiful places that I've ever set foot on in my life thus far.

Not only so, the activities, food and people around really shows you how fascinating our world really is. All you really need to do is explore! Spent a total of 5 days here - from 6/1/18 to 11/1/18.

Tromso city centre (ripped from google images)

The backdrop of the city is literally made out of majestic mountains. Where else can you find a cityscape view like that?

Norwegian fishing boats

I even remember being asked by one of the crew members of a boat in the morning to help undo the rope at the pier, sending them off into the sea.

Dog Sledding

Best day ever. Only now am I able to truly comprehend why people love dogs so much. These adorable animals over at the Tromsø Villmarkssenter were so affectionate, friendly and cute. Not only so, they enjoyed being petted and cuddled with. 

 Dog kernel

After a quick introduction of the place, we were all assigned to a musher (guy behind the sled) and our 'pulling crew' for the day. According to my musher, the pack that I got happened to be a strong one. Wheew, count my blessings.

Me & my musher

Me in the sled

The crew looking all ready to go

My musher, Matthias talked to me about the dogs and how these sled-dogs (mostly huskies, malamutes & greyhounds) all had an instinctual nature to 'work' and that they enjoyed pulling the sleds.

Also, each dog in the pack had a certain role to play. The one in the front is the 'pack leader' that the musher gives commands to - what he does, the pack follows. The other two at the rear are the 'power houses' of the group and are typically the most physically able ones. As for the rest in the middle, they are there to contribute their strength and motivate everyone through their barks/howls.

The sled ride itself was very smooth, owing to the favourable weather conditions we had that day. The skies were clear and the snow was at a pleasant height.

 Off we go!

Working hard!

Beautiful weather

Video: 

(Click the embedded video above to see dog sledding in action)

My musher took a couple of photos of me interacting (or at least trying to) with the dogs.

Here's my take on what they're 'probably' thinking about:

 

'Who is this human?'

'Hey, why you grabbing my mate's ass?!'

'Hi camera guy!'

'Ah...'

'Gimme some!'

'You okay there buddy?'

This experience gave me a real warm and fuzzy feeling inside. It's no wonder why people actually say that 'dogs are a man's best friend'. I felt it with all my heart.

Northern Lights

Named 'Aurora Borealis', the northern lights is an aurora display caused by charged particles emitted from the sun colliding with atoms and molecules in our atmosphere, resulting in countless little bursts of lights.

Did my northern lights chase with Guide Gunner, a very stand-up and honest Norwegian guy that simply lives to share his love of the northern lights with the world.

He was very realistic and detailed on explaining on the sighting chances of the northern lights and even under unfavourable weather conditions, he'd persistently drive over 200-300km up till the Russian border/into Finland to look for clear skies. Not only so, he was also in constant contact with a few of his colleagues stationed around the country to update him on conditions at several locations, before heading there himself. This gave him more 'control over the weather conditions'. 

Even while the group's staking out, he would prepare a bonfire and offer drinks and food to everyone - an amazing and hardworking guide.

 

Stakeout campfire, made by our guide

Temperatures outside of Tromsø was around -15°C as well, so remember to dress warm.

Trying to catch a glimpse of them required a substantial amount of patience. It's no wonder why it has also been sometimes called the 'elusive northern lights'. I remember consciously checking both the weather and auroral activity forecasts prior to the chase.

Here are some photos that I've manage to take over the two nights. Regretted slightly for not having a better camera, but I guess you just make do with what you have.

First Night:

 Slight glow reaching for the skies

 Band across the trees

 Random bands crossing

Aurora activity here was pretty low, even though we managed to find a spot with clear skies.

Through the naked eye, the beams here were actually barely visible. It's kinda like a very faint green or grey band across the night sky. The camera did help to pull more of the 'green' portions out with a lower shutter speed setting. (I guess that's kinda the reality of northern light pictures everywhere, unless you get a really lucky display)

Second Night:

Tonight brought us to the border between Finland and Sweden. In fact, we literally set up camp right on top of the snow and frozen waters of Sweden. Take several steps and your back in Finland again.

We were very lucky today, many thanks to the experience of our guide, Gunner who knew exactly where to go that day. There was a 360° view of clear skies and the stars all gleamed down on us with radiant brilliance.

We were staking out in the area when the sky lit up and started dancing for us lucky travellers. In fact, according to Gunner, it was the strongest activity that he'd seen for the week.

There were literally bands across the skies that connected the two horizons as well. It was the most alluring thing that I've seen across the myriad of stars strewn all above us. The lights also seemed so close to us that it felt like we could reach out to them.

The spectacle took all our breaths away.

 Aurora bands reaching out into the sky

 Straight bands

Curve bands straight out of the horizon

Felt so lucky to have nature blessed us with such an amazing display to see. All previous attempts, efforts and even frustrations attributed to finding these elusive northern lights was all worth it in the end! (*cough* no lights at all *cough* for the whole week in Iceland *cough*)

Guide's Photos for the northern lights:
(with a more professional camera) 

 First night (guide's photos)

 

 

 

 

Second night (guide's photos)

Taking a photo of someone in front of the northern lights seemed pretty complicated. The guide had to tweak his camera settings, flashed a light at you and got you to stand still for five seconds before both you and the northern light background would appear in the picture.

Any attempts at doing this with my TG-4 would just leave me with a very black silhouette, or if flash was used, then a totally white background would be seen, without the northern lights.

It might be good idea to bring a DSLR to properly capture the lights in action with your friends and family.

Ice Dome

The Ice Dome in Tromsø is built around Tamok Valley and is ran by Lyngsfjord Adventures. The place was freshly built and was only 3 weeks new when I got there.

Apparently, construction of the ice domes begun at the start of the polar night. Also, a lot of effort is required to build one - I believe that they flew in lots of people around the world - from places such as China, Germenay, etc to specially build the place and carve out the various sculptures. 

There were also two ice bars in the area.

Welcome sign

Ice Bar

Vodkas

 Guide (v. pretty girl) pouring us drinks

Raspberry Bivrost vodka, served in an icecup

The complementary Bivrost vodka served was actually 40% alc. content, but it went down quite smoothly nevertheless. Also the fact that it was served in an ice cup gave it so much more charm.

Info: 'Bivrost' is a term that vikings in the past used for the northern lights.

The place also had an ice-themed 'accomodation area':

Ice bed

Getting comfy

It looks really interesting and fun at first, but we were told that after the novelty wears off, people who are at ice hotels would generally go to the receptionist and express their interest to go to a normal, warm room. It's gets either too cold or too quiet at night.

General area where the tables, chairs, counters were all carefully carved out of ice:

Common area

 Tables and chairs with reindeer hides

Some nice ice sculptures around as well. Apparently, all of them in the area were carved out in just 12 days.

Ice sculpture of Robert Scott

(British arctic explorer)

Ice sculpture of Roald Amundsen
(First guy to reach the South Pole)

Ice lynx sculpture

 Ice rabbit sculpture

 Ice wolf & polar bear sculpture

Ice eagle sculpture

Ice reindeer sculpture

The guide was telling us about how the owners had to pay 50,000 euros to the ice sculptors (mostly from China) to create these amazing pieces of work, that would just simply be left to melt in the summer. Total cost to build the whole area was a whopping 1.5million NOK.


The whole area was quite an intriguing experience, more so when your actually in a real enclosed area solely made out of ice. You could literally hear the deafening silence of the area if you kept your lips sealed.
 

Props to the guide, for taking such nice photos :)

It's quite a pity that these things will all melt away in the summer, but we were told that if they do decide to re-build again, they can always construct it differently. I guess the owners got that going for them.

Food

Lots of delicious stuff in Tromsø:

Salmone pasta

Assorted norwegian seafood

Reindeer stew

Baked clipped fish w/ bacon, broccoli, mash potatoes & apple cider

Info: 'Clipped fish' is where the locals hang the fish out to dry in the arctic air to give it a more  rich salty flavour before cooking.

 Arctic candy

Sushi delights

 Norwegian draft beer

Neptuno
(Pasta with red king crab, prawns & mussels)

Rib eye steak with red wine

Overall, I had a wonderful time in Tromsø. Beautiful place, friendly people, tasty food and loads of meaningful activities to do. Perhaps I might visit a different part of Norway some time in the future, only time will tell.

Pictures are up on Facebook and Instagram. Check 'em out if you can!


Edit: If your interested in my Norway - Trolltunga hike that I did 7 months later, click here.