Trip to Tromsö: a City behind the Arctic Circle

I would say staying in Sweden is not complete without exploring Scandinavia country. I had been to Iceland and Denmark, and I guess it’s time to go to Norway. This trip to Norway is quite special as I solely went to Tromso, one of Norway’s northernmost city in the world.

At first, my main purpose was to see aurora with my own eyes. But then my travel-mates said Tromso is not only about aurora but also its breath-taking fjords. Well, it was indeed true.

There are 13 of us who divided into 2 flights. I was belong to the second flight and we took the flight in the night in which we transited in Oslo for an hour. I was tired enough due to transit before and was ready to get back to sleep during our flight to Tromso, but then the flight attendant announced there was aurora which we can see directly from our airplane. I remember that people were excited and started to look outside the window.

Looking outside from the small window of airplane, the aurora was flowed in dark sky with its thin green color in magical way.

First, it was so thin and concentrated on the right side of my window. But, slowly, it expanded and fulfilled the entire of my window view! It was so special as I feel that I was in equal position with the aurora, I didn’t even need to look up. I felt so bad as I can’t capture it with my camera.

As we landed, we joined our friends from the first flight. They were already in the small port near the Tromso, hunted the aurora. To reach the port, we went through the darkness with the help of flickering yellow light of housing on both side of snowy road under our car.

As we arrived, I did my best to endure the cold wind which feels like a smack of thousand needles to my face. If I remember correctly, the temperature that night was -15 degree Celsius.

I observed my friends who were busy capturing aurora with their camera and tripod. I brought them with me too but I hadn’t arrange it to capture aurora. In the end, I want back to the car, I did my best to set the camera with Yongki. Finally, we succeed in capturing aurora!! Though the photos were blurry, we were so happy!! We believed it’s a good start from another aurora hunting in the next day.

Here is the blurry photos ^^

 

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During our stay , we stayed in a house in the city center. The view was excellent! On looking out the window, we can see typical Tromso houses lined up in irregular line with the snow piled up in their surrounding.

As for night, we can see aurora above the flickering light of Tromso while we brew the hot tea and sit comfortably in the sofa. 

The scenery from the window of our house

 

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On the second day, we explored Tromso city centre. We visited Polaria, The Polar Museum, Arctic Cathedral, Tromso Port, and Tromso Catheral.

Part of Tromso City Centre

Then, on the night, we took the cable car to go to the hilltop. I though we would arrived exactly on the hilltop, but it wasn’t. We still have to went up as we like as there were some spots we could choose. I chose to be in the middle top while some of my friends went up more. Well, actually I really want to walk more but the hilltop was so icy and there was no lamp to help us.

We prepared our tripod and camera and looked up the sky, waiting the aurora to appear. I felt okay in the first 30 minutes, but after one hour and we only got a very thin aurora and I couldn’t bear the coldness any longer. This time, I felt like the thousand needles not just in my face but also on my feet and hand.

Well, even though the aurora hunting of this day didn’t end with satisfactory, at least we got to see the panoramic view of Tromso city.

The panoramic view of Tromso

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On third day, we went to Senja, an island on the west south of Tromso. The track to go there is famously known offering the North beauty. We started the journey at 10 when the sun started to rise. First, we went through the city center until we reached an area with no urban vibes at all, just the snowy mountains on the right side separated from us by the river and a bunch of trees with their dark branches on the left side.

The breath-taking view!!

Accidentally, we found the smoky lake under the sunset

Along the journey, we stopped every time we saw a breath-taking scenery. We used to stop for 5 minutes, enjoyed the scenery, and of course took the wefie!! Then, we arrived in our final destination, the famous fjord of Senja at 3 pm. As we arrived there, we already felt tired due to long journey. So, we just spent time there for 30 minutes before going back to our house.

Our wefie!!

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We arrived in our house at 7 pm. I thought we can rest a bit before we start our aurora hunting at midnight.

But, the aurora didn’t wait for us!! She came uninvited at 9 pm. She came so strong that we can saw her dancing elegantly in the sky just from the window of our house!!

Here you can see her rapid movement

We didn’t stop here, we went to frozen lake in outskirt of the city though it’s just 5 minutes from our house. Here, I did our best to get the photo each of us with aurora!! We successfully did it!! ^^

I did it!!

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On the fourth day, we went to Tromvik, another famous island offering famous fjord just like Senja. This journey more or less was similar with the journey to Senja. The scenery was undoubtedly exquisite!!

The fire under the snowy and massive mountains

Where will this road take us?

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Well, on the fifth day, we went back to our lovely city, Stockholm. Though my flight was delayed due to snow storm, the journey is still one of the best. One of the most memorable one!! I would like to go to here again!!

Here I will close my story with our picture together in Senja 😀