This week we planned our own trip to Tromsø, in the North of Norway to see the northern lights! There were 14 of us travelling together on the trip all internationals.

Day 1:

We travelled to Oslo by train at 6am.. so everyone slept most of the way there! Unless you were sat near Roberto the loud Italian. When we arrived in Oslo we had a few hours to check out the sights, for most it was the first time so we did most of the touristic things like in any capital city.  We had been told that the kebabs from Oslo were the best in Norway so of course we had to try this for lunch, if i’m honest it wasn’t as good as the ones from home. In the evening we headed to the airport ready to fly off to Tromsø! The flight was one and a half hours so we were there in no time, on the way we kept our eyes out of the window to try and spot the northern lights but so far no luck. Once we arrived we could already tell the crazy temperature difference compared to the South! Outside the airport was already 2 metres of snow. We were staying on a camp site in cabins and they were beautiful in the most amazing location between the mountains! The people we spoke to here told us about how they have only 3 hours of sunlight at this time of year and in early winter they sometimes have no sunlight at all! It’s crazy how people can spend most of the day in darkness here. 

After we unpacked our things and settled it was around 12pm time to go hunting for the lights! There weren’t many people around the cabins so we just set off walking in a direction where there were less lights from the city. This was easy as we were quite far out anyway. We spent a good few hours walking around the area and waiting with our eyes in the sky. Just when we thought our luck was up we decided to go to bed only to finally spot the Northern lights on our way back! It was around 4/5am and they were amazing, definitely worth the wait!

Day 2:

This morning we were all so exhausted after waiting up so late, but we wanted to explore. After the traditional Norwegian waffles for breakfast we headed into the city. The first thing on our agenda was to visit the aquarium, this was really fun and we got to see the seals doing some cool tricks. In the afternoon we took a cable car up to the highest mountain. This was amazing, the view of the city was incredible even though it was so hard to stand in the wind storm. Even with 5 or 6 layers on here you could still feel the cold.. More beautiful Northern lights on top of the mountain, i really love this place! When we finally went back to the cabins we had a bbq while watching the lights again before going to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3:

Today we took a trip to a reindeer farm. We got chance to feed them if we managed to not scare them away, and we met the Sami people (the ones who look after and live with the reindeer). They told us stories about how they are brought up in this unusual way of living and how they survive through the harsh winters out here.

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening we had a game night in the cabins and bread and cheese for dinner.. i’ve never eaten so much bread and cheese in my whole life as i have this week! We didn’t bother sleeping until early in the morning as we knew we had to wake up early anyway to travel back to the airport

The next morning it was time to leave this beautiful place! Ready for our long journey back to Oslo and then to Kristiansand, i was really sad to leave and wish we had planned to have more time here. It has been the best!