(This posted is written on 13th March 2023, I finally have time as the school term has ended and I really missed our Europe trip) *Look at that, I managed to update my travel journal till Day 11!
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| Last breakfast onboard |
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| The sun slowly rose up as we ate |
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| The ship called at this place call Finnsnes, it looked like a big city |
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| Looking through our window to the deck outside |
We went for breakfast at 9am and started savouring every moment left on the ship as we will reach Tromso at around 230pm and we'll say goodbye to Hurtigruten then. Except the night when we experienced seasickness, I've enjoyed every moment during this journey, but I guess the length of the journey was just right for us for a start and we had the chance to get down and explore places over the days. If we were out at sea for days and days, it might kill us. However, after this Hurtigruten experience, I was really keen to go for more, to Greenland, Iceland, Antarctica etc... more of the expedition cruises but it is quite pricey so... Sigh. I'm really keen in visiting Antarctica after visiting Norway but the cruise will take almost two weeks and I'm sure we'll get seasick for days over Drake's Passage, then P will kill me. In his words, it's a lot of money just to see penguins, polar bears, ice and snow. Not to mention the amount of money needed.
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| Went to Level 7 outdoor deck to capture the landscape |
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| The days are super short so the moon is waiting to come up again |
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| The view around us at that point |
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| Snow on deck due to the previous night |
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| Photos do not do justice to what we really saw |
The heavy snowstorm the previous day had subsided, or I should say we have sailed away from those extreme weather. So we went out on the deck on Level 7 to admire the landscape and to take more photographs, together with some of the other travelers equipped with very pro cameras.
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| Other travelers with us |
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| Lounging around again |
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| Buck and hot chocolate |
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| Love the norway village landscape |
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| Reached Tromso |
We actually packed up after breakfast and checked out from the room at noon, we put our luggages at the baggage room on Level 3 and then went out to take photographs. After that, we just chill in the lounge until it was time to end our journey at Tromso. We bought some drinks and snacks and I saw the beautiful landscape by the window, so I took many time lapse videos. The ship looked deserted and we took our time to go down after the announcement came that we have reached Tromso. It is a long stop as the ship will only leave in the evening so everyone is eager to get down. We waited patiently for the deck to empty out, got our luggages and alighted. Thankfully, the friendly crew helped us with our luggages as the gangway was rather steep and the port did not have a elevated walkway like Bergen. From what we saw, many passengers also alighted here with their luggages as it's the peak travel period for people to catch the Northern Lights in Tromso.
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| Standard hotel toilet |
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| Comfortable beds |
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| The room was spacious |
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| The view out of our window |
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Awesome view
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Our hotel is quite a big scale hotel just a short walk away from the walk. The Radisson Blu Tromso was just opposite our hotel but for a change we chose Scandic Ishavshotel at Tromso, I saw good reviews and when researching for a hotel, this was said to be almost the same as the Radisson Blu. There were good reviews about the breakfast and this is kind of important as we are spending 5 nights here so breakfast will be a thing. I think we kind of got sick of standard Norwegian hotel buffet spread after two weeks but we felt that the Radisson Blu had better food based on their Oslo and Bergen branch. Anyway, it was not cheap to stay in either of these, especially as we are spending five nights here. Oh well...
After resting in the hotel for a few hours, we drag ourselves out to look for a shop to book the lights chasing tour. We were worried that it will be in high demand and the slots would run out fast. We downloaded an app that showed the chances of catching the NL over the next few days at Tromso were relatively high. We went to this shop along the main street call Northern Lights as I saw a video recommending one of the tour providers when doing my research. The lady at the counter was really friendly and unfortunately she said the tour for the next day is fully booked for that particular tour vendor and we can only go two nights later. The predictions for the chances for seeing the NLs are pretty good so we just have to cross our fingers and wait for the night. She added to just keep a lookout and lookup the sky and I didnt know at that time but those words were GOLD.
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| Cute little shops |
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| Said to be northernmost BK |
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| Christmas tree right at the centre of the city |
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| Quaint little shops or restaurants along the docks |
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| The other side of the dock overlooking Storsteinen |
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| Norwegians always have those lights in their windows |
Actually I was hoping to go for the NL chasing tour as early as we could so that *touchwood* if we failed, we can book another tour before we'll leave the city. However, as things went quite well in a way, we spent the last two nights super nuah-ing in the hotel and only left the room to look for dinner. We were too lazy to really tour much, I think it's partly due to the fact that the sun had not risen for many days in this part of the world and being in darkness for days got to us. Of course, it's also because it's already two weeks into our trip and we are getting tired and lazy. I cant remember exactly how much I paid for the NL tour, but as like everything in Norway, it was not cheap and I vaguely remembered it was $140+ SGD per pax. Some other activities people do in Tromso during winter were Sami people and deer herding tour, snowmobiles and huskies ride etc... but we were not too keen in those because of the cost and we are just so lazy! :P
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| Cloudy night, not so cool for NL but the view across was stunning |
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| The bridge leading us to the arctic cathedral and the Storsteinen |
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| The Radisson Blu and Scandic signs from the other side |
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| P loved this shop so we came back for dinner the next day |
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| The smallest bar in the world, which was quite famous |
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| Hard Rock Cafe |
We were wandering around the town for two hours and got really hungry, as always I was waiting for P to finish taking photos around the place and make up his mind for our dinner. I'm really not choosy food and we actually saw many cosy restaurants selling stuff that I like but I knew P would not enjoy some of those food like sushi and raw sashimi (I did not know it's a thing in Norway but it do make sense and salmon are largely from Norway). Tromso is really a big city filled with visitors so there were tons of eateries. We put on the snow cleats as the streets are really covered with snows and those things on the shoes were a godsend and gave us great security. We saw someone slipped when walking down a slopey sidewalk. There were not many people with those on but we did spot a few, especially foreigners. I wonder how the locals got used to walking on slippery snow and they were really walking real fast and steady. I kind of love the crunchy sound the snow cleats made on the snow and it reminded me of my horseshoes days in secondary school.
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| Thai food! Yummy... |
Just next to the Hard Rock Cafe, there was a thai food restaurant and we immediately felt we need to have asian food after so many days. I definitely would love the hearty beef pho in this weather and P was craving for his favourite fried rice. It was not cheap to eat here and I think it might have cost us 50 SGD or more in total, but we did come back two nights later for another meal as it's real yummy authentic asian food since the chefs are really Thai and asians. There were always other patrons when we there so it's considered reasonably priced at this part of the world.
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| Lady NL showed up across us on the mountaintop |
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| Look at those, it was really amazing |
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| Took as many photos and videos as we could |
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| Hand freezing cold without our gloves |
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| Happy beyond words |
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| Nordlys and snow capped mountain |
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| Magnificient |
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| We stood there for quite some time until its gone |
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| Goodnight Tromso |
Something magical actually happened after we left the Thai restaurant. We were making our way back to our hotel but we kind of lost our way, I remember our hotel was facing the dock so we walked back to the waters and just walked along the shoreline. Then. OH. MY. GOD. I saw something moving in the skies and asked P to take a look, asking him if that is the Northern Lights we were here for. After holding up our phones to take some photos. we confirmed it. The streets were pretty deserted at that time so only a few tourists were like us, stopped dead in our tracks, with eyes peeled in the skies.
Our hands were freezing taking photos without gloves but we stood there for a long time until they faded. It was not like the NL we have expected as it was a greyish hue rather than striking green we've seen all the time, and it's much more obvious when looking at it through the phone screens. But I guess it must be strong enough to penetrate through the clouds as cloudy covers were said to affect the viewing. We were really happy to catch it the very first night we got to Tromso. I did not know it at that time, but I kept peering out of the hotel window hoping to catch more of it and then I googled and realised we were facing the wrong direction and NLs always appear from a certain facing only.
Prior to our trip, I was watching some travel videos researching about our trip and came across these two Youtubers, I loved their presentation as they were very sincere. Tom Thornton also highlighted my thoughts about the NLs in one of his videos. Are most of the videos and photos we saw with the gorgeous lights just a huge scam? I was kind of disappointed after the whole trip, but more about that later after my NL tour.
This video was the first one I saw regarding Hurtigruten, he did not go as far as Tromso but I did my research regarding the cruise liner after watching this.
This video was the one we followed closely when choosing a NL tour service, there seriously were more than a hundred of these and its really hard to choose since its so pricey, we went with this as we felt the reviews were sincere and genuine.
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