Tromsø, Norway – Irony in the Arctic Circle

Tromsø, Norway

So, in the midst of my visits to all these peace centers, Valerie and I flew to Tromsø, almost the northernmost point of Norway, well within the Arctic Circle. Two funny, ironic things about it; one on me, the other, well, on higher powers.

The one that is on me is I had never heard of Tromsø, I found it just by Googling good places to see the aurora borealis. A number of possibilities arose, but, needing to be in Oslo and Helsinki on either side of the trip, and wanting a convenient airport, I needed something relatively easy. Tromsø it was.

Tromsø, I imagined, was a remote, sleepy Arctic Circle town on the far northern coast, probably like a fishing village, where we could do rough excursions into the wilderness to see the aurora. Though we knew it was October, not January, we also knew it could be cold and windy. So we bought clothes that would keep us warm if the temperatures plummeted to 30 below zero and we were buried under an avalanche.

It wasn’t until we got here that I realized that Tromsø has the major regional airport, the regional hospital, The University of Tromsø (The “Arctic University of Norway,” the northernmost university in the world, ranked #512 out of 20,966 universities in the world) - over 100 resident nationalities, very chic shops and restaurants, and a population of over 70,000. When people starting settling here centuries ago, the cod was so plentiful, and fishing so lucrative, that it made it one of the richest cities in Norway, known as the “Paris of Norway.” The women wore Paris fashions (albeit warm ones) and the elite traveled here as a destination city.

 
Late 19th century Tromsø schoolteachers

So much for my sleepy fishing village. A large, modern, thriving town, wifi everywhere and nice stores, and incredible natural beauty all around it. I no longer wonder why people would want to live up here.

Second ironic thing – we planned this trip to see the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights, and booked a late night excursion to the middle of nowhere to best see it. Where did we go? See the map below – the little blue circle on the top of the big map is Tromsø, and the cutout shows where our guide, Hans, took us to see the lights, Kvaløya Island. A lovely crew of Val and I and six international travelers - from China, South Africa, the Philippines, and so on. We camped for a few hours at the base of the inlet at the red circle in the cutout.

Tromsø sits almost at the northernmost point of Norway, within the Arctic Circle, and we traveled from there to Kvaløya Island for our aurora borealis adventure.

It was windy and cold, and Hans built us a small fire. He was a delightful guide, eager to please, always checking on our desires and welfare. He is also an excellent professional photographer, and so he took shots of us and the lights.

Our camp and the Northern Lights behind us (picture by Hans Markus)

Seeing the lights was wonderful, special, especially so far north.

A spectacular show, courtesy of the night sky (picture by Hans Markus)

Val and Paul looking dramatically off into the lights (picture by Hans Markus)

Just one problem. As great as it was – and the journey and the experience was 2/3 of the greatness – it was the DAY AFTER the aurora dipped into the United States, and people started sending around the pictures they took in Connecticut, Illinois, and so on just as spectacular as what we saw. With colors we didn’t see. We had to travel to the ends of the earth to see what we could have seen from Springfield, Illinois. But traveling to the Arctic Circle was worth it on its own.

Life is different up here. People travel from everywhere - our taxi driver was from Afghanistan, Hans was from Estonia, our waitress was from Argentina. The winter is long, and you are pretty far away, though these days just a short plane ride gets you to major cities like Oslo, Helsinki, or Stockholm, or even into mainland Europe. But there is a richness, a starkness, and a singular beauty to this area. I loved it here.

Off to Helsinki. Farewell, beautiful Tromsø.