Tromsø

We came to Tromsø for the Northern Lights, which were fantastic, but little did we know that Tromsø itself would be so great.  It is the cleanest, friendliest and most quaint city I have ever visited.
Since we are here in winter - daylight is very short - perhaps 5 hours, and it is not full daylight - almost like dusk for several hours.   All the business' have kept the tradition of fire outside means they are open for trade.  These days it is mostly in the form of candles in elaborate holders, but the affect is the same - a welcoming and sweet tradition.

The cold is like I have never experienced it.  The first couple of days it was such a novelty that I didn't mind feeling cold no matter how many layers I wore.  But yesterday I couldn't go inside of any venue for fear I would never leave again to venture into the cold.  That is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but pretty close.

The tour we did to see the Northern Lights was fun, we ended up on the same tour as an English couple we meet in the oldest pub in town.  The offered to take a photo of us with the Polar Bear inside the pub (stuffed one) and from there we spent a couple of hours drinking and exchanging stories when we figured our we were going to be on the same tour.  It was fun.
The drive was about 2 hours to get from Tromsø city to the Finnish border.  We pulled over onto the side of the road and watched in awe at lights dancing in the sky for almost 2 hours.  First thing I will say is that the colours your eyes see are not as strong as the ones that appear on the camera.  We could see tinges of green but in the photos it was brighter and greener...if that makes sense.

I am so very happy that I saw them AND I get to cross something pretty significant off my list, but Chris and I both agreed we didn't need to see them again.  So for our last night in Troms - instead of chasing the lights again we would hang out in town.

We walked across the bridge that connects Tromsø mainland with the island that the main city is on.  The destination was the Ice Cathedral.  Since we were about an hour early to get inside we searched for somewhere to take refuge from the increasing cold.  It turned our we found the cheapest place to eat and we had a nice pizza Troms style - which included garlic sauce and chilli sauce as condiments on the side. (Tromsø is more expensive than even Paris - not only for eating but for everything else as well).

After a bus ride back over to the island city we ended up at this underground establishment called the Bastard Bar where we watched soccer with the locals.  It was a fun way to end our visit in Tromsø.

This morning we are flying to Oslo for a 6 hour stay - then on to Hamburg.