Tromso (and day 1 of bergen)

Hi All! I'm in Norway!
After a long stretch of flights, I arrived in Tromso on Tuesday evening. My flight to London was delayed a little bit and I almost missed my transfer - I had thought I had enough time to get from one part of Terminal 5 to the other part of Terminal 5 at Heathrow, but little did I know that would involve taking a shuttle, going through security again (which I got bumped to the front of but then got searched at!) and running all the way to my gate which said "closing" as I got there. Phew. In Oslo I met Tam (reunited again!) and we had a very turbulent flight north together. When we got into Tromso we headed to the apartment of our couchsurfing host, Gry, and got some much needed sleep. The next day we trekked through the snow to the tourist office to check out how expensive a dogsledding trip would be (answer: very expensive) and to get maps. We strolled around the downtown area, which was sunny and beautiful despite the snow, and went to Polaria, the museum and mini aquarium. In the evening we decided to rent some cross country skis and go night skiing on the lit tracks that run through the hills down the middle of the island. They were amazing - perfect powdery snow and the clouds even cleared so we could see some stars, but no Northern Lights sadly (the aurora forecast said "0", so I was not really surprised...) Tam really enjoyed her first cross country experience, and I'm glad I managed to get her out there! We both had a great time and only fell minimal amounts :)

I have been working on checking off the goals that I set for my trip - to drink as many different types of beer as possible, collect coasters from each bar, and visit as many botanic gardens as possible. On our second day in Tromso, we visited the Mack brewery - the northernmost brewery in the world - and Olhallen - the oldest pub in Tromso. I had a great "spring ale" even though I don't believe the weather is anywhere near spring! Unfortunately, people in Norway apparently don't use coasters. To fulfill my last goal, we headed to the University to visit the botanic garden, but a small blizzard had taken over by this time. I left Tam hanging out indoors with Gry and went to brave the snow only to find the entrance to the garden buried in a waist high snowdrift (how appropriate for the world's northernmost botanic garden) - pictures to follow. In the evening, we met Gry downtown for drinks and foosball with some other friends at the student hangout.

This morning we made our way to the airport, happy to leave the snow behind (and my snow boots, now Gry's - my back is much lighter now!). I am in Bergen taking it easy at Tam's apartment right now, and will spend the next few days here.

Much love to you all!


This is Bergen actually... Tromso pictures in the next post!


Tam and I by her apartment in Bergen.