Tromso

This friday we headed out for our first minivacation since we've been in Norway. We took off for the Arctic - specifically Tromso, Norway's largest city north of the arctic circle. My main objective was to get a glimpse of true midnight sun. In Trondheim, although it never gets dark, the sun does dip below the horizon for a few hours each night. Up here in Tromso, the sun is at the same height in the sky for 24 hours a day!

Unfortunately, the weather report when we arrived was clouds, clouds, and more clouds. Despite living with Eeyore, who kept telling me the clouds weren't going to break, i managed to keep up hope that the sun might peep out, even just for a second.

Tromso's scenery is beautiful, even if the town is slightly more industrial than Trondheim. The fjord is surrounded on all sides by mountains that are snow-topped even in mid-july. Along the harbor you can see the colorful yellows and reds of the the old wooden warehouses that Norway is so famous for. Even though Tromso is the largest city in this part of Norway, it's still pretty tiny. It sits on an island joined to the mainland by a bridge and a tunnel, and has one small main street. Even in such a small town, we managed to find plenty of things to do.

We started out at Polaria, an aquarium and museum dedicated to arctic life. The big attraction here was the group of bearded seals. The seals were so playful diving and swimming around - we could have watched them for hours. Every time the seals poked their noses out of the water, they would be looking around the tank to see who was watching them. They were like little kids all vieing for attention.

In celebration of Wayne's birthday back in June, we took a guided fishing tour out in the fjord. Our boat was the Signe 1, a 101 year old fishing vessel that was on the national historic registry. Captain Arne was a one man force on the boat - driving out into the fjord, telling stories about the Signe and the history of the area, finding us the best fishing spots, and gutting, cleaning, and cooking the fish we caught right on the boat. And although we were the only english speakers on the boat, he conducted everything in english. (That really tells you something about other cultures - there was absolutely no question that everyone else on the boat knew english. Hello, why don't we ever learn other languages like that?) It was really the oddest fishing trip I've ever been on. I always expect fishing to be so boring - it's like a rule. you go out with your pole, drop your line in, and wait.... and wait... and wait some more. Then, if you're like me, you start playing with your pole, casting in and out, or find something across the lake that holds your attention better. I never had time to get bored on this boat, because Captain Arne had an even shorter attention span than me. If the fish were't biting within 30 seconds of dropping a line in, he'd get mad, deem it a bad spot, and move on to another area. I've never been to a spot where fishing was so quick and easy! No bait, just a line and a lure on the end of it, drop it in, get a bite, pull up a fish the next minute. (All that said, wayne ended up catching 5 fish and i only caught one little half dead one, but in my defense, i had a few that fell off.) We caught so many fish in such a short time that we had to start catching and releasing. Most of what we caught was cod and coalfish. Captain Arne then made the simplest fresh fish preparation there is - boiled fish in sea water. And yes, wayne actually ate it. I took pictures to prove it. :)

Friday night we walked across the city bridge to the cable cars, which take you up mt. storsteinen. This was a little nerve wracking, especially as the cable car abruptly slows at the top. The views from the top of the mountain were awesome, and totally worth the crazy ride up there. You look out onto the whole fjord and you feel like you are absolutely on the top of the entire world. We did a little hiking around the moutain and waited to see if the sun would peep out at midnight. It didn't look very promising - a thick layer of clouds had rolled in and seemed to have settled. Right on cue thoguh, as we were getting ready to go back down the mountain in the cable car, the clouds broke open and we saw the sun shining bright as mid day at midnight. yay!

Yesterday we walked out to the Arctic botanical gardens, which (obviously) specializing in flowers and plants from the world's coldest regions. The flowers were beautiful. It's really amazing to see the colors and the life that can survive in the harshest environments.

We also made a visit to the Polar museum. I have to say that it was by far the most disturbing museum I've ever come across. It seemed to specialize in the history of trapping and killing arctic animals. Here's the best way to kill an arctic fox. here's a contraption that will make a polar bear shoot itself. (totally unfair that that was outlawed in 1952!) This is a hook used to club baby seals. (oh, and by the way, according the the museum, clubbing the baby seals before putting a sharp hook through thier brains is a totally painless and humane way to kill them. who knew!)

The only downside to tromso's 24 hours of sunlight - our sleep schedules are whacked out! After going out to a bar last night (and having the best strawberry martini in the world, which another patron told me "that's the most expensive martini you'll ever buy" - too true) we were amazed by the number of people out on the streets at 2 am. It was like a busy afternoon on main street, USA. Plus, after walking back to the hotel, we realized we weren't tired at all! The sun literally just makes you want to stay up and go do things - i guess that's why tromso has such a bustling nightlife. :) Of course, today we are completely paying for it. We yanked ourselves out of bed at 9:30 and this afternoon i took a two hour nap and wayne took a 3 hour nap, so of course we are now ruined for the night again. :) Fresh Norwegian Strawberry martinis, anyone?