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**FYI – This was written on January 3rd, the website didnt want to upload pics until now!

First off, happy 2010 to everyone!!! Can you believe its 2010? A brand new decade. I’ve been out of high school for nearly 8 years, and graduated from WSU 4 years ago! That is crazy. I’m quite excited for this year though, I think its going to be really good! I’m moving house closer to work at the end of this month, then my Seattle visit and trip to the Olympics in February cant not be awesome. I’m going to travel to the last two places in Europe that I want to go to (Prague and Budapest) sometime in the summer, then my cousins and I already have our 4 week adventure through Asia plotted out. I’m planning on moving back to my Seattle when my visa is up too, so that will be a whole new adventure to start! I guess that means the end of this blog as well… but thats a result I’m willing to deal with! Im just impressed I’ve kept it up this long. So I better not stop now – lets get to my Norwegian New Years adventure shall we?

Tromsø, Norway at 2pm

Now I’ve been to Norway before (Oslo, actually) back in September of 2008. But that is significantly further south of where I went this time with Ciara, an Australian friend of mine from work. On Tuesday, December 29th we got an evening flight from London all the way to northern Norway to the city of Tromsø which is well within the arctic circle and actually only 2000km (1243 miles) from the North Pole! It was freezing when we stepped of the plane at nearly 1am. Ironically, the Tromsø airpot’s customs area is’nt big enough to fit a plane’s worth of people, so we had to wait outside in the queue for a bit. Then we had to queue outside again to get a taxi to our hotel! Welcome to Norway i guess. The Hotel was great though, it was a great price, provided a yummy breakfast, and had a nice cozy lounge area. Plus it was a very short walk to the town centre.

Tromsø Waterfront

On Wednesday we slept until noon and then walked around the city which was adorable decorated in garland and heart lights for the holidays. After grabbing an omelet for lunch at a cafe, we relaxed at the hotel which provided an infinite supply of tea, coffee, hot chocolate, lattes, and cappuccino from a dispenser! That evening we embarked on a 7 hour snowmobiling adventure. I’ve always wanted to try it – and where better?! First was a 90 minutes drive north to some inland mountains. The sky was clear and clouds were streaky and slightly tinted green, but unfortunately there were no Northern Lights. The full moon however probed lots of illumination on the snow covered scenery, made for a very scenic bus trip of mountains and large frozen lakes. After getting thoroughly bundled up in marshmallow snow suits, boots, wool socks and sweaters, head covers, and gloves (it was -20C, or -4F, when we were finished – but i swear it felt colder!), we were debriefed very briefly on how to operate the snowmobiles. Then we were off! Ciara and I shared one machine, switching drivers every once in a while. Those things are beasts!! definitly bigger than my Dad’s Harley. They require some serious force/muscle too to turn and menuever the tight winding paths. But I admit I felt pretty badass driving it. I just wanted to go faster! I kept slowing down then gunning it over the bumps. Fun! We made our way through the arctic wilderness for about 45 minutes. It was stuning! First we went through a little forest filled with glittering, snow covered stick trees. But then we went through the hills of the mountains which were barren of any life. We eventually reached a huge flat, open area between the mountains which turned out to be lake that was frozen over! But it held our weight (Thankfully). We each got a go at driving the snowmobiles straight as fast as we wanted. I got mine up to 82kmph (about 50mph) – which felt lightning fast in the darkness with the rushing cold breeze in my face! When we all turned our machines off it was deathly quite and still outside. So cool. On the way back we stopped at a traditional Norwegian herdsman Samui tent, which looked like a huge teepee with a hole in the top for the smoke from the fire inside. There we ate bread and soup with reindeer meat! A traditional Norwegian dish. It was like eating in a sauna though cause the soup and everyones breath was so hot it was all steamy! I could barely make out my food.

Snowmobiling

Now, the flaw in our making this a New Years trip is that it didnt really register with us that being there on New Years Eve and New Years day meant that everything (seriously) would be closed. So we didnt get to check out any of the museums or even get to ride the cable car to the top of the city’s mountain! None of the shops were even open. It turned into a bit of a ghost town. We did manage to get one water cruise tour oporator to run a tour for us though! It was on a really nice couple’s catamaran around the island that Tromsø is on. In lasted from noon-2pm and since no one else was interested that day it ended up being a private tour! Complete with food, snacks, and traditional Norwegian blueberry tea was was very good. While it was pitch dark when the tour was over at 2pm (sun stayed below the horizon the whole time. But from about 10am-2pm there was a glow on the horizon, making it feel like dusk or dawn for a few hours), in one direction ther was a view of the full moon low on the horizon which had a very bluish tinit to it. Then when you turned around there was the horizon where the sun should have been which was glowing orange. The views were just stunning, and we were lucky for the clear weather.

The Moon at 12:30pm

The lack of activities confined us to the hotel for the rest of the night really. Luckily Ciara likes to play games so we played card games and paper games for a good 6 hours waiting for midnight and all the festivities. at about 11:30pm we bundled up to brave the cold, put some hot chocolate in the thermos, and went right outside our hotel which happened to have a pretty good view of the harbor and the city! From 11pm people were setting off fireworks alllll over the place. The city was going nuts! It must not be illegal to set them off cause people were doing so right next to us on both sides in the streets! On the moutntain that over looks the city they lit up a “2009″ in flames. Then at midnight they got the flames to switch to saw “2010″ while a big fireworks display went off the top of the hill. the fireworks, city, full moon, and mountains made for a very neat site indeed!

Happy New Years 2010 (notice the 2010 in the hill behind us!)

January 1st was another slow day. We slept until noon, took  a walk around the city, and had some lunch at one of i swear 3 places open. Then we chilled in the hotel watching a Norwegian cross country skiing competition on TV. Around 6pm we left for our little dog sledding adventure tho! We were driven to the Tromsø Wilderness Center which was on the island of Kvaløya. The Center is home to 300 dog sledding huskies. They were surprisingly happy and super friendly! Check out the video below to see some of these professional glove-eaters. We got suited up in the huge suits and hunt out in a Samui tent again with tea and coffee. Then we got an hour ride in one of the sleigh with an 8-dog team. Lets just say the term “smooth ride” could not be further off! It was also slower than I expected it to be. But it was still surreal, accompanied by the beautiful mountains and lit-up city in the distance. Another unique experience to add to the list!

Dog Sledding

We had a 6:30am flight back the next morning, and I was back home in London by 11am. Overall the trip was great! I was so thankful Ciara wanted to go with me (its just not the same traveling alone), and we had a great time – she was good company. The obvious disspointment though was not getting to see the Northern Lights. But I always knew it was a bit of a risk… its not like visiting a monument that has been staninding there in one place for hundreds of years. I guess th lights were out the night before we were there. And while we lucked out with clear skies all three nights, the full moon (though beautiful), didnt help. Even though we were there in the perfect month in what is considered the best city in the world to see the lights, I guess the arora activity is at a several year low right now too (it goes in like 20 year cycles of low to high activity) But regardless, it was a really neat experience that I never imagined! And a very memorable way to ring in the new year. Check out the video below which are all the videos we took edited together very roughly:

Back to work tomorrow! Thank gawd though, February cant come soon enough! I gotta get up at 5:30am tomorrow for an 11 hour day… I’m going on a shoot with the production team in the west of England to get 4 interviews for a Friends Roast film. Its going to be a long drive, and my friend Phil is driving who hasn’t driven in a year and a half and has never driven in the UK!! Luckily he is Australian though, so I figure our odds are better with him and the whole driving on the left thing. Anyways…. 31 days and counting to Sea-town!

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