Arctic skies

Arctic skies

Last Saturday the weather forecast was looking good. The days before we had a lot of snow, so we decided to get up early and go snowshoeing. We started before sunrise, which is not that difficult when sunrise is at 10:20! At this time of year, the sky often has very beautiful pastel colours, like the pink in the photos below – I call them “Arctic skies” as I have never seen them anywhere else 🙂

Apart from 2 people very close to where we parked the car, we didn’t meet anyone else all day. We did see a herd of about 100 reindeer though! Unfortunately they were too far away for a photo. We couldn’t go very far, as they days are very short now and sunset was at 12:40 – so less than 2.5 hours of daylight! Below you can see the photographer at work, and the resulting photo 😉

Paul climbed on top of this huge boulder…

Since it’s so early in the season, the rivers and lakes are not fully frozen yet. Luckily we found a bridge over the river that crosses this valley!

Here you can see the same river lower down in the valley. I love the boulders all covered in snow!

We played around taking photos for a while, until it got too dark and we had to go back to the car.

It was a fun day! We got back to the car by 14:00 when it was getting dark already. The good thing about this is that you still have time to do some other things, like going to the shops (they all close really early on saturdays).

Below is a photo taken after sunset last Sunday… beautiful! The other photo is the hammock -or rather hanging chair – that we bought in Amsterdam (in an amazing shop called Maranon). I’ve always wanted to have one, and now we finally have a flat where it fits perfectly. It’s REALLY comfy, I could sleep in it 🙂

Yesterday we gave a “winter warmer party” in our flat. We made mulled wine, mince pies and even pepernoten (Dutch biscuits) – it was fun! And it truly was a “warming” party – with the fire burning and so many people in the room it got to 25 degrees!

Today is the last day that the sun comes above the horizon, so no more daylight from now on… There’s still twilight though, and endless sunsets 🙂

11 thoughts on “Arctic skies”

  2. I stayed with friends in Kroken during my stay in January, and I'm fairly sure I hiked the same mountain. It's the one with the big lit ski slope, right? Great pictures, I miss those 'arctic skies'.

    I hope in the future to spend a whole winter in Tromsø, all seven months of it! 😉

  3. Hi Ben,

    Yes, the one behind the ski slope indeed, though we've never managed to get to the top in winter, not enough light hours to make it! It was great to finally see the view in summer 🙂

    7 months in Tromsø sounds like a great plan, I'm sure you'll enjoy it! Perhaps just stay the remaining 5 months so you see Tromsø in all seasons? 🙂

  4. Good suggestion. 😉 I'd love to stay there long enough to see the seasons change.

    What's the best, and easiest to find, type of job for a foreigner in Tromsø?

  5. It depends a lot on your background… if you do anything technical (plumber, electrician, builder, engineer, etc) there's plenty of jobs, even if you don't speak Norwegian.

    In other fields you'll need to speak Norwegian, unless it's a science job or a job in tourism. If you speak some languages, preferably German or French (but also Spanish and Italian), you could be a tour guide in Summer. In winter it's a bit harder, but if you're adventurous, you could apply for a job as a dog musher! See here

    I'm actually considering applying there 🙂 I'll be looking for a job after the summer.

  6. That dog mushing looks awesome! I went on a reindeer sledge ride with the same company in January. It would be amazing to do something like that.

    I don't speak French or German, but I know some Norwegian, Polish, and very basic Finnish. Most of my experience is in retail, but very soon I'm going to get experience in looking after the elderly and disabled. Is there much need for care workers there?

  7. YES! There is a very large demand for care workers here. It should be easy to find such a job if you have experience already. If you don't speak Norwegian, you'll get a very basic job (assistant type) but if you do speak the language, there's plenty of opportunities in that area.

  8. Takk skal du ha!

    Hva synes du om midnattsola i denne årstida? 😉

  9. Err, do you speak Norwegian? I said 'Thank you very much! What do you think of the midnight sun this time of year?' 😉

  10. Hehe, ja jeg snakker lite norsk, men jeg var i Rebbenesøy siste helg, for a sover i en telt under midnatsolen 🙂

    Ehm my Norwegian is not so great, just finished my second course. But I'm getting there, slowly!

    I love the midnight sun! The light is so beautiful. Now that I'm finishing my thesis, I make very long days and it's so nice to still walk home in the sunshine late at night! It does mess up my inner clock though, as I don't get tired and stay up way too long (like now 😉 )

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