Time flies! I can’t believe it’s been 2 months since my last post. I was in Canada for all of June, for a conference and holidays afterwards. It was fantastic, and I took way too many photos – not sure when I have time to post them here, but you can see some photos in my Canada album on Flickr 🙂

I’ve been really busy lately, mainly because I am moving to Oslo at the end of August! I’m really excited, but it’s also kind of bittersweet to count down the weeks I have left in Tromsø. Luckily I have visitors who make sure I don’t spend all my free time packing and organizing 😀

Last weekend my friend Jakob came to Tromsø. We went to a music festival at Telegrafbukta one day, which was really nice. We arrived a bit early which meant we couldn’t avoid the eager journalists who were taking photos, see the result here 🙂 The next day was sunny and even kind of warm (it’s been a really cool summer here in Tromsø) – perfect day for exploring on Kvaløya. We started with my favourite – Brosmetinden 🙂 always beautiful!

It was warm enough to have a lazy lunch on top (although some were dressed in tshirt and shorts and others in long trousers and a jacket 😉 – guess I’ve become climatized to Northern Norway!).

Beautiful views all around…

And an impressive steep drop to the sea on one side – 525 m straight down!

The weather was so nice we decided to continue exploring, and we drove to Sommarøy. Ørnfløya is another of my favourite tops in the category “minimal effort, maximum view” 😉 – it only takes about 20 minutes to reach the top, but the view is fantastic!

The next day we climbed Sørtinden, but we practically ran down it again, chased by an angry mob of mosquitos… Afterwards we took the cable car up, and I couldn’t resist another panorama…

It was a great weekend, and it worked out perfectly to have a visitor in these last weeks – I get a break from moving preparations and get to visit all my favourite places one more time 🙂

When my friend Hannah found out I was moving away from Tromsø, she proposed a farewell-to-Hanneke hike last Thursday 🙂 Of course I am always up for that! We decided on Buren, which I had only been to once on snowshoes (a disaster 😀 ). It was a beautiful day, and although it was only 15 degrees it was plenty warm enough when negotiating the steep slopes of Buren. The view is definitely worth it though!

Panorama from the top…

Hannah and me on the top, and Ersfjorden on the way down.

Afterwards we enjoyed a well deserved soft ice at Eide Handel – perfect hike!

Last night I had my very last night shift, and my last weekend at work. It feels like the end of an era – after 5.5 years as a forecaster and 7.5 years in Tromsø!! I will miss Tromsø and my colleagues a lot, but I won’t miss all those irregular shifts and weekends spent at work 😉 I’m staying within the institute though, just transferring to the research & development department.

In a couple of days I will have three visitors from the Netherlands for 2 weeks – I took some days off so I hope we can go on some exciting trips. Not sure how much time I have to post photos here in the coming weeks, but I’ll do my best 🙂