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Author: Hanneke

I started my first blog when I left the Netherlands (my home country) for an internship in Alaska in 2004, to keep my friends and family updated on my adventures over there. Little did I know it would be more than 13 years before I'd move back to the Netherlands! I spent a year in Toulouse (France) before starting a PhD in meteorology at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK) in 2005. That's when I started this current blog, first in Dutch but I soon switched to English. I really enjoyed life in the UK, and was actually planning to stay there after my PhD, but "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans" and I ended up moving to Tromsø in Northern Norway in 2009. Tromsø is a photographer's dream, surrounded by spectacular mountains, with the light ever changing from the midnight sun in summer to the dark days compensated by aurora-filled nights in winter. I learnt Norwegian and got a job as a weather forecaster - I got thrown in at the deep end, doing radio interviews and speaking with fishermen with way-too-strong dialects straight from the beginning, before I was anywhere near fluent in Norwegian :D I survived though, and slowly started to do some research on the side. I got more and more involved in research projects and in August 2015 I moved 2000 km south, to Oslo where I started working 100% as a researcher. A year after moving to Oslo, I met Michiel at a music festival in Brussels :) and we started to travel very frequently between Oslo and Rotterdam, where he lives. You can't do that forever though, and I soon realized I found the perfect "excuse" to finally move back home, something I had been considering many times before. So since July 2017, I'm living in Rotterdam! I'm actually taking some time off before finding a new job, and I'm looking forward to lots of adventures in the near future - so stay tuned!
Soldagen 2012

Soldagen 2012

The sun is back! I was unfortunately stuck at work, but we have quite a nice view from the roof, so I did get some pictures 🙂 There were silly clouds JUST on the horizon in the south, everywhere else the sky was completely clear 😀

Welcome back sun!!! Tromsdalstinden, Paul was on his way to the top while I took this photo

At the same time, Paul was on his way to the top of Tromsdalstinden, the mountain in the picture above. Look at the beautiful views that he had along the way…

A blue world... The sunrise!

He dug out the guestbook from the completely frozen cairn, and was pleased to find out that he was the first visitor in 2012. OR the first visitor who bothered to dig out the guestbook of course 😛

The frozen cairn on top of Tromsdalstinden Beautiful colours after sunset Tromsø seen from Tromsdalstinden

That’s all for now, we’re having a very busy week at the Tromsø filmfestival. We’re also having a visitor this weekend, who was very keen to see the northern lights. She completely lucked out, as last night the northern lights were active all night. We came home at 03:45 in the morning and they were still going strong… wow! I lent her my tripod, so I didn’t get any photos myself, but you can see two of her photos here and here. We might go out tonight again 🙂

Topptur i Mørketid

Topptur i Mørketid

The weather forecast for yesterday was good, and since there was rain in the forecast for today, we decided to make the most of it. Eelke and Roy had chosen the first top on the way to Tverrfjellet, a mountain that I had once climbed in summer. We decided to join. I don’t have randonnée ski’s, and took my snowshoes instead. I was curious to find out if I’d be able to keep up with them. We started early and at around 10 we were ready to leave the parking lot. It was only just getting light, and the sky was very purple!

The very purple light at dawn Starting our way up in the purple light

The views were beautiful all day… One reason I like snowshoeing so much is that it’s easier to take photos, so I had brought my SLR. I’m glad I did!

Nice views!

It was a beautiful day, cold – but hardly any wind – and a perfect blue sky. The photo on the right (below) is taken by Eelke.

It's getting lighter, but the sky at the horizon stayed pink Enjoying the view :) Photo by Eelke!

Up, up, up! Our aim was a top at 525 m. There were quite a few others with the same idea 🙂

Roy on the way up Follow the leader...

Time for another panorama…

Such beautiful views, time for another panorama!

After about 2 hours, we reached our goal. We had a nice lunch break on the top.

Nearly there, Paul and Eelke silhouetted The top! We had to share it with several others out to enjoy this nice Saturday

Including a chocolate orange 🙂

Time for a chocolate orange! Posing on top

And then it was time to return. I was worried I would take a lot longer to come down than the skiers, as I have to walk down while they can ski. When I started to walk, this Norwegian skier passed me by and disappeared out of view within minutes 😀

A skilled skier throws himself down the mountain... impressive!

However, Paul, Eelke and Roy were still faffing with their ski’s while I already started my way down – and in the end I was only about 5 minutes slower getting to the car! It was really fun as well, and I’m looking forward to join some more of their toppturs this winter 🙂

The last day of 2011…

The last day of 2011…

We spent Christmas in London this year, at Paul’s parents. It was wonderful, but my 6 days off flew by way too fast. Before I knew it, I was on my way back to Heathrow the day after Christmas. Back to work… but also back to beautiful Tromsø, and nights filled with northern lights 😀

It finally cleared up after days of cloudy, snowy weather, and the webcam showed beautiful northern lights. Just before midnight, I drove to the same place where I took the sunset photos in the last post. It’s very close to the airport (with all its lights) but you can walk far enough onto the beach to get away from the lights. I was standing in puddles trying to get photos of the reflections in the water 😀 My shoes are waterproof, but this is still a guaranteed method to get very cold feet!

Northern lights on the last day of 2011, reflected in the fjord I got very cold feet taking these photos, but it was worth it! Northern lights seen from the beach

I was very happy with the photos I got, and when the lights became weaker I decided to head home. When I was almost back at the car, I noticed this beautiful old hut near the beach. I just had to get a photo, even though the northern lights were very weak at that point. The lights from the road were lighting the foreground nicely, and while I was taking a few photos I suddenly noticed some very bright northern lights appearing. Soon the sky was full of them…

A beautiful old hut, near the airport. The foreground is lit by the lights from the nearby road Suddenly aurora filled the whole sky

They were getting brighter, and I had to adjust the exposure times with every photo I took. At some point they were the brightest lights I have ever seen! I just sat down in the snow next to my tripod and looked up at the sky, and couldn’t believe my eyes. And my luck, since I would have driven home if I didn’t find that hut at the very last moment!

Incredibly bright northern lights A curtain of northern lights above the hut

What a way to end 2011!! I still have to watch the fireworks tonight, but I know they won’t compare to this light show 🙂

And with this last post of the year, I would like to wish everybody a very happy 2012!!

And thank you for reading my blog, and for all the kind comments and emails 🙂