Hello from Tromso, Norway!
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| Can you see Tromso, WAY WAY up there? |
We arrived in Tromso on the evening of Aug 4 and found getting on to a bus and into town quite easy. We walked with our luggage to our Air Bnb - a beautiful 2 bdm townhouse. Jason and I were excited to spend 5 nights in one place - a first since we left home in June. Our place also had laundry and a real kitchen, so we were able to unpack our bags, get organized and cleaned, and stay for a while.
On Aug 6, Jason ran the 57km "Tromso Sky Race" Ultramarathon. That event was the motivation for coming to this specific town, way up North above the Arctic Circle in Norway at this specific time. He can share more about that experience.
Tromso is a town of 65,000 with a University, on the ocean, with a history of fishing, and frequent Northern Lights sightings from late Sept - early March. We are here with nearly a 'midnight sun' experience, with sunset happening at about 11pm and sunrise at about 2:30am.
Although it's summer and hot back in North America, it is cool here. We had lovely weather for the first two days, with sunshine and highs of around 13C /55F. Since then, it's been cloudy with some on/off drizzle.
We decided to go ahead and buy a "Tromso Family Pass", which is an option from the tourist information center to buy tickets to several attractions and unlimited use of the bus for 7 days. It's not cheap to do anything around here, but we needed a break from hiking and the weather hasn't been that pleasant for being outside. There also happens to be a local competition of sorts called "Become a Tromso Expert". At each of 10 attractions, you can participate in several child-friendly activities, and then earn a 'passport stamp' after completion. If we fill in at least 3 stamps at 3 different places, we can enter to win prizes.
Here are the attractions so far:
1) The cable car
This one was handy because the aid station we wanted to be at while we waited to cheer Jason on at his race was at the top of the cable car. It's not a long hike up, but it is steep, and it was fun to ride the 'gondola' up just as a fun experience. Ava and I also rode it down, which I enjoyed more than the ride up because of the great views facing the glass downward. From the top of the cable car, we enjoyed the cafe and a nice hike with lovely views.
2) The Troll Museum
This little museum is dedicated to all things 'Trolls'. And Norweigans love their trolls. There are troll 'sagas' or fairytales about many things. There are landforms throughout the country named after trolls. There are forest trolls, sea trolls, mountain trolls, waterfall spirits, old trolls, young trolls, and giant trolls. There were really cool virtual reality displays and games to play. I'd say our rating of this experience was way up there - we really enjoyed it more than we expected and hung out for a while.
3) Northern Norweigan Science Center
We took the bus to this attraction, which is at Tromso University. We walked a little of the 'geology walk' and gardens nearby, and then entered. We watched an awesome film on the Northern Lights in the planetarium and then explored the science exhibits. Favorites were a lego board, snow display, climate change interactive games, learning about health and fitness (similar to Science World's in Vancouver). We enjoyed this attraction as well.
4) Polaria
Polaria is a short bus ride away from where we are staying, and was Nana's recent birthday present to Ava. It's an aquarium with an arctic-life slant. We were excited to see the seal feedings, which ended up being pretty awesome because some of the seals were arctic 'bearded seals' which are HUGE (they can grow up to 300kg). In one part of the facility, they swam above you and around you as you stood in a transparent tunnel. We also learned more about arctic animals, the Northern Lights, fish in the area, and glacier melt.
5) The Polar Museum
This is a historical museum with displays about trappers and local history. It reminded me a little bit of the local "BC Forest Discovery Center" near our home on Vancouver Island, without a train. There were lots of stuffed seals, polar bears, walrus skeletons, birds, and reindeer. There were old maps and tales of explorers, as well as ship and plane models. It was interesting, but I wouldn't recommend it if other visitors are short on time.
6) The Tromso Museum / The Arctic University Museum of Norway
This museum was on the southern part of Tromso Island, so we took a new bus route to go and explore it. The girls played chess on a large outdoor board in the sun before we went in. The geology exhibit was really cool, with a neat animation of the Earth getting covered in snow during the Ice Age, and a movie on some local glass blowers. We saw whale skeletons, stuffed arctic animals, and learned about Sami culture (the local indigenous history). The WWII stories were sad, but well done in their presentation.
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| Beach nearby the Tromso Museum |
Climate change
We have noticed in both Iceland and Norway that electric cars and discussions around climate change and environmentalism is serious. People seem to take sustainability seriously, and seem more commited to trying to make changes for the better than we are used to back home. I'm not saying they are perfect here... but there is a different attitude here.
Healthy lifestyle
The Norweigans here all seem very active. I suspect that people x-country ski for much of the year and hike / walk / run for the summer. We have seen LOTS of older adults doing strenuous hikes, parents out hiking with babies and pushing strollers, people practicing skiing on roller skis, and people expecting you not to drive your car but to walk/bike instead. Also during Jason's race, we saw handfuls of teenagers, some probably Rachel's age, running the 18km version of the race.
Calm and quiet folks
In both Iceland and Norway, people seem to be calm and reserved in their attitudes. Communities seem clean. It doesn't seem like people steal items, so leaving coats or bags nearby is fine. People wash after themselves properly at the sink and don't leave garbage or mess lying around. And people seem calm and quiet. There's a certain peace that I enjoy. It seems people think quietly about what to say before saying it, and then say it well.
Marathon Training
I'm continuing to train for the Athens Marathon (Nov 2022). I have worked up to 11 miles / 17.8km in my distance and that now feels quite manageable. I'm really proud that this morning I woke up and got out in the rain, and didn't stop my run early even once I was done with the route I'd planned and was cold and wet. I hope that I can keep going with improving my distance most weeks throughout Aug, Sept, Oct.
Food
We have been eating 'in' for most of our trip to save money and keep things simple. In Iceland, we backpacked and then had most meals in the campervan. We went out for one lunch in Reykjavik and a couple of meals at the end of our hike. In Tromso, we have a kitchen and have gotten most of our meals from the grocery store to cook at home.
However, we did go out for dinner one night and have gotten snacks at the bakery/cafes a couple of times. We had ice cream and hot dogs while waiting for Jason during his race. At dinner
Weather
It has been cool with some clouds and drizzle on many days. But we are above the Arctic Circle! So we knew that we would be wearing our puffy coats and rain coats for much of our summer.
Packing
I spent a lot of energy in the Spring figuring out what to pack for our family and what bags to bring. I think so far we are feeling ok about the kids bags and clothes (except in Iceland we wished the kids had had better cold weather gloves!) Having our camping gear is a bit more work than we'd like, so we are considering sending some things home in September when our camping plans end. The one thing I wish I had packed that I hadn't is a needle and thread. We already have two backpacks, one pair of gloves, one pair of kids pants, and two of my adult 'nice' pants that need repairing. My two pants both need some serious patch work but hopefully I can find fabric somewhere to do some repairs so I can keep using them.
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| Hot dogs from the famous yellow kisok behind us - one of the smallest bars in the world! |
Anyway, that's it for Tromso!
Next up: The Hurtigruten Ferry for 4 days along the coast toward Bergen, Norway. Please cross your fingers for some clear skies for us so that we can have beautiful views of Norway's Fjords.
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