Alexandra’s Fabulous Journey to Arctic Norway

I have always dreamed of traveling to a Nordic country in winter and enjoying various exciting activities in such conditions. Yet, witnessing aurora borealis with my own eyes has always been goal number one for me.

When I arrived in this Norwegian city, I met our group’s guide and was placed in a hotel. Also, it was the time when I could meet other members of our group, which consisted of around a dozen people.

After a couple of hours of rest at the hotel, our guide met the group to conduct an introductory tour to this beautiful Nordic city. Despite the freezing temperatures (it was slightly below zero Celsius degrees) and lack of sunlight even during the daytime, I felt the genuine coziness of this city. As I found a couple of hours later, the warmness of lights and illumination all over the city contributed even more to that feeling of comfort of being there.

This introductory tour to Tromsø covered the city’s touristic highlights, two of which notably stood out for me. The first attraction was the city’s Arctic Cathedral, the exterior of which is unlike any other religious building I have ever seen in my life. The other point of interest was Polaria, an aquarium dedicated to the Arctic fauna (and, by the way, it is also housed in an extraordinary structure).

Once the tour concluded, I enjoyed an evening walk in the city center and was happy to absorb Tromsø’s warm and calm atmosphere. After a hearty dinner at a local restaurant, I returned to my hotel and quickly dropped asleep after an exhausting yet fascinating day.

The next couple of days were full of exciting activities, and that’s the reason why I came to this beautiful (but slightly cold) town in the first place. As we have been told, we were quite lucky with the weather, which stayed mostly below zero Celsius degrees. Such comfortable weather allowed our group to try activities like dog sledding and snowmobiling! These days, indeed, were full of emotions and memorable moments!

However, the day I was looking forward to came at last. Finally, we got our training about photography and northern lights to embark on the aurora borealis safari. The day for this tour was chosen perfectly – the sky was crystal clear, which was a good premise for us. After driving for quite a while and looking for the right spot, we could catch the northern lights! Of course, we spent a couple of hours just waiting, but the result was very well worth it!

On our last day, we embarked on another tour in the vicinity of Tromsø so that we could explore the nature and wildlife of this area! And seeing herds of reindeer in the forest and the exciting birdlife was just unforgettable!