Tromso(Norway)

August 2016

Tromso is known as one of the best places to view the Northern Lights in the world, but we were not going to get that in August.  Still, its location at 350 kilometres (217 mi) north of the Arctic Circle intrigued me. What would it be like to live in a place like that, I wondered. We were flying out of Budapest heading back home, and we had to pick a place in Norway to catch the Norwegian Air flight to Los Angeles, so I picked Tromso. Of course the direct flight to LAX was from Oslo, but, we could start from Tromso without adding much cost.

SAS flew us from Budapest to Stockholm, then to Tromso. It rained when we arrived. Our Airbnb host volunteered to pick us up from the airport, and that was such a wonderful gesture. People of Tromso were, in general, friendly to visitors. I learned from Wikipedia that with a population of around 75,000, Tromso urban area is the largest in Northern Norway, and the third largest north of the Arctic Circle anywhere in the world (following Murmansk and Norilsk in Russia). The city of Tromso is on an island called Tromsoya.

We were there for two full days. Our Airbnb room was in a house up the hill from the center of town. The view from the house was quite nice although we were not as enthusiastic about walking back up after a day out. The first day, we mostly walked around trying to avoid the rain as best as we could. We went into one of the churches downtown, and there was a piano concert going on with a young man on the piano. We sat down and enjoyed the music for a while.

We walked over to the western edge of downtown & visited Polaria: An Arctic Experience Center. We saw cute bearded seals swimming in the aquarium after watching the film about the Northern Lights.

We stopped at Mack Brewery, the northernmost brewery on earth, but it was still too early to drink & the prices were not very friendly. Then we came across a big supermarket, and we found the beer prices there were not much friendlier than at the brewery. There was an outdoor market in one of the squares in town, and we browsed around not finding something we really had to buy.

We ended up having lunch at a restaurant attached to a hotel in the port area. We tried to eat something simple, like, a hamburger or a hot dog in order to ease into the sticker shock. We knew we would not look at the prices as much by the next day.

In the afternoon, the rain really poured down. Luckily we were not too far from the Public Library when it started happening & we ran into the beautiful building to stay dry and be among the locals. Once we walked up the hill to return to our room, we did not feel like braving the weather, thus, we stayed in.

Our hosts invited us to share drinks with them after we had an instant noodle dinner. The lady was a ballerina who 20 years ago was visiting Tromso from the UK & ended up marrying a local man. She said she loved living there not missing home all that much, but she would go back once a year to see her mother.  I asked her about the Northern Lights, and she said, “I should not be nonchalant about it, perhaps, but I am so used to it. You will most likely to see it if you came in the winter time & stayed for a few days.”

We started the second day at Riso Cafe where delicious pastries were served with coffee or tea.

All fueled up, we bought a day bus pass to explore the area. We first went across the bridge to the Arctic Cathedral, the most famous church in Tromso. It was not free to go inside, but we peeped in and were able to take some pictures.

Next, we hopped on another bus and visited the Contemporary Art Gallery of Tromso(free), which was not big but we got to see some intriguing installation art pieces.

Then, we went south to FOLKEPARKEN OPEN-AIR MUSEUM, which was not fully open at the time. Still, we saw some exhibits and had warm drinks at the tiny cafe and walked around the rugged beach park where a couple was happily posing for wedding pictures despite of strong wind and light rain.

We continued the bus trip around the island toward the north, then the east where the world’s northernmost university campus was. We planned to visit the Arctic Alpine Botanical Garden from there, but the weather was not cooperating.

Returning to downtown, we stopped at the Northern Norwegian Museum to look at some Norwegian art. As we were walking back to get back to the house, we saw an outdoor stage getting set up. We could hear bands playing as we sat in our room up the hill. Feeling like locals by now, the hill no longer intimidated us, and we ventured out again to have dinner.

Bardus Bistro was almost next to the outdoor stage, and tons of young people were on the streets surrounding the stage. Food was pretty good, and their price tags of 300-500 Krone($36-60) menu items did not scare us too much. We asked our host how young people can afford to eat out, and they said, “Bardus is not expensive!”

Whether it was north or south of the Arctic Circle, Tromso was just another town after all. We did not really feel we were in a remote place where life is closely affected by elements of nature day by day. Maybe we will come back for the Northern Lights, we thought. Will see.