I think I’ll begin from where we last left off. I’m currently starting my last day in Tromsø but when we talked last, I had just finished my ski trip in Oslo.

The Third Dull Day

So the day after skiing, I spoke to a local at the hotel’s reception, and they recommended I go to a town called Lillehammer. Apparently, a lot of tourists like to go there to see the history of that town hosting the Olympics in 1994. All we’ll say about that day is I wasted 2 hours on the train to get there, hated the place, and wasted another 2 hours to get back. Nothing about that day was good except for this next picture I’m really happy with.

The view from Lillehammer’s open-air museum that chronicles the architecture of Norway’s houses through the ages

Day 1 in Tromsø

I woke up the next day a little disheartened by the “cool tourist destination” I had just been to with a plan to head to Tromsø, one of the places from where it’s possible to see the Northern Lights. I went to the airport, which was a much easier process than I thought it would be and boarded the little crappy domestic flight that would take me there. The flight was delayed but was still weirdly ahead of schedule. I guess he gave it “full race.”

When I landed, it was a cute little airport with two baggage tracks and just outside… heavy snowfall. Snow! I’d only seen snowfall two times before that. I was like a little child, just waiting to get out and stand under it. The little puffs landed and instantly melted on my face and covered my clothes and bags in little flakes. The day was a little late so there wasn’t any sun whatsoever. I decided to get a car so I could try to see the lights myself tonight but also because public transportation here is a bit harder than in a big city like Oslo and I wasn’t in the mood for the headache of figuring out how to get to places.

Driving in snow was a little different from the drive going to the ski resort. The car would drift at the tiniest press of the accelerator and I had a good time going through roundabouts mildly sideways. When I got to town, I quickly checked in and headed out to continue walking around in the snow and to see the the town itself.

Tromsø is a very cutesy, small town with a single Main Street, a few hotels, a port, and a lot of students. It kind of feels like it’s still Christmas here. The town’s Main Street has low-hanging lights, everyone is bundled up in beautiful furs while sipping on hot drinks, and everyone was all smiles. I was actually surprised by the amount of young people here. Apparently, Norwegians like to come here to earn their degrees and the vibe here was so much more welcoming than in Oslo.

This would probably be a good time to mention, also, that since Lillehammer was a small rural town away from the big city, I really stood out over there as the only person that looked different and people didn’t really seem to like that. So Lillehammer was probably the least welcoming place and that contrasts greatly with the welcoming vibe of Tromsø. In Oslo, it really depended on who I spoke to.

Anyway, so now I’m hungry. What can I only eat in Tromsø? Reindeer. Guys, Reindeer. Santa’s flying horses. Oh my God, okay. So I went to this steak restaurant called Biffhuset. They’re generally there to serve steaks and that was my initial idea going in, but my waiter was this very chirpy old man. He was so full of life and seemed a mixture of shocked and happy that he could serve anyone at all. I looked down at the menu and looked up at him and asked, as I always do, “what would you recommend?” He grinned at me and looked over at the table near me like he was about to tell me a secret and said, “reindeer steak!”

You know how Toffee Nut Latte tastes like winter? Or how the Christmas candy canes (the red and white ones) taste like winter? Like it would be wrong to ever have those in the summer? That’s exactly what reindeer is like. It’s like a winter beef. Like a beef that tastes great but only if the weather is right. I loved the stuff.

Anyway, so I did that and now it was time to go see these green lights everyone was talking about. I got in the car and started heading out to a remote location and then it began to snow. Whatever, it‘ll probably stop soon, right? Right? Oh my God, I don’t even know how I’m still alive. Driving in heavy snow is not like driving in light snow or heavy rain. Driving in heavy snow is worse than the worst fog I’d ever seen while driving the E11 between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It. Was. So. Bad. I could see so little that I opened up Google Maps and literally made it back to my hotel following the blue line. I couldn’t see the sides of a narrow road. I couldn’t see like two footsteps past the front of my little Skoda. The only thing the streetlights illuminated was my inner certainty that I was going to slip the whole car ,and fall into the cold water I was driving next to. What an idiot, Ahmed. You should’ve listened to everyone and gotten a tour.

How I made it back to the hotel was beyond me, but I did, and now I needed my second day to be perfect after this catastrophe.

Day 2 in Tromsø

Something felt very right about this day. It was easy to roll out of bed, easy to get my clothes on, and way too easy to find a touring company. I found them online while I was eating an Omelette made with goat cheese, which tasted way better than I thought it would. I’m loving my gastronomical experience here in Tromsø, by the way; Way better than the tastes of Oslo.

Before I headed for my tours, I visited the Arctic Cathedral, one of the landmark buildings in Tromsø. I’ll just let the two pictures speak for its architecture and its mural.

The Arctic Cathedral, with its more noticeable design, rising above the rest of town

The mural depicting Jesus Christ inside the Arctic Cathedral

I booked my northern lights experience with a company called Pukka Travels and while browsing online I saw “Bobsledding with Alaskan Huskies.” I guess I’ll do that too. It was the first thing on my agenda so let’s talk about that.

First of all, the dogs. These dogs are so friendly and love people way too much, just like everyone else in this town. They’ll jump up and lick your face, circle around you, lean on you just like, “yeah, whatever, right,” and are so excited to do anything. We got a chance to play with the dogs and then after a little lecture explaining how to drive a sled (yes, you drive), we started walking out to the dogs who were already waiting for us. While walking there, the dogs staying behind in the kennel started howling and begging to come join us.

The dogs we used were not Huskies, as was later explained (Shout out to my guide, Andreas!), because Huskies might want to tear your face off. Alaskan Huskies are a mixed breed of many dogs over several generations that were bred in Alaska. They eventually ended up being faster and friendlier than traditional Huskies and are now commonly used in sledding.

A sled is large and constructed of wood. There are two thin bits of wood that you stand on (kind of like skis) and leaning left or right will slightly turn the sled in that direction. The sled has strings that stretch out of it that connect to the six dogs’ harnesses. The dogs in my case were a team of three females and three males. The males are the muscle of the pack and are placed in the back of the arrangement (the dogs are arranged three dogs per row in two rows facing forward). The males are called “wheelers” like the wheels of a truck. The leaders of the pack are usually the females as they listen to reason more. My leading females were called Fame and Kaytoo! All the dogs love to run all the time. When we’re stopped (there’s a brake you press into the snow to yank the dogs to a halt), the dogs are constantly tugging at the sled, waiting for your attention to break, so that they can charge ahead. Once you lift your foot off the brake, the dogs burst into a full sprint and you have to control their speed with the brake. It was an amazing activity, very exhilarating, very fun, and surprisingly we got to spend almost 90 minutes driving the sleds and about an hour playing with the dogs and their puppies. It was just a really great time. Here are some pictures.

My sled and I. I am standing with my feet firmly planted in the brakes to stop the dogs from pulling the sled away.

The muscle of my pack

My view from the sled

Fame and Kaytoo, the leaders of my pack

The second activity of the day was going to start soon after I’d finished sledding so I rested in the hotel a little bit and headed back to the tour company. My Northern Lights group was a nice total of 6 people. There was a couple from Hyderabad, a Japanese woman who lives in Australia, a Ukrainian couple, and me. We got in our minibus, with layers on layers on layers of clothes, and headed out in search of an empty area of land to see the Northern Lights.

There was a chance that we weren’t going to be lucky. The lights appear in clear skies but it seemed to be patchy with clouds here and there. Additionally, we are currently in a solar minimum, which means we don’t see as much solar activity as we might have seen in 2014 or as much as we will see in 2025. The reason this matters is that the lights are a result of high-energy (and dangerous) solar wind making it to Earth, being intercepted by our magnetic field, riding the magnetic field up (or down) to the Earth’s poles, and descending down and reacting with our atmosphere. So a lot of factors had to happen perfectly together for us to be able to see the lights.

When we made it to our empty spot of land, the full super moon brightly illuminated the night sky and the mountains around us. It was really a sight to behold on its own. The temperature was 15 degrees Centigrade below zero and we huddled around the fire our guide had prepared for us. We exchanged some jokes about how balmy the weather was and some anecdotes about the countries we’re all from. Our guides handed us our pick of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate (my choice), and to eat, we had reindeer soup (God, I love reindeer).

As the fire began to wind down, the clouds that were blocking our view began to break open and right above the mountain, we saw it: A slight greening of the black sky. The light came into view like how you’d imagine a ghost would begin to appear. As the light grew in intensity, it began to stretch across the sky, heading further North. It was like a dream. It was beautiful. And so worth it.

The lights begin to appear over the mountain

The lights widen, brighten, and start to stretch across the sky

Six minutes in

The strongest we saw the lights

Nice, huh?

I spent the drive back asleep after this long and exhausting day. I made it to my hotel really late in the evening and today, I get ready to head back to Oslo.

I’m going to miss Tromsø. This place was pretty magical.

End.