I was prepared this time! We had protein bars galore because everyone knows you can't really afford to eat in that country, and I had some leftover krone in my wallet that I had to separate from the Abraham Lincolns. Fun fact: the Norwegian krone coins have holes in the middle. This means every time you grab a kroner, you think of donuts, and you also think how you are not willing to spend six bucks on a donut in this place. Back to business....
Nyrie (cousin on my mom's side) and I left Fresno at the break of dawn and picked up Gray (cousin on my dad's side) in Visalia shortly thereafter. The quote of the day was when Nyrie was telling a story about a recent trip and Gray said MOST incredulously, "You went on an international trip with someone you JUST met?" There was a long pause for dramatic effect because about an hour earlier I had been introducing these two BFFs in the car.
We each had our own row on the flight on the way over, which was glorious. Glorious.
Our first stop was Stockholm, Sweden, and there is nothing like a long enough layover to get a stamp in your passport by wandering the big city for a few! The train from the airport to Stockholm featured a "3 for 1" special. We ordered 6. Three to get there, three to get back, yes? Makes perfect sense, agreed? WRONG. Turns out we needed one ticket for all three of us, which means we paid what equated to $300 to go fifteen minutes on a train. Oh, Stockholm. You kill us with your confusing kiosks. In case you're concerned, we got a refund and all was well in the world. Our trek into Stockholm consisted of coffee (kaffe), a church, and a market in a square. Then back to our flights... we stopped in Oslo for a bit. Not long enough to explore, but long enough to explore the duty-free shops looking for Haribo tropi-fruiti gummies. You know you might have a sugar addiction when you have a favorite candy in every port. It's a problem because you can't find these candies in America, and no matter how many you buy, you can never make the bag last to make it back to America. Oh the struggle.
We made it to Tromso, Norway, late on Wednesday. Our cab driver warned us Norwegians are "practical"... standby for examples. It was cold, but not miserable. On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being COLD and 5 being frostbite, it was a 1. Our first night consisted of wandering Tromso and finding our local restaurant - Huken's Pub. We would eventually eat there many, many times. They had three main dishes - blueberry pancakes, burger, and a "potato jacket" - a baked potato with toppings. We all swore we wanted to try each thing, but every time we returned I couldn't turn my back on that lovely potato jacket. We played Norwegian Scrabble at the place, which is basically like our Scrabble, only there are a ton of K's.
If "wander through a Hallmark movie" is on YOUR bucket list, I would like to highly recommend Tromso, Norway. That is the best visual I can give you.
Our first morning in Tromso it was dark as night, so we did what anyone would do. We asked Siri what time the sun would rise. That Siri. She never fails to amuse. "The sun will rise in Tromso, Norway, on January 17, 2017." *picture wide-eyed emoji* Gray: I thought it was the sun rising, but it was just some truck lights.... :) Because of the constant darkness (lightER between 12 and 2ish, but never sun) we basically just stayed on American time. We stayed up late each night and slept in late each morning.
A few examples of Norwegian most practical answers...
Nyrie: What do we do on the whale tour? Practical Norwegian: Look at whales.
Gray: Where is the pharmacy? Practical Norwegian: Further.
Nyrie: What is in the sandwich? Practical Norwegian: sandwich meats.
Some important statistics from the week...
Number of trips to urgent care... 1 (no Dayquil for you, you must get a prescription for that)
Games of Yahtzee played... 342ish
Coldest weather we encountered... -4
Snow angels made... 4
Times we thought Gray might legitimately have frostbite... 1.
Times we weren't able to figure out the Norwegian public bus system... I can't count that high.
The best adventure was New Years Eve. We met our tour at 6 and headed out to "chase" the Northern Lights with our tour guide, Jacek, and four of our new friends... a family from Thailand, and a traveler from Israel. Jacek was more pumped about the fireworks he had purchased for the evening than anything else, and that gave us an indication it was going to be a good night. We found the "aurora" about two hours outside of Tromso, away from the artificial light. It was relatively clear and we were able to get some photos and drink some hot chocolate and sit on reindeer skins and enjoy our full-on snow suits from Jacek. Cold level: 3. We wanted to cross into Finland, but Jacek got reports from a fellow chaser it wasn't clear over there, so unfortunately we couldn't check off another country that night. We did go through some serious snow storms as we searched for more clear skies, but the highlight (other than viewing the lights) was when it was thirty seconds from midnight. Jacek pulled over in a snowstorm, we blew our air horns, he shot off some fireworks that MAYBE leaned on the side of dangerous, we passed around ring cake, pulled some poppers, and had a most wonderful moment with our newest friends. We ended the evening with a bonfire, complete with reindeer sausage, whale burger, a Thailand vs. USA snowman building contest, and everyone having to push the van out of the snow when it got stuck. We got back to Tromso around 3 a.m. and celebrated New Years with New York and Chicago before heading to bed at 7 a.m. post Yahtzee-and-Tavloo tournamenting. We couldn't quite make it to the California New Year, but hey.
Another fun adventure was dog-sledding. Cold level: 4. Full snowsuits provided. We yelled MUSH about fifty million times and had ourselves a grand old time. The owner passed out coffee and a homemade cake treat (flat with "brown cheese" and sugar), and taught us his secret handshake.
Because Jacek couldn't get us into Finland, one day he sent his friend, Simone, to take us. Simone was the jam. He took us to the frozen fjords of the Arctic Ocean (see the Arctic Ocean? check.) and told us some people drive on them. We asked if we could walk on them, and Gray told him if we fell through, he could just leave. His response: Yes, I will walk away whistling. This is how we knew we would have a good time. And by good time... I mean smelling burning rubber every three minutes and Simone having to deal with the brake freezing to the... whatever a brake would freeze to in a vehicle. We made it to Finland and crossed the FINNISH line. That line never gets old... Cold level: 5. Enter our legitimate fear of frostbite... but worth it. Because, as they say, "It's not how you start. It's how you FINNISH." They don't say that. But we do when trying to brainstorm Finnish puns. One thing they do say here is "There is no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothing."
After returning from Finland, we had a little downtime before heading out on our Northern Lights snowmobiling adventure! Again, we went about two hours outside of Tromso, this time to Camp Tamok, which looked like a bunch of giant tepees and nothing else. We took every warmth object they offered, from snowsuits to face masks to overboots to gloves. Cold level: 5 again... but ABSOLUTELY worth it. The Northern Lights were in FULL effect, even more impressive than what we had seen on New Years. They filled the whole sky and moved constantly. Just your average night at Camp Tamok... :) Snowmobiling was an adventure! Nyrie and I took turns and driving was definitely more fun, but as a passenger you could just lean your helmet back and watch the lights... so win win. Another win win was the reindeer stew waiting for us back in one of the giant tepees, along with more of the brown cheese dessert special.
The next day was our last in Tromso... we had the full day to enjoy one more potato jacket, one more frolic through the cutest town ever, and then we were off to Oslo. There we stayed awake all night in the Oslo airport (Yahtzee? Played it. Tavloo? Played it. Yoga? Did it.), followed by saying goodbye to Nyrie as we headed to a layover in Sweden and she headed to a layover in Newark. After Sweden, Gray and I boarded our eleven hour flight to LAX and completely passed out. It was the fastest flight of all time when you sleep through the whole thing. We made it to Los Angeles and guess what was waiting for us?? THE SUN!
Until next time... :)
