Reindeer, Ferries and Northern Lights

Ok, so I have to catch up on the last few days.
2/14/09 - Valentines Day, a liesurely morning spent walking around Tromso. We stopped and had a very nice lunch at a local cafe. It was very busy with University Students. I thought I was being very brave and ordered Lasagna. It was actually quite good, so I have to say again, the Norwegians are superior cooks. Then we headed over to the ferry to take a 2.5 ride around the local waterways. On the way to the ferry we stopped and watched a group of young people promoting safe sex. I think you will find the pictures most amusing. Even though we don't speak the language the meaning was very clear. The ride around the local fjords was fabulous and you will see lots of great scenery pictures. Norway is the most magnificent place I have ever seen. The landscape in winter is not only stunning but fairytale like.

2/15/09 - Sunday, we wandered over to the "Polaria Museet" its an underwaters polor musuem that did not open until noon. It only took about 1 hour to go through the museum, including watching the feeding and training of the bearded seals they have there. They train them only to keep their minds active since they are captive. One of the interesting things we learned about them is that they are about 2 levels above dogs on the smart scale, so very easy to train, but also easily bored. When we finished our wander we went to Burger King for a late lunch and then back to our room for a nap. At 5:00pm we would meet a group for an evening of Sami Culture and Reindeer Sleigh Ride. A bit about the Sami. They are the only indigenous peoples in Europe. They speak a seperate language which is not of "indo-european" origin. They have a completely seperate culture and range across Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia. They are the traditional reindeer hearders and one wonders if in some form the Sami weren't the basis for Santa's elves. The clothing and shoes certainly fit and of course they heard the reindeer and train some of them. They look the same as the rest of the scandanavian peoples.
So, we were expecting a traditional sleigh pulled by some reindeer. However, traditional Sami Sledges are just some slates of wood and the runners, you either sit up on them with your legs out straight or lay down on your back. We chose to lay down on our backs and watch the stars go buy. It was a very clear night and the temperature out in the wilderness was -15 celcius. Very, very cold. However, other people had chosen to do the dog sleds for this evening, when we heard the chaos involved in that we were quite glad we had chosen the reindeer ride. They had to drive their dog sleds themselves, a few over turned with some minor injuries. And they went very fast and did not get to stop for photos as we did. So I would say we had the better time. After the sleighing and riding we went to the "Lavuu" a traditional Sami tent for a traditional dinner. Dinner was fish soup and the bread the Sami make. I of course am not a huge fan of fish so was thinking darn. Guess what it was actually quite good. Very thick rather like a really good New England Clam Chowder with wild salmon instead of clams. We got back to the hotel at about 2 am without ever having seen the Northern Lights, which was why we chose the evening sleigh ride.
2/16/09 - Monday, our last day in Tromso, and boy am I tired. Adrian decided we should take a ferry to the town of Harstad and wander around there. It would be a 2.5 hour ferry ride to get there and then we could have lunch a short wander and then back on the boat for the ride back to Tromso. Harstad was quaint and there was the very unique built entirely into the mountain waterpark. Of course, as our luck would have it the waterpark was closed. We had great burgers at a local cafe, took a walk around the town and the waterfront and back onto the ferry. Adrian took some great sunset scenery shots and we got a pizza and packed to head back to Oslo.
2/17/09- 6am flight back to Oslo, checked into the hotel early and headed out for the Akershus Fortress and Castle, spent about 3 hours there checking out both the military history museum and the resistance museum. Then over to the Nobel Peace Center spent another couple of hours in there and had lunch in the cafe attached to the center. Walked over to City Hall a stunning building unfortunately no pictures allowed. Toured that and walked back to the hotel. Tomorrow we fly home.

We are working on our top 10 destinations list as we travel Europe, and Norway is currently in first place with nobody even coming close to how much I have fallen in love with this country!

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