Here's a recap on our weekend. We left very early Friday morning and flew to Tromso via Oslo. The airport in Oslo is really strange, as you arrive and have to walk down a corridor that overlooks the gates and boarding areas, then down a set of stairs, then back to your connecting gate. I suppose it works well for people arriving to stay in Oslo because it keeps them from having to fight the departure crowds, but it does make transferring a little more difficult. (There is a Pizza Hut in the airport, but it was closed when we were there.)
We got to Tromso and it started snowing. There was a good bit of snow on the ground already. Temperatures weren't too cold (about 28 F), but we knew that Friday night would be out for seeing the Northern Lights. We were able to find a couple of things we had previously not seen in Norway - leyches and edamame. We bought a bag of edamame and took it to the hotel to put in the minibar fridge to take back to Stavanger with us.
We also bought a can of stuffed grape leaves and ended up having a dinner of those, as well as leftover airplane sandwiches and some fruit. Eclectic, but delicious! (We had a nice meal at a restaurant in town for lunch, so we were stretching our travel budget.)
We had a nice view from our room at the Rica Ishavhotel, and the room was quite comfortable (they have fabulous beds!) Our room looked toward the north, and we could see the bridge and the Arctic Cathedral.
Breakfast at the Rica was fabulous both Saturday and Sunday. This hotel won second place in the "Best Breakfast in Norway" competition, and it is well deserved. The selection is broad, ranging from locally produced foods to the full English breakfast to all sorts of fresh juice blends. The only thing lacking is a good coffee, but they made a passable latte when we asked for it.
After breakfast Saturday, we headed out to go dog sledding. The weather had cleared and it was actually getting "warm" (above freezing.) The bus ride out was about 1 1/2 hours, and was through some beautiful snow-covered mountains.
The bus was a bit late getting to the camp, so the sleds were pretty much set up already by the time we got there. There wasn't a lot of instruction starting out, only on how to stop and that the dogs would pretty much follow the leader, so we wouldn't need to know much about steering. I took the first half driving, with Sidney and Kimber sitting in the sled.
It was very quiet and the scenery was breath-taking. I will say this - it is a lot more work than I though it would be. We had five dogs on our team, and I had to help them out getting up the worst of the hills. I also found that it isn't quite "follow the leader", but I got a feel of how to steer by shifting my weight and pulling on one side of the sled or the other.
We switched positions halfway, but Kimber doesn't quite have as much weight as I do, so the sled didn't tend to go where she wanted it to go. We ended up stopping for a bit (one of the teams in front of us had some trouble - more on that in a minute), so we switched back. (This is our lead dog, by the way.)
The switch back was just in time, as the "trouble" the other team had was dumping their sled (and passenger) into a frozen river. Their dogs went straight, but their sled didn't and went down a small embankment into the water. The passenger was okay, but very wet and cold (we were treated to a show of him drying off by the fire in his long johns - very Bear Gryllis-esque for those Discovery Channel fans!) I am pretty sure that we would have been in the water as well had we not changed drivers.
We finished the sledding just in time, as the snow started falling. Then it started blowing sideways. Then it looked pretty much like a blizzard. We were back at the camp by then and warming up in the little tee-pee by the fire. We had a nice lamb stew for lunch and got to talk to some of our fellow sledders.
We then boarded the bus for the journey back. I must say, it was almost as much of an adventure as the dog sledding had been. The bus was having some mechanical issues with losing water, and the roads were very icy. The snow was coming down very hard and visibility was reduced. At one point, there was a car that stopped in the middle of the road for some unknown reason. Our driver tried to stop, but the brakes were locking up and the bus was only sliding. He ended up steering around the car at the last minute, but probably gave the driver in the oncoming lane a heart attack when he did it. I was sitting right behind our driver, and I even leaned away from the side when it happened. We did finally make it back in one piece.
The snow continued Saturday night, so again, no Northern Lights. Sunday at breakfast, some British tourists told us they don't believe they really exist, or at least they appear only in relation to the amount of vodka one consumes that night.
We went to Polaria on Sunday. It is a museum dedicated to the ecological study of the Arctic wilderness. They have a pair of bearded seals (the only pair in captivity anywhere), as well as some great exhibits and panoramic movies. They also have a nice play area, which helped us kill time on Sunday since nothing else is open, it was snowing (again) and our flight wasn't until almost 9 pm.
Finally, the flight home. We got on the plane pretty much on time (which was good since most of the other flights were getting delayed by almost 45 minutes.) After we got on, we found out we had to wait on a) the runway to get cleared of snow and b) and incoming flight that had three passengers for our flight on it. We ended up taking off almost 45 minutes late, which was a problem because our connection in Oslo was only for 45 minutes of layover. They ended up holding the plane in Oslo for an extra 10 minutes for us and about 6 others going to Stavanger, and we made it back to Stavanger by 12:30 AM.
It was a long and tiring weekend, but a lot of fun. We have decided that we will try to do the Northern Lights in December, before all the snow starts again.
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