Blogs from Tromsø, Northern Norway, Norway, Europe - page 3

In North Norway it is acceptable for the locals to refer to the police as 'you f***ing horse d!ck' when speaking directly to anyone in the force. However, in the South this is frowned upon and will get you arrested and slapped with a fine. Unless you are visiting from the North, as it is generally accepted that the Northerners are rougher around the edges due to harsh living and so 'you f***ing horse d!ck' is known to be a friendly salutation. Apparently this has been highlighted in the press recently when a northerner visiting Oslo required help from local police due to car trouble. I'm not sure if it's OK for tourists to use this term, and so when we drove past the police station, I did not stick my head out of the window ... read more

I've finally seen the Northern Lights! Right on the doorstep of my accommodation too, impressive but they did keep me up bloody late! The trip to Tromsø was via Oslo and the airport must be the most expensive airport I've ever passed through. It's around 10 Norwegian Krona to the pound, so working out that the advertised fish and chips cost over £16 was quick. A smoothie bowl was almost £13 and the prices on the ski gear and jewellery were out of this world! I didn't do any shopping whilst we waited for our transfer to Tromsø. As you would expect, it's a fairly large airport - with staff zooming around on scooters, some pushing carts on the scooters, I wasn't expecting that. Weaving in and out of the tight throngs of people, it was ... read more

Saturday 9 December 2017 After a morning stop in Finnsnes, the ship continued to Tromso, the gateway to the Arctic, for a prolonged stay. At 2.15pm we docked and started our visit to Tromso. Before getting off the ship we saw the Arctic Cathedral across the water, over the bid long bridge, opposite the CBD. We were going to concentrate on the city centre. First was the Christmas Markets in the city square but all the stalls were food based, offering sample of local food. Next was the Polar Museum where we learned the history of seal hunting as well as the exploration of the North Pole. Very interesting. The display included preserved seals, life-size models of explorers and the equipment that was used. We then walked into the main shopping area, briefly stopping inside the ... read more

15th November After leaving Kristiansand on Sunday we sailed up the the west coast of Norway crossing into the Arctic Circle towards Tromso. The Sunday night was choppy to say the least with a Force 9 blowing and 6 - 8 metre swells. Monday morning brought calmer conditions and the captain apologised for the 'potholes' in the night. We arrive in Tromso early morning Wednesday 15th and depart for Alta early morning (3.30 am) on the 16th. Apart from the inclement weather on the sail up to Tromso we had a showing of the Northern Lights in the late evening of Tuesday, we were able to glimpse a quick peak before it calmed down. One of the things to get to grips with is that sunrise is 09.30 am and sunset is 01.30 pm, we left ... read more

Tromsø, Norway 2014/12/30-2015/01/05 After celebrating Christmas with my family and skiing for a few days, my mom, her best friend and I flew from Vienna to Tromsø, losing our luggage in Oslo at a layover. Tromsø is a beautiful town with approximately 72,000 inhabitants, situated 344km above the polar circle, in the province Troms, in northern Norway . It’s famous for the most northern university, most northern beer-brewery and most northern cathedral worldwide. Not quite the expected When we arrived it was dark, even though it was just around 4pm and it was raining- not at all what we expected, visiting a place so far up north. We thought it would be a few degrees below zero (°C) and it may be snowing. But due to extensions of the Gulf Stream the climate in Tromsø is ... read more