2 months and 1 day until we go back.... Tromso Norway Aurora Borealis 2013

So I have decided to dabble into the world of blogs in preparation of our return trip to Tromso in Norway in February 2013. Some 200 odd miles inside the Arctic Circle and possibly one of the best places to experience the aurora borealis (I much prefer the latin name) certainly in Europe. Others may know this natural phenenmom by it's other name, the northern lights

Having visited Tromso in February 2012 we fell in love with the places or should that be fell in love with the auroras?

Our first night chasing the lights was spent on a packed coach  with a load of other tourists on a night that was perfect for seeing the auroras with huge recent solar activity, mother nature was going to have the last laugh though. Tromso was well and truly covered in low cloud and we spent nearly 6 hours trying to find some clear skies with no luck at all. A fool and his money are easily parted and at £90 per person it wasn't a cheap night out for us.

We had found getting to Tromso very easy thanks to Tesco clubcard points which meant we could fly return to Oslo for just £27 per person with the additional cost of the internal Norwegian Air flight from Oslo to Tromso costing in the region of £200. That's the good part, the down side is that the cost of living in Norway is nearly 3 times that of the UK!! Accommodation, food, trips are eye watering expensive. To give it some perspective a McDonald's Big Mac meal is in the region of £15 and no that isn't a typo!! A main course in a restaurant costs nearly £30 and a pint in the region of £8.50. Even the meanest of travellers who are very astute with their money would have a challenge not to spend a small fortune nearly equal to the national debt of Greece in nearly 2 weeks staying in Norway

We had decided to arrange our accommodation ourselves rather than rely on hotels and restaurants. We enjoy the freedom and the privacy or renting your own accommodation. We booked a lovely cabin (a really poor description, but that's what they are called) directly with the own Henry in a place called Ersfjordbotn around 20km from Tromso. Little did we know that he would be so helpful and a really happy bloke and great to chat to. Just Google Ersfjordbotn and you should find the website..... I will blog some more after finding out the initial interest in this post.

Thanks for taking time to read this so far

Darrell

www.darrelljordanphotography.com