Norway! Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the Trom(sø): The Final Part

Ok! I promise that this time I’m totally going to finish up my trip to Tromsø. Totally.

So we ended the previous day after having some awesome opportunities to snowmobile and watch the Aurora lights. For our last day in Tromsø I hadn’t booked anything, since I thought we could have some time exploring the city itself. (You know me, I like to take it slow). I had also made reservations at a highly recommended and extremely fancy restaurant named Emma’s Dream Kitchen.

Actually, pause here. I’m going to go ahead and give a shout out to all my linguists here because reading Norwegian is a lot like reading drunk English. Like, if you squint your eyes and tilt your head, you can figure out what everything says. Take, for instance, the restaurant we ate at:

Emmas Drømmekjøkken

I mean, doesn’t it kiiind of look like dream kitchen?

And this, here, is Central Station: sentralstasjon

It looks so similar!

Ok, language lesson over.

We spent the first part of the last day wandering around a farmer’s market that had sprung up. There, we purchased way too much Lefsa (a Norwegian dessert made with cream, butter, and cheese), which we told ourselves we’d share with our families when we got home. Lol.

I’d heard about the tram that takes visitors up to the top of the fjord right beside Tromsø, so we asked our friendly hotel receptionist how exactly to get there. She recommended a “short, easy walk,” which meant an hour long hike over a bridge and through town (in the snow! Uphill both ways!). Another route (for the lazy) was the bus system, which started just outside. We took the bus.

I have to tell you guys, the top of the glacier was phenomenal. We didn’t get many amazing photos, simply because a blizzard blew in a few minutes after we arrived, but the view down and across Tromsø was simply breathtaking. On the opposite side, away from the city, endless fjords rolled out in front of us, ethereal and otherworldly. Their profound immensity was inspiring, and I wish I had gotten the opportunity to capture them before the slopes were enveloped in darkness.

Instead, here’s a photo of us cheesing on top of the mountain.

You’re welcome.

Later that night, we went to go see a Christmas concert at the Arctic Cathedral, a local landmark that also serves as a hall of worship (as everyone but me would have guessed from the name). It was a very local event, conducted entirely in Norwegian, but EVERYONE can recognize the tune to ‘Frosty the Snowman.’ Shoutout also to another song that I thought originated from the movie Frozen, but apparently is an extremely old Norwegian hymn. Good job, Disney.

The show was haunting and beautiful, and a perfect end to our perfect trip to Tromsø. We left early the next morning, flying back to Oslo and enjoying another hour or two in Norway before heading back to the US.

-Carissa