A VISIT TO TROMSO PART 2

TWICE A MOUNTAIN CLIMB
Jon, my second host, was the expert on things to do in Tromso. One of these things that he recommended was to climb a mountain. This mountain was not actually on the island of Tromso, but rather across the water on the mainland. After a nice walk across the nicely curved bridge and a pass by the arctic cathedral, I made it to the base of the mountain. There is a cable car that runs up the mountain, but this is only done in the summer months. So I started my way up hiking. Stupidly I didn't realize there was somewhat of a path to follow up and I spent the first hour consuming all my energy as I slowly made my way up the mountain. I slid around on the snow covered mountain, but eventually I found the slightly easier path. After I made my way to the top of the mountain I took a few minutes catching my breath and taking in the amazing views. Then of course I went to grab my camera to take some pictures... but my second stupid move of the day, my battery was dead. So I decided that I would have to climb the mountain again to take some pictures. I slid my way down the mountain. This was actually extremely fun as I made my way down on my ass making a path through the trees. I made it all the way down in no more than 15 minutes. The next day I climbed the mountain again, this time taking the path that was a bit easier. When I made it to the top again (where the cable car goes) and snapped some pictures, I was not satisfied. So I actually climbed an even higher second peak and spent a good time relaxing with pure silence, except for the howling wind blowing snow all around. The best part was that the path I made from the day before with my ass slightly froze overnight. This proved to be quite the fun winding fast slide down the mountain... I should have started to charge people to use my excellently made path ( I do have some videos of this).

DOGSLEDDING
When I arrived in Tromso I learned that I could go dogsledding for 1,200 kroner or around $170 (the exchange rate is 7 kroner for 1 dollar). While this seemed appealing, it also seemed a bit out of my budget for what I wanted to spend. I thought I would think it over and perhaps still decide to do it eventually. Luckily, Jon informed me of a way to go dogsledding for only 500 Kroner or about $70. Less than half price, that was much better! I would go doglsedding the way the locals do it. I called up the company directly, instead of going through the tourist office. Instead of taking their private van to the place I had to hop on the public bus and just tell the bus driver to drop me off at the base of the entrance to the place. I was also informed I would have to forgo the complimentary lunch. This was all more than fine by me and actually ended up working out great... Since I took the public bus, I arrived at the place about an hour before the rest of the people on the private van. Because of this I was the only one who actually got to help out and put together a team. I actually grabbed dogs and attached them to their sleds. After all the teams were put together I got to pick one of the six dog, teams for myself. I think I picked the best team there if I do say so myself. At the front I had my two lovely ladies leading the way. They were smart and energetic. They were pretty twins and two of the only dogs that could be left without a leash. In the middle I had a veteran of the famous Idetarod race. He was a bit older and more experienced. He was the type to use his experience and wisdom to keep the crew together. In the back I had my two strong and silent ones. They didn't seem too bright and were not as sociable as the other dogs. However, they looked like they would pull all day if they had too and I knew they wouldn't let me down. So as I waited for everyone else to arrive I took in the workings of the place. There were around 300 dogs there. The dogs couldn't be more excited to pull the sleds. The ones who weren't picked looked to be quite jealous of those who were getting to go. Whenever one dog started barking, they all slowly joined in until there was a loud chant of 300 plus dogs speaking their minds. There were also a couple of sheep dogs who ran free and took their jobs very seriously. When a couple of the sled dogs acted up and got yelled at by the people, the sheep dogs looked like they took it personally. They ran over to the incident and personally yelled at the dogs who acted up and then proceeded to run around and warn all of the other sleds not to follow the bad example. Eventually we were under way, I was driving my own sled of dogs. I was following other sleds, but I was completely solely in control of my own sled. My team performed amazingly. When the other sleds when up hills the other people had to get off the sleds and help push, when my team when up hills I had to continue to apply the brakes because they were going so fast! It was an incredible exhilarating time. I must admit I did get distracted and my sled did flip once. Although this didn't break my dogs stride and they continued to go and I ran after them, flipped the sled back over, and continued on our way and almost noone even noticed I had flipped. Afterwards we heard some interesting stories about the dogs, I will share a quick one. There was one set of twin dogs, where one of the twins was almost completely blind. However, this never posed a problem because the other twin would always perfectly communicate to the other one and these dogs could easily lead the way. Although, when they tried to put the blind one with any other partner it never worked out and the blind one would always crash. Afterwards, I joined everyone else and was actually given the food along with everyone even though I was not supposed to get it. Additionally I grabbed the private van ride back with everyone even though I wasn't supposed to get that either. So my dogsledding trip worked out amazingly for a great price, I couldn't have been happier!

Northern Lights
When I originally booked my ticket to Tromso, the thing I most looked forward to was the northern lights. I figured I had like 10 nights, I would see the damn lights. Well I did see them, but barely. In fact so little so, that my camera couldn't even pick up the faint light that I saw. But it was funny because soon after I got there I found myself interested in the lights, but not obsessing over seeing them. I became much more interested in the people I was staying with, climbing the mountain, and dogsledding. While it would have been quite nice to see a magnificent display of the lights, that didn't happen. Its just the way things worked out and I have no regrets at all. I loved everything about my trip to Tromso and I appreciate everything I did get to do, especially the things I had no prior knowledge about.