Tromso Snow Wonderland

Being from Ukraine and enduring three winters in Iowa, I am not exactly new to snow. But holly Santa! I was not prepared for THAT much snow in Tromso.

When Stine and Solveig told me that they just got two meters of snow shortly after Easter, I did not think much of that. That seemed like a lot, but then again, we would get quite a bit of snow in Iowa as well.

Still, being way above the Arctic circle, Tromso ain't Iowa…

And I realized just what I got myself into as soon as I got there. I had to take a bus to meet my couchsurfing host Dasha and I am pretty sure I provided some entertainment for the locals constantly trying to take pictures as they went business as usual.

The roads were quite literally narrow tracks with walls of snow on each side and I just had to take a picture to give you a perspective in the middle of this madness.

And here is what it looked like from the inside of the house.

Crazy!

Still, a little snow could not stop me from exploring this town and the weather cooperated that day - it was just cold enough to keep the snow from melting and not cold enough to make me freeze.

I like that!

So off I was, wondering the main streets, admiring the bright colors and layers upon layers of snow on the roofs.

There aren't must-see things here, mainly things to do - from skiing to cruises to riding a cable car to the top of a nearby mountain for a nice overlook of the city. Oh, and it is one of the best places to watch the Northern Lights. Unfortunately, as I was visiting neither during winter- nor during summer-time, none of these were an option.

So I just kept on walking around the downtown area before deciding to walk the one kilometer bridge to the "mainland" where another "must see" landmark is located - the Arctic Cathedral.

I liked the cathedral from the outside - it was not just your usual church nor was it something grandiose. But I didn't go inside and instead walked back across the bridge to take some pictures in the other direction.

And that was about it. A quick few hours spent walking around the city, then a nice evening with my generous hosts. Oh, and they took me to a nearby Kaldfjorden - my first fjord!

Next morning I bolted out of bed thinking that I slept through my alarm clock - it was so bright out side that I thought it might be time to run to the airport already. Then I checked the clock and it was 6am... They do have night time up there right now, but it is not a very long one - hence the lack of the Northern Lights.

Although I was a little disappointed that I missed the Northern Lights season, I got a taste of the ridiculous-amount-of-snow season there - simply magical! In fact, surprisingly, there was a lot more snow in Tromso than there was up north in Longyearbyen. But I get ahead of myself.