Tromso

Last night, I managed to stay up on the top deck, freezing my face off, until about 11.30 and then called it quits. Sadly no Loghts overnight, but supposedly, according to our itinerary, once we leave Tromso this afternoon the ship will be sailing into the area along the coast with the best chance of seeing the Lights. We are running out of time if we are to see them from the ship as we only have two nights onboard left...
Reasonable night’s sleep and then off to breakfast. Now that Beltie has made her appearance in cabin 470, she is determined to be included in everything.

Here’s a couple of photos of the lounge area on deck 5 where we have our cuppa of an afternoon.

Leisurely morning planned so time to do my washer woman routine and put a load of washing through the machine. It really is a bonus having a self service laundry on board the ship. Kelli held an impromptu meeting at 10.30 and went through what we had in store for us for the remaining part of the tour. Not looking forward to a couple of very early morning starts ahead, but I shall just have to put on my big girl pants and suck it up along with the rest of our group. Usually by now I have ear marked which of my travel group are going to be most likely first voted off the island, but as we won’t be in our own designated group of 22 properly until the coach component of the tour, so I am reserving my vote at the moment. Mind you there is one couple doing well in the ‘you annoy the heck out of me’ category. They have insisted in always sitting at meals in the table next to us at both breakfast and lunch. As it is non assigned seating, they could sit anywhere, but no, they actively seek the four musketeers out and then when we four are talking to each other, they simply butt in and take over the conversation. I’ve watched them and they don’t talk to each other during the meal as they are too busy eaves dropping on us, waiting to pounce on anything we say and then they are in like Flynn. This morning SB was saying that she wasn’t able to download her photos to her tablet as she had left the connection at home. Lo and behold, we had no sooner finished breakfast and gone to our cabin when there was a knock at the door and HE was there with a camera connection in hand for SB to use. Thankfully it was the wrong one or we would never have gotten rid of him. It was surely only a matter of time before SHE would have invited herself in too. SB is way too nice as she thanked him for the offer whereas the little thought bubble over my head was saying, “F off!” Keep in mind too, that I’m not a morning person, but still.......
Anyway, Mr and Mrs Butinsky drive me nuts and Captn D, Foggy and SB are waaaaaaay too nice to everyone. I think I may have to commandeer their votes when it comes time to put the castaways in lifeboats and set them adrift.
But after that, I’ve had a very pleasant morning, watching the world go by and reading.

Time for lunch and the SB heads off for another of the optional expedition hikes as we have arrived in a Tromso. Population of 75,000 and a very pretty city. We had hoped to be able to sychronize watches and arrange to wave to anyone watching the live web cam of the ship when we arrived, but we were 15 minutes later than planned as a Tromso has a new terminal that we had to go direct into when we disembarked, so couldn’t get to the front of the ship straight away to do our numpty (or as spell check says, bum ties) arm waving at where we think the camera is. Kelli kindly guided us into the town to point out major things and then left us to our own devices as we have 4 hours in port.There is light snow at times as we walk and we have to keep reminding ourselves that it is only 3 o’clock-in the afternoon,even though it is so dark. The city has a history of Arctic Ocean hunting expeditions for polar bears, seals, whales and walrus. When we get to the market square, huge ice sculptures are being made.

SB has sent me on a mission to find a particular troll figurine so I spend my free time searching tourist souvenir shops, but with no success. She has seen what she wants on the ship, but they are quite expensive so I’m hoping I will eventually find exactly what she wants at a much better price. I’m happy to wander about for a while, but as I’m not interested in any mor shopping, I’m happy to head back to the ship, get out of the layers of clothing, slip into something much more comfortable, and then have my very own private happy hour while I work on the blog.

SB arrives back from her hike, proclaiming it as fabulous. She also saw the Northern Lights, albeit they were wispy white. We have been told to expect to see the Lights tonight, so we are being very optimistic. Soon enough it is time for dinner. Captn D has brought a troll to show us that she bought the afternoon. She is sitting opposite me at our dinner table for four. No sooner does she take it out of the paper bag for us to see and Out of nowhere from behind me I hear Mr Butinsky comment on the troll! Even though he had his back to our table, and was sitting with other people his bat ears were tuned into our conversation and he had to butt inagain. I said something about wanting to punch somebody, but SB restrained me and said there would be no punching tonight. I should have asked if there might be any allowed tomorrow morning...
Thankfully our meal was soon underway and Not much after we had finished our main course, there was an announcement over the public address system to advise that the Lights were visible on the port side of the ship. Slight bedlam and chaos as most of the dinner crowd rushed for the one exit door. SB and I both needed to go back to the cabin to get layered up again, but we were still able to see the amazing sight we had come a long way to see. My little camera doesn’t have the ability to truly capture the images but here’s a taste of the Northern Lights. (The Lights at the bottom of photos are actual buildings on land in the distance.)

I stayed up on the top deck for a long while, but the Lights were thinning out and I was starting to get really cold in spite of all my layers, so headed back to the cabin. Enjoyed a nice hot cup of tea and decided I was ready for my bed. We have already been advised that the Lights are likely to keep reappearing through the night so I’m undecided if I will be getting up to see them again, once I’ve gotten into bed. Will have to see how the mood takes me at the time.