Well Tromso was, as expected, incredible. Just an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful area. So I'll start where I left off last time which, I think, was having just arrived.
Having flown up from Oslo, then getting the regular service bus into the centre and finding my hostel relatively easily (it's a small and easily navigable city of 75,000 population), I checked in, dumped my stuff and headed straight out to explore. I headed for one of the main attractions in Tromso - the cable car which takes you to the top of a mountain, around 400m above sea level (and therefore Tromso itself) for some amazing views of the city. Which gave me some amazing views of the city. It's also a good area for hiking, with a number of trails leading up and around the further peaks, so I spent a few hours walking before getting back to the cable car station in time for an overpriced beer in front of the sunset.
My second day, Monday, I set out to explore the museums, planning to book a couple of local tours later in the day. It, however, turned out to be a bit of a nothing day as I got sidetracked earlier than planned by booking my tours. But before that, I did see the Polaria museum (not to be confused with the Polar Museum, near my hostel), which started with a 15 minute film on the Aurora Borealis, as Tromso is one of the best places in the world to see it - unfortunately it usually starts being visible a few weeks after I was there. The museum also contained arctic marine wildlife, such as seals and various fish, and went to great lengths to highlight the dangers of climate change and the potential effects. I had then planned to see the Tromso City Museum, including a preserved sealing vessel explaining the history of sealing in the area, but it was annoyingly closed. So, on my way to find the Defence Museum, again about Norway's defence against the Nazis, I stopped at my hostel for lunch and got completely distracted by looking at potential tours to do.
So after lunch, I just headed to the tourist information centre to do some more research and book my tours through them. I decided on a tour of some of the local fjords by car and a day of sea kayaking in the same area. Thinking I'd been extremely efficient and booked my fjords tour for 7pm that evening, effectively giving myself an extra half-day, I was just rushing back to get changed when I realised it was the wrong date. So I had to cancel that (with a full refund thankfully) and booked another one for the next morning from 10am. After chilling at the hostel for a while, I got invited out for drinks and to watch one of the hostel staff's band play in a local bar. Which was dire. They were all decent, but the instruments were far too loud and the guy singing was far too quiet, so it just didn't work and didn't allow us much chance to chat. But it was a good night anyway and I managed not to spend too much on beer, at almost ten quid a pint...
My tour guide for the fjords then picked me up at 10am, followed by a family from Hong Kong, and we set off for Someroy (Summer Island). The guide (Andrei, a Romanian immigrant) was great and knew exactly where to go for the best views, and gave us plenty of opportunity to get out and take some incredible photos of the fjords. For anyone who doesn't know (I thought everyone knew exactly what the Norwegian fjords are, but apparently not), they're the high, steep sided valleys surrounding the coastal waters and stretch pretty much the entire coast of Norway. Some of the most attractive scenery in the world, by anyone's judgement. We spent most of the day, just driving round and jumping out of the car every 2 minutes to take more photos, before setting up a little campfire on the beach for some reindeer sausages. It was around 5pm when I got back and, feeling energetic, I set off for another hike.
I'd already decided that I wanted to get to the top of the Tromsdalstinden peak, which is visible from most places in the city, with quite a bit of snow on top and towering over the cable car mountain. Having set off from sea level, it took me around 3 and a half hours to walk to the foot of the mountain and ascend its 1,238m (4,062ft). The views from the top, not even mentioning those from the entire (arduous, knackering, physically exhausting!) route up, are probably the most breathtaking, magnificent views I've ever witnessed. Nothing I can think of really comes close - anywhere I've seen in the Peak District, Lake District, Pennine Way or any of my previous travelling. The one thing I can compare it to is the French Alps, around Mont Blanc, with so many snow-capped mountains in every direction. But, being summer, there was rather less snow and rather more lakes, streams, waterfalls and sheer cliff faces. Thankfully my phone battery just held out for long enough to take plenty of pictures along the top ridge, which I stayed on for around 30-40 minutes, just taking in the sights before making my way back down the tricky rock scramble at the top, then rather quicker on the less steep paths closer to the bottom. I timed it perfectly too, arriving back into (now complete fog-shrouded) civilisation just as it was getting too dark to be wandering about in unfamiliar hills, around 10.30pm.
My kayak tour was the next day and, annoyingly, the fog still hadn't cleared by the time we were meeting, around 8.30am - where it was just myself and a lovely French couple for the tour. Or by the time we'd driven out to Someroy again and got everything ready. So, for the first few hours, there was relatively little to actually see. But the sea around there is extremely calm, so it was still a nice, relaxing paddle about around the small islands there. By the time we stopped for lunch (reindeer sausages on the beach again - obviously popular among the tours around Tromso!), the fog had started to clear. So the afternoon was spent, fully familiarised with my kayak, seeing some more of the amazing fjords and the clear arctic seas. I then got back to my hostel in the evening, wanting to spend my last night drinking, but couldn't find the people I'd been out with on Monday night. So I spent some time with an Iraqi/English guy, looking for somewhere decent to eat and to have a couple of pints, but we completely failed to find anywhere and ended up cooking back at the hostel, with no alcohol. But, in the end, I was ready to pass out from exhaustion anyway from the last two days, so it suited me alright.
Which brings me to the end of one of the best places I've ever been. My flight to Finland was uneventful, and I'll leave the rest of my trip (sauna drinking in Vaasa and my 4 nights in Helsinki) for the next, and final, installment.
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