The first aurora in Tromsø
This article is part of the series “2020-10: New in Tromsø”.
Not the most impressive aurora, not the greatest shot, but I’m satisfied anyway because I know there is more to come.
My way to work
This article is part of the series “2020-10: New in Tromsø”.
Today I got the test result: corona negative. So I was allowed to go to work at the Norwegian Polar Institute. It’s a bit more than 2 km to walk and I did walk.
Here are 16 photos, from the street where I live to the entrance of the Framsenteret.
As usual: A click will enlarge the photo, then you can navigate by clicking or using the left and right cursor arrows on your keyboard.
A small after-work promenade
This article is part of the series “2020-10: New in Tromsø”.
Today I had my first work day at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø. Since I am in quarantine I had to work from home. Not easy when you don’t know what to do yet.
Right after work I took a walk to fight my fatigue. First up the streets, then along some tiny paths through the forest-like park Folkeparken. One of the paths led down to the western shore of Tromsøya, the island which Tromsø is on. Here I started to take pictures.
You see the coloured spots at the right side of the last photo? It’s people taking a picnic. There are not extremely many people around, but more than I expected. They jog, they cycle, they sit round a campfire. They take photos, they act as photo motives. They take care of their children, they walk, they talk. They take a winter bath from the wooden pier, they paddle kayak, they sail. All these people present Tromsø as an awesome place to be. The gorgeous autumn weather is just the icing on the cake.
Oh yes, I miss Annika! Anyhow I think, I’ll like it here.
A cold bath in Tromsø
This article is part of the series “2020-10: New in Tromsø”.
Two days after Annika and I bathed at “our” beach Vitskärsudden in Obbola I bathed again today. Alone at the Telegrafbukta in Tromsø – more than 650 km north from home. It’s a beautiful bay hardly 500 meters from my room.
The differences:
- While Annika joined me many times bathing at Vitskärsudden I probably have to bath alone in Tromsø
- Home: the way is more beautiful. Tromsø: the way is shorter
- Tromsø: the water tastes salty. The salinity is at least 10 times higher as home
- Tromsø: there is seaweed in the water and sea urchins and probably a lot of other species starting with “sea”. I use bathing shoes
- Home: the water level doesn’t change quite often. Tromsø: there are tides here with a tidal range of up to 3 metres.
- Tromsø: Probably the water won’t freeze over the whole winter.
Today the water was 8.5 °C, two degrees less than the last time. My plan is to bath there the whole year round. Let’s see if I manage to do it.
Flying to Tromsø
This article is part of the series “2020-10: New in Tromsø”.
7:58 – Umeå airport. I’m one of the first passengers for the flight SK2023 to Stockholm Arlanda at 9:50. Outside it is dim and foggy but I’m waiting outside anyway to avoid using my face mask that will accompany me the whole day today.
9:43 – Umeå airport. I’m going to the airplane. Of course with face mask. Soon our airplane departs and lifts us above the thick layer of fog and then the clouds. Welcome sun! After we landed in Stockholm Arlanda i realise that it’s as foggy there as home. I have something looking forward to: Japanese food. Then I’ll pass the security control once more. As already in Umeå my camera bag is examined for explosives, this time very thoroughly.
Next stop: Oslo-Gardermoen airport.
Why I’m taking this long and environmentally unfriendly trip by plane? Because the passenger trains from Sweden to the Norwegian Narvik have been cancelled for months. From there I could have taken a bus to Tromsø. Hopefully the train will be opened soon again.
13:46 – arrival in Oslo. And guess what, it’s foggy again. The airbus A320 was almost empty. Only 25 passengers instead of 180. I (and the stewards) have the last 7 rows for me alone.
In Tromsø I first have to show my passport and my employment contract, then I have to go to the baggage claim to get my luggage. It has to go through the custom. While doing that I somehow leave the arrival area where I planned to make a corona test. Since the info desk is closed I have to continue without any test. Maybe I’ll manage to get one tomorrow in Tromsø. This could shorten my quarantine of ten days.
The most visible ad at the airport: Norrøna outdoor equipment featuring a downhill skier. That slope would be hundred times too steep for me but I start longing for snow.
Next (and final) stop: Tromsø. The checkin is in ten minutes.
16:30 – Somewhere above the airport Oslo Gardermoen. Our airplane has started. It is hardly half full. The fog has vanished and I have a view to the autumnal surroundings of the airport.
This landscape looks cosy, a bit like Tolkien’s Hobbiton. An hour later the landscape looks completely different.
Soon the plane starts to sink giving me the probably fastest sunset I’ve ever seen. Hardly more than five minutes later we have landed on the airport Tromsø Langnes where I get a lift of K., my roommate in Tromsø.
Tomorrow I’ll have a day off. The next day I’ll start working at the Norwegian Polarinstitute. Unfortunately from home because I’m in travel quarantine. That’s not the easiest start, but that cannot be changed.
Fjell and fjäll
Fjell/fjäll is the word for mountain or mountains. Fjell is Norwegian, fjäll is Swedish. As similar the words are as different the fjell/fjäll can be.
When Annika and I started our way back home from Tromsø yesterday we could experience the inaccessible steep mountains in Norway with the dark grey summits hanging in the evenly dark clouds as well as the colourful autumnal mountain plateaus between Abisko and Kiruna.
Moving things to Tromsø
As some of you may know I’ll work for the Norsk Polarinstitutt in Tromsø from the 1 October. I’m looking forward to this extremely interesting job and the town Tromsø is outstanding. The downside is that Annika and I won’t see each other very often, because the distance it too far to visit each other for a normal weekend. Hopefully I’m allowed to work from home in Obbola/Umeå sometimes.
Last Saturday I packed around 250 different things that I may need here – from my big computer monitor to my digital piano and warm winter boots. When I packed everything into my Subaru on Sunday morning I realised that I even had spare room for my ergonomic office stool and my warmest winter parka. Nice!
On Sunday at 10 o’clock Annika and I started our tour to Tromsø. The day before our home region Västerbotten was put on the red list by Norway again, which means that we had to be in quarantine while being in Norway. Bad luck! Therefore we didn’t make our stopover in the Norwegian Narvik as considered before but already in Kiruna in Sweden.
The next day we were stopped by the police at the border. The police informed us about the quarantine rules and wanted to know our place to stay. Since I had a lease contract for my room in Tromsø with me we were allowed to cross the border. At 16 o’clock we arrived in front of the house where I have a room in a shared flat. My room is quite tiny but there is place in the living room and kitchen as well. The flat is in the 2nd floor (3rd floor for Americans) and you can see the steep and partly snow covered mountains of the island Kvaløya and the mainland. It’s even possible to watch the Hurtigruten ship passing by but I didn’t see it yet.
Yesterday we made a car trip to Sommarøya, a peninsula with some beautiful beaches. We bathed in the Norwegian Sea. At 11 °C water temperature it was warmer than excepted. In contrary to the Bothnian Bay – the northernmost part of the Baltic Sea – the Norwegian Sea won’t freeze in the winter because of the Gulf Stream. So I can winter bath the whole winter without chopping ice if I want to.
Two images of yesterday:
Today we will make another day trip, tomorrow we’ll start to head home to Sweden again.
And the quarantine? Well – we shall stay home, but we are allowed to buy food and to be in nature as long we are able to keep distance to others. So the restrictions were quite lax. Mostly it’s the museums and the public transport (including the cable car Fjellheisen) that we have to avoid.
P.S.: Now all things have more or less found a place in the flat and I can enter my room shown on the 3rd photo above.
My new work: Overingeniør @ Norsk Polarinstitutt
Today I got the confirmation: From 1 October I will work as a senior engineer at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø.
The story began on 14 March when I found a job offer “Utviklere, web/dataforvaltning” (developers, web/data management) at the Norwegian Polar Institute in the world wide web. It was just two days before closing date and I hurried to write an application for the job. The idea of working as a software developer with research data in the field of polar research was too tempting.
The whole process took a long time because of the restrictions due to corona, but on 29 April I was invited to a short video conference with the head of department and one of the developers. In the end of May I solved two programming exercises and on the 4th of June I had my job interview. I would have loved to travel to Tromsø for the interview but because of corona this was impossible and we took another video interview.
I was quite proud that I had come so long in the whole process – a former jazz pianist and web developer, although with 18 years of professional experience within software development. The following week I got a message that I had been accepted for the job. Today I got the formal confirmation in form of an offer that I gladly accepted.
So today I pronounce that I am feeling honoured to be able to work for the “Norsk Polarinstitutt”, the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø. A new area of work begins.
There’s a lot of more to tell, but not tonight. The blog will continue.
On the road IV and V
Back to Sweden · Sneringsvika—Rötviken – 315 km
Have I told you, that the weather in Norway is constantly changing? So it was as well when I continued my road trip the day before yesterday.
It wasn’t cold, but most of the precitipation came as snow and even by the sea everything was white.
In Hofles I waited for the ferry to Lund which takes 25 minutes. I love standing onboard and watch the snow covered hills and mountains pass.
On the other side there was first less snow, …
… but as soon as the road climbed up a bit everything was white again. Here are two photos from a barbecue hut by the road 74 to Sweden. The first one from now, the other made in August 2016.
This time I have booked a cabin in advance. It is in Rötviken, 20 km behind the Norwegian-Swedish border. Although the campsite is by the road it is really quiet. Hardly any car uses this road.
I was tired from all the driving of the last days and fell fast asleep. The next day I would take it easy.
Arrival · Rötviken—Orrviken – 139 km
What a beautiful morning! The sun came out the first time since I left Solberget four days ago. Two dogs were barking. Did they bark at me? Now, it was the two moose that were about to cross the road but then turned too the the lake Hotagen.
This day I didn’t have to go far, just 140 km along broad roads through the Swedish forest. Easy to drive but a bit boring to look at.
I made a short stopover in Östersund, the largest town in the county Jämtland.
Then I continued to Orrviken.
Today I will spend my day here and repack my things for a ski tour that I will start with two friends tomorrow. Then I’ll be offline for about two weeks.
Vi hörs – see ya.
On the road III – Hemavan—Sneringsvika – 296 km
From the wintry fjäll to the rainy coast
It’s only one day of travelling, hardly 300 km, but today was filled with a lot of varying great experiences and feels like a complete holiday.
After breakfast I leave Hemavan behind and again I travel to Norway, this time taking the road 73 via Joesjö. It’s just below zero and it’s snowing. I cross Norway and now the snowfall intenes. It’s snowing handkerchiefs and the visibilty is poor. Within minutes the road is covered with a fresh layer of snow.
The heavy snowfall lasts only short and soon visibility is much better. Twice I pass an open barrier. This route section can be closed when the weather is severe. If this should happen to me I’d choose to wait on the western side. What a cozy shelter the Norwegians have built there.
Now I’m really in Norway. It’s just impossible to describe the zillions of different impressions. It’s the endless combinations of different landscapes, different moods and different weather that makes travelling through Norway so interesting and inspiring.
An example image, from bottom to top: a river rushing through a canyon. Above that a hill with a green coniferous forest. Above that a mountain with a forest covered with fresh snow. Above that a high mountain over the timber line, completely encased with white snow. Above that clouds bringing snow or rain (depending on the altitude) and the sun trying to peek through a cloud gap. And that’s one of a thousand images.
I do not even try to photo all the different scenic moods because it would take ages. And by the way: there are hardly any parking opportunities by the roads.
So I publish just some travelogue photos, mostly taken through the windscreen.
At 14:25 I arrive in Vennesund. Here I have to take a ferry to continue my trip south. An hour later my car is in the belly of the ship and I am on deck. It’s windy, but warm with +4 °C. I’m the only one on deck. The journey takes only 20 minutes.
After leaving the ferry I continue my road trip and the landscape is as gorgeous as before.
Anyway I got quite tired and I’m longing for a cosy place to stay. I plan to take the first opportunity. At the branch, where the 802 leaves to Bogen I see some kind of camping kiosk. I leave the car and meet an elderly man, who gives me his cabin for a night. It costs 800 NOK, but first it’s Norway and then this cabin by the fjord is a welcome luxury after travelling by car for three days.
Now I have to check the weather forecast for tomorrow. I’m in a winter mood and long for snow!