As currently a real nice gale is building up outside with howling winds and later on sleet showers (brr… staying inside is a nice option ) I have some time to share more impressions.

The huts we are in are located beautifully directly at the edge of the water

And somehow, I cannot help myself, this seems like the appropriate method of transportation here…

Optionally you can do the manual approach either, of course

In heavy snow and uphill this is some fun, but can be quite strenuous as well…

The countryside has only sparse vegetation

and the birches are small and crippled by wind, frost and snow…

And again – 10 min later the whole scenery changes when the sun comes out

Just pure fresh white snow

After hiking a bit we decided to stock up a bit on alcoholic beverages and for this (as you can buy wine and stronger beer only in the State shop) we went to Tromso… Some houses still are a bit older and stylish yet most of the city is rather non-descript

Especially the very, very blue light is amazing – as soon as the sun is away you see the lack of UV-light extremely much

 

The bridge in the background is the one we have to cross from “our” island (some 40 km north of Tromso) – very nice on a windy day

Coming back at night the illuminated ski track is quite a sight

Finally back at the hut we were lucky – sky was clear and a faint light was visible

This is a very, very weak version of aurora borealis…

Some mountains as a backdrop

And the light rising

It can be extremely faint and just a hint of light

or quite well visible

our telephone pole

Colour games

more…

Tonight the intensity is supposed to be very strong (ok, 5 out of 10, yesterday it was 2 / 10), just the weather is abysmal. Let’s see what this is going to bring…