Living Above The Arctic Circle

This article is written by
Mulia Nurhasan, the blog owner of My Process of Learning.

See the picture above? Beautiful isn’t it? C’on..you have got to admit. And I didn’t take it from a tourism site or top of a mountain. It’s just from my window, few minutes ago 😀 , 2.22 PM local time.

I live in Tromso, they say it’s the capital of the north. Capital, yea rite, we are only 64,782 people here. Hehe. It’s 300 km above the arctic circle. Do you know what that means? It means during summer, we have no moon and during winter we have no sun. AT ALL!!!

Extreme, huh. Wait till you hear more. Actually, unlike the rest of Europe we have only one season, which is winter. But we have green winter and white winter. From June to August (September sometimes if we are lucky), we’ll experience the green winter. It’s when trees are green and no snow falls down. The rest of the year, we have white winter. Where snows falls down a loot and the road is either snowy or icy.

It’s a challenge, really. Because even just to walk to school, we kinda need technique to do it. I use goretex shoes. I love it, it’s the best 70 euro I have ever spent in Europe. It helps me walk on ice, snow, wet field and even hike. If it’s not enough, i can also put spike underneath my shoes. It’s like a torn made of iron to crawl the ice so I won’t get slipped on the road. But I almost never use it. Like the Tromso people, I say “Spike are for tourist and old people”. Hehehe (sounds arrogance, huh).

It’s not so cold here. Not as cold as people thought because the city lies between the mountains and the sea. So the sea stabilize the city temperature. In winter time, the temperature range from zero to minus ten degrees and in summer it ranges from eight to twenty degrees. Twenty degrees is heaven for Tromso people. Last year they were so enthusiasts as they experience 20 degrees for more than a day in June and July. And they love it too much. Hahaha..funny people. They should have gone to Indonesia.

First year I was here, I thought during white winter, they will keep the children at home. Because it’s dark and cold and dangerous outside But guess what?! The Northern Norwegian were born with ski. So when snows come, they go to school with ski, like it’s part of their feet. When I ski, I feel so ashame, a couple of 70 years old grand ma and grand pa or four years old boy could ski faster than me! Crazy.

Although I enjoy a lot this extreme lifestyle, I must admit, I have escaped from this place the last two winter I had in Norway. Sorry but I couldn’t take it. I need sun. I am a tropical girl, God sake. So when winter comes, I am ready with a ticket to Barcelona, where sun waits for me and I can take off my winter coat. I can walk with normal cloths under 15 degrees celcius. hehe.

Winter is better off with snow then woithout. Because at least it’s not so dark. The white color from snow gives lighter impression and it will also absorb the cold. So we all loves snow here. Though we must admit it’s kinda too much sometimes. Imagine, now it’s April and it’s still snowy this morning. Last year it was end of May when the last snow fell down. I am expecting this year snow will fall in June, and so I will sing “Sometimes the snow comes down in June..” hehe, like Venesa Williams, you know..

Ah ya, one stunning thing I must tell you. Tromso is also famous for being the Northern light hunting most favorite venue. You know Aurora Borealis? Check here for more info. It’s stunningly beautiful. You can only see it when it’s so dark. But since during winter it’s always dark, you can see it a loot of time. Last winter, at 4 PM I walked out from library and there they were; green, red and white lights danced all over the sky..I can only say Subhanallah.

Anyway, much more to tell but will keep it for next time (perhaps). Maybe I’ll tell you about January in Tromso-the sacred month. Because it’s the first time sun appears again after two months 😀 . But for now, It’s enough to introduce my lovely beautiful city; Tromso, the capital of the north, Paris of the north, biggest city in the north..whatever. Tromso is a home to me, now.

Ha det bra from Tromso!

Note: the aurora pic was taken from here and the others are personal collection. Including the shoes, my hero 😀 .