Snowy February 2010

Views through our windows.

These cars are lined up in front of the Northern Lights Observatory, across from Prestvannet where there is good access to the ski trails.

A clearer day at the University. The main paths have underground heating (water is pumped through, as I understand), so most of the time they are clear.

This is how you move snow in Tromso.

Bridge to the mainland--Arctic Catherdral in center.

Mike clearing the snow to our door after the big snow mover has been through.

After the ice in January, we were hoping it would snow in February. We got our wish! We were actually really glad to see lots of snow in February!

Icy January 2010

Dag and Mike

The sun returns! Taken Jan. 22., about 2:30 p.m.

Looks like a Grandma Moses painting!

The walking paths were just ice. We avoided those, keeping to the street where they put down gravel (they don't salt roads here), which provides some traction.

This is a "shortcut" path from one street to another where they did put down a bit of grit to help pedestrians.

This is a path we often take alongside Prestvannet. Michael took this photo when he went on his own to the grocery, deciding to brave the path ... I think he took a different path home.

The streets were plenty icy too!

Moving right along ... January was very icy this year. We had snow, but also got some freezing rain, which made getting around difficult. Even the Norwegians grumbled about it. But they took advantage too, enjoying skating on the lake. Cousin Dag was up from Oslo for the Tromso Film Festival, and stopped by to have dinner with us. It was nice to see him again!

New Year

Hard to see the "2" but the "010" is still glowing a bit. This is located just below the fjellheisen (the lift to the top of the mountain). You can slightly see the lights that outline of the top of the mountain.

This is just some of the people milling around the parking lot of the local grocery store (Coop Prix), which actually is a great vantage point for watching the fireworks. In the sky behind the are puffs of smoke from some of the many fireworks being lit off.

We had brought along some hot glogg (pronounced something like "glurg" --the "o" should be a "o" with a line through it but I can't get my alternative letters to work for some reason ...), and our foam squares (great for sitting on snow and not getting your backside wet/cold). Glogg is a traditional Scandinavian Christmas drink, which is very sweet and spicy. You mix it with water or wine (or, as at Michael's chemistry department Christmas party, with a clear, distilled alchohol, but that's another story, and is not recommended). We found a spot by the lake (Prestvannet) to sit and watch the remaining fireworks. It was nice.

On New Year's Eve, we went to Elverhoy for an 11 p.m. service. By the time we got out, it was after midnight and the main fireworks had already begun. In Tromso, it seems that everyone sets off fireworks on New Year Eve. There is a cloud of smoke that hangs over the place. On the side of the mountain on the mainland that faces Tromsoya (the island), they set up a firework that changes over from the previous year to the new year at midnight. Since we were still in church at midnight, we missed the change-over, but got a couple of pictures or "2010"--hope you can make that out. We had a good vantage point from where we were, but the lights were dimming by the time we got to see it.

Christmastime 2009

Here and below: Our Christmas decorating on a shoestring!

Julekake above (that's pronounced "yu-le-kah-ga")

Norwegians often brighten up their windows with this time of year with lighted stars. Instead of that, I saved our coffee bags, which are silver and gold on the inside, and cut out stars/snowflakes. This photo is on the inside, so the silver and gold sides are facing the street.

Our "stars" from the outside.

Thought it was a nice touch--someone put a christmas tree above their basketball goal ...

I made party hats and crackers! The crackers had jokes inside (example: Good King Wenceslas phoned for pizza; what did he order? Answer: The usual: deep pan crisp and even. ... I didn't say they were good jokes.) Of course they didn't pop, but they were fun, nevertheless. We did take pictures in our hats, but I'm not posting those :-).

On Dec. 23, we went down to sentrum to look around and to purchase some fresh cod from the seafood vendor at torget for our Christmas dinner and pick up a few other items. All of the stores are closed on Christmas Eve.

This is a shopping mall located in sentrum.

Domkirke

Michael at torget. The bright light on his right is a reflector. It's a good thing to wear during the dark time (these photos were taken in the afternoon).

A very nice tradition here is to decorate gravesites with greenery and candles at Christmastime. It's very nice to look out over the cemetary and see the glowing candles and wreaths. Sometimes a little shovel is needed to clear away the snow. Wasn't too bad this year--and least you could see the gravestones above the snow. Later on they were completely covered with snow.

This is one of several services held on Christmas Eve at Elverhoy. The aisles were full of people standing through the service since there were no seats left.

This was extremely cool! These are candles inside holders made of ice. Not sure if these were made from a puchased kit, or if they were made somehow with plastic flowerpots, but it just looked great alongside the path up to their front door.

We went to the midnight service on Christmas Eve also. It was not so well attended. We were early and took a few pictures before the service began. The lady on the left is a flutist who plays at church occasionally--she is very good. On the right is Jan, the sokneprest. Several people from the coastal ship (Hurtigruten) walked up the hill to attend church--there were Americans, English, Germans ... so Jan did part of the service in English for them.

Well, it's actually nearly June now, and I don't know how I got so far behind on the blog, but I'm going to try to get caught up in the next couple of days. Here is Christmas (start at top)!