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.