Photographs of green, blue and purple hues lighting up the sky in the US, Canada, the UK and elsewhere in Europe filled up Instagram as friends marvelled about enjoying an experience of a lifetime. As I browsed through the posts, clicking on hearts, I was transported back to 2016 when I had travelled to Norway to see the Northern Lights.
A couple of hours’ drive out of Tromso, we stopped in the middle of nowhere. Trine, our guide, asked me and the others on the tour bus to get down. Extremely excited, all of us scrambled out and looked up to find no more than white streaks across the night sky.
In a few minutes, the streaks grew brighter, and the bright greens and occasional purples became visible to the naked eye. Suddenly, they were shimmering and rippling all over our heads. It was freezing. My body was shivering from the cold, my mind trembled with excitement of the magic that is the Aurora Borealis. I had seen pictures and videos of the phenomenon before my trip, but the spectacle was far more magical in person than I could ever have imagined.
'They were shimmering and rippling all over our heads'
I tried capturing them with either my camera or my phone, but my phone wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t figure out what settings on my advanced point-and-shoot camera would take good pictures. Most others who had come on the tour with me had set up their fancy DSLR cameras on tripods and were clicking away long exposure shots.
Trine told us these were very powerful lights, brighter than they’re seen on most days.
I realised that in person, you don’t see the lights as bright as you see them in clicked photographs. The colours, especially the blue and purple shades, are hardly seen by the naked eye, even though they are vividly captured on photographs.
After enjoying the lights for a while, all of us huddled by a bonfire. It was 13 degrees below 0, and we were thankful for the tea, coffee, cakes and marshmallows Trine had got along for us.
Bonfire under the lights
During my five-day stay in Tromso, I managed to catch the lights on a couple of more occasions. But Tromso being a city, the aurora appears less bright because of the presence of artificial lights.
A couple of days after the incredible aurora tour, around 10 in the night, I saw the lights again from the window of my guest house. My housemates and I decided to hike up a nearby hill to get better views of the city and the lights from a vantage point.
'Taking pictures of the lights after the hike'
As we walked up the snow-covered trail, I soon realised my shoes weren’t equipped to handle this much snow and I kept slipping and falling and after a while, my bum got quite sore! At one point, I decided to wait while the others climbed further up.
From where I stopped, I could see the beautiful lights of Tromso, the bridge and the famous triangular-shaped Arctic Cathedral. The green lights shimmered above the city, even though my camera couldn’t capture it from here. They would probably look better without the artificial lights but this was a different experience.
'View of Tromso from where I waited during the hike. The Arctic Cathedral (triangular structure at the start of the bridge)'
I’d brought along a small bottle of gin with me in case I felt cold, and I was feeling it at this point, and I took a sip or two. It instantly warmed me up. Thirty minutes later, I saw my three mates sliding their way down. With all the snow, it made complete sense, and I joined them in the fun slide down the hill.
Back in town, we walked around and found good angles to take pictures of the lights, which were still dancing around. I had, by this time, figured out some modes on which my camera could capture the lights and click some fairly good shots. They were certainly nowhere near pictures taken by DSLR cameras, but I’m not a photography enthusiast and I was happy with what I got.
'In March this year, my parents went to Tromso as well, and they had lovely views of the Aurora Borealis'
In March this year, my parents went to Tromso as well, and they had lovely views of the Aurora Borealis too. Tromso is a good base to see the lights and travel around because the town remains relatively warmer than its surrounding areas, thanks to the Gulf Stream. In March, when both my parents and I went (in 2024 and 2016, respectively), the temperature rarely went below one degree below zero. But when you venture out of town, make sure you don all your warm clothes, because it gets way colder.
