Lyngen Alps Pan <> YON

Tromso - On Top of the World

Marylee & YON left Newark together on February 6th. We flew overnight to Oslo and then up to Tromso. Marylee barely made it, but that is another story. We arrived on Friday the 7th and flew back to Oslo on Sunday the 16th and back to Newark the next day. I got a lot of pixels, beautiful scenery - many panoramas, but two that will be awesome - someday.

Marylee's Pictures set to On Top of the World

A song by Imagine Dragons, Grammy winners the week before out trip. We played that everyday as we headed out on our adventure. When you are above the Arctic Circle, you feel like you are top of the world.

Aurora Borealis, Northern Lights, Nordlys

This is what you came here for, right? Some details of the hunt for the lights below.

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Monday Night - behind the clouds, sigh..
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Tuesday Night, Dåfjord
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Tuesday, notice reddish spot
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Pictures

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Grotfjord iPhone Pan
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Lyngen Alps Panorama
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Small crushed gravel on ice. No salt.
Roads are plowed but not dry.
Most roads have packed ice with the grit on it.
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Melanger Brygger Awesome Restaurant!
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Sunset at Grottfjord
medium pan unfinished,small pan unfinished, GIF1, GIF2
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Mrs. Braun's Last Cookie

Brought from the source, by sister Marylee, the essence of shortbread, sweet and crumbly
Brought to the Arctic, to Tromsøya, in Norway, the last batch of cookies, baked far far away
Brought on the chase of Aurora_Borealis, and munched and savored, until I had just but one
Brought to offer to Odin, Norse god of the Sky, the creator and caster of the NordLeese
I crumbled the last morsel, it fell into the lake, that taste of heaven had left earth forever
Then came a faint, but certain green line, it rolled down from the sky, then back up Dafjord
We cast atoms thither and photons flow back, bathing us in echoes from whence we all came.  

Note 1:
Offering, Praying or casting spells, these we do for our own inner lives. Madness to think the gods or laws of physics care one whit. But to acknowledge our own humble selves.

Note 2:
Derek Braun has been making the cookies for years now and they are those same cookies. These were the last baked while Olive yet breathed.
Marylee offered a sacred Acorn from Dodoni. They were good luck on Tuesday Night, 2014.02.11 in Dafjord on Ringvassøya, to the North of Kvaløya



Pa Norsk: Nordlys, Northern Lights

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tromsøya
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Borealis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carta_marina
http://www.amalie-hotell.no/en/

Tools of the Chase

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hi-res
Virtual Tromso lots of Nordlys links.
Satellite Europe for trying to drive to open sky.
AuroraForecast Good if you are on wifi. data hog.
City Maps To Go Pro Great Map! Offline!!
Wiki Offline for the curious!
QuickDictOffline Translation
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Travelling Far and Wide, play by play

image NordlysMonday.jpg We missed an incredible show our first night - we were dead tired. More day by day notes below - with maps. These are the only pictures I got. On Monday night we were coming back from a very, very long drive in search of open sky. We were driving back late along a well lit highway and Marylee said "find a spot and pull over", so, there was a turn off into the dark below the highway, Sørbotnelva, and we got out of the car with a little patch of stars right above. After a few minutes there was a bright green stripe right above us in our little window. Then it curled and snapped like a whip, but, since we had such a limited view, it is hard to say if that memory is true. Anyway, it made us optimistic that would not regret going out Friday, when I was and am pretty sure I would have gotten sick if we had been out late. The picture from Monday (left) is the action behind the clouds.

On Tuesday evening, we drove to Dåfjord and cast our offerings to Odin into the fjord. As we did a faint green stipe rolled across the sky. On the way back, in Dåfjordelva, Marylee said "pull over", since we were a little road in the middle of nowhere, I just stopped. We waited for about 10 minutes and then the green stripes came back and then more and then a white & red patch right above us and more green stripes. There was a slight cloud cover, but, that only obscured parts of it. I had not figured out the correct settings for the camera, so, I gave up after a a few seconds - favoring the experiencing self over the remembering self. It turns out some of the attempts did work out.

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On Wednesday we went up to the valley along Kattfjordvatnet and stood out in the cold for a few hours. Off over the ocean there was a subtle stripe that seemed like clouds. Marylee encouraged me to take a picture to make sure. With the digital camera, the Nordlys get brighter and green, whereas clouds do not get much brighter and stay gray. Anyway, the subtle stripe over the ocean was an Aurora. So, we decided to move towards the light. Run to the light. As we were driving along Fjordvegen, Marylee called out to pull over when it was safe. There, over the ridge was a bright strong green stripe, brighter than we had seen Tuesday. Whoosh, splash and gone. Clear it was that night. And Thursday. And Friday, but, the activity level had dropped down to ZERO. See the yellow and blue chart above. Flatline for Feb 13 & 14.

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On Saturday we drove to Kilpisjärvi, Finland, lots of activity, but, totally overcast. Dinner that night included reindeer, which stretched my adventurousness. Perhaps just too much driving in the snow. On Sunday we drove back and took a left at Nordkjosbotn and around to the south. We had a fabulous meal at Melanger Brygger and then one final little green flash on the way to the airport. As we got on the plane, I was having a tinge of regret that we did not of out the first Friday when we were dead tired, and if we were sick for the rest of the trip. . . BUT, as soon as out plane to Oslo got about the clouds, the Nordlys was there - big and bright, a fat green stripe from the horizon on the east to the horizon on the west. It was ahead of us - a bit to the south. Everyone on eht enplane got excited. Marylee and I had gotten window seat which we shared for a little bit, but, soon the excitement died down. But, there were still two people glued to the window. . . Guess who. We flew under the lights and slowly left them up north in the Arctic Circle as we slowly meandered down the length of Norway. Eventually the were gone. Here an What We Saw from a fun website
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Routes for Saturday, Monday, Tuesday
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Come back a do placenames?

jch.com/places/tromso posted 2014.04.DD YON

cruft


300 yards away see CREE flashlight 
Get pin for chip card. Needed all over. 
Ice on sidewalk when we got to town  that receded. Not shoveling sidewalks. Heated sidewalks in some places. 

Not rubber padded. Ice everywhere. No stop signs. People do not leave much room for error in rotaries. Your safety is your responsibility. Arctic thing? Norwegian thing?

Very little signage - even on big things and sometimes. 

Frozen blue waterfalls. 

Thursday vannoya
Friday Ersfjordbotn little peninsula 
Polaria, lauklines

Saturday lyngen Alps then Finland. 
Sunday malangen brygg last flash of nordlys. 

Spectacular nordlys from the plane!!!
Modeling and visualization of nordlys
Tundras.com in Kilpisjarvi
Tromso Cheat Sheet - Pay for parking from 8-10 in middle of night