Snowballs And Dog Sleds...

Il 16 dicembre

ms Trollfjord

I woke up at 7:30; the sky was black and stayed that way until late morning when we had a few hours of dusk light. At 1:50 pm I was back in my cabin getting my clothes ready for our stop in Tromso. It was dark outside, not the pitch black of night, but, still, very dark with only the outline of snow-capped mountains in view. I could make out the glow of lights in the homes across the water and thought about what it takes to live in darkness for many months of each year.

Before lunch we had a very quick stop in Finnsnes. Just a few of us ventured out for this 15 minute outing, but it was well worth the effort of putting on and removing the many required layers. The ground was snow-covered, the flakes were falling, snow angels were created, and snowballs were thrown.

Our stop in Tromso was mid-afternoon and it felt like the middle of the night. With a population of 70,00, this is northern Norway's largest city and is known as the “Capital of the Arctic” and the “Paris of the North.” Instead of touring, I chose the more adventurous experience of dog-sledding; one of those “now that I'm here, I gotta do it” experiences. My first sighting of the dogs was a bit unsettling; there were literally hundreds of Alaskan huskies chained up to their houses and barking furiously. I was reassured that they were barking because they were excited and anxious to get to work and, in reality, they were docile and very friendly with all of us. These dogs are treated with much TLC and the sense I got is that they are much loved by their trainers; many adopt the huskies when they are too old to pull sleds.

I must admit that my experience had a mixed reaction. Dog sledding over soft snow with thick flakes falling and the sky black with sparkling stars was joyful and even liberating. On the other hand, my sled was not well-padded enough and some of those landings on icy chunks caused a few shrieks of “ouch.” My back did survive the jostling, however, (a relief) and, all in all, it was much fun and another adventure to add to my memory bank!