Tromsø - Chasing the Aurora and Lunch at Bardus Bistro

So, you might be wondering why Tromsø? Well, seeing he Northern Lights was a "bucket list" item for the Missus. We missed out on the Northern Lights in Iceland the previous year. I wanted to have the best shot at seeing them on this trip. Granted, there are many great places to see the Aurora Borealis from above the Artic Circle, but I chose Tromso for several reasons. I'd be the first to tell you that I'm not much of a roughing it kind of guy. So while your friendly neighborhood mining town, no matter how large would be great for some, I wanted something that would be more suited to the soft American in me. Tromsø while being 250 miles above the Artic Circle is home to the world's northernmost university. The city has an international airport and I'm not much of an outdoorsy kind of guy. I just figured Tromsø would be a better fit.

So did we see the Northern Lights?

More on that later.....

If you looked at the last photo in my previous Tromsø post, you'd notice how wet the streets were. Yes, it was drizzling off and on as we awoke from our short afternoon nap. It was 3pm, but could have just as easily been midnight. Most "Chasing the Aurora" tours are large motorcoach kind of things. I paid a bit more for a small group (no more than 15) tour. Since these tours can be up to 10-12 hours long, I thought it best to get something to eat.

It was still drizzling outside, so we decided to head on over to Bardus Bistro which was three blocks away.

While I'd heard that Bardus can get pretty full, it was fairly quiet at 330pm, so we easily managed to get a seat. Plus, they serve up the lunch menu until 4pm.

You really can't go wrong with fish in Norway, so the Missus ordered the catch of the day. In this case it was Pollack.

You couldn't complain about the fish; it was nicely seasoned, cooked well, very moist, and very mild. It was the barley risotto that we really enjoyed. Nutty, with a great "chew", we both enjoyed it.

I had wanted the Reindeer Steak, but they were out, ditto the Duck Confit. I really wasn't very hungry, so in the end, I just went with the soup of the day....Cauliflower.

This was a good sized portion. I wasn't too much of a fan though as it had too much cheese, almost stringy, like a fondue, too salty, and really didn't have any cauliflower flavor. At least it was very hearty and could hold me over all night.

Bardus Bistro
Cora Sandels gate 4
Tromsø, Norway

This is how the place looks during the day.

We were to meet outside the Tourist Office at 6pm for pick-up. The rain had turned to sleet. When we arrived at the now closed TI it was getting pretty cold.

By the way, that's a usual bus chasing the aurora tour you see across the way. Overcast skies meant that things didn't look very promising. But we were here....

Our guide worked really hard using both what was available in terms of weather forecasts and maps. We were also told to bring our passports, in case we'd have to drive all the way into Finland.

Eventually, we found a clearing, a place that's a usual stop. And while it was difficult to actually see the Aurora Borealis with the naked eye, our cameras, with the right settings were much more successful. In fact, I would scan the sky with my camera and the sensors would pick up the Northern Lights.

Meanwhile the folks leading the tour would provide tripods and help folks get the settings right on our cameras.

I'm sure the Missus wanted the ultimate pulsing Northern Lights she saw at Aurora Reykjavik, but this was nature, the real world, I'd take whatever it would give to us.

The second part of the tour was to have a campfire and soup in the wilderness. So we stopped somewhere....I'm not sure where, and hiked into the forest from the road. I've never walked in knee-high snow before so it was quite different. No matter what your dad said about walking in two feet of snow uphill both ways; it ain't easy. One of the more portly women fell face first in the snow......man, it was really hard getting her upright! We finally found a clearing.....

 

A fire was started and soup was passed around. We had reindeer soup, which was fine if a bit salty.

And then of course, there's me, in a thermal suit......looking like a Ultraman wannabe......

And having a couple of young males on the trip; well, they had to compete at things like; how fast can I climb crawl up the hill in two feet of snow......which was kind of funny.

All in all, we spent about nine hours on this tour. There was a couple who had tried the previous night, a total of ten hours with no results, so I felt pretty lucky. Most folks were sleeping on the drive back, but I watched as we drove thru two snowstorms. It was so fascinating to me, so different from where we live.

We got back to the apartment at 2am. After taking a shower I sat with a cup of tea and watched the waves of snow come in.

There would be a flurry, then it would stop. A few minutes later, the next flurry would come in.

We live in such an amazing world; I felt blessed to be able to be here and experience some of it.

Comments

[caninecologne]

Great post Kirk. What an awesome experience.

[Kirk]

It was one of those once in a lifetime kind of things CC! Of course, it was just another bucket list item for the Missus.

[kat]

what a great adventure! thanks for sharing.

[Kirk]

This was a lot of fun Kat!

[Soo @ hungryones]

Cool tour! You got some great aurora photos.

[Junichi]

The last episode of Booze Traveler went up to the arctic circle to watch the aurora. Truly amazing sight. Glad you got to experience it.

[Kirk]

The photos are actually better than what the eye can see Soo. It's all about camera settings.

Nice; I gotta go check it out Junichi.

[Liz]

Lovely post.

[Kirk]

Thanks so much Liz! Thanks also for reading and taking the time out to comment.