February 15, 2016
At this point, the most common question that people as me is
“Do you even work?” This is because over the past 6 weeks, I have traveled on
26 different flight segments. I’ve been on 3 continents, in 12 unique cities,
and on countless adventures.
To answer their question, yes, I do work (a lot). The thing
that I’m sacrificing the most is sleep and exercise. Luckily, while my typical routine
is a bit out of sorts, I remain balanced between mind, body and soul as this
travel energizes me like very little else can in the world.
As I write, I am sitting in an airport in the Artic Circle
(Tromso, Norway to be exact). My eyelids are heavy and my finger joints ache,
but the past three days have been absolutely unbelievable. I am traveling with
6 coworkers, and together we have experienced the most amazing things: Northern
lights, dog sledding, fjord cruising and whale watching, and reindeer sledding.
How have we done so much in so little time? By having only 3-4 hours of sleep a
night.
Our travel has been hard and fast. It took us almost two
full days to get to Tromso from Dallas. We traveled Dallas > NYC, spent a
couple of hours in New York (leaving the airport to have a great dinner in
Brooklyn with Hannah’s friend from High School), then flew on a red eye from
New York to Oslo, spent a couple of hours in the Oslo airport, and then flew to
Tromso. We landed with just enough time to drop our things off at the hotel and
get dressed for our first excursion.
It seems like almost everything has been going our way in
Norway, beginning with the very first activity we had – taking a taxi from the
airport to the hotel. We stood in a very long taxi line, and since our group is
7 we knew we would have to take two separate cars to get to the hotel.
Everything that came before us was a small sedan. However, when we made it to
the front of the line, a MASSIVE mini-bus taxi pulled up next in line. We got
onboard, and they had the exact amount of seats that our party needed. It was
fated, and a really good start to our trip.
Our first excursion was a guided Northern Lights trip. We were
picked up at our hotel by a guide named Stefunny in a mini-van and driven to a
warehouse where they suited us up in full-body thermal suits, massive snow
boots, and hats and mittens. Along the way we learned that Stefunny was 28,
Italian, and had spent the last year in Norway as a part of her continuous
travels. As we had to drive for about 2 hours after suiting up to get to the
optimal spot for light watching, we were able to entertain ourselves by hearing
stories of her travels, odd jobs, and friendships with the expat community in
Tromso. I loved hearing about her solo travels and perspective on living life
where you can follow your passions and continuously learn new skills.
Although the distance we traveled was far, the drive didn’t
seem all that long. At one point Stefunny pulled over the van and hoped out of
the car to “check the weather.” She got back in and exclaimed that we were a
lucky group, for the lights were out. We all jumped out of the van and gazed
towards the sky to see a big streak of green cutting across it. The lights didn’t
fill the sky, but in the green band we could make out distinct vertical lines
that “danced” across the sky as the lights shifted and traveled. Unfortunately
there was a little light pollution, as we stopped at the side of the highway,
but it was still a marvelous site. Two of the girls in our group brought nice
cameras, so Stefunny took the time to help set them up with tripods and correct
their camera settings as to capture the best images. It was one of the small
details about the trip that we found to be incredibly high value and quality
about this tour group (Artic Explorers). The lights are dynamic, and don’t last
long in the sky when they’re the most vibrant. As the green faded and the
streak shrunk, we loaded back into the van to seek our destination for the
evening.
We stopped at a frozen lake in the middle of a mountain pass
where there were no lights or people around. As we were inland, the temperature
had dropped and it was about -11 degrees Celsius (~12 degrees Fahrenheit). Even
though we were bundled in thick thermal suits, two pairs of socks and big
boots, I still found the experience to be absolutely freezing. The majority of
our group lounged around on yoga mats staring up at the sky, but I had to keep
walking in order to stay warm. I found that it took about 4 lengths of the
frozen lake for my muscles to work up enough heat to allow me enough comfort to
be able to sit down for a couple of minutes. We stayed out on the lake from
about 9 or 10 p.m. until 1 a.m., so I completed many laps. Towards the middle
of our night we built a fire, and the guys in our group attempted to help our
guide cut the firewood. They only partly succeeded, but watching their attempts
(and failures) was one of the funniest parts of the whole weekend. To be fair,
the axe wasn’t the sharpest thing in the world, but nonetheless it was
hilarious watching everyone try to split the thick logs of wood.
The lights were pretty dim the rest of the night, but we
could still see streaks of green in the sky. At 1 a.m. we loaded the van back
up to head back into town, and after stopping back at the warehouse where we
were outfitted, we made it back to the hotel at 4 a.m. for a maximum of 5 hours
of sleep before our next excursion (after our two full days of travel…)
The next morning’s wake up was the most difficult I have
ever experienced. I was already sleep deprived from my travel to Brazil and
week of case work, and layering on the 2 days of travel to Norway and late
night did nothing to improve my situation. It was TOUGH, and I had a very
grumpy morning. We were picked up at 9:45 from our hotel to go dogsledding. I
slept most of the way to the site, but quickly woke up when we arrived from the
excitement. There were literally hundreds of huskies that were ours for the
petting! If you know me at all you’ll know how big of a dog lover I am, so it
was a dream come true. The dogs were beautiful, playful and sweet, and were
eager to jump on you, give you a hug, or a lick. We even got to see 2 week old
puppies!
The dogsledding place also outfitted us with full thermal
suits, so we looked like marshmallows once again. The actual sledding was
really cool. They allocated two guests per sled, and one guest “drove” while
the other was a passenger, and we switched places halfway through the track. I
started as a driver, or technically, a musher. I had a team of 8 dogs,
organized as 4 sets of 2 in a line. We were positioned between two guides and
their teams, so while I helped to brake the sled when we traveled downhill, I
really didn’t have to do that much directing. We traveled pretty fast, and the
landscape around us was absolutely breathtaking. It was pretty thrilling when
we traveled downhill or around a sharp corner. Although I thought that I would
prefer mushing, being a passenger was also a fun experience. The ride in the
sled was much smoother than I had anticipated, and it was nice to just sit and
relax for a moment.
After we finished sledding the tour fed us a lunch of reindeer
soup. Many of the people in my group had tried reindeer soup on the excursion
the night before and had liked it, but this one received only a lukewarm
reception. The meat is like beef, but gamier. Hannah described it as being in
between beef and venison. I was just grateful for some warm food and a nice
fire after the cold.
We made it back to our hotel around 3 p.m., and had our next
pick up for the excursion at 6:20. While the others went out to explore the
town, I took a long nap. It was just necessary. When I woke up I took a stroll
through the main street on my own, and grabbed a kebab from a stand in order to
get some food in my belly before another long cold night. Our second night excursion
was the same type of trip as the first, with only a few modifications: 1) I
wore an extra layer everywhere (3 socks, 4 pants, 4 jackets, and 2 headpieces),
2) we had a different guide, and 3) we went north and along the coast instead
of inland.
Our guide’s name was Iga and she is best friends with
Stefunny. She grew up in Poland, but is a serial traveler as well. She told us stories
of traveling alone in the Cuban jungle, through Egypt, and in the slums of San
Francisco. She had many stories about almost bad encounters, but shared how she
was able to defend herself with a cool and friendly attitude and self-defense
skills. I thought that I was a big traveler until I heard her stories… Mom – in
comparison I travel extremely safely J
The night was a bit cloudy, and the KP index (the index that
judges the propensity for lights) was low. It wasn’t looking that likely that
we would get to see them, but after driving about 2.5 hours, I spotted some
from the window of the van. We stopped on the shore of the coast, trudged
through 2 feet of snow downhill to make camp, and experienced some amazing
lights. At one point they lit up, crossed the sky, and danced, which just took
my breath away. The whole group let out shouts of excitement and gratitude that
we had found such beauty. Our camp fire on the beach was lovely, and we told
all sorts of funny stories. My favorite was hearing about Iga’s past tourists
who were convinced by an ancient Japanese legend that if you conceive under the
northern lights that your child would have super powers. Crazily enough, she
said that many couples tried. Sounds pretty darn cold (and absurd) to me.
Although we had started the night with the intent of getting
home earlier than the previous night, we only beat our record by about 30
minutes, and it wasn’t until 3:45 that we were falling asleep. Unfortunately
the next morning’s excursion picked up at 8, so we had an alarm go off at 7:30
to give us enough time to dress and eat breakfast before departing.
Our next excursion was a fjord tour with the same company.
Our guide, funnily enough, was another foreigner (from Portugal), and was also
very close to Stefunny and Iga. He was a little annoyed that we all kept
falling asleep on the car ride to the boat, but when we explained that we had
done so many other tours he understood. The fjord cruise was awesome. We loaded
up onto a pretty small boat, but it was also really nice. It had an interior
cabin that could sleep 6, and exterior walkways that went all the way around
the boat. I tried to stay outside for most of the time, and I was super
grateful for the (new) thermal suits/flotation suits that they gave us for the
trip. Oh yeah – we went back to that same warehouse for the 5th time
on the trip in 2 days. We were pros by the end.
The scenery on the fjord cruise was amazing. We were surrounded by frozen islands and small mountains, and very few homes or signs of civilization. The absolute best part of the trip, however, was seeing three hump back whales swimming in the fjord. Our guide spotted them from far away, and I was convinced that they were just dolphins. However, as we got closer it was easy to see the spray from their breathing, and once we saw the sheer size of them it was clear that they were, indeed, whales. I geeked out. We got within 10 feet of them, and the three of them flipped and played as we watched. They are such majestic creatures. We were there during the whale low-season, as most had migrated south for the winter, so I felt really lucky to have still had the opportunity to see them. During December, when the whales are most prevalent, apparently there are so many in the fjord that the boats have to idle for risk of hitting them. I could only imagine what a site that would be. The rest of the tour was very scenic and fun, and we had lunch on an island that had only 100 inhabitants. It was a big fishing island, so we got to watch a crew unload a fishing vessel when we docked. I slept most of the way back to the car, and then again on the ride back to the warehouse and our hotel.
 |
| My poor attempt at photographing the whales with my iPhone 5 |
Last night we did a reindeer sledding tour at a new
location. The bus ride was about an hour and a half before getting there, and
it was a MUCH larger group than any of the ones we had before. Reindeer
sledding itself was actually a little boring, but Shaurya and I were kept on
the edge since our sled was in front of a very large and grumpy reindeer who
kept looking like he was going to charge us. At one point he did dip his
antlers to make contact, but it was a soft blow and only hit my boots. We also
had the opportunity to learn from our guide about the Sami culture and what it
took to herd the reindeer down the different migration paths. Each family is
allowed a heard of around 1000 – 5000 reindeer, and they must slaughter each autumn
in order to keep their total count below the enforced threshold. When the Sami
slaughter for their family, they use every bit of the reindeer for food (save
for the tip of the tongue, which, if eaten, makes you a liar). They made bread
out of the blood and brains, eat the eye balls, and fry the heart. The skin is
used for clothing and mats, and the horns are used to make lasso rings and
other utensils. I was really impressed by how in balance with nature the Sami
are. Our guide mentioned finding the beauty in -50 degree Celsius weather,
running down the ice and swimming in the newly thawed lakes in June, and living
off the grid with the herds. It seemed as if he knew true happiness and could
find joy in any moment. He also expressed the fear that the next generation
will not take up the reins of herding, and shared how that would affect their
culture. He let us try lassoing reindeer antlers, and then gave us moss to feed
the reindeer with after they were re-penned once the sleigh rides were
complete.
After that we went back up to the main camp for dinner. I
got really lucky and got to ride with our guide on the snowmobile while
everyone else took the bus. We hit 120 KPH! It was one of the most fun things I
did all trip. Dinner was (surprise!) reindeer soup, but it was pretty tasty. During
dinner the crew announced that the lights were out, and I stepped outside to
see another beautiful sky full of green. On our bus ride back, we saw the best
lights yet – they spanned the sky and spiraled town to the horizon, so as to
kiss the city with its green lips. It was breathtaking, and the type of lights
that you see in pictures. We got back at midnight. Shaurya and I grabbed a beer
at the pub across the street and watched some live music, but then everyone
went to sleep for a full 6 hours!
Today we’re traveling to Bergen for the final leg of our
adventure. I’m finally only wearing one layer, and it feels great. We’re all
looking forward to a nice dinner and some leisure time to explore the town. We
head back to NYC tomorrow, and Dallas the next morning (on a 6 a.m. flight…).
It’s going to be a tough trip to recover from, but it’s so worth it.
February 17, 2015
On the flight home! Our trip to Bergen was great, but quite
the whirlwind. We sprinted through the Oslo airport to make our connection, and
once in the town we walked around with high speed and ferocity to ensure that
we would capture the essence of the town before the sun set on us. Bergen is
beautiful – the buildings are all painted different colors, and because the
city is nestled in the mountains almost every home had some sort of a view. On our
hike we found a number of great high points in town where we could have a 360
degree view of our surroundings.
This was also our first night to have a meal out together
(literally every other dinner had been packaged reindeer soup). We went to one
of the top rated restaurants on Trip Advisor, and it didn’t disappoint. They
offered a three course pre-fix menu that my friends enjoyed that included all
sorts of seafood and game, and I had the local turkey dish. It was by far our
best meal of the trip, and it was a fun way to celebrate the adventures we had
all had together.
Yesterday we began our journey home. We took a scenic train
ride from Bergen to Oslo that departed early in the morning (within the theme
of no sleep). The sites were beautiful, but the train ride was 6 hours long. I
spent a fair bit of it sleeping. When we got to Oslo we took an immediate
transfer train to the airport, and from there pretty much went straight to the
gate after passing through security and passport control. The flight from Oslo
to NYC was 8.5 hours long, and to avoid too much jet lag we tried to not sleep
the full time. I still think I got about 4 hours of sleep, just to help my body
counteract what I had done to it the previous few days. We landed in NYC at 8
p.m., grabbed a hotel for the night, and departed again on a SW flight at 6
a.m. Again – who needs sleep?
This trip was a whirlwind, but one of the most fun and adventurous
I’ve ever taken. I’m so grateful for the wonderful friends I have to travel with.
