Day 6: Celebrating NYE in style in Tromso!

Arty farty sunrise shot

It's New Year's Eve!   Today we continue further north into the Arctic Circle, passing the towns of Harstad, Finnsnes and then docking in the town of Tromso mid-afternoon, where we would celebrate the arrival of 2016!

Fully settled into our onboard routine life now, we got up for breakfast and then headed on deck again to watch the sunrise, as much as it was.  We are now so far North that the sun doesn’t even make it over the horizon any more!  It gets a bit lighter, but not much – and that’s about it!  It was pretty enough - not as spectacular as the first day, but still stunning in its wild beauty.  It was also very very windy - and so very cold!!  We didn't stay outside for very long cos it was freezing, so after a quarter hour or so we came back inside - and then went back to bed!  

Today I think has been the day with the least amount of light since the start of our trip - not sure if that was the reason why but both of us really struggled to stay awake today.  So why fight it?  We both crashed back out again, only waking up in time for lunch.  

We awoke to find that we were parked up (moored, i guess) in a town called Finnsnes - it was a very pretty town with long bridge connecting it to the neighboring islands.  Its just bonkers all these little towns sprinkled along the Arctic coastline - you wonder what on earth people do here (fish, I guess) and how on earth they cope with this months-long lack of sunlight.  It feels so isolated and remote - does it feel really lonely to live here?  I guess its no different, really, from living in a tiny cabin in the backwoods of Vermont or something, but I think its the ruggedness of the snow-covered peaks that makes it seem so much more desolate.

Anyway, we got up for lunch (similar buffet deal again) and I tried to blog for a bit afterwards but could not wake up so went back to bed again.  By the time we woke up again this time round at 5ish, we'd chugged further up the coast and had docked into Tromso, where we were to ring in the New Year.   We had booked an excursion to the Arctic Cathedral later on that night at 10pm, for a midnight New Year's concert and dinner wasn't until 8.30pm, so we had a few hours to play with.  We managed to summon up the energy to get all layered up and head out into Tromso, described in my Lonely Planet guidebook as "a town that likes to party".  

Umm....right.  Again, because of the holidays and the fact it was also NYE, everything was shut!  No obvious signs of partying anywhere!  We had wandered over to the Mack Brewery in hope they were still open and offering tours, but alas no - we were about 2hrs too late! (damn that unstoppable desire to sleep!).  We popped into a couple of grocery stores to try and find the Mack Pilsner that Matt wanted to try - but we were out of luck.  The town itself, though, was attractive, with romantic heart-shaped lights strung between the light posts, decorating the street in a festive, if slightly melancholy, way.  After wandering around for a bit, just enjoying the opportunity to stretch our legs and being on a solid surface that didn't rock from side to side, we started to head back to the ship.  We rounded a corner - and there it was!  A bar that was open!!  And with people inside!!!  Whoo hoo!!!

And so that's how we happened to spend a couple of very pleasant hours in a little dive bar called Bar 24 in the town of Tromso on New Year's Eve, sitting outside under a heat lamp, supping Mack Pilsner and sauvignon blanc, and contentedly people watching.  We had obviously stumbled across a place were the locals went to drink - one table across from us was full of particularly interesting characters, including this Fisherman's Friend lookalike with a kick-ass beard and spiky hair do.  Him and his mates were sitting drinking and smoking - and then, without warning, pulled out a violin (from where, I don't know) and played for 2 minutes, before putting it away again and carrying on drinking his beer!  In a nice touch, the lady behind the bar gave us a couple of free beer glasses when we asked her if we could buy a couple - they are great little souvenirs as they have a map of Norway on them with a little red dot to mark where we were.  

It really was the perfect way to pre-celebrate New Year's Eve before the festivities on the boat later. The first, I hope, of many more NYEs together.

We left the bar around 8pm, nicely warmed up, and were back on the boat for special New Year’s eve dinner – including reindeer which was delicious!  (sorry Rudolph!).  The end bit of dinner was a bit rushed as we had to get on the bus to take us to the concert at 10pm.  We thought it was in the church we'd passed earlier, so were a bit relaxed in heading out - we disembarked at 10.10pm, assuming we'd just walk back over but then discovered we actually did have to get on the bus - and it was waiting for the last people to board (including us!).  There was an old lady shuffling carefully across the ice to get on the bus too, so we made sure to hop on just before her, so we wouldn't get irritated stares from everyone thinking they had been waiting for 10mins just for us!

The Arctic Cathedral in Tromso 

The Arctic Cathedral was about a 10min bus ride away.  It was a beautiful, striking building - my pics were a bit rubbish, so here are a couple I pinched from the Interweb.  The concert itself was absolutely amazing - it was a mixture of traditional carols and Christmas songs and the purity and beauty of the music was beyond description.  Matt and I were both blown away by how moving the songs were, so within the first song, we were both blubbing like complete babies!!  That continued for the next hour so, by the time the concert was finished, we were both complete red-eyed messes and feeling very soppy!

Fortunately, it was then time to get back on the bus for some raucous festivities, so we headed back and got back on the ship at about ten minutes before midnight.  Everyone was converged on the 9th deck where we had a brilliant vista of the town below and surrounding arctic landscape.  We were greeted on deck with a free glass of bubbles and - within the next 5 mins - fireworks started going off everywhere around us!!  It was so much fun  - we did the countdown to New Year and some more fireworks started to go off, but the whole world seemed to be celebrating by that time already, so it seemed a little academic by that stage!!  But it was a wonderful moment to remember, celebrating New Year with the ManlypanionTM that I love standing out on the top deck of the MS Midnatsol, in the depths of Norway, watching fireworks and sipping bubbly.  I can't think of a better way to close out what's been a kick-ass 2015 and to start 2016!

After the fireworks had finally subsided, we continued to party our asses off and went to the bar afterward where we shared a couple drinks with our dining table companions who’d just come back from a husky trip.  THEY'D SEEN THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, DAMMIT!!!   We still haven’t seen them yet and time is starting to run out! Still got a couple of days but come on, Norway - don't let us down!!!  We sat and chatted for a bit until our table got crashed by this super-weird guy who just pulled up a chair and sat down with us.  Matt made me say hello to him in a spirit of friendliness - and he then kind of latched on in a creepy way.  He'd ask me a question in English, I'd then reply and he'd then answer in some other language.  It was very strange.  Our table companions were shooting both Matt and I little panicked glances to say "get rid of this guy!" and, in the end, we decided it was easier (and probably safer) to just get up and retire for the night.

So we headed back to our spacious cabin, where ManpanionTM played Baby M for a bit and we worked on a few more songs for our (soon to be world famous) band.  Fortunately our room is a bit apart from our closest neighbor so the Brit in me felt comfortable that we weren't disturbing anyone.  We finally rolled into bed at 4am after a damned spectacular evening – I think its safe to say that we're probably gonna be a little tired tomorrow!  HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

I'm not really sure what to say about this picture.
So many wrong things come to mind....

The pretty - and very cold looking - town of Finnsnes

The local dock in Finnsnes

If I'm honest, I'm not even sure if this picture is
the right way up....

And there you have it.  Everything you need to know about what it
means to be up in this part of the world in winter - where the
sunrise/sunset part of the weather just has a strike through it!!

Squeezing a massive ferry through a tiny bridge!

It was a rather nerve-wrackingly tight fit - but
I guess they might have done this once or twice
before...

I just loved the rather understated English quality
to this promotional flyer for Tromso - not
"TROMSO ROCKS" or "I LOVE TROMSO" but
more a "You know, Tromso - its OK - I like it"!!

Tree in Tromso - the most light we'd seen in days

Romantic street lights in Tromso main street

D.Mouse and Oscar P.Lion hiding from the polar bear

Because who doesn't love a Polyfig Ass troll, right?

Finally!!  Beer nirvana achieved!!

D.Mouse and Oscar P.Lion getting their NYE
party on.....

And....after.  These guys just can't seem to
hold their drinks....

Fabulously authentically bearded and weirded locals in the bar
in Tromso.  Could teach the wannabe hipsters in Wicker
Park a thing or two!!

Happy New Year from the MS Midnatsol!!

NYE dinner on board the ship.  Starting with caviar and blinis

Followed by unpleasant brown soup

Absolutely DELICIOUS reindeer - sorry Rudolph!

CHEEEEEESE!

Inside the cathedral for the concert

It was probably the most moving and beautiful concert
either of us have ever been to.  Totally unexpected and
caught us both off guard - hence the embarrassingly
copious waterworks!