Lofoten and Bodø with friends

There are certain people in life, with whom everything seems fine and fair. It feels like we can do things out of our comfort zone for them and with them. This is a trip with that kind of people. 

Each year, during winter I feel like I should escape the darkness of these winters. The winters in Norway are harsh: icy and dark. It is pretty covered with all the snow and northern-lights-lit skies, still, the dark coldness can get to one's bones. So, my friends from college planned a winter trip to one of the incredibly dark and pretty places here in Norway: Lofoten.

A panorama of Reine during the afternoon: the darkness prevails

So we spent New Year in Oslo and roamed around in Oslo before we left for the north. We took a flight to Bodø and had the ferry from Bodø to Lofoten that day itself. Now mind you, this is a trip made by all students. So we were very tight on the budget. The flights were quite cheap and surprisingly, the ferry was a vessel carrying the cars and buses to the islands, so it was free of charge for the passengers without any vehicle! So far so good!

The village Reine in the "daytime"

Cut to the second half of the ferry when we realised that because of a storm all the public transport and the taxi service are not working. So, then the hunt for a lift started. We booked an Airbnb in a small fishing village called Reine, which is 5 km from the ferry stop called Å. We thought it is just 5km, and we could walk in the worst-case scenario. We asked around to the fellow passengers on the ferry if they could drop us off nearby if it is suitable for them, but it is the period just after the pandemic it was not very easy for them to decide. 

Finally, we got some help from an angel sent by the universe. He said that he could drop three of us off. We thought, we can take all the luggage with the car and the rest three people could walk by then. But the angel just offered that he could take two trips to drop off all 6 of us at the Airbnb. He said that in the times when he visited other countries and had times like these, locals there had helped him and this is his way of paying back to the universe. So whenever we find someone whom we could help, we can pay back our debts to the universe in our own time. Hence, the holidays started on a very warm note.

Lofoten is spanned by this kind of landscape: the fjords of Lofoten

The idea was to just stay at the incredible Airbnb, roam around the island and hunt for the northern lights. But. The sun wasn't very active til the last day, which we will come to at the end, but for the first couple of nights, the hunt was futile.

So all we did was, roam around the serene and out-of-the-world landscapes, cook, eat and do some grocery shopping. This was the theme of our winter trip. We spent quality time together, played board games, played and sang music together and had a very refreshing time.

Another snap from the road trip across Lofoten

One day we went to the southmost point of the island, to Å, another fishing village. We saw some traditional fishing houses and ports and took some photos.

The fisherman's village: Å

The shy sun hardly came up from the horizon!

On another day we went all the way to Leknes. It is the administrative city of the Lofoten islands. It is quite big. It has some shops and restaurants. But the day trip was for none of that. It was for the views. The journey in the bus on the only road on this island is unimaginably beautiful. The winter landscapes are filled with snow and the pinkish hues of the sun. It is something to live for. We ate at a typical Norwegian restaurant and came back. 

Fire in the ocean

The whole time we were in Lofoten, the sun was not very active. Even though we tried to hunt for the northern lights by going to darker spots near our Airbnb, we could not see much of the activity. Everyone who visited from far and was disappointed, but we could not help it. Then on the third day, there was this CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) headed towards the earth which would reach in time for us to see a spectacular show of the aurorae! More on that later!

So, we wrapped up our island visit with hearts full of these golden pink and snowclad landscapes and went back to the mainland with the same ferry. 

The church of Bodø

In Bodø, we had two major attractions. We wanted to visit a church and the whirlpool. The day was weather-wise challenging. It was lightly raining and highly windy with temperatures of -10 degrees. We were tired and cold almost all the time.

The church was as expected: calm, empty, without much flourishing, but it had some Sami parts to it. The Samis are indigenous people to the Nordic countries. This church had some of paintings and rooms dedicated to Sami mythology and stories from that culture. It was very enriching to witness that part of the culture.

Saltstaumen Whirlpool

We took a bus to get to the whirlpool. It is a powerful whirlpool up to 10 m in diameter and 4-5 m deep in the middle of the fjords. The maelstrom occurs when tidal waters flow in and out of the narrow strait connecting the outer Saltenfjord with the Skjerstadfjord. We stood on the bridge which connects the two parts of the mainland and witnessed the spectacular natural phenomenon with chilled winds gushing through our ears and freezing us into a popsicle. The sound of humungous amounts of water mixing and going against the currents just made me realise that humans behave in the same way as water. We make a lot of noise when we see someone trying to go against the flow!

First sighting of the northern lights

Anyhow! After having a small stroll in the city centre and a doughnut each, we went back to our hostel and ordered some pizza. While everyone almost had lost all hope to see aurorae, we still checked the app and voila! The activity was high, thanks to the CME that came towards the earth. We could possibly see some aurorae. So, we ate quickly and just went out into the city on top of a hill to check out our luck.

For the first hour or so, we could not distinguish between the city light pollution and the halo of the northern lights. We were still trying to capture long-time integrated snaps to see if cameras more sensitive than our eyes could see anything and track the activity on the apps which predict the activity. 

A stroke of green

After an hour and a half, we saw the northern lights for the first time! It lasted for a few minutes and vanished again. There was quite a lot of light pollution because of the city lights, but that hill was our best chance. We were happy that we could see something but waited for something more as if we knew that nature has more on its plate.

Trails of the northern lights

After waiting for a couple tens of minutes in the icy weather, the aurorae showed themselves once more, this time for longer. They danced in the North, then moved to the East and eventually just filled up the whole sky. There were trails of green lights, curtains of greens with pink and violet borders and just strokes of green everywhere in the sky.

Curtains of the aurorae

We stayed at the hilltop for quite some time. Few of us were already suffering from the cold and few caught it that night. It was physically demanding to stay on the hilltop, but we were determined. We checked that the temperatures were -22 to -25 degrees Celsius! But nothing could stop us that night from seeing the aurorae.

Finally, a little after midnight we left the hilltop and went back to our warm hostel. We dreamt of the northern lights and the snowclad arctic landscapes that night and many nights to come.

We flew back to Oslo the next morning, and bid goodbyes at the airport where we parted ways, only with the promises to plan the next winter trip even more dreamy and incredible.

Incredible show of northern lights

The movie of the northern lights could be easily captured on the phone: They were really strong.

 

The trip to the US: NYC

I know that innumerable people go to New York, even more to the USA, and there are several stories and blogs out there sharing one unique experience after another. But. This is not a travelogue, this does not describe the sites. This simply puts a perspective of a simple Indian girl on a trip to the US during the time of the pandemic.

Yes, I went to New York.
The famous Brooklyn bridge and the Manhattan skyline!

To start with, whoever has spoken with me in the past year knows that I was very excited and it took so much effort to get the visa (as it usually takes, but more during the pandemic). So we will not repeat that, this story starts after getting the visa. The whole idea behind going to the US came to be in the picture because there was this unique conference in my specific field celebrating 50 years of the discovery of empirical formula, so it will mostly not happen again. I really really wanted to go and share my work. I got a talk too, so all set with the visa, my work and presentations to go to the conference.

Prelude

I started anticipating my first-ever conference in person. How will I present my elevator pitch and how will the other PhDs, researchers and professors be? Will I be able to create my standing there? How good am I? Obviously, I have a tiny bit of imposter syndrome. It started to kick in as I was preparing for this trip. Little did I know that these stresses would be of the least concern and I had some unanticipated distress (read: disaster) coming my way.

The gigantic skyscrapers from the Empire State Building

Less than a week before the flight and I started feeling a sore throat, a heavy head and burning eyes. I was working hard on my presentation and the other work, so I ignored it for the day and tried to deny the inevitable. Overnight it developed into the one who must not be named and upon nudging by my loved ones, I did the test. And I tested positive for covid 19, five days before my departure.

This was the worst timing. Most of the people in my office had gotten covid 19 in recent times and escaped that. As my body was getting very tired and I had to sleep most (read: all) the time, I started thinking in spirals. Why didn't I get covid when everyone got it, then this would not have happened, I thought. I know, this was not helpful, but I couldn't help myself but wonder what was Her plan for me.  First, it was a lot of effort to get the visa appointment, and approval, and now just a couple days left to travel and this happened. I was at a record low emotionally, and cooking healthy food that will make me recover faster, eating it and then getting unbelievably tired by doing chores for half an hour was not helping my mental state. I knew I had to get out of this slumber somehow. And that was the American dream for me (I know this is not the correct use of the expression, but why not!)

Central Park! It was cloudy that day :(

My roommate and one of my friends here took care of me remotely. Made food for me occasionally and gave me some warm homemade remedies which worked wonders. My parents, over the phone and friends, were a constant support. I took the advice of a family friend who is an experienced doctor (shoutout to Vijaykaka) who prescribed me multivitamins, and fever medicine and told me that I will be able to recover in mere three days from this 'minor' inconvenience.  I trusted him, kept on working whenever I can and packed. But. For travelling, one needs to have a negative covid 19 test result. We are in the pandemic era, and we can't forget that. How was I supposed to get a negative result when I was symptomatic?

Apparently, there is something called a 'recovery certificate'. It is for people like me, who contracted covid,  showed some minor symptoms, recovered recently, and are not contagious, but cannot show a negative test result as the body takes a while to get rid of all the antigens, and antibodies. So. I went to the doctor (twice) to get confirmation of recovery and that I was no longer contagious. Finally 15 hours before the flight, I got the certificate and I was going to the US to share my science!

The work part of the trip

With new friends: Flatirons from Boulder in the background

After reaching Frankfurt (with double masks) and going through immigration I finally boarded the plane. (There's a funny story there, but I guess not here!) The whole journey was just for me to ground myself and recover fully (not to mention the two-masks rule!). I had an amazing mentor with me who also gave me tips on how to do better networking and helped me finalise the presentation.

Rainbow on top of the Brooklyn bridge

The conference was from the field that I like, the talks were good and as it was a small conference, it was less overwhelming. I presented my work with confidence and made some close acquaintances. I would say it was a really good first international conference experience. Even though I was in recovery, I was jetlagged and overwhelmed with Fahrenheit, miles and pounds system locally, it was a very pleasant 

experience.

Meanwhile, the friends I was supposed to meet rightfully told me to find another accommodation (I just had had covid! They are living alone in another country as well!). So I asked my cousin and he agreed. I was testing myself with the self-test every day. Some days it was negative, some positive. So I was still fighting the beast.

Sightseeing in NYC

So. Took a flight from Denver to NY and met my cousin after 3 years or so! It was such an amazing feeling to see someone who will be there unconditionally and not be judgemental and just be there. It had been a really long since I spent time with my family. Truly, family is family. 

The roads between the skyscrapers

Anyhow. So I went to his place and the next day we started roaming around in the greatest city in the world! The first day was to see the Manhattan part of the city. We went to Central Park, and roamed around a little bit there. Then went to midtown, Saw the iconic Times Square, the Grand Central station, the church and the Bull! This part of the city is gigantic. It is huge beyond my imagination. I could not have imagined how it is before seeing it in person. 

The Grand Central Station

The impressions that I had from before were mostly true. The city is extremely cosmopolitan. It has really all kinds of people and cultures and it felt like a dystopian dream. In a good way. Also, the property of the streets, buildings and landscapes, in general, being enormous transcends everything: the shops, food portions, groceries, and whatnot. Everything is giant. I felt like a tiny spec on the Earth. Which I am, But in other places, that realisation is not this direct. New York did that to me. It made me realise that it's okay to be a work in progress forever. That is how I am meant to be.

The Times Square!

The charging bull 

Diversions later. The next day was more informational. I wanted to visit the Smithsonian. We decide to go for a walk on the legendary Brooklyn bridge. It was crowded with tourists. The stark difference between the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn skyline is clearly seen. I felt connected to this landmark more than I anticipated. I had seen this bridge in so many movies, series and books, that I immediately connected. This is where Andrew Garfield Spiderman confesses to his MJ! 

A Geodesic rock.
The biggest of its kind!

On the busy Brooklyn bridge.

Fangirling aside, after the bridge, we went to the Natural History Museum to meet our ancestors! There's so much collection in the museum! From different kinds of rocks to different kinds of flora and fauna throughout history. The exhibition about the history of the universe would remain closest to my heart. We spent quite a lot of time looking at the rocks and bones and reading their history. But eventually, we had to come out and move forward.

With the T Rex

The next destination was the Empire State Building. The city looks exceptional from the top of this skyscraper. It is creditable that this building is built in the 1930s and still stands tall. Also, the calming view from the top deck is unexpectedly meditative. Before this visit, I never believed that a city busting with life and chaos can be equally calming from a distance (vertical, though). Luckily we went there at the time of dusk, so we saw the view in daylight, during sunset and at the night. It was mesmerising. It was windy, it was filled with tourists, and it was chaotic, still, we could not make ourselves leave sooner. Nonetheless, we clicked so many pictures and maybe because we hadn't eaten in a while, we went to the Sarvana Bhavan for a well-deserved dinner.

In conversation with one of the workers who
built the Empire State Building.

At the restaurant, we met a couple friends from back in India. We met after three years and we were planning to roam around together. But we know what happened, so let's not get into that again. So. We ate and talked and clicked pictures together, and then parted ways as the weekend was over and everyone had to go back to work!

Pallavi, Sneha, Parita and Chinmay

On the last day in new york, I wanted to visit another iconic site: the Statue of Liberty. I took the public transport ferry to Staten Islands and as I saw the islands going away from me, I could spot this tall statue with a flame in its hand. The huge skyscrapers were looking tiny from the sea. It's all about the perspective. Life's fragile, like a butterfly, and rightfully so. We were worried about my health a few minutes ago, and now we are in awe of this city which has so much to offer, from the cultures, languages, foods, people and sights. 

As we go away from the city: Manhattan

I roamed around a little bit on Staten island. It has the vibe of any other city. It is very close to the city of New York but still keeps its separate identity. On the other hand, the New York vibe that Brooklyn has to offer is more rustic or retro. It has so much graffiti, many more small shops and cute houses. I believe I need not spawn more words about Manhattan. It is iconic by itself: the tall skyscrapers, the roads, the yellow taxis and the always-in-hurry people! I did not have enough time to roam around in these burrows more and grasp the city better. Nonetheless, the city gave me a lot.

The statue of liberty:  high and tall

I had my flight back in the evening. And luckily, the day before I tested negative on the RT-PCR so that I could travel back (really sad to come back to the real world!). So I bid my goodbyes and took the metro to JFK and flew away from this city of grandiose. This trip proved to me, that no matter what happens, I am going to be fine. And what else do I need?

Manhattan from the Empire State Building. Humungous and spreading on all the horizons. An experience!

The blues and the whites: A day in Santorini

 When I got a confirmation about my talk at the conference in Athens, my first thought was to plan a visit to the famous island of Greece. I asked a friend of mine if he is interested and voila! We planned a day trip to Santorini! The excitement and anticipation are the best part of planning. We read blogs and itineraries of travellers, and watched videos about what to do and bring. But when I landed in Athens, it felt real.

The first encounter with the blues and the whites

The church of three bells

The day of the trip started early. We took an early morning flight from Athens to Santorini to reach there by 7:30. The public transport in Santorini is bearable (a little about that later! :P). So we took the Bus from the airport to Thera and roamed a little bit around there, saw the church of three bells and the breathtaking view of the coastal line of the blues and whites. They say that all the buildings are painted white because of the summer heat. White reflects most of the heat and the house is cooler from the inside. The blue, they say, is because it makes a great contrast with the sea. The whole of the island is in this theme. White and blue. There are certain variations in some fancy hotels and resorts, like off-white or beige instead of white and sea blue instead of blue, not hampering the general theme of blues and whites!

One of the windmills of Oia.

So, after basking in these sunny blues and whites, we started our journey to the north end of the island, Oia. The famous windmills are situated in Oia. This part of the island is famous for its windmills. Even though it was quite windy, as it was the tourist season, the windmills weren't in action. The tarps were removed, but the blue and white structure was standing tall. Another noticeable feature of this part was the walks!

The walks around the island were very charming. White walls, blue rooftops and green and pink flowers decorate the architecture! It was very calming. The temperatures were quite high, but the soothing blue and the calm white were making the walks enjoyable. we walked through the neighbourhoods, took some pictures, picked up a few souvenirs, smelled the simplicity and got rid of all the stress in the muscles.

The walk ornate with bougainvillaea

A similar walk in the
beige - blue part of the island

The heat of the sun has started bothering us by then as it was on top of our heads. So we decided to take a gelato break. I had some pistachio ice cream. Greece is the land of pistachios and this was my first encounter with the Greece Pistachios. The gelato was amazing. I never thought I would like pistachio ice cream, coming from India, it is one of the worst flavours of ice cream there. But. I took a gamble and I would say that it was the best pistachio ice cream that I have ever had! 

Roasted Pistachio Gelato by the bay

Gastronomy aside. We sat down in a small cafe by the side of the cliff had the ice cream and went ahead to the castle of Oia.  It is an old round-ish watch tower facing south, towards mainland Greece. It might have been used in pre-medieval times and later as well. Greece has a very colourful history of tribes, wars, conversions and imposition. But the view from the tower was so breathtaking that it made us forget all that bloody part of the past and we focused only on the blues and the whites.

The landscape of the island as seen from the Castle tower

My first greek meal in Greece

We had visited the sights on the northern part of the island by then and so, we took the bus to the centre, Thera and from there took another bus to Akrotiri. Yes. A little about the bus service! The centre of the island is in There (or Fira). The system is centralised. From anywhere on the island, first one has to come there, and then take a bus going to the other place. There's no other way. It is fairly cheap. It is very fast. It is not on time. It is not reliable. But the audience is usually relaxed and in a very chill mood. so it usually doesn't matter if the bus is 10-15 mins late. But. We were doing a day trip! Nonetheless, we had a really good experience with the local transport in Santorini. Except for the airport (about the last journey, a little later! :P)

So. By this time, we were famished and wanted to rest our legs a little bit. We went to a seaside Tavern. I ordered a typical Greek dish, spicy rice-filled capsicum and tomatoes.  It was very authentic and also educational. The table towels at the restaurant had the map of Santorini. 

The places we went in Santorini
The dark blue is bus paths and
 light blue, the walks we had.
We walked close to 18 km!

The table spread at the Tavern,
showing Santorini map!

Santorini is an island made entirely from a volcanic eruption. So, it has a lot of lava rocks. The centre of the volcano is on the central island. The crescent and the island of Manolas constitute the wake of the volcano. It is a dormant volcano, but the rock structures that it has formed are mesmerising. A dream for geophysicists and in general for science enthusiasts. The beaches are made of different kinds of volcanic rocks. So, the most famous beaches here are the red beach, the black beach, and the white beach. So after having a complete beach meal experience, we went on to the red beach.

The red beach. Called so because of iron-rich lava rocks. shades of blue make an amazing contrast

It was a small hike. With an amazing iced mocha in hand, it felt like a stroll. There were flocks of people going on the same route, a sea of people on the beach and inside the sea. Everyone was sunbathing and absorbing vitamins sea. It was very relaxing to walk on the gravel. The beach was made of porous rocks from volcanic eruptions and the calming motion of water made the whole experience a natural pedicure treatment. we spent some time there enjoying the sea and picking up volcanic pebbles as souvenirs.

The red beach treatment

Free pedicure by the sea

As we were in the place of the first human establishment in Santorini, we decided to visit the museum that they made from the archaeological site at Akrotiri. The museum is an ongoing excavation site. They display the excavated rooms and artefacts. It showed water outlets, beds, common kitchen fires and small windows, doors and possibly bathrooms. A full-fledged culture. The artefacts from the excavation had so many utensils and big pots. The pickling must have been a very important part of the cuisine here. The simplicity of the museum made me go back to the memories of history textbooks describing Harappan civilisations. 

The archaeological site displayed at the museum

One of the important takeaways from the museum visit was that the way the history, or nature was conserved on that small island was amazing.  It was accessible to all, so everyone feels that they are a part of it. Yet, it was preserved in such a manner that nobody can deny it. I feel that it comes from a deep-rooted sense of belonging and taking responsibility for the surroundings. The facts and findings were shown as they were without painting any colours of pride or humility. That kind of separation from history and emotions would make the vision for the country and eventually the world clearer. It will push the world a little closer to peace.

The "kitchen" that they found in the excavation

Moving forward, we took a bus to Kamari beach. It is another famous touristy beach on the island. It has a little bit of sand, in contrast to the volcanic pebbles on the beaches on the other side of the island. the day was coming to an end. We roamed around a little on the beach, ate pizza for dinner and thought, 'we have some time at hand, and the airport is just 35-40 mins by walk from here, and the sun is yet to set. Let's walk to the airport.' Spoiler alert: We were very wrong!

We saw amazing shades of the sunset. We started the walk on the beach and then the airport was a few minutes' walk away. We reached the turn for the airport by the time of dusk and then we thought it would be just 10-15 minutes away. Now, on an island, which is a tourist destination, where everything circles around tourists, when the tourists go back to their hotels or resorts the locals also take a rest, so not a single human being can be seen on the road. The road to the airport was a gravel road. At that moment we realised that it would be the first, and definitely, the last time that any human being should walk to the airport. Airports are meant to be isolated and silent and with minimum lights so that the pilots see the runways better. We saw the entrance to the airport and went in, but it turns out that it was the security entrance only for the staff. We had to walk more than 40 minutes in total to reach the airport and we thought that we were going to miss the flight. 

While going back to the airport. Walk through the pink sunset from the beaches

But we reached the airport on time. Went through the security, only to find that the gates for the flight are closed. So we ran to the gate. It turns out that it was an error by the staff. So. We reached the airport in time for our flight. I decided that I am never going to walk to any airport. so we caught the plane and reached Athens by the night.

The mandatory click of the author basking in the blues and whites

 In retrospect, one day is enough to see the sights on the island in my opinion, but if one has to immerse in the experience of the blues and whites of Santorini, then maybe spending some more time would be better. With the time and money that I had to spare, I believe this was the best trip I could have to this mesmerising Mediterranean island.