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.