Northern Lights

Wow.

I still can't believe it.

Reindeer meat, potatoes, and lingonberry sauce. It doesn't look very good, but it was tasty!

Trying to get warm after being in the -25 C cold.

We looked ridiculous. But we were warm! Or at least as warm as we could be :)

On Wednesday night, we went on a Northern Lights snowmobiling tour. We met the guides at 6:00, and quickly put on what seemed like 50 lbs. of clothing...overalls, hats, gloves, glove liners, masks, goggles, you name it. If it was designed to keep a person warm, we had it. 

We loaded into a couple of vans and headed out away from the town to the "home base" of the tour group where all of the snowmobiles are kept. As we headed out, we watched the temperature drop...and drop...and drop. By the time we arrived at the "station" it was around -25 degrees Celsius. So pretty chilly. 

We were given some quick instructions on how to operate a snowmobile, and then we set off. There were two people per machine, and I drove first. We went through various landscapes including wooded areas with narrow paths, and wide open spaces. At one point, we stopped in the middle of a huge open area, and everyone turned off their engines. Everything was pitch black except for the sky. It was filled with brilliantly shining stars. Really, they were absolutely FILLING the sky. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. We could see a few planets and some constellations. We were in a living planetarium. Gorgeous.

After trying to comprehend the beauty of what we had just seen, we got back on our snow mobiles and continued on our way. After about 7 more Km, we came to hut in the woods where we would eat dinner. Our guide made a fire, and we tried to warm up a bit. For dinner, we had reindeer meat and potatoes with lingonberry sauce. For dessert we had cloud berries. It was delicious. I never thought I would feel that way about eating rudolf, but it was really good :)

Soon afterwards, our guide told us to quickly go outside. As we stepped out of the cabin, we looked through the trees, and there they were: the northern lights. It was INCREDIBLE. The were bright green and were slowly moving in a swivel-y fashion. The guide soon discovered that I had a digital SLR, and we quickly set up a hand-made tripod to attempt to capture a few shots. As you can see, we were successful! 

Later, our guide told us it was one of the clearest nights of the year. Unbelievable. I still can't comprehend that I saw the NORTHERN LIGHTS with my own eyes. Oh man. Amazing. :)