Tromsø New Year’s Eve 2022/2023
Inhalt/Content
The Troll Movie, Hike and New Year’s Eve
Nathalie got up earlier than Mark and I once again, but instead of going for a run, she found a hiking trail to the southern tip of Tromsø that we planned to hike in the afternoon.
Afterwards, we still had time before our hike, so Mark suggested watching the “Troll” movie. He had mentioned it several times in the last few days, but I thought he meant the movie “Trolls“, which I wouldn’t have been interested in at all. Not that I have anything against animated movies… but for me, the Trolls movie would have fallen into the same category as other dumb animated movies like the Emoji or Sausage Party movie that I wouldn’t even touch with a ten-foot pole. However, the “Troll” movie from 2022 turned out to be a “serious” movie, and the images looked promising too. So, Mark logged into his Netflix account on the TV, and we watched the movie. What can I say? The movie was just a Norwegian version of Godzilla. In short, there were crimes against nature, the trolls rose up as guardians of the mountains and nature, and humanity fought back. Along the way, they encountered old legends and eventually arrived in Oslo, where the finale took place. It really felt like a Godzilla movie with Troll skin… but it was okay, and at least it was well shot and animated.
After having a light lunch, as we planned to have a bigger meal in the evening, we set off for the hike to the southern tip in the early afternoon. On our way, we passed by the harbor again, where there was a Ferris wheel. It’s worth mentioning that all the staff responsible for the Ferris wheel were Polish. You can tell which jobs in Norway are carried out by locals and which ones are done by immigrants. The Ferris wheel itself wasn’t as big as the one at the Zwiebelmarkt in Weimar or the one in Erfurt during Christmas, but it was high enough to see over most of the buildings in Tromsø, which are generally not very tall.
After that, we kept walking southward. Since we left the apartment, we had already put our new spikes on our boots to test them out. On asphalt, it was quite uncomfortable, but the more we got out of the city and everything was covered in snow, ice, and mud, the safer the hike was with this equipment. However, since we were moving significantly slower than if we were walking normally, the time estimate on Google Maps was unrealistic, and we took almost twice as long to get to the southern tip. There were also far fewer streetlights along the coast, so we turned on our headlamps for the first time. We came across a few people who were also hiking or even making a bonfire on the coast. However, since it was quite dark, it seemed strange why anyone would want to be there “at night” (yes, it was daytime)… but the residents of Tromsø were probably used to it. In Germany, it would have been perceived as creepy to linger on a remote beach in the dark. On the way back, we took a slightly different path that was higher up. During a short break, something extraordinary happened. Nathalie spotted a Mi-Band watch in the snow, which turned out to be Mark’s Mi-Band that he had lost less than a minute ago. What a stroke of luck! On the way again, we once again noticed how every house was lit up on the outside, and on both the beach and the path, we saw some people wearing only a t-shirt or something similar despite the temperature being around 0 degrees Celsius… do people become so hardened when they normally live in Tromsø in this season with temperatures around -20 degrees Celsius?
After we were back on the main street with the shops, we looked around to see which bar we could go to on New Year’s Eve. In the apartment, we played some board games and then in the evening, we made vegetable soup with fiskeboller (i.e. fish balls, like dumplings). That was a typical dish that we had eaten several times on our Scandinavia trip.
At 10pm, we headed to Fun-Bar, a popular bar among students. It wasn’t actually that small and we quickly found a table for ourselves. We engaged in the typical bar activity of drinking and talking. Well, Nathalie and I only ordered non-alcoholic drinks, which were relatively cheap compared to all the other prices at restaurants (probably why it was popular among students). The bar also had large screens and music, so it was never really boring. Next to us, at the neighboring table, was a group of young women. It didn’t take long for a few men of the same age to join them. We couldn’t help but overhear how they were “flirting” with each other… we were glad to be already married. (Sorry, Mark! ._.)
Before midnight, we went to the harbor to try to get a good view of the Tromsø Bridge and the other shore where a fireworks display, prepared by the city, was supposed to take place. Initially, it was planned to take place on the Fjellheisen mountain (yes, the one with the Sherpa steps), but it was moved to the shore because it was too windy and the cable car couldn’t transport anything up. At exactly 12 o’clock, the ship horns of all the heavy tankers and icebreakers sounded, creating an incredible sound. The fireworks display was also very beautiful and lasted for about fifteen minutes. Nevertheless, some people in the square also lit their own private fireworks, but significantly fewer than in Germany. Most people literally saved their fireworks, as they could watch the organized display. After that, we quickly went back to the apartment and went to bed because we had booked a husky sleigh ride early the next morning.
