Tromsø New Year’s Eve 2022/2023
Inhalt/Content
Sherpatrappa and last day
The last full day had dawned and today Nathalie and Mark wanted to tackle the Sherpatrappa. For them, it was probably not a problem as both are quite fit and can even climb… but I held back here. In the summer, the staircase with its 1203 stone steps was already a challenge, sometimes even causing me to struggle with my fear of heights, but now with snow, ice, and strong winds? No, thank you! However, I didn’t want to just hang around in the apartment during that time. After Nathalie and I had cooked the last few days, now Mark wanted to cook something for us. But wine was necessary, and unfortunately, in Norway, you can’t get alcohol in supermarkets (or maybe that’s actually better?). Instead, there are special alcohol stores that you have to go to. So, I made it my task to get the wine while Nathalie and Mark climbed the mountain.
Kevins report:
My part of the morning didn’t offer anything exciting, but I’ll summarize my experiences here briefly. I went to the shopping center near the harbor. We hadn’t been there yet because it just hadn’t worked out (plus, shopping centers in Norway aren’t much different from those in Germany). Since the liquor store wasn’t open yet, I first went into a bookstore. As usual, most items here were quite expensive. The books were half in Norwegian and half in English. The latter wouldn’t have been much of a problem for me, but I still didn’t find anything interesting. However, I did notice the Moomin merchandise, which I already knew from Finland and had brought back as a souvenir from there. But it was even more expensive here. Then I went to the liquor store and learned that wine is considered “dry” (and suitable for cooking) if it has a low sugar content (less than 4%). The store owner taught me that. With a small bottle of red wine in my bag, I headed back to the accommodation. On the way, I noticed that there’s a Hard Rock Cafe in Tromsø. Nathalie and I usually get the iconic Hard Rock T-shirts from various cities – it’s weird that we weren’t here in the summer. I had made a note of the cafe for the afternoon and then went to a post office to buy stamps. Even though it was a relatively short vacation, Nathalie really wanted to send postcards. Back in the apartment, I read and waited until noon for Nathalie and Mark to give me a sign that they were on their way to the Arctic Cathedral. We were going to meet there.
Nathalies report:
Early in the morning, we bundled up as warmly as possible, put on our headlamps, attached the spikes to our shoes, and set off for Sherpatrappa. In the summer, it was one of the absolute highlights of Tromsø from my perspective, which is why I had researched whether the stairs could also be climbed in winter. The short answer was “yes.” The long answer was that you should only climb it with spikes and a headlamp, and you should also keep an eye on the avalanche warnings. There are regular avalanches in Tromsø, and just this past April, 4 people lost their lives after an avalanche. In fact, the warning level has been consistently red over the past few days, but today it was lowered to yellow, so we were able to go.
First, we crossed the Tromsø Bridge to the other side, where the famous triangular Arctic Cathedral is located. In the summer, we parked the Borussia here to climb up. We continued through a residential area until we finally reached the entrance to Sherpatrappa. Next to the signpost were warning signs: “Enter at your own risk,” “Caution slippery,” “Risk of falling,” and “Enter only with spikes.” However, we were well-prepared, so we passed the signs and off we went! There was still a longer uphill section to go before reaching Sherpatrappa, and although the snow made it slightly challenging, we could see the city through the trees better than in the summer, which allowed us to gauge our progress. Motivated, Mark and I trudged through the snow until we finally reached the foot of the staircase. Or at least, what was marked as the foot of the staircase, because the staircase was completely covered in snow and only occasionally could we guess individual steps. Additionally, the snow was very soft, causing us to sink into the snow with each step, despite the spikes, and we were thrown back a few centimeters. Moreover, the layer of snow made the already steep staircase even steeper, so we had to crawl on all fours for most of it. Wait a minute, am I complaining about the effort? Not at all! That’s exactly the kind of effort I like 😉
Bravely we fought on. We had already covered more than half of the distance when the forest slowly started to clear until we were no longer surrounded by trees. This is where the really tough part began. It had started to rain, but due to the cold up here, the raindrops immediately turned into ice crystals. The wind was not as strong as in the past few days, but still very present, and since we were no longer surrounded by protective trees, the wind whipped the sharp ice crystals into our faces until it hurt. We wrapped our scarves around our faces, held one arm protectively over our eyes, and bravely continued on. By now, we were no longer alone. Occasionally, we encountered other people, some of whom were using hiking poles, which gave them a clear advantage. But step by step, we finally reached our destination and suddenly we stood at the top of the Fjellheisen. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the iconic step with the number 1203 under the snow, but I posed proudly for a photo where I suspected the step to be. Sweating and freezing at the same time, and soaking wet, we first went to the café by the cable car to rest and warm up. After such a hike, coffee tastes twice as good 😉
Once we had recovered, we ventured out again onto the viewing platforms. The wind was still blowing the ice crystals over the mountain, which now looked absolutely magical. Unfortunately, this made it difficult to see the city below as clearly as in the summer. Mark desperately tried to build a snowman, but the soft snow just wouldn’t stick together. After a few obligatory snow angels, we took the cable car back down to the valley. Originally, we had wanted to keep our options open and decide whether to take the cable car or walk back down, but given how steep and slippery the path was, it seemed too risky. In the cable car with us was an elderly British couple who had also hiked up the stairs and agreed that it would be suicide to walk back down. When we arrived in the valley, we headed back to the Arctic Cathedral, where we met up with Kevin.
When we met at the Ice Cathedral, we first took photos in front of it and then went inside. The entrance fee to the building was around 7€, but one shouldn’t complain about prices in Norway. Although the interior of the cathedral is very simple, it also appeared elegant due to its modern design. Near the entrance, there were bowls with marbles in different colors. Each color represented a different wish that one had, and you could place a marble in an urn. As is customary for a Christian place of worship during this time of year, there was also a nativity scene. Above the entrance area, there was also a large organ.
After visiting the cathedral, we had to cross the bridge back to the other side of Tromsø. This was easier said than done, as on the way there I almost slipped a few times because the path from the cathedral to the bridge was completely covered in ice. So we took a little detour, which led us under the bridge to the other side of the street, from where we could enter the pedestrian walkway across the bridge.
Near our accommodation, there was a second-hand shop that we visited before returning to our lodging. Mark and Nathalie preferred to buy used souvenirs rather than always getting something new. However, we didn’t find anything useful there.
After returning to the accommodation, Mark cooked “Spaghetti with lentil Bolognese” using all the utensils available, and they turned out to be very good. Then, Nathalie and I wrote postcards, which Nathalie had already bought the day before at the Villmarkssenter. When we finished, Mark played Switch while we headed to the city center to send the postcards and do some more shopping.
In the city center, we simply dropped the postcards into a mailbox and went to the Hard Rock Café as planned. The café was relatively small, which was fitting for the city’s small size, but Nathalie and I each bought a shirt there. We actually have enough Hard Rock clothing at home, but since Tromsø has become one of our favorite cities, we absolutely needed the Hard Rock souvenir from there. On the way back, we noticed an art installation of sorts. It was a piano in a showcase. You could press buttons and the piano would start playing, each time lighting up in a different color.
After dinner, we finished off our remaining supplies since we would only be having a small breakfast the next day. We had plans to visit a specific bar that evening, but before that, we watched another Netflix documentary called “Inside the Mind of a Cat.” Although the documentary didn’t offer much new information and was similar to “Wilde Miezen,” a cat documentary from Weimar, it was still entertaining.
The last small activity in Tromsø was supposed to be a visit to a bar: The Burgr. It was located in close proximity to our accommodation and had surprised us with its theme. It was a gaming bar. The interior had green pipes from Mario and the walls were adorned with old games from different eras. Since dinner was not too long ago, we only ordered drinks and some snacks. The burgers and other items on the menu all had names from well-known gaming franchises. For example, I had a strawberry milkshake named Knuckles (from Sonic). After some other guests had left, we were also able to play on one of the NES mini consoles. Actually, a pretty cool bar here in Tromsø, I would just have displayed some cooler games (like on the PS2 wall) and placed a small gaming machine at every table… but with this theme, you can certainly fantasize a lot… 😅
