It’s almost 12 years since I moved up north and I do like it here. The mountains are wild and gorgous, the people is nice and frank, the history of rebellion and multietnicity speaks to me and it rains less than in the western part of the country where I was raised.
Despite all this, I never get quite used to it. When it gets darker during fall, I always tend to feel down. And when the sun only takes short breaks and makes daylight last for both day and night, I get confused at first. And on top of it all, I find myself in the mood of spring when we suddenly get a lot of snow.
Yes, the weather is on every lips these days. It’s not unusual with snow in may, but it always seems weired anyway. Right now the birds are singing, the sun has just set (just to reappear in a few hours) and there’s ca. 20 cm of snow outside. I guess it sounds a lot more crazy to those who don’t live here. After all, I can see it with my own eyes. I’ll try to show you how it looks here, in real time:
It’s not because of the weather that I’m thinking of moving down south. It’s just that this place is starting to feel a bit small. Despite the University, it’s really a small town, even in Norwegian terms, with less than 70 000 inhabitants. Soon, there will be no more challenges left for me here. I hope I’ll manage to live here for another 2 years, when my daughter starts school and will be allowed to travel alone with the airlines.
I guess I can’t write such a post without mentioning the Olympic Winter Games 2018 and state my opinion on wether they should be in Tromsø or not. But actually I don’t care. At that time, I won’t live here. I just hope it would mean that the railway will be build. What this town needs is not so much installations to do winter-sports, but swimming facilities. With the temperatures and the amount of snow we don’t have any opportunities to swim out doors (maybe some days during the 2 months of summer, but I think it’s too cold even then). Tromsø is an island with a national harbour and some industry related to the sea (although less than before as the number of local fishermen decrease) but the kids have few ways to learn swimming. The most logical conclusion is of course not to apply for the winter games, but the summer games! Unfortunately, I’m the only person seing this. (It might be realted to our summer temperatures being below 25 degrees Celsius most of the time…)
Tarald Stein 