Tromsø – Day 1: The Polar Night
TROMSØ
Day 1: The Polar Night
November 28, 2024
Meeting the gang at the airport had become something of a tradition. In fact, seeing their faces was something I had come to associate with fun and adventure.
Unfortunately, I had also come to associate them with a fair amount of anxiety and frustration, given that they were always late. As usual, they showed up in the nick of time and only just made the final boarding call. Having gone through the painstaking effort of booking leave and saving money for this trip, I’d be damned if I was going to miss it for reasons entirely within our control. Zara and Akash’s metrosexual tendencies – which had them changing outfits until the very last possible minute – certainly weren’t an acceptable excuse.
Finally on board the plane, my anxieties didn’t exactly diminish. In a few hours, we’d be meeting Priya at the airport in Oslo, and I had no idea what to say or how to act. In fact, when we got there and she appeared – looking as beautiful and perfect as ever – I just stood there like an idiot, my heart twisting in on itself. She came in for a hug, lingering for that one extra second that made me feel as though she had been yearning for that moment just as much as I had. I wanted to pull her even closer, rest my forehead against hers, look into her eyes and smile, then kiss her passionately – but this wasn’t a movie, and fairy tales don’t exist. She wasn’t mine and I wasn’t hers – she had somebody else, and somebody else had her.
Luckily, my seat on the next flight was far, far away from everyone else’s. I could berate myself for being such an idiot and wallow in self-pity all I wanted while listening to every heartbreak anthem known to man.
North of Daylight
After many hours of travelling, we finally reached the starting point of our Nordic trip: Tromsø, a vibrant city in northern Norway, around 350 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.
Often known as the Arctic Capital, it is surrounded by mountains and fjords and combines dramatic natural scenery with the energy of the world’s northernmost university town. Winter in Tromsø is known for the northern lights and the polar night. During this period, from late November to mid-January, the sun remains below the horizon. That doesn’t mean it is completely dark all day, though. Around midday, the sky brightens for a few hours, bathing the town in a surreal mixture of blue, pink and purple twilight. The opposite happens during summer when the sun simply refuses to set – a phenomenon referred to as the midnight sun.
Home in the Snow
We arrived in the afternoon, though what awaited us was the polar night – something I had somehow known nothing about until that very moment. We were also welcomed by a light snowfall, and the cold air felt so refreshing that it made me feel more alive than ever, despite the darkness and gloom.
As always, Rohan would be our designated driver. As soon as we left the airport, we made our way to the car rental desk and headed towards the apartment where we’d be staying. We got lost a couple of times, with the falling snow occasionally obscuring our view, but eventually, we made it. And there, in all its glory, was our home for the next few days – the cosiest wooden house, with a snowman standing guard right at its entrance.
Before we could truly appreciate all the twinkling lights and Christmas decorations that had transformed our street into a winter wonderland, we had to figure out how to park the car on top of a thick blanket of snow – all of us working hard to clear the space with our bare hands until Manish finally found a shovel.
The Wedding Question
Once inside, we rushed to make ourselves comfortable. With hot cups of java in hand, we settled onto the couch and huddled under the blankets like a bunch of old people.
It was then that Priya told us how she had met her fiancé and how he had proposed. I gotta admit, he sounded like an amazing guy, and I couldn’t help but feel happy for her. When she asked whether we would attend her wedding, I said yes, knowing full well that I wouldn’t go – knowing I might pull a Jackson Avery and ruin her big day. I genuinely couldn’t believe I was feeling all of that. It must’ve been pure jealousy. At that point, marriage wasn’t even on my radar, yet from the second I had heard about her engagement, all I could think was that it could’ve been me.
We spent the night cooking and drinking, dancing along to “Taambdi Chaamdi” by Kratex and Shreyas, then reliving Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour as we watched concert footage ad nauseam.