There were only two icons I wanted to see on my trip to Europe: Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the Northern Lights. I accomplished the first one by the skin of my teeth, wandering around Krakow's two bus stations and making it onto the right minibus with just minutes to spare. I've been waiting decades to see that ever since I first read about it as a kid, and now that I've gone I need to see it again.
The second one, the Northern Lights, was a little more dynamic in that I could have picked out any point in the world along the 70th parallel. But Tromsø stood out for many reasons: being situated in Europe, it's relatively easy to get to; it's a thriving city with plenty to do; the climate is incredibly warm given that it's about 350km inside the Arctic Circle; and its proximity to other islands and Finland mean there are plenty of chances to see the lights in case one spot is cloudy.
I had two nights in Tromsø and as bad luck would have it, I got the flu just before coming here. Because it was incredibly cloudy and not very windy when we landed, I decided to make Sunday night a rest day and spent nearly 24 hours in bed. The time passed by quite nicely, actually, as I alternated between watching Norwegian-narrated ski sports on TV and reading longform essays on my phone. I broke things up Monday morning to get breakfast at 7:30, but promptly went back down for another two-hour nap.
On Monday, my fever had finally broken and I didn't have the chills or sweats anymore, so I Googled a bunch of tour companies to see about the Northern Lights. I found one that was reasonably priced and headed down the hill to check them out, only to be delivered the horrible news that today was incredibly lousy because of the weather and that last night was fantastic. It was everything I could do to hold it together and not cry as he showed me the photos from last night and said how perfect the weather was, while flipping to another tab and showing me how persistent the cloud cover would be over the whole of northern Norway until 4am and how weak the solar activity would be.
I traveled more than 10,000km to get to this northern point and spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars and in an instant, it was all gone. It was like holding a winning lottery ticket in my hand and casually glancing away, only to return to it to see it fluttering away in the wind. I was so damn close to living out a dream and poof! Gone. Just like that.
But you know what the worst part is? My life advice is to just check something out before assuming that it's one way or another. Mostly I say this to my mom when she forms an opinion over a navigational route or the quality of a restaurant, but she's usually a good sports about listening. And now I didn't listen to myself and didn't even bother to check the weather conditions for that night. It's one of the few times I've acted out of character, and I'll have to pay for it for who knows how long.
That it was my own inaction that led to this — that's the bitterest pill of all to swallow.
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