Dancing Lights

OK, I have converted the big file into a different version. It affects the detail but I hope you can get the general idea. (Recognize any voices in the background?)

 

 

Last Night of Lights

We are actually, finally, in a hotel room in SXM having arrived after 24 hours of traveling only to be stuck, once again, 5 miles from home for lack of a nighttime ferry option to Anguilla. Since I am up early with jet lag with nowhere to go, I will make use of this time to post a  blog. I believe at my last post we were heading out on our third and final Aurora Chase. We had been stupid crazy lucky with the completely clear skies we experienced on our first two nights. We realize that plenty of people go looking for the Northern Lights and end up seeing little to nothing. But we still wanted another good viewing.

The night started out cold. I mean really cold. I mean Michael even tucked himself into an arctic suit. Actually everyone except the tour guides bundled up that night as we headed inland to literally race against the incoming cloud cover. Even so, we stopped within 30 minutes for a quick peak at a display. If you were wondering how aurora compares to clouds viewed through a camera here is a quick pic:

We were encouraged for another good show as we found our way to a beach to hunker down for the night. (As an aside here, when Noora, our guide, came back to the bus to announce that there was a good spot on the beach to camp, we were expecting something a bit different. This "beach" was covered with boulders...not even pebbles. Big, round, rocking, well, rocks. Remind me to send Noora a picture of what a REAL beach!)

But in spite of the clouds the viewing was still pretty good. Every night had been different, though, and this third night the sky ended up just filled with green light. Just a huge glow.

 

And that's pretty much how the night looked, off and on. True to form, though, as we were sitting around the campfire around midnight getting bored because the lights had disappeared, Michael pointed off to the horizon and said, "hey that looks like something could happen". So I jumped up, hobbled over the rocks, and as soon as I got to the camera, the dancing started. Again, the spinning in circles, looking everywhere at once, can't catch it on film, movement of the lights. But this time, with a whole lot of pink. The problem with the pink nitrogen color is that it burns really bright. So it, sadly, tends to come out over exposed and white on film. Even the tour guide's pictures (and she has more experience with this than we do) doesn't show it. So I toned down the color on this next picture (you will notice how different the green looks) just to bring out some of the pink. I hope it illustrates it enough.

 

I also have a couple of videos of movement that the guide posted from the second night that I will try to post (they are big files) once I am home. Suffice it to say, you need to see the Aurora for yourself. It is amazing and not surprising that ancient peoples would have been hard pressed to explain the lights.

 

In fact, in Finland the word for the northern lights is revontulet which translates to firefox because they believed that the lights were caused by sparks that flew off a fox's tail as he rain through the snow. Which plays in nicely to our narrative, since our next and final stop was Helsinki.

 



 

Quiz time

Clearly, I am not a particularly didactic travel blogger. A little eccentric maybe. But educational? Not routinely. However, typically once in a trip I throw in a quiz. Let's do that now while I am waiting, tired but not able to nap, for our last chasing lights tour tonight.

First, as an aside, there are other beautiful sights here in Norway besides the Northern Lights. According to our guide, Thomas, one of the owners of the Chasing Lights company, there are some 150,000 islands in Norway. So we picked up two new beach samples for our sand collection at home while we were here.

Another of Norway's natural wonders are the fjords.

So first question?
What is the difference between and fjord and a bay?

Apparently a fjord IS a bay but rather than being created by erosion it was created by glacial activity resulting in steep sides.

Next question.

Here in Tromso people refer to the cute little church in town and the bigger, newer cathedral across the water. But the church is really the cathedral and the cathedral is really the church.

So what determines which is which? (My Catholic friends might want to field this one.)

Apparently, the cathedral is the principal church in a Catholic diocese where the Bishop has his 'cathedra' or throne.

So, now a picture of us at a fjord:

 

 

And off we go, again.



 

We're So Lucky!

Day two in Tromso and some clouds rolled in. We were worried that our second night of Chasing the Lights would be impacted. But one of the reasons that we came to Tromso and signed up for these night chases is that the tour folks will drive you all the way to Finland if they have to in order to find a break in the clouds. So passports in hand, just in case, we hauled our tired asses back on that bus and kept hope alive.

Our tour guides for the night reassured us. Apparently low clouds are bad for aurora viewing. Middle clouds are a bit of a deterrent, but high clouds don't tend to cause any problems and that's what the majority of the forecasted clouds were. So off we went.

And before we were hardly out of town, at just 6:30P we all poured out of the bus to see our first little show of the evening. A very encouraging start. And off we went again to find more darkness.

We settled in on a nice beach with a lighted bridge in the distance and waited. The clouds actually cleared so it turned into a sparkling sky. There were little shows from time to time. And while we realize that some people travel all this way and don't even see that much, we tried not to be too whiny. There were even some little bioluminescent organisms in the water that would shine bright when the waves hit the sand that were trying hard to appease/impress us in the absence of stunning aurora displays.

Then when we settled in to have dinner, soups bowls in hand, just about 10:30P again like the first night, things got exciting and the reflections of the lights on the water just added to the drama:

There were even some purple colors showing up:





And crazy displays like this:

All pretty damn impressive. We were all pretty happy. Then things calmed down and we just sat around the fire kind of waiting for the guides to pack up so we could go home and sleep. And then all of a sudden all living hell broke loose. I wish I had pictures to capture it. But it happened so fast and it was all right up above us across the whole freaking sky that I can only hope that the one guide managed to capture some video to send to us.

It was like fireworks exploding. Or even better watch this video at the 3:07 mark and imagine this kind of drama in colors in the sky above you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5SxEkRkkOU
(watch the whole video sometime because she is an amazing artist but that little bit for sure)
We were all just spinning in circles saying "look there". "no over there". "omg right above your head." Even the guides were going crazy. It was insanely impressive. Tears come to my eyes right now just writing about it.

Yup. We're so lucky.

A Dream Come True Part II

(Spoiler Alert: if for some reason you see this post before you see Part I....stop and go find Part I before continuing)

OK, so we are now getting some impressive displays in the sky. And that is the other thing about the Aurora. The camera only catches a little bit of the sky. When you see our pictures, like everyone else's pictures, you will think all of the action takes place on the horizon. That's because that is what makes the prettiest pictures with something stable there to anchor the image and give it perspective. But now I understand the advice I was given by the helpful cashier at the mini market the first night we were here. I wanted to at least look for the lights when we were stuck in the city so I asked him to forgive my ignorance, but should I be looking north? He said no, look up. Up? He said, yes, they fill the whole sky. But we don't think about that because we are seeing those artistic images of the horizon. But damn if they don't go straight across the sky. And, of course, they change all the time. Sometimes slowly....mostly brightening and fading. But sometimes fast.

We don't have video. No idea how you get that but it likely requires far more impressive cameras than we have. But once things really heated up at 10:30P it was two hours of light show movement. I was just spinning in circles, again like a little kid but now in my arctic suit and boots, saying, "ooh, look there. Oh no over there. Oh man, behind you now." As the whole sky kept changing. At times, the lights would start to break up in vertical lines like this:

 

And then they would start to spin and swirl and at one point the movement rippled through an S-shaped curve of light that looked like someone cracking a whip. Again, no video, but here are three separate images taken within 60 seconds...(they are blurrier because they are moving throughout an 8 second exposure)



 

 

The whole experience was overwhelming and awe-inspiring. Even the guide ran for his camera in the end and rated the evening a 9 out of 10. We go out again tonight and tomorrow night. The odds of seeing this kind of display are pretty slim. But I wouldn't miss taking that chance. It's why we are here. Michael always says, "you can sleep when you are dead."

 

A poster on the wall of the restaurant here at the hotel this morning also said it pretty well:

 

"Eat Well Travel Often".

 





A Dream Come True Part I

To be cliché, the stars aligned for us last night.

We bundled up in as many layers of sadly lacking cold weather clothes as we could muster and toddled out like the kids in the movie, Christmas Story, with hope in our hearts on what turned out to be a stellar, clear night in Tromso.

First things first. Our guide (a phD theoretical physicist a la Big Bang Theory) explained to us that the pictures you see of the Northern Lights are not at all like the images you see with your own naked eye. Here is a good link I found that explains it in detail ( http://futurism.com/how-we-see-the-aurora-borealis-camera-vs-human-eyes-2 ); but in a nutshell, the human eye is limited in what colors it perceives in darkness while your camera is not. The images are not photoshopped. They are just more accurate in their depiction of the true colors. That means that with weaker displays of the lights, in real life you can see something that looks only like a slightly illuminated cloud in the sky. So we drove a way and then the guide would jump out of the van and snap a picture of a glow to see if it was really an aurora sighting.

The first time he had us get out of the car what we saw was a grayer version of this:

We were, of course, crazy with excitement. The sky was unbelievably clear (as you can see from the stars) and it was only 7P. We had hours ahead of us to see more. So when this spectacle died down, we jumped back into the bus to a new spot. Where we saw this:

 

The sky is darker. The cone is brighter. And we could begin to appreciate the green color without peeking at the camera. (And we caught one of the four shootings stars we happened to see.) Now we are even more stoked. Off we went to our third and final stop. Where just as we were sitting down around the fire getting ready to eat our stew, things really started to get interesting.

 

OMG, you say?

Well, you have no idea.

Check out Part II in the next post.

 



 

The North Pole

We arrived into Tromso, Norway last night. I had been wondering how close we would be to the Arctic Circle....if someone would tell me if/when I crossed north of it. Well, looking at this map:

We are already there!

Surprisingly, mercifully, it didn't seem ridiculously cold last night. And that was without the benefit of arctic suits and boots and such that will be available to us on our chasing the northern lights tours.

Plus it was crystal clear last night. We could see stars even here in town. That is step one in viewing the aurora. Step two is having the aurora show up at all. Sometimes the lights are strong enough to be visible from here in town even with the ambient light. So I peeked out my window all night long, but nothing.

Fingers crossed for when we go out searching tonight.

Meanwhile, we have a Fjords day trip scheduled for today which should be more than lovely.

So more later.
 

Guess again

I know you were probably thinking you were done hearing me talk about food. But not so fast.

We are just winding down our stay in Prague. Four full days here is why I haven't been able to bore you with many more details. We have mostly just been strolling the same streets and hanging out.

We did go to a recommended watering hole last night. Tlusta Koala...or Fat Koala for a beer. A local joint with a bunch of stevedore-looking guys and cigarette smoke. I did get a marketing tip, though. As we were leaving, on the little shelf by the door was an advertisement for a veterinarian. I honestly hadn't considered placing ads in bars. Something to think about.

But back to food. We did walk all the way down to the local farmer's market yesterday. A real put-em-up-take-em down kind of market by the river. Had some coffee. And harkened back to my Czech roots by picking up some nut, poppyseed and apricot kolache. And then, much to my own surprise, I dragged up an old Czech vocabulary word from my childhood. We were standing in line to buy a potato hash out of a big vat. The next vat had a different mixture with sausage and cabbage and some little, oblong, white bits in it. No idea. Was it different potatoes? Or what? And then I saw the word written in magic marker on the vat...Halusky. Huh, I thought. My mom used to talk about 'penny' halusky. Noodles that weren't rolled and cut but rather pinched off (somewhat lazily, I suspected) into penny-like bits. So these were pasta, I guessed. And I was right. In this case, potato pasta, aka gnocchi. But I think my mother would have been proud.

Then today we went to have lunch at the Café Imperial. A lovely room covered (even the ceiling) in tiles:

 

Mostly mosaic on the ceiling but the also lovely bits like this:

Anyway, I digress from the topic of food. When the waitress brought us bread, rather than butter or oil it came with a little bowl of ...well I am not sure what she called it...but growing up it was ham salad. Chopped up, almost pasty bits of ham mixed with mustard and cucumbers. From my childhood I remember pickles and mayo...but basically it's like a ham spread (egg salad with ham instead of eggs). I won't show you a picture of it because it isn't particularly appealing to look at but it did, again, take me back in time.

Finally, I have to mention the mashed potatoes. Prague won the competition for prettiest city in a trip of many pretty cities. It also won the competition for the best potatoes in a trip full of great potatoes. These clearly had to be served in a bowl because they were so soft and creamy they would hardly have kept their shape if you tried to mound them. Again the staff claims that they are just normal, every day potatoes with cream and butter. But all I can say is if Blue Bunny made mashed potatoes that you could serve like ice cream, these would be those. Nirvana.

And that is it for Prague. Tomorrow we are off to Tromso, Norway to Chase the Aurora. Fingers crossed. More next from the tundra.
 

St Vitus

OK, so more photos.

The Prague Castle complex sits up on the hill west of the Charles Bridge.

On the right are the white towers of St George Chapel, but the predominant building is the Gothic cathedral of St. Vitus.

Our first up close view of the cathedral was this:

By the time we got to the South Tower side the sun was shining and it looked like this:

But from the right angle all those crazy little spires really look like this:

And this:

And on the inside you get this:

and this:





And bunches more beautiful images that I won't trouble you with. You will just have to come see it yourself.

Doppelganger

"In all the gin joints in all the world...."

What a crazy morning. We took a different street this morning that ran parallel to our usual street only to find that it actually apparently ran in a parallel universe. We were passing what we thought was a normal archway full of people that turned out to be a time/space travel portal. I didn't even look in as a maneuvered around the crowd, but Michael's eyes were drawn to the $8 all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet sign for the restaurant back down the corridor/black hole/whatever.

The waitress attempted to seat us in the interior of the restaurant but the other section was a sun room of sorts with more light so I asked if we could sit there instead. As we walked to our table, I had to take a step back. I don't think I could even hide my surprise as I turned to Michael to point out one of the two guys sitting at the next table.

As a bit of background, we have been thinking of Michael's son, Jaeson, a lot since we arrived here because he came here to Prague years ago during a summer off from college to teach English. We even called him via WiFi from the Old Town Square last night when we were having drinks.

Well, there, in the flesh, was Jaeson's doppelganger - or as close a one as I ever expect to meet in four more lifetimes. And we told him as much...asking him if he would mind having his picture taken with Michael. Other restaurant patrons were quite amused at the spectacle. But he was up for the game and quite obliging, throwing his arm around Michael's shoulder for the pic.

Even more amazing was that he asked us if we were from the U.S. because he wanted clarification that Puerto Rico was part of the U.S. governed by the same entry requirements. Turns out that he is an AVID diver and is going there on vacation to dive. (Anybody who knows Jaeson knows that diving is one of his passions.) Then just for an added bit of realism, his sidekick/friend asked if they could borrow Michael's car! Yeah, Dad, could we?

Anyway, tooooo funny. So rather than just post the picture of this random, not-Jaeson guy. Since I had to quickly scour facebook looking for a picture of Jaeson to show not-Jaeson and I have them handy....would the real Jaeson Paul please stand up:

 

Well, Folks, It Looks Like We Have a Winner

Nope, not talking about the elections. Talking about the undisputed winner amongst recently visited eastern European towns. Thanks to all the other contestants for playing, but Prague is freakin' ADORABLE.

We arrived late afternoon/early evening, checked into our airbnb apartment 1-1/2 blocks from the Charles Bridge and strolled right on over. Our immediate thought after "Prague is freakin' adorable" was "if Disney was going to create the ideal eastern European town, it would look just like this."

Much like Bagan in Myanmar, this is simply one of those places where all I can really do is post pictures. Sorry, a whole bunch of pictures.

Looking west up the hill in the mist:

 

Looking east off the bridge:

 



Looking west off the bridge:

Or down from (the Starbucks on) the hill:

Every building is unique here. It's like another world of colorful, Italian buildings but these are all wearing haute couture, embellishment and bling.

Like this:

 

Or this:

Or these:

Or these (does everybody in this neighborhood put sculptures on their roof?):

 





The point is that absolutely everywhere you look there is something different and beautiful.

It is quite simply astounding.
 

Let Them Eat Cake

Back to food. Always back to food.
Michael may not be into song cues but he does love food. I love food, too, but maybe not quite as robustly (or I just don't want to be robust). That means that part of my personal balancing act when we travel is eating enough to keep him happy but not so much that I can't fit into my jeans for the long flight home.

Austria is trying my resolve. My pre-arrival research recommended that we engage in the age old Austrian tradition of eating coffee and cake. No problem, you think. Coffee pared with cake is pretty standard, right? Sure. Once a day. After dinner. Maybe in lieu of lunch on a rare occasion. And maybe for breakfast when you first move out of your parents' house and you think, "Ha, I am a grown up now. I can eat, say, CAKE for breakfast if I want to and nobody can stop me."

For most of us, however, this does not become a habit. Not so in Austria.

Coffee and cake are apparently consumed ALL DAMN DAY. Much like my explanation to Michael when all the cookies disappear in one day....Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack. Here coffee and cake ARE breakfast, a late morning snack, lunch, and a late afternoon snack (nearly an appetizer for heaven's sake). And then an after dinner dessert. Every time you turn around people are sitting around drinking coffee and eating cake.

And just to be clear I don't mean English tea biscuits. I mean CAKE. Sachertortes. And Strudels. And well this stuff:

 

I thought I couldn't be anymore surprised after nearly a week now. But there we were at the Naschmarkt early this morning and, of course, needed to stop for coffee and something. In the pastry shop window we saw something that looked like a big, old, chocolate-coated, dairy queen cone dusted with snow. Hmmmmm. We thought. Guess we should see what that is so we bought one from the slightly amused looking woman at the shop.

 

 

And what was inside of it under all the snowy coconut and chocolate?

 



Whipped cream. An ice cream cone filled with whipped cream coated in chocolate.  I have to say that my throat still tightens a little bit just at the thought of all that sugar.

Austria 1 Georgia 0
 

Perspective

Our first full day in Vienna we headed off to Belvedere Palace. It was brutally cold and overcast and gray and I apologize for mentioning this so many times but it is just startling to me. After 16+ years living on a perpetually sunny Caribbean island, I just do not remember what weather can do. Certainly there have been other times in the course of those 16 years that I have been off island, in other places, experiencing this before; but obviously I forget. Time and time again, I obviously forget because here I am again in shock and awe of grayness.

Anyway, off we trudged. Here is the Palace:

No amount of average every day photo-shopping can make that sky look anything but just exactly like that.

In fact, the weather was so miserable we bought tickets to tour the art museum inside. OK, I stretch the truth a wee bit there because the museum at the Belevedere houses the largest collection of paintings by THE famous Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt, which makes it a "must do" akin to visiting the Rodin museum in Paris or the Rembrandt museum in Amsterdam (both of which we have also done).

It also gave us the opportunity to catch this view from the upper floor windows:

Same sky, you say. Yup. And gardens in fall so not in their full glory. Yet still pretty neat patterns like on a sculpted rug. The reason I posted this image, though, is because there off to the left in the distance you can see none other than the St Stephan steeple towering so much higher than anything else on the skyline.

And that makes me realize that perhaps my other picture of the steeple didn't do it justice (even though it was an attempt to shoot it from the ground straight up). So here is another one which will also remind me that we did see those blue skies from time to time:

 

And On to Vienna

After our lovely last morning in Salzburg we headed off on the train to Vienna. Since this was a shorter trip, we had economy tickets. Sticking by the 'when in Rome' travel adage, we noticed immediately that two young local girls were settled in opposite each other across the table in the window seats of a group of four. So that's what we did. In all fairness it was a very empty train but we had plenty of room to be comfortable.

By the time we got settled in our latest airbnb apartment it was already after 4P. But we headed out anyway. Past St. Stephans (in all fairness only about two city blocks from our apartment) and over to the Stadtpark and around again. The day was too beautiful and the sky too blue to pass up any opportunity to get out and about (especially since we had to sit on the train missing out on over 2-1/2 hours of clear skies).

So here is the church:

 

And here is the steeple (just shy of 137 meters):

and up above the doors see all the....nope not the people...the array of animal gargoyles:

 

 

Auf Wiedersehen, Salzburg

I am catching up. Not intentionally throwing you off by posting out of order. I just found that photo of us at the church in Vienna on the phone while we were without internet access on the bus this morning. (Thank you T-Mobile for our ancient international plan with free international services.)

We are currently on a very slowly moving boat in the Danube Valley having elected to get out of a city for one during our trip. We are on a day tour of the Valley heading to the Melk Abbey. Unfortunately, the wifi on the boat is as slow as the boat, so this is probably all I can get done during the cruise. (if this..two resized photos are taking 45 minutes to load*.)

But to travel back in time. Our last evening in Salzburg was overcast and drear but we still found our way to the Mirabell Gardens. For aficionados of the Sound of Music, here is the gate and fountain that were the setting for 'Do Re Me'.

 

Then in the 'what a difference a day makes' category the next/our last morning in Salzburg was Bee-you-ti-full. Sunny and lovely. In fact, you might say that the "hills were alive...."  (I would but Michael is already tiring of my song cues. But you go right ahead.)

*in fact, after an hour they still hadn't loaded so I am only just now posting this after finally getting back to the apartment.

 

Us in Vienna at St Stephan

Food and Food for Thought

In the food department: part of traveling abroad is always googling 'what to eat in (enter the city of country)' and then doing our best to accommodate. That means that we ate pierogis and drank "wodka" in Krakow. Gorged on goulash and beer in Hungary. While here in Salzburg we have had meatloaf sandwiches (that turned out to be really more like bologna), pretzels, and brats, schnitzel and boiled beef (really like a roast) and lots of Veltliner wine in addition to beer. And across the board, I have to say that there is something crazy, awesome about potatoes here in this part of the world. Waxy and buttery. Great roasted but sublime mashed.

However, all over Salzburg are photos of their famous dessert, Nockerl. It looks like some kind of Baked Alaska but is, in fact, a triple peaked soufflé. So tonight, after a lovely cheese platter and a sampling of three different veltliners at a nearby wine bar, we set off to try the local dessert.

 

A huge portion for just two people, to be sure. But very tasty.

 

Now, back to the food for thought. As I mentioned before, we cannot seem to drag ourselves away from always checking on the political happenings back in the States. We couldn't watch the last debate but we watched the highlights. Every day we are checking online or reading comments on facebook so that we are staying nearly as current as we would have been back home. That is not surprising. As much as everyone wants this election to be over, it is hard to turn away in the meantime.

 

What is always surprising, however, is how riveted the rest of the world is by our politics. Everywhere we have been so far...and I mean in EVERY single city, at least one person has approached us and asked us how we thought this circus was going to turn out in the end. Tonight, at the aforementioned wine bar, the woman at the table next to us leaned over to me to ask if we were Americans. And then asked if she could ask me a question. Who did I think the next president of the United States would be? Without going into excruciating detail about the conversation suffice it to say that she was old enough to have lived under communism and wanted to recommend against choosing leaders with autocratic tendencies. And was also incredulous that we would be so far behind the times by way of anyone questioning a woman's fitness to lead.

 

So far, then, we have yet to talk to anyone in any of these countries who is not (1) sincerely worried about what this election means to the ENTIRE WORLD and (2) who is not terrified at the thought that Donald Trump could become President.

 

The world is watching.

 



 

Favorite Things

Here we are in Salzburg. After an uneventful train ride through the countryside we arrived late yesterday afternoon. Most of the way here the scenery was really reminiscent of Ohio. But once you reach Salzburg it is adorable: pretty, pretty architecture and little street after little street with lots to see. I mentioned it before, I think, but we are always looking up and around and down corners.

To a little church at the end of the street:

 

Or a clock tower that appears right in front of you

 

Or something across the way:

(Oh and YES the sun came out today ... see the difference between this sky and yesterday's sky in the previous image!!!!)

 

Inside the Cathedral:

 

Or to see this little guy amidst all the rosettes in the ceiling of the State Rooms in the Fortress:

 

And every now and then.....looking down at street level

 

Granted this little guy was in a below ground level apartment in Budapest but he was really cute.