Harstad (Part 1)

         For the first few days of Juleferie (Xmas break), I traveled with my reading buddy Kristine to her home in Harstad, in Northern Norway. We took a plane to Trondheim, and another to Harstad, all together about 2.5 hours of flying. The first flight had almost ten students from Agder FHS on it, so we all went to the airport together. The second flight was just us and our friend Gunhild from Global, who lives even farther north. Arriving at the airport was probably the hardest part of the trip, because immediately Gunhild rushed to her boyfriend, and Kristine was welcomed home by her parents with lots of hugs. A stark reminder that I was just vacationing, while they were actually going home for Christmas. 

        It was night when we arrived, so it was very dark. Harstad is above the Arctic Circle, and the sun doesn't rise in the winter. When we were driving home--about 45 mins--we went through an area with signs for moose crossing. Apparently there are lots of accidents. I didn't think much of it until out of the corner of my eye I saw something on the side of the road--and both Kristine and I yelled "MOOOOSE". It was pretty terrifying. The moose was very close to the side of the road, and if we'd been ten seconds later it might have been in our way. 

        Harstad is a beautiful city, and Kristine lives up at the top of a huge hill, with an amazing view over the city and the water. We had delicious crispy chicken tacos for dinner (taco Fridays!), and her mom made an amazing Kinder Bueno chocolate cake for dessert! (Kristine's brother is older and lives in an apartment somewhere in the city, but he came around for dinner). We went outside afterwards to look for the Northern lights, and climbed up near the forest, but we couldn't see anything. 

      

        The next morning--after both sleeping in til 11--Kristine and I made American Pancakes with Bacon and Maple Syrup. Her mom had gone shopping and came back with hot chocolate mix, marshmallows, and whipped cream. It was amazing! Her whole family was so nice, and really made me feel at home. What also made it feel like home was the dishwasher!!! I've been hand washing everything for months, so when I finished eating and was about to wash my plate and fork, it was a crazy surprise to be able to just stick it in the dishwasher.

        We had to take Covid tests on Saturday, per a Harstad travel rule, so we spent the day driving around the city with Kristine's mom, and sightseeing. The tests weren't exactly fun, but we got milkshakes which made it worth it! While the sun never actually rose, it wasn't nighttime dark the whole time. There was sunset type light from around 9 to 2, but it was almost pitch black by 3. This was really disorienting, especially coming from all the way south, so I was a bit thrown off and very tired at random times. The video was taken at Kristine's house around 11:30am.

        While we waited for our test results, we couldn't really go to town, so Sunday morning we took a hike up to the top of a hill where there was a fantastic view of Harstad. Afterwards, Kristine's mom had made gingerbread dough, so we all got to work making them into shapes. I really enjoyed the moose shaped cookie cutter! We spent the rest of the day cozying ourselves inside, drinking cocoa, and watching Xmas movies--it was perfect!