Day 3 in Tromso, Norway (28 Nov) : Mount Storsteinen, Lunch at Fiskekompiat, Journey to Harstad, First Viewing of Aurora Borealis

The cable car was open to the public today. I decided to forgo the heavy tripod and flashlight since we only have an hour on the mountain.

The top of the mountain offers a bird's eye view of Tromso 

The pink- and blue-light hour at about 3pm was supposed to be one of the most beautiful moments of the mountain. Unfortunately, as we were on a group tour, we did not have the luxury of time to wait for those hours. We reached the top of the mountain at 9.40am and we had to leave at 11am.

Instead of wearing two tops and bringing two sets of hats, gloves and scarves which I had originally planned, I brought along just an extra hat to reduce the bulk of the bag. Instead, I brought two cute lamps along for photography purposes.

Taking the cable car down the mountain

I was glad that I did that. It sounded like a lot of time but with an elderly folk, one hour was quite tight for photography - by that, I meant her photography of me.

A 68-year-old tour group member saw that my mother was struggling to take pictures of me so she offered to help me do it. I doubted she could do it but the few pictures she took turned out to be Facebook profile-picture worthy. 

When we returned to the city area at 11.50am, my mother and I headed for Fiskekompiat, a seafood restaurant that came strongly recommended by the netizens. I had made the reservation that morning. 

I am not a big fan of seafood but as you know, FOMO is hard to resist. I didn’t want to wonder for the rest of my life what was so fantastic about the place.

Turned out that the service was top-notched. We had fish soup, sweet shrimps and 100g of king crab. 

‘Fresh’ was the word.

The restaurant redefined freshness. I think it would make a seafood lover a happy person. 

I also realised that we were taking tonnes of pictures in front of the restaurant just the previous day. It had a lovely harbour view with the colourful yachts.

The window view on our left

Three dishes cost 1049 kr, which came up to be S$139.

We ate non-stop in order to finish everything by 12.30pm so that we could rush back to the hotel to check out by 12.45pm.

Leaving the hotel. Getting to the coach on the slippery icy or snowy street and road.

It was to be a five-hour drive to our next destination: Harstad. 

Almost always dark and gloomy outside all the time in Norway

Tour manager mentioned that the people living in these countries tend to have poor mental health as they see little daylight. It was not hard to see why. I would not want to live in such a place for a month! Two weeks is the maximum I could put up with.

Along the way, someone spotted the Aurora Borealis in the sky. The tour guide decided to stop at a petrol station for a toilet break so that we could see the green light. 

It was a faint white band to the naked eyes. When we raised our camera at it, it turned green.

So it's true when they say Aurora Borealis can only be viewed via a handphone camera

I helped a lady to take a picture with the Aurora Borealis and she did it for me.

My mother had gone to the toilet. By the time she emerged from the toilet, the Aurora had faded away so she did not manage to get a clear picture of the Aurora.

We had rice with chicken drumstick for dinner. My mother seemed to enjoy the food under Chan Brothers, unlike how it was like when we joined the ASA tour last year.

After dinner, the tour guide took those who wanted to wait for the aurora to the harbour opposite the hotel.

Unfortunately, it started to drizzle. Rainy weather means that the sky is cloudy, so we had to beat a retreat after the tour guide took some nice pictures of us against the lights at the harbour..

Our Harstad hotel

Day 2 in Tromso, Norway (27 Nov) : Arctic Cathedral Photostop, Sami Dinner at Kvaloya Aurora Camp, Husky Dog Farm

The tour guide made an attempt at taking us to Mount Storsteinen. Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, the cable car ride up the mountain was closed due to the strong wind.

It was fortunate for me as I had not brought the little lamp I purposely bought for this part of the itinerary.

The weather was gloomy even though it was daylight hours so a cute lamp would add cosiness to the pictures. 

We were then brought to the Arctic Cathedral which looked pretty on the outside to take pictures, like what a typical tour group does.

We had a free day for most part of the day after that. We must have walked at least 20 minutes to the harbour to take pictures with the yachts. 

A Malaysian girl who felt sorry for either my mother or me volunteered to take pictures for me when she saw that my mother could not take a decent picture for me.

For lunch, we went to Egon, also a highly-raved restaurant. I ordered a fish soup for myself and a sweet and sour chicken with rice for my mother. 

Also a pretty and cosy restaurant

We finished the fish soup but we waited too long for the sweet and sour chicken and rice

My mother and I preferred the fish soup at Egon to the one at Pastafabrikken. It’s not so salty and it’s quite flavourful. 

My mother liked the sweet and sour chicken. I tried it but thought it was ordinary.

We then window-shopped around the area where my mother bought two Christmas balls before going back to the hotel to rest. By then, it was 3pm or so.

A Singaporean woman took this for us

We were reminded to meet the guide and be on the tour bus at 6pm for our activities on the agenda that day.

My mother took a nap and woke up at 4pm. I saw that she was awake, so I set my alarm to wake up at 5pm, thinking that she would wake me up when she heard the alarm.

It was 5.45pm when my mother woke me up. She said she fell asleep again after she woke up!

I shot up and rushed to get ready to rush out. Unfortunately, 10 minutes was just not enough. As we rushed to the lift, the tour guide rushed out of the lift. She was back to look for us. Everybody was waiting.

Sami dinner 

We were driven to a place designated for tourists. A five-star teepee tent with at least ten four-seater tables awaited our arrival.

A warm blackcurrant drink was served. I told my mother that it was Ribena, which made the Indian girl sitting at the same table laugh. 

After that, we were served what was known as ‘the traditional Sami dinner’. It was a fish soup dish which looked like it was made out of canned sardine fish with some veggies and unknown food.

My thought during the dinner was “The Sami people must be very thin people” and “I would be successful at dieting if I am one of the Samis!”

A fish soup is a dinner?  Well, it’s good for dieting. To think I was saving my stomach for this.

After dinner, we were led to the husky dog farm just right beside the teepee tent, where the guy in charge gave a talk on how the husky dogs came about and how the farm started and was taken care of. It was reassuring that the dogs are not worked to death or abandoned when they are older. They would be adopted for free if I understood correctly and could adapt to a more sedentary lifestyle watching Netflix with you on the couch. The only thing constant about them is that they still need two hours of exercise every day.

Each kennel houses one husky dog. 

The guide said that the optimum temperature at which they run is -25 degree celsius!

We were allowed to interact with the dogs and take pictures with them, which I gladly did. I like dogs but I don’t have the time nor patience for them.

After the husky dog farm tour, we were guided to the other side of the teepee tent where a sheltered open area with a camp fire awaited us. We were supposed to wait for the Aurora. However, the crowd soon lost patience and went back to the bus. The guide seemed “huh?” and commented that the sky seemed cloudy and the chance of witnessing the Aurora was low and agreed for everybody to be back on the bus. 

So that concluded our first night of waiting without seeing the Aurora.

The outdoor campfire which ended up as a barbeque fire for marshmallows

The shelter we sat in while waiting for the Aurora Borealis

On our way back to the bus, everybody took pictures with these pretty icicles 

Day 1 in Tromso, Norway: Eating at Pastafabrikken & Raketten Bar

It was 1 degree when we reached the Tromso airport. It was snowing. 

We finally reached our hotel, Clarion Hotel The Edge, at about 4pm. 

After reaching the hotel, we met the guide at 4:30pm to walk to the town area where all the shops and restaurants were. After that, we were left to our own devices.

I chose to take my mother to Pastafabrikken, a very popular restaurant on Red Note. 

I used Google Map to find my directions but keying in the address brought me to a hotel near the actual place!

I asked the receptionist and she directed me to the restaurant.

It looked like a decent restaurant with soft lighting  and fabric chairs and large wick lamps.

We had to remove our spikes before we were given a table as the spikes might damage the wooden flooring.

We were informed that we had to scan the QR code to place our order and I remembered to make sure the payment went through to confirm that the orders were placed. I exercised caution and ordered the two most strongly recommended dishes: Zuppa nettuno (fish soup) at 184 kr and Pasta nettuno (seafood spaghetti with tomato base) at 275 kr. That came up to about S$63. Tips were optional.

Pasta nettuno in the background and Zuppa nettuno in the foreground

We found the fish soup too salty for our tastebud. I am surprised nobody mentioned that. Does everybody eat so salty?

I later found out from my tour guide that Norwegian food is on the salty side due to their cold weather. Many food types are preserved.

Nonetheless, it was creamy and rich with various seafood like shrimps and fish pieces. Quite delicious I would say.

The Pasta nettuno was tomato-based but it did not have the domineering taste of tomato puree. The prawns and mussels were fresh, unlike most mussels which have a strong shellfish smell I have tasted in Singapore.

Service was ok. I read on Red Note that they were racist or disliked Chinese as they served their own kind enthusiastically and volunteered to take their orders for them. The guy who served us was polite and didn’t give off a ‘I hate Chinese/Asians’ vibe. I was ok with him informing me that I had to order via the QR code. The guy also obliged me when I requested a change of table before I sat down twice. He also explained that a four-seater had been reserved so I could not sit there. 

I think the food was fine. Perhaps I had too high an expectation for it. It’s a super strongly recommended restaurant on Red Note. I had FOMO-ed. It’s spaghetti. How heavenly do I want it to be? 

Ambience was great. It was my first day in Tromso. I didn’t know what to expect but the restaurant was cosy and quiet with comfortable distance between each table. 

Would I recommend Pastafabrikken? Yes. 

Would I go there again if I had a choice? Probably not since I am not a big fan of spaghetti or seafood.

We were walking around the city area after having our lunner at Pastafabrikken when I saw the famous hundred-year-old hotdog bar. There was a short queue. I was thinking of coming back to it after walking around to work up an appetite. However, a quick search on the internet shows that it would close at 7pm, which was five minutes later!

FOMO kicked in again. I joined the queue and bought the famous reindeer and beef hotdog bun.

The sausage was dry and hard

I honestly was hugely disappointed. It didn’t even come close to ikea’s $1 hotdog bun. I don’t know what the fuss is about. 70 nok is about $9.58. That’s exorbitant for such an awful hotdog bun.

No prize for guessing if I would ever recommend it.

My thrifty mother who tried her best to eat as much as she could of the hotdog bun

Something funny happened after buying the hotdog.

I asked my mother to help me take a picture of me holding the hotdog in front of the bar. My other would take a long time to get a picture taken, and when it is taken, you would find that the picture is slanted beyond Photoshop surgery or she had taken a picture of you asking “Have you taken the picture yet?” after freezing your smile for 10 seconds. 

When she had finally taken the picture, I asked her disappointedly,”Why did you take a picture when a man was walking by?” 

You know what she replied? “Ya lor!” with a frown on her face, like the fault lay with the man.

I explained to her,”You see the man walking into the picture. You don’t have to photograph him.”

At this, a guy probably in his 30s stood up from a bench nearby and offered,”Let me help you.”

I laughed and thanked him.

He subsequently helped me take two pictures.

My mother was overjoyed when she saw the outdoor heater beside the hotdog bar

After that, we walked around the streets to explore the area, popped into shops to check them out and bought postcards from the northernmost Mcdonald's.

I looked like an idiot wearing that Taobao pouch

Where to go:

Pastafabrikken 

Sjøgata 17, 9008 Tromsø, Norway

(Reservation via website preferred)

Raketten Bar & Pølse

Storgata 94B, Tromso 9008 Norway

Window Seat

We were asked by our tour manager to check in and book our seats ourselves.

Two flights were needed to get to Tromso, Norway. One was a 13-hour Singapore-to-Zurich leg while the other was a 3.5 hour flight from Zurich to Tromso.

For both flights, I booked a window seat for myself with my mother seated beside me.

I love window seats but I haven’t had the opportunity to get a window seat ever since I became a mother. I believe it’s the same for all mothers. 

My mother prefers aisle seats as they are more convenient for her to go to the toilet.

It’s fortunate that for both legs, nobody booked the aisle seat next to my mother’s. She didn’t have to hesitate to go to the toilet when she needed to.

I got to enjoy the fluffy clouds and imagine how it’s like to fall through the deceivingly fluffy clouds. Another moment, the clouds turned into a desert of clouds, a wavy sea of clouds. I wonder if the sky is God’s canvas to release his pent-up creativity.

It was bright daylight halfway into our 13-hour journey

Clouds remind me of the Rapture. Since I was fourteen, it is said that the Rapture would happen anytime. As young Christians, we would imagine how we would shoot through the clouds as we raptured to go to the heavens.

Now, when I ask my friend if they think they would be raptured. They reply,”I hope.”

I hope, too.

half daylight, half night on the horizon

It was dark when we reached the gloomy Tromso

My Swiss Air Experience

As of now, I am on a 13-hour flight on Swiss Air with my mother to Zurich before changing flight to Tromso, Norway.

We are going to Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Taking this flight makes me realise that the Singapore Airline is indeed one of the best.

My mother and I fell asleep when dinner was distributed. When I woke up, the air-steward and stewardesses were still serving dinner.

After a few minutes, an African-American descent flight stewardess asked what I would like.   Usually flight stewardess would offer you the options but she asked me an open question. I was  stumped.

Then she asked,”Would you like to have chicken or pasta?”

I told her I would like to have one of each for both of us. 

She repeated her question again.

So I said,”Chicken.”

It was a set that came with basmati rice, which I already know from the menu given out earlier on.

I asked for pasta for my mother in case my option did not turn out to be a great one.

The lady passed my mother a tray of food, saying,”Pasta.”

It was chicken with basmati rice again.

Ok. It could have been a genuine mistake especially when the food was passed to her by her colleague.

As we were eating, my mother’s orange juice slid from the table and spilled all over her right side of her jeans. She was all wet.

We finished up our food quickly and I went to get help. 

For this incident, the flight stewardess was very helpful and prompt. She immediately rushed to my mother and helped us bring down her luggage to a more spacious area behind the toilet so that my mother could look for her dry clothes.

After changing, my mother brought the luggage back to the seat. When a younger flight stewardess came past with drinks, I asked if she could help us put the luggage up.

She gave an incredulous look and said,”If it’s heavy, I won’t help.”

God must have heard my plea. It was light enough for her to put it up. 

After that, she said to me quite loudly so that others could hear, with eyes that widened in some measure of anger,”You have to do this yourself. This is not my job.” 

The Singapore Girl would never have said such a thing.

My Experience with Radiesse FIller

 I had initially gone to Dr Siew for fillers and Ultera to save my saggy face. 

However, he deemed my skin too sensitive and angrily red to be subjected to intense heat so he prescribed me with some oral medication to calm my skin down.

Knowing my concern about my skin in view of my upcoming trip, Dr Siew proposed using Radiesse fillers. 

Having utmost confidence in Dr Siew, I accepted his suggestion immediately and the procedure was done after my consultation. The whole procedure took less than an hour and I left the clinic at about 8.30pm.

Many things had changed compared to the my last trip to the clinic. Numbing cream application before the procedure was the norm but this time, Dr Siew injected anaesthesia directly into the skin which worked immediately. That meant that I did not have to spend at least 30 minutes waiting before the procedure could commence. However, it also meant that I had to endure more injections.

Before the procedure started, Dr Siew said that my face would be pierced six times - three on each side -after the anaesthetic injections. However, it was definitely more than six times. I lost count as I was nervous and busy clenching stress balls with both hands each time I was due to have an injection.

Dr Siew seemed to adore Radiesse as a filler. He said that it filled up nicely and firmed up the skin. As he was injecting it under my skin, he commented assuringly that "we are getting nice results", "looks different now, right?" (to a junior doctor who was watching on the side).

Dr Siew asked me if I was on any chronic medication. I said no, puzzled why he asked me that. He commented that I 'oozed quite a bit' as he injected. I reminded him that I did tell him about my sister who has Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP), an autoimmune disease where blood does not clot well, when he asked me if I had blood clot problems.

He asked what autoimmune disease I had, to which I replied,"Hyperthyriodism." and he told me that I had 'delayed clotting'.

Dr Siew injected a few more times to use up the filler. I could feel that he jabbed me at the laugh lines and near the jaw lines. After the procedure, Dr Siew told me that the swelling of my face would take five days to subside.

I liked the effect as well. Not dramatic but enough for my sisters and a friend to agree that I looked different and better when they saw the before-and-after pictures.

Previously, I would experience hardness on my face for the first week but this time, it was soft from the get-go although my face felt tender due to the swelling and the many injections.

I hope that by the time I go for my trip, the effect would be even better. Dr Siew mentioned that it would take a few months before the effect reached its peak.