Northern lights

Apparently the northern lights should be visible over Iceland soon, shall we run away together?

At the weekend my uncle who is a pilot told me he sometimes sees the lights from the sky! He also sails and gets to see the stars on a clear night with no light pollution!

How perfect!

S is for Svalbard

Thank you so much everyone for your sweet comments and good luck wishes! I took the exam a couple of hours ago and I didn't think that it had gone too well. I made some mistakes with my grammar, mixed things up in my presentation and used some Swedish words. But the results have already come through and I got a B! I was so relieved and proud of myself that I was sitting here crying! Thank you for all of your support, you are all so lovely!

On Saturday I promised you a post about beautiful skies and gorgeous landscapes, polar bears and snow, so today I'm going to tell you about a place called Svalbard.

I first heard about this mystical place when I read Philip Pullman's Northern Lights. Have any of you read it? Svalbard is the northernmost part of Norway, an archipelago in the Arctic region. It has a population of just 2,394 people as well as many polar bears and reindeer! 

The island has polar nights during the winter, (where the sun stays below the horizon for more than 24 hours) and during the summer it is possible to see the midnight sun. Of course it is a beautiful spot from which to see the Northern Lights, since it is so far north. 

I dream of going there. I've heard that it is incredibly beautiful!

(Other pictures lovingly taken from here, here, here and here)

What is your dream destination? I'd like to go to Svalbard and Iceland. I also have a little dream of going to Hawaii, since I'd like to see the stars from there. I've heard it's possible to see the milky way :) 

inspire nordic

Pretty crockery, Space & the Northern Lights

Have you heard of the Danish shop Falby? You can find it here. Today I walked to university, in the sunshine, to meet the lady who is helping me not to be sad anymore. After my meeting I went to the little book shop on campus. They sell a lot of stationary and books and things, but also a lot of pretty things for the home. I bought this little cup to drink my coffee from during my long afternoons of writing to you all. It's nice to have pretty things :) 

We have been lucky to have some sunny days, after all of the snow that fell last week. The sky is also wonderfully clear, which means cozy nights of taking my lemony-tea to the little woodland area behind my flat and searching for planets and constellations.

 Joe Richardson (visit him here) wrote a lovely comment yesterday, asking me whether I had seen the Northern Lights before. The answer is yes, sort of. At the moment there has been some special 'solar events' which means that we have a higher chance of seeing the Northern Lights. (You can actually check the Aurora forecast here, if you like). 

Whenever we hear about there being higher auroral activity, we get so excited! We take some warm drinks, our big cozy jackets and trek out in the snow in search of a dark, sheltered place, away from any source of light pollution, in order to have the best chances of seeing them. I have only seen them once since I've been here, since Oslo is a bit too far south. Since they are low on the horizon here, they can be difficult to spot. Last November we heard that the activity was high so we went and found a little dark area behind our flat and crouched down behind a fence (to block out the street-lights). After gazing into the sky for a few moments, we noticed a thick streak of feint green lining the horizon and watched as it slowly brightened and darkened, almost as if the sky was breathing. Despite it being pale and feint, it was still very beautiful. One of my ultimate dreams is to go and watch the Northern Lights from further north in Scandinavia. I would like to see the pink ones! 

Have any of you ever seen the Northern Lights? Were they as beautiful as you had imagined? 

(pictures lovingly taken from here, here, here & here)

inspire nordic