“Good night! Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome aboard Emirates bound for Dubai.”, the announcement that the flight attendant made was surreal, since I still could not believe time flew so fast. The last second, I was still sitting on the sofa at The Trade Council of Denmark, Taipei to apply for my Visa, and at this moment, I was on the plane, fastening my seatbelt, sitting by the window, and watching the buildings become smaller-as the plane flew higher and higher-until they were not in my sight. It was December 28th 2018.
On the plane, I was still wrestling with those mixed feelings in me. As it was my first time to go abroad and, what’s more, I would stay there for a long period of time, I knew that all my friends and family would be so worried about me and I would miss them to the moon and back. I choked back my tears and emotions while saying goodbye to them because i did not want them to be concerned for me. I always feel like I am the luckiest child in the world since I have the most supportive family and friends who would back me up with all my decisions.
By the way, for your information, the destination of the flight was a small city, Oslo, the capital city of Norway, which is 8558 km away from Taiwan. And I did not fly to Norway alone; instead, my brother was appointed to be there with me to make sure everything is settled down for me.
After a 17-hour exhausting long haul flight, we finally landed on this far-flung northern country, Norway. We stopped by the capital city, Oslo, for a while and took the domestic flight to Tromsø, which is a northern city of Norway, located within the Arctic Circle. We had planned a whole week to explore this polar city. I did not have high expectations on this place; however, I was blown out by the majestic, immense, and silver-snow scenery upon landing on this city.
The city was covered in thick layers of snow, which was literally everywhere at the corners of the city. It seems like Mother Nature was casting magic spells to make everything white. Alice walked into the Wonderland and I felt like I was walking into a “Whiteland”. It was the purest, the most silent and the most mysterious city that I have ever seen. I tried to touch, feel and catch the snow in my hands while it was falling down slowly from the sky. As a shy fairy who did not dare to show its beauty in front of humans, the snow melt right away as it kissed my skin.
While I was prancing in the snow indulged in my fantasy world with romantic scene, my stomach started to rumble. Then, we randomly walked into a local restaurant. A chiseled-jawline waiter with colorful tattoo on his toned and muscular arms standing on the side of the entrance welcomed us with his killing smile. My eyes were twinkling while as soon as I saw this charming waiter. My brother rolled his eyes to the back, watching me fangirling over the waiter. The waiter led us to our table. Sitting at a window seat, we could see the crystal snowflakes falling on the windows, which was a scene that would never bore me. We ordered some fries, burgers and Norwegian salmon to satisfy our cravings.
After dinner, my brother and I joined a local tour to chase the aurora, known as the northern light, the most beautiful and mysterious dancer in the sky. It was a three-day northern light tour. Each day the local tour agency would pick us up at the hotel at around 6 p.m., and then drop us off after the tour. There are several ways to chase the northern light, for example, some people would choose to wait and camp in the snow for few days, which must be an unforgettable and adventurous experience. Though it is a highly-recommended way, my brother and I did not find it attractive to follow what the locals do, since the place where the aurora shows up is far away from the downtown and the temperature is normally at minus 16 degree, it would be freezing cold. For people who are from tropical area like us, staying in such a harsh, cold weather for few nights would be a no-no.
On the way to chase the aurora, the tour guide gave us some background knowledge about the aurora. According to the scientific studies, it is the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by solar wind. Though the northern light is active in the sky year around, we can only see it when the sky is dark and clear. The tour guide told us that the best way to find a clear sky is to see where the stars are. Northern light and stars always show up alongside in the sky.
When we arrived at the place where the northern light might potentially show up, it was only 10 p.m., still two hours away from midnight. Tick tock, tick tock… If you have experience of waiting for something precious, you would understand how annoyingly painful it was for us to wait for the northern light. Other than my brother and I, there were few other people in our group. Each of us shared our own story and our experience, and some of stories were so crazy that were totally broaden my horizons. “The world is so big, so beautiful, and replete with marvels. You get to explore it, take an adventure and be brave to get to know it well!”, a 40-ish man said.
Time past during our happy conversation, and then out of the blue the tour guide shouted,” There it is!” The aurora finally appeared in the sky. We see it! It indeed was the most beautiful green dancer in the sky. The atmosphere was euphoric, everyone was in a state of exaltation. Aurora was moving gracefully, showing itself in the most attractive way. It was white, pink and green. The stars alongside it were also shining. It was 1st January 2019, a day that I would never forget, the northern light, the stars and even the fireworks conducted an orchestra with magnificent melodies in the sky. I felt like I was the luckiest person that 2019 blessed me so much to witness such an amazing and magical moment in my life. This spectacular sky dancer heralded the start of my first day of a brand-new year.
