Impressions and people

I have now been in Tromso for 10 days. 'The city has no industry', the taxi driver told me. There used to be a fishing industry, but because of the cost of labor in Norway, it has been closed down. People work mainly in the service sector and one of the cornerstones for the city's continued existence is the university. Of the 70 000 inhabitants some 11 000 or more are students. A lot of international students and researchers as well.

The people who travel here at this time are mostly looking for the Northern lights. And there really are a lot of travelers. The hotels have been full. So far I have hosted four people from Couchsurfing and I think none of them left Norway without seeing the green light in the sky. I myself caught a glimpse of it the other day. My good neighbor who is providing me with internet connection tells me that sometimes the Aurora is so strong that the whole sky will vibrate.

The Norwegian spoken here sounds to me like a mixture between the western (Bergen) dialect and Finland Swedish. However, there is no very distinct dialect here because of the melting pot effect with people coming from all over the country.

The people walking on the streets are usually not originally Norwegian. The Norwegians themselves drive. I walk or take the bus. Ideally, I'd ride a bicycle, but I don't have one. And they tell me that the snow won't be gone until the end of May. But there are good crosscountry ski tracks stretching all over the island, so maybe that would be the best way of transportation.

Most of the island is covered with residence areas with privately owned big, nice single-family houses. Housing prices are soaring and probably comparable to Oslo, the Norwegian girl I met on the airplane told me. The airport is on the island proper, which renders the otherwise very calm and peaceful island (at least on the part where I live) very noisy when the planes come and go. The city center is literally downtown, as it's located in a valley by the sea. There are quite a few nice buildings to see there.

My colleagues (we're a total of fourteen junior doctors starting now in February) are all Norwegian and almost everyone has studied in Tromso. A lot of them are married and have kids already.

From my window I see Kvaloya (the island west of Tromso) with its mighty old and tall mountains covered in snow. After the sun sets these peaks fade into the background. And although you can still sense that they are there looming in the dark, the houses on the island light up like fireflies and steal your attention. It seems that I finally got a room with a view.