As streams of high-energy charged particles from the Sun travel through space and trek 150 million kilometers to Earth, they violently bombard the upper atmospheres of the north and south poles and bloom brilliant auroras. This rare and soul-catching natural phenomenon is becoming more and more familiar, so much so that it is often regarded as one of the must-see beauties of this life. As one of the most popular travel destinations in the world, the aurora observation points in Europe are mainly Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Only northern Norway is closest to the Arctic and near the sea, and our destination, Tromso, Norway, is the largest city in the Arctic Circle. In 2015, in December, just before winter in Northern Europe, we embarked on a long-planned trip to Norway.
The goal of this tour is the Aurora Borealis. But since we were going to Northern Europe, we took a look at several major cities in Denmark and Norway. When we flew from Manchester to Copenhagen, Denmark, we were almost left to hang out at night.
A plane ticket from Europe to Denmark is certainly tempting. In the past, it was basically 5,000 in China, and the cheapest one was Aeroflot, which had a connecting flight to Copenhagen or Oslo. The reason why we chose to go to Denmark first this time is first because the Danish visa is easy to get (directly to give half a year of Schengen), and secondly, we also want to do a night cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo.
According to our group photographer Alessandro Belleli, they have a large number of observation points on the small islands dotted around Tromsø, and our bus will go to three or four observation points in six hours based on the real-time intensity data reported by the observation points, ensuring that each observation point can see the aurora. Such a light-chasing bus, coupled with the rare clear night sky that night, the magical aurora night began to be staged.
When we saw the Aurora Borealis with our own eyes, we truly appreciated its wonders. Three of the four points we went to see very intense auroras, and the bus stayed at each point for nearly an hour or so. And each aurora brings us a different viewing experience. Some of them are like elves floating up from the depths of the ocean, fishing at the end of the bay and disappearing in an instant; some are like a wide green ribbon that floats through the sky above you; some become giants with changeable shapes, jumping out from behind the mountain and dancing wildly in front of you.
If you think that the aurora is beautiful only because it is a rare band of light, you are wrong. What really struck us about the Aurora was the surging force of nature that flowed beneath its quiet exterior. This is a force that you can see with the naked eye, but you can't feel it at all in still photographs. Standing in the snow half a meter deep on the site, we can clearly see the aurora piercing the starry sky and crossing over our heads from the sky. It is slow, but it is even more unstoppable.
Sometimes don't say too much, a person who knows how to appreciate will realize a lot when he looks at the photos. A person always has to take unfamiliar roads, see unfamiliar landscapes, and listen to unfamiliar songs. In the end, it will be found that the things that I have painstakingly tried to forget are really forgotten.
Wen --Sheng Shi Jinlin