We flew into Tromso yesterday over some of the most stunning mountain scenery I've ever seen - all jagged, jutting rock, islands and water, water everywhere. We got the guided tour from the taxi driver on the way to the hotel, which is the first I've stayed in with a stuffed polar bear in the lobby! Then it was out to see the Turkish theatre company Tiyatro Oyunevi row into the port with their atmospheric performance of Waiting and onto a bar for catching up with the SEAS crew and sipping (eye-wateringly expensive) beer very slowly indeed.
SEAS Club kicks off on Monday so we've had time to find out a bit more about our latest location today. Surrounded by mountains, Tromso bills itself as the gateway to the Arctic and you certainly get the feeling of being very north indeed. The sound of the ships' fog horns punctuates the overall quiet and calm. The sun disappears on November the 20th for a couple of months and apparently children get time of school during deep winter as it's so difficult to get up in the mornings.
We visited the Polar Research Centre today, watched a great panoramic film about Svalbard, sat in a pregnant polar bear's lair and read lots of depressing facts about pollution and global warming. The Inuit people of the Polar region have one of the most toxic diets in the world through no fault of their own; toxins are stored in fat tissue and most of their diet is made up of fatty mammals and fish.
Tromso is a student town so there are lots of very cool bars and cafes, although we'll probably need to take out a mortgage to do any kind of bar crawl while we're here. But we get the impression that the Norwegians like to party so all bodes well for SEAS Club!
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