Well, I am not sure where to begin, or how I can even explain the beauty I got to witness the previous nights. Ever since I arrived in Finland I have kept track of the aurora activity, feeling the need to see it since I was an 8-year old girl. It has been on top of my bucket list and the desire grew so big the past years that I took this into consideration when choosing a place to study abroad. I have camped out for the past four nights, and was not disappointed. To give you a quick overview of the magical world of aurora hunting, it can be predicted to a certain extent, but might not always be reliable. The northern and southern parts of the world are divided into KP level numbers, with 1 being the most north, until level 9 that goes through France, Spain, Hungary, etc. There are websites and institutions that post these predictions up to three days the these numbers per couple of hours.
DAY 1
So on valentines day the level reached number 5, which was more than enough to see it. However the sky was so cloudy that we couldn't see anything of what we were hoping to see. We sat for three hours, risking our life to walk over the lake without seeing anything. Really nice those people who go ice fishing close to the coast and almost make me fall in at night. Anyways, we did end up seeing the green glow, but the clouds prevented us from seeing anything more.
DAY 2
On the second day I received a message from a friend at 1AM that she could see the northern lights. Freaking out that I was missing it, without thinking and hesitation I put on some warm clothes, grabbed my camera, put on boots and started the 30 minutes walk to the best place to watch. When I arrived people walked the other way I walked, either I had missed it or they just left. I felt a little dumb, like I missed the big happening. I held my head up high and continued to my destination. When I arrived I just saw clouds. I took out my camera and made some pics of the sky, and there it was. I stayed for around 2 hours and the light got stronger and stronger, but never started 'dancing'.
DAY 3
A day I will never forget (I hope). The activity level was through the roof. However, the numbers didn't care for me anymore. I stayed out for two nights in the cold, and did not get the expected results that I wanted to see. I guess I thought that its was only possible up in the north. However, seeing pictures from other people in the city made me realize I had missed out on something I was yearning to see. So again, without contemplating, I put on clothes ( I was already sleeping) and starting walking crazy fast. Met up with my friend, and when we got there we were a little disappointed. There the green light was, but faint and clouds came in. For 90 minutes in the cold we saw the clouds come and go, and we felt stupid for not going earlier. When my friend was kind of done, I was full of spirit to persevere. I'm strong headed, and if I want something I will go for it. While my friend was wondering I looked at the sky west to me and saw something that I still cannot comprehend. The green glow became really strong and started moving and dancing. It was so active and I cannot explain what my eyes were witnessing. I screamed to my friend 'its happening' and she came and we were both in tears.The beauty of this, so surreal and my heart was so happy. I was shaking and had difficulties taking pictures. This lasted for a maximum of 10 minutes, felt like 10 seconds and ended way too soon, and I felt so alive and lucky. After this storm of aurora activity it went away all together. I felt so blessed!
DAY 4
So after last nights adventures I was so excited that I wanted to go again, just because the numbers might not be the right prediction, although they were high enough for us to see the aurora. Which we did. We decided to go to another spot on the lake. However, being it so dark and we were alone was a little frightening. Furthermore, for a while the temperature has been around 0 degrees so we were not sure how strong the ice was. However, as there were many footsteps on the lake we thought we were good to go. After about an hour, all of a sudden a loud, low but hard grumbling came from the lake and we felt a shock. We stayed near the rocks so we climbed on them, being terrified and freaking out. My life flashed before my eyes and I wondered how the heck we would get back to the shore. We looked at the rocks but there was no way we could walk/climb over them. Besides, them being covered with snow and both having no gloves, we were freezing and I could not feel my fingers, they were so painful. We got enough courage, tried to unfreeze our fingers and being so done with this we walked back. We found a path by the lake and could obviously see the aurora, but it was not moving. When we got too cold we went back. I guess somehow successful and quite the adventure. Today is day 5, and the numbers are not too bad, but I am not sure if I am ready for another midnight adventure if it is not as successful as day 3. I have become quite the aurora hunter and am so dedicated to see more angels dancing in the sky.
For more traveling adventures and pictures
Wow, this is so lovely!
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