Indoor Tromso

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 A lot of days when we were in Norway, some tour we had scheduled was cancelled due to weather, which meant we went around downtown Tromso checking out what indoor activities they had. Being the nerds that we are, we chose the museums over the paintballing.

somewhere in downtown Tromso


cod tongue
Our first night in Tromso, after our first Northern Lights excursion was cancelled, I convinced Mark to go to a museum down the street from our hotel instead of turning in super early [we were jet-lagged]. It was actually a hybrid restaurant-museum called Full Steam, with a self-guided [via QR-codes] tour of the owner's private collection of Sami and Arctic paraphernalia on the top floor, and a guided tour of sections of the restaurant. The building was originally a fish warehouse, so we learned more about the historic fishing industry [while eating caviar and cod tongue] and how fish were processed from the net to the drying racks. Considering I never would have eaten cod tongue or drunk fish oil [which we did at the end of the tour] on my own, I thought it was quite the eye-[or mouth-]opening experience. I also really valued the upstairs museum collection, probably because the QR-code-powered supplemental information was very well-put-together, and in English.
caviar

My personal favorite was the Arctic University Museum of Norway--which actually isn't in downtown Tromso; we had to take a city bus to get there. Anyway, their geology exhibit was fascinating, and Mark really liked their WWII exhibit showcasing the difficult choices Norwegians had to make. They also had exhibits on local wildlife and the Sami culture, but those exhibits weren't in English, which made it a little more difficult to appreciate.


Tromso domkirke: the northernmost Protestant church

We also briefly visited the Arctic Cathedral, as its structure is famously emblematic of northern Norway--somewhat like the Sydney Opera House is for Australia. We couldn't go inside because a wedding was underway, but I didn't terribly mind. 

I'm modeling the front

Mark is modeling the side

I think we may have gone souvenir shopping instead.

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