Today was our last day in Tromso. Since our cruise boarding wasn’t until midnight, we had the whole day free to explore the city. Until now, we’d mostly focused on activities outside the centre, so today felt like a good time to finally wander around Tromso itself.
We started with a special lunch: reindeer hotdogs. Antoine had found this food stand on TripAdvisor with great reviews, so we were quite excited. A long queue of tourists greeted us, but we committed to waiting. Thankfully, the line moved quickly, and soon we got our hotdogs and hot chocolate. Surprisingly, reindeer hotdog tastes very similar to a regular hotdog — just as tasty, but with a slightly fancier backstory.
After eating, we walked along the seaside. There were pretty ships docked at the port, colourful buildings of restaurants and museums, and a cozy little Christmas market. Across the water, rows of cute houses sat under a snow-covered mountain, making the entire scene look like a postcard. It was a lovely place for a stroll and, of course, lovely company to stroll with. We stopped by a few souvenir shops afterward; I picked up some postcards, and Antoine found some interesting gifts for his family.
With not much else left to explore, we decided to return the rental car early. We made it to the airport and dropped it off without any issues, which felt like a victory after surviving all the challenges we faced, especially the snowstorm. I’m proud of Antoine for driving us safely. Then we took a bus back into the city to get to the hotel restaurant where we’d booked dinner.
Antoine ordered reindeer steak, officially his second reindeer meal of the day. I went for redfish, since Norway is famous for its seafood. Both dishes were delicious. After dinner, we moved to the lounge to kill some time before heading to the cruise port. While we were there, one of the hotel staff casually told us there were northern lights outside. So out we ran, and there it was, our second aurora of the trip. It was not as strong as the night before, but still beautiful, especially with the city view below it. Naturally, we took more photos.
Eventually, we headed to the port to board the cruise. After a long boring wait, our ship finally arrived and we got to our cabin. We went to bed around 1am, thinking that was the end of the day. But at 3am, an announcement woke us up: northern light activity. We jumped out of bed, threw on whatever clothes we could find, and ran out to the observation deck. Just like that, we saw our third aurora of the trip. Green skies over dark blue ocean, with white mountains in the background. A perfect late-night surprise. Ending the night on this magical note, we finally went to bed for good.