"I wish you were here tonight,
With me to see the northern lights,
I wish you were here tonight with me."
The Rasmus, Still Standing 2003.
The song that first sparked my curiosity about these Northern Lights.
In October of 2009 I was accepted to study abroad in Linköping University in Sweden. The other end of the world for this girl from Perth, Western Australia, who'd never been farther than New Zealand, and never on her own. So excited, in January I packed up and moved over to my new home, began to study at my new college, Linköping University and meet a whole lot of amazing new friends. It was with these amazing new friends that I kicked this bucket list item.
We went up to a town in Northern Sweden, in the Arctic Circle, called Kiruna. Pop. 18 000. It was March. It was cold. The lakes were frozen over. The cabin we were in was warm and cosy and filled with exotic accents of the other exchange students.
We went Dogsledding on our first night. We wore all our clothes, and then they dressed us up in snow suits. We straddled up to people we didn't know well, then we took off as the sun was setting. The dog shat in Katy's face as we coasted along. Along the winding paths. The cold biting our faces. Our glasses fogging up. Our lips freezing. Our breath making frozen patches on our scarves that were pulled half way up our faces.
We had dinner, salmon soup, in a traditional Sami tent.
There was a fire and we were warm. I can still smell the smokey salmon soup, and the hot wood fire.
It was not very late when we left. Perhaps 22. We rode our dogs through the winding pine forrest back to the base. Katy nearly fell off and we had to stop. The dogs pissed as we started up. As we looked to our left, to the North, we saw them. The Lights. They came out of nowhere, and were dancing in the sky. They were greenish, and fleeting, and some might say unmagnificant. But for me to be there, in minus 20 degrees in the Artic circle, so many miles from home, that glimpse was enough.
These lights, they are ephemeral, and definitely when on camera, but here is me and Grace pointing them out anyway...
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