A neighbourhood that is close to the city centre of Tromsø, in Northern Norway.
Text & Photo © CM Cordeiro & JE Nilsson 2021
There was intermittent snow whilst I was on my walk, with little speckles of light reflecting from the falling snowflakes.
The spring equinox on 20 March 2021 marked the beginning of some very long summer days in the city of Tromsø, in Northern Norway. I´ve spent slightly more than two and a half years here in this cozy and compact city, moving here in the summer of 2018 to work and live. When I first arrived, my first impressions of this Arctic city was that it was quaint, and a little magic. Those first impressions of Tromsø hasn´t as yet faded with me.
I love walking the city of Tromsø. I think I know better now, the street corners and the backlane shortcuts to my favourite places from my place to the city centre. Tromsø is a city with nature so close that it draws you into its bubble of a mixed reality between city living and nature exploring. You can hold a brie filled baguette in hand, bought from a café you just stepped out of, and immediately listen-in to the boisterous conversations of the seagulls overhead. You can walk past buildings with modern and interesting architecture that reflect the ruggedness of the Arctic terrain, at the same time, realize the soft sloshing of half melted snow under your winter soles. Elements seem to greet you as you walk by, and you notice too nature´s acknowledgement from the rustle of snow covered branches and soft snowflakes that cover your eyelashes as you make your way around.
On this walk, I found myself looking up into the tree tops a lot because of the talking seagulls and crows. Walking backwards and filming some, I quickly found that I landed myself in a small puddle of icy mud water, my boots overed over in snow mud. Resisting the urge to stomp around in the icy puddle like a four year old child, I quietly stepped out of the puddle and re-routed. On second thoughts, I put the phone camera away, soon found myself another icy mud puddle, and happily stomped away.