The month in Norway was dominated with heavy rain, lenghty wild storms and a day or two of snowfall all in September alone. At night amongst the heavy rain and gale force winds, we had glimpses of bluey green northern lights which kept us going, working through a 12 hour night shift on the Arctic Coast.
On returning to Göteborg via a fantastic flight over the snowy mountains of Tromso and Oslo, my hopes of sunshine had completely disappeared. Göteborg had quickly turned into a beautiful crisp autumn. There were no people having picnics in the parks and buying ice-creams from the stalls, oh no, instead it was big jackets, hats and rosey cheeks.Until this week, which is now a little over 6 months since my epic winter began, a ray of sunshine appeared and the daylight hours are returning and my hope of a stroll in the park joined with the warmth from the sun is on the agenda again.
The winter has been epic with locals telling me it's the longest winter since 1967 and the snowiest in the past 15 years and the coldest in how long? They're just a few facts of a list of records which has been broken in the memorable winter of 2009/2010.
Strangely enough it hasn't been the worst experience of my life by any means. Okay slipping and falling over on the way to work and trying to rush for the bus in deep snow can be a pain but there's a lot of pluses with a good old-fashioned winter. I've seen natural beauty which is easily some of the most amazing and truly stunning images I'm ever likely to see on any level. (Chasing The Winter Sun)
We always think wearing your sandals and sunbathing on a tropical beach or hiking for views on the top of mountains or even a stroll by a quaint river running through a woods with a pretty little bridge and a welcoming village in the distance. They are beautiful, but to dress up warm and feel like you're surviving a pure winter as if you're living in a freezer especially with winter sunshine and even better at sunset is really something to experience if not to even blow you away.
To end my little journey on an Epic Winter would be to say it wakens us humans up. Okay it's cold and dark every day but it also gives us that excitement to live and do different things without choice and make life that little more unpredictable each day and make us not live in such a controlled world. At the beginning of the winter we wake up wishing for snow and by the end of it wishing it away. It is a lot of fun and keeps us on our toes. And the best thing of all, we have a lot of memories to it and now we will no doubt doubley appreciate the spring and summer ahead.
