For years, I have been having Windows’ Aurora theme on my desktop and my laptop, without having a clue about what I was looking at. I had it because I just liked it.

It was around a year back, when I realized what I was looking at, every single day and I read about the mysterious Northern Lights. I was fascinated by them. I thought this could be a good excuse to travel to the Arctic (I like cold places 😛 ). Moreover, I got to know that the sun never rises above the horizon for a month during winter, in Tromso (One of Norway’s well developed cities inside the Arctic circle, and famous for hunting the Aurora). Being from a place where temperature could be around 30 degree Celsius on a winter night, I was naturally curious and excited.

A simple search told me Tromso is one of the best places to see the Northern Lights. So, I started exploring Norway online, in the hope of actually going there in a few years. The more I read about Norway, the more I wanted to go there. The majestic fjords, the mysterious Northern Lights, stunning landscapes, simple yet beautiful cities, sub-zero temperatures, etc. were drawing me towards Scandinavia. Even though I wanted to go there so much, I had no idea about when I would realize this dream. I did not know where to begin. I did not know if I would be able to afford such a trip. I did not know who would come with me in to the Arctic. At one point I was ready to do it alone. It would have been my first solo trip. 🙂

Then, one fine day (June 2016), I was telling a friend, Rukmani, about this dream of seeing the lights. She immediately said, “Hey, Hari too wants to see the Lights!”, (Hari is her boyfriend and another close friend of mine, living in the US. And we were roommates for 6 months when we were interns in Bangalore.). A few days later, I texted Hari and we had a small chat for a few minutes. And the trip was ON! 😀

Yes, that’s how simple it was. Both of us were fascinated by the Aurora, we like each other’s company, we had some unused vacation and solar activity that triggers the Aurora started to decline (It will reach the next maximum around 2025). So, we thought, ‘Why not do it this December?’.

When I was ready to travel even alone, Hari joining the trip made me incredibly happy. Then, Rukmani too wanted to join, which made me happier. Meanwhile, another close friend of mine, Bharathi, wanted to join but she did not have the approval of her parents. She fought and finally convinced them to let her go. And that made me the happiest 😀 As if this is not enough, another close friend, Danvarsh, decided to join. So, we had five people – two in India (Bharathi and me), two in the US (Hari and Rukmani) and one in France (Danvarsh). Deep down, I knew that this could be a perfect trip, if we pull it off (All of us were batch mates from college.).

With people in three different timezones, planning for such a trip could have been a nightmare. But, not with these guys. 😀 It was a breeze, in fact, we did not approach any travel agency. Every single aspect of the trip was planned only by us. And that made the trip even more special!

After months of planning, waiting and solving visa issues, the day finally arrived, December 30th 2016. I had never been that excited for a very long time. Yes, we were going to celebrate New Year’s Eve at Oslo 🙂

Stay tuned for the next article, I’ll be writing about our time at Oslo. I could take a few weeks though 😉