Summary of the Arctic Adventure
But first, let’s carry on where we left off (the previous post is available here if you haven’t seen it yet)…
After our day exploring Tromso, we were very pleased with the idea of dinner followed by a quick dip in the hot tub (though perhaps it might have made sense to do it the other way around?).
Dinner was a hearty affair of creamy soups and cod (at the Sommaroy Hotel) which I wolfed down very quickly.
What we hadn’t really thought about was what swim trunks we were going to wear to the hot tub, seeing as our luggage hadn’t arrived with us into Tromso. Luckily for us, the hotel had swimming outfits available to borrow… not swimming outfits as you’d think though.
These were retro swimwear and it was pretty much lust at first sight (we all ended up buying one when we left).
Swimwear on, we headed out into the cold to the delightfully warm hot tub! We alternated between walking out, instantly freezing, and running back in to warm up until we pretty much looked like prunes.
By this point, it was properly dark and we headed out to check out the Northern Lights on the beach (after changing of course) – we had the full-body fishermen’s outfits we’d been lent by the hotel too to keep us warm (don’t worry, the outfits didn’t actually smell of fish so we were good on that account).
The Northern Lights were weak that night but the beach was actually sheltered from the wind and made for a good spot to just chill and chat till the wee hours when we crawled into bed.
The next day, we checked out of our hotel, thanking everyone for their help so far and made our way to the main city of Tromso – confusingly also known as Tromso. Today we would be heading out into the Arctic Sea on the Vulkana, an Arctic Spa experience unlike any other.
Initially, when I’d heard about the Vulkana, I thought it was just a boat with a sauna on it and wasn’t overly interested but after speaking to someone who’d done it before, I was assured that this would be totally worth it. They were right!
Unassuming as you get on (all you see is the hot tub steaming), you soon realise that the Vulkana is almost labyrinth-like boat just waiting for you to have an amazing time!
The staff onboard are also pretty amazing and get you settled in very quickly with drinks, snacks and a proper introduction to the boat (which also has rooms on here so you can rent it for an Arctic tour lasting several days… or maybe even weeks).
Onboard, you’ve got a dining place upstairs – next to the bar, bathroom, showers and not too far from the sauna (the sauna has a great view as you sail along).
To prepare for my Arctic sea dip, I went into the sauna to head up (which actually left me steaming – quite literally), before heading into the freezing Arctic sea.
The experience is quite unreal! Within seconds, your pores appear to go crazy from the stark contrast, and speaking is almost impossible from your teeth chattering so much. It also feels like your body has ‘brain freeze’.
You’ll probably spend all of 5 seconds before hurrying out of it (at which point, everyone else had built up the courage to take a dip too!)
The reaction is funnily similar (perhaps even more hilarious because it’s someone else instead of you) but soon enough you wanna go back in – which I did a couple more times before finally calling it quits, thoroughly pleased with myself.
By the time we were done with lunch, we’d arrived back at the harbour, thoroughly relaxed (this was just such a perfect way to spend a day) and absolutely thrilled with the bragging rights that came with our rather ‘refreshing dip’ in the Arctic sea.
And there you have it! Now – your turn! Yay or Nay – would you take a dip into the freezing Arctic sea? 😁
