Aurora watching

[mattbell]

I'm thinking it would be fun to spend a few days watching the aurora borealis. People who've seen it put it on par with total eclipses as far as being one of the most incredible nature-related experiences of their lives.

I've been doing some research into it and have found the following:

- The weather is not totally reliable and the *space* weather is also not totally reliable, so it's best to go for at least 4 days. You need no clouds + a certain aurora strength.
- Airfares have gone up a bit since last year. Roundtrip to Fairbanks is around $650, roundtrip to Reykjavik is around $1000.
- It's very cold. And dark. Duh.
- Reykjavik is more interesting than Fairbanks from a cultural perspective, but these still seems to be a decent bit of stuff to do in Fairbanks. However, I think, like Burning Man, part of the appeal of the trip is meeting the sort of people who would fly out to see an aurora instead of, say, Hawaii.

Hey, if any of you are interested in joining me, let me know. I'm planning on doing this sometime between this November and next March, and probably not in December-January, when it's the coldest and darkest.

Comments

[avani.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely interested.

Airfare to Reykjavik may be pricey, but remember that lodging and the like will be cheaper, and Reykjavik is a much neater city. We might even be able to watch the aurora from one of the geothermal pools outside the city :-)

[(Anonymous)]

The aurora borealis is amazing. There is nothing like standing in a field as the waves of light brush just a hair's breadth away from your outstretched fingers, and the air seems to crackle with energy. It is definitely worth the airfare and lodging.

(BTW: I saw the Northern Lights in Sweden. I almost exclusively saw green, with a couple streaks of blue and yellow. Red is extremely rare.)

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Hey Anonymous... I am wondering about your experience of Sweden's culture in general. I'm trying to pick a site that will be interesting so that I have fun even if I don't see any auroras.

[(Anonymous)]

I lived in Skelleftea for 10.5 months as a high school foreign exchange student, so my experience of the Swedish culture is colored by high school. With that said, the entire month of December is an amazing time to be in Sweden from St. Lucy's day on December 13th through Christmas, town squares are full of lighted outdoor markets and everyone celebrates together at numerous parties. The summer months from June through August are also full of celebrations at the beach or any type of outdoor location.

As a general stereotype, the Swedish people are friendly and superficially gregarious, but rather emotionally reserved. In general, they have a very strong work ethic and socially liberal moral bent. They also establish very, very tight friendships and keep those friendships for years. Loyalty and consistency are important - as is not showing up your neighbors. Keeping up with the Jones' in Sweden frequently means masking your wealth, not buying beyond your means. Many people are taxed over 50% of their income to support the socialist programs, such as a monthly cash stipend to all people under the age of 19, completely free school and health care, good roads, etc, and are happy to pay high taxes. Good manners are fundamental.

They also have a word "lagom" which doesn't have an English equivalent, but roughly translates to "enough". Someone will say "lagom" if they are satiated and don't really need any more. "Lagom" encapsulates the Swedish culture for me because "lagom" is that point where you have just enough, and nothing more. This idea infuses social relations, government policies and architecture. Mid-century modern and non-funky IKEA really adhere to this idea via simple, elegant, highly functional and yet relatively affordable interiors.

Stockholm and Gothenburg are stunning, intimate cities that do not see enough tourists. The fairy between Stockholm and Helsinki is highly worthwhile as it is a very inexpensive way to see Stockholm's archipelago. The northern cities, such as Kiruna, Pitea, and Skelleftea see few tourists and are appreciative of the ones that they do see. As the Samis live in the far north, there are more short, dark people in Northern Sweden than you would expect from the land that makes tall blue eyed blonds look mundane. (BTW: Almost everyone has light eyes although not everyone is blond.) The Samis cultivate reindeer, which is an amazing tasty treat.

Additionally, everyone speaks English fluently as it is taught in school from first grade and half of the TV shows and movies are American programs with subtitles. Even their news programs are done primarily in English. Oh, and business through science is taught in English starting in high school. You shouldn't have a problem communicating. However, if they push a black colored candy at you or a tin of special herring, run away. The first is salted tar candy and the second is Baltic fermented herring. It takes days for the taste and smell to go away.

I hope this helps.

BTW: I'm Sara. We've met at a couple ABL and Tortuga parties.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the detailed info! As far as the aurora, could you see it from the Stockholm area or just from the northern cities?

Also, I assume you're the other Sara, not the one on lj ( http://shekina.livejournal.com/ ) ?

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Also, it does appear that airfare to Sweden is cheaper than airfare to Iceland, but the aurora database implies I'd have to be at the very northern tip of Sweden to see anything on a typical day.

[akienm.livejournal.com]

I definitely can NOT do it in the timeframe you're talking about, for financial reasons. But if I could afford it, I'd so be there. Perhaps some future time I'll go...

book

[catithat.livejournal.com]

If you haven't read it yet, I think you'll like this book. It's an adventure biography of a scientist doing dangerous experiments to test why the lights happen. And other stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Lights-Lucy-Jago/dp/0375708820

[tinkerbell-mk.livejournal.com]

When I was in Reykjavik in March I saw the northern lights and I totally agree, it was awesome! Completely worth seeing! But in my 6 nights in Reykjavik the aurora borealis was only visible one night. So if it's the primary motivator of your trip I would highly recommend spending more than 4 nights. Also, avani mentioned that expenses in Iceland will likely be cheaper than Fairbanks. I've never been to Fairbanks but I highly doubt this to be true. Even post currency colapse (which is when I was there) Iceland was a very expensive country. (More expensive than the US.) And looking at hotels.com for a totally random price comparison the hotels in Fairbanks seem to be cheaper.

That said Iceland was really really awesome and I think you should go there.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks for the advice.

[tinkerbell-mk.livejournal.com]

No prob, let me know when/if you get solid plans. I loved Iceland and I'd love to go back. (Plus I know airfare is expensive now but Iceland air runs some awesome sales if you look out for them.)

And I haven't really been to Sweeden or other northern countries, so even if you end up going there, it might be fun to tag along.

=)

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

I went to Reykjavik for three days several years ago, in February. Given the fact that Iceland is right in the middle of the gulf stream, it's not that cold (the temperature I believe is often actually quite similar to New York), but it turns out to be very rainy and snowy and cloudy. I don't know whether there's any time period during the winter where you can reliably expect to have at least one non-cloudy day. I believe I did see the northern lights briefly when I was on the plane over Greenland or Canada, but given that I only saw it while briefly waking up in between some sleep, I'm not certain. I do have a picture I took with my camera, but it's totally black, because presumably the lights are not very bright, and airplane windows aren't the best. But that suggests that I did in fact see it and didn't just dream seeing it.

I really want to see it some time (again) though! I suspect Fairbanks or some other continental place will be more likely to be non-cloudy.

Do you expect to run into aurora-goers in these places? I suspect in Fairbanks you'll mainly just run into locals and university students (who I guess are locals), and in Reykjavik you'll run into locals and partiers, especially given the deals that Iceland Air has to increase tourism. Since there's not a specific moment to go, the way there is for an eclipse, there won't be that same communal vibe, I would guess.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Apparently aurora-watching is one of the biggest tourist draws for Fairbanks.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/travel/escapes/02Alaska.html

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have guessed that there was much of a tourist industry in Fairbanks, but it sounds like I'm wrong!

Although, it sounds like there's 7000 Japanese people a year (given ten charter flights of 350 people each, and 3500 people on commercial flights) - if they stay about 4 days each, then there's probably about 80 Japanese people in Fairbanks on any given day, though the number probably has substantial seasonal and weekly variation. I suspect you get 10 weekends with about 500 Japanese people there at a time, and the rest of the time you've got about 30-40 Japanese people at a time. I don't know if that's a large tourist community or not. I suppose it depends on the size of the town and the size of the university.