Travel Guide Tromsø

Tromsø is definitely alive. In this town of 77,000 inhabitants at the gateway to the Arctic, people go out all week long, and even more so in winter. As the snow covers the city in a white blanket, the bars are full. A university town since 1960, professors and students mingled, and left-leaning Tromsø saw a proliferation of places to go out in the 1980s. Back then, when bars closed at midnight in Oslo, they stayed open until 3am in Tromsø, cementing its reputation as a party town. The title of "capital of Northern Norway" has always been contested between Tromsø and Bodø. Although Bodø officially takes the title, the majority of northerners live in Tromsø, which also boasts the world's most northerly cathedral. Generally speaking, anything you see or do here will be the most northerly in Europe or the world. Tromsø lies on a large island connected to the mainland by a 1 km bridge, more than 40 m above the strait. On the seaward side, the town is sheltered from the open sea by the large Kvaløya, or Whale Island. The town center has retained some of its old wooden houses. The heart of Tromsø is the Vestregata, its main street: "The main street is our theater This is where it all happens. From the oldest signs to the start of the Polar Night Marathon and the Sami festivities in February. The Tromsø palm tree, which you'll see on many a street corner, looks like a giant green plant. It can reach 3 m in height. In contrast to the more modest vegetation of the Far North mountains, this is an imported plant that has acclimatized well, especially on the island of Tromsø. Once the monopolies of Bergen and Trondheim had been broken, the town was able to develop its trade based on fishing and whaling. It was here that explorers recruited their crews and that the greatest polar expeditions began, including those of Nansen and Amundsen. The "Arctic city" of Tromsø is still the best starting point for the Svalbard archipelago (Spitsbergen). At the beginning of the 20thcentury , when the first tourists arrived in Tromsø, they found theaters, educated people, open to the world and politics, fashionable, where they expected "barbarians". It was at this time that a German once said, "If Copenhagen is said to be the Paris of the North, then Tromsø is the Paris of the Far North." Today, while the university town overflows with cultural and nightlife activities, it's not for these reasons that it's called the "Paris of the North". In Tromsø, characters are well tempered. "The best swear words are in the North, silence is in Oslo Norwegian clichés have it that the Tromsøværing (inhabitant of Tromsø) is optimistic and has a ready repartee. It's true that in difficult conditions, a sense of humor in everyday life is undeniably a plus for survival in times of darkness. The city is home to the breweries that produce Norway's most popular beer, Mackøl, recognizable by the polar bear on the cans.It's the only Norwegian beer sold in France. On the harbor, the old sailors' bars, including the famous Inn of the Cormorant (Skarven in Norwegian), have become fashionable rendezvous. In summer, people go out all night, in broad daylight, thanks to the midnight sun. Sometimes, you can even run all night long during the Tromsø Midnight Marathon, famous for starting at midnight on the dot. More info: www.msm.noAnd when winter comes, we hope that Aurore, the capricious green lady, will be there to dance in the sky. She usually shows up between 6pm and 1am.