For the third leg of my Noway trip, I made my way to the Arctic Circle. I traveled from Bergen to Alta by boat, which was amazing. As we made our way up there, we went through fjords and it was truly magical. I’ve heard about the beauty of fjords for so long, but to see them in real life was amazing.

Once I made it to Alta, I had quite a few things to check off my list. First up, dog sledding. My first night in Alta, I went dog sledding with Holmen Huskey Lodge. The second I arrived, the dogs were hyped and ready to go. It was so cute to see them all lined up and so excited to run. When we were on the trains, we were going through wooded, manicured paths that were really pretty to run through. The dogs were excited the entire time and to see them work was fascinating.

After the ride, we were able to cuddle with the dogs and pick some of them up. They were so friendly and happy to play around. My pants were so full of dog hair by the end of the trip there, but it was so worth it.

The next day, I went cross-country skiing. I love cross-country skiing a lot and think it’s such a great workout. But, unfortunately for me, there was an ice storm the night before, so the path was COVERED in ice. I’ve never fallen so many times while skiing, but it was still a great time. Afterwards, I had some hot chocolate and Kvikk Lunsj — a classic combo.

After skiing, I made my way over to the Northern Lights Cathedral. As you can see in the pictures below, this church is very new. It was build in the early 2010s, but while I was there, I heard someone explain how the church was built, why it was built that way and why it was such an important landmark to the city. Based on what I was told, it was built using local materials only, which is a really cool approach.

It was really beautiful inside, and unlike anything else I’ve seen in a church. In the basement, they had a Northern Lights display, so they’re definitely leaning into the name of their church.

For my final day in Alta, I spent some time with the Sami community. It was really nice to connect with them and spend the day doing some crafts. I made a reindeer fur purse, which looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Plus, I also got to hang around with some reindeer, which was really fun.

After Alta, I continued my journey to Tromsø. On my way there, I spotted some Northern Lights! Because the weather was a little warmer than normal, the lights weren’t as common or vibrant as normal. But, they were still great to see!

I’ll share more about my time in Tromsø in the next one, so stay tuned!