Overnight in a Tent in Narvik, Norway – My Glamping experience

On the last night of our trip to the Nord, we decided to stay in a tent on the top of a remote mountain wishing that we could see the Northern Lights dancing. It turned out to be a stormy night. We both thought that the wind might carry the whole tent (with us inside of course) away some time. I was nervous but after a long trip from Tromsø to Narvik, 45 mins of climbing the hill with all of our things on the back, and a deep conversation with my best friend here (about how we felt after 18 days traveling together), we were dead to the world that night and the fear soundly fade away as we gradually fell asleep. Fortunately, the next morning, we found ourselves both safe inside the tent. Of course that night, no dancing Northern Lights but just some days after we left, the lights were dancing “passionately” there.

The landscape from Tromsø to Narvik is peacefully beautiful. You can see the snow-capped mountains (even it was still autumn – I guess autumn in Norway is very short), lakes, fjords, forests, “beaches”, and little houses along the way. Even though it was difficult to capture the beauty of the landscape on a bus, I tried to take some photos; they could never do justice to the real scenery tho. Also, they are all no-filtered photos. 😉

In this blog, I am going to share some of my thoughts about friendship and some random realizations in the process of “adulting.”

We stayed at Narvik Adventures AS tent. It was very easy to find and close to a bus stop. I was very happy when I booked it because I could find a place that has a unique location with easy access. But the day we arrived, it was Sunday and buses did not run regularly or… not at all.

I could not recall exactly if the last bus to our tent did not run on Sundays or it stopped the time we arrived, around 1pm, but I remember the only two ways to get to the tent were either by taxi or by foot. After talking with Silvia, we decided that we would walk because it was not that far (according to what we checked on the map – only 30 mins walk and this is normal for us, we had done even more than that during our trip). Silvia had a fever one night before and she was not 100% well but she was a true fighter for accepting doing this with me. Especially, we were with our backpacks and food and bags. I remembered we set the targets for ourselves during the walk “okay, now let’s walk up to that big tree and we will take a short break” “now, that yellow sign” etc. etc. At the end, it took us almost an hour to reach the tent.

Now let’s take a look at the amazing tent…

Video of the tent is here.

The tent is cozy and warm. The host prepared everything for us, including tripod to take photos of the Northern Lights in case we saw them. We have a small kitchen and bathroom outside, well equipped so that we could cook and take warm showers. We had to buy food and brought them here because the place was completely isolated, no supermarkets or stores around. That night we had lamb with fries, and some meatballs. I don’t think I took any photos of our dinner but I remembered how delicious it was.

After dinner, we talked a lot about what happened during the trip and how we dealt with the incidents. I realized travels teach me a lot, especially when I travel with someone else, everyday we have to make a lot of decisions from whether it is about where to eat, where to see, or simply if we should take a coffee or not, to important decisions like should we change our itinerary, should we book the tour, or should we book this flight instead of this train. I also realized the values of friendship, the differences in our backgrounds, personalities, and how these things influence the way we think and make decisions. What it means to love someone and let someone enter into your life and let them stay as an important piece in your whole mosaic. There’s no perfect friend in the world but there are friends who make you understand what love and care really are. This is way more important. If you meet someone like that in your life, treasure them, don’t let them go. I think I am lucky to have friends who love me so much in my life and I am forever grateful for that.

When I was young I got angry easily when things did not go the way I wanted. Now I am learning to be happy with surprises, both good and bad. It does not sound easy and it is not easy to do, but I believe good energy will attract amazing things and it is true in my case. Sometimes when I travel and meet people who are so kind or experience something really nice, I feel I do not deserve these good things and my mind is occupied with thoughts: people are suffering the pandemic – and I am enjoying life; my family has never been to these places – and I am here; really, I spent this much for a dinner?; people are struggling to find a job – and I am just…traveling… so on and so on. I would say I am happy with all of the experiences I have had but constantly, I do not feel complete. Then I learned that things happen for a reason even it sounds like a cliché; the older I get, the more relatable it is to me. As our Master Thay Thich Nhat Hanh once said “I promise myself that I will enjoy every minute of the day that is given me to live” and I made a promise to myself. I hope you will too.