First reactions on the Aurora, part 1
How do people react when they see the Northern Lights for the first time? And how would You react?
In this first part I have collected a few reactions that I have found on blogs. Everyone named here has given me their permission to quote them but I can't publish their photos. There are, however, links to each blog post so you can read their complete stories.
Northern Lights on the 63rd degree most often appear only right above the northern horizon.
So here we go:
“[…] the sight was so incredible that I, embarrassingly, cried! Seeing the Aurora was the most amazing experience that I have ever had, and probably ever will have, and as it happened on my first ever time visiting the Arctic Circle, I would say it was pretty lucky.”
I totally love this quote by Jennie Meikle. It made her cry. And she knew luck played a major part part.
“For me it was something new and unknown. However, I witnessed my first auroras already 2 weeks after arriving in Finland. It was something really special.”
Veronika Bauer too was aware of the uncertainty aspect as she felt lucky to have seen them already after two weeks in Finland. Southern part of the country, that is.
This next one is very different. I will not quote the whole thing but basically the story is that you might not see the Northern Lights at your first trip to the Aurora belt.
Jennifer Dombrowski had to struggle for a while before it finally happened. She has written a wonderful blog post about 5 Things No One Ever Tells You About the Northern Lights. It's worth reading!
She ends her post by saying:
“[…] they are absolutely spectacular and a phenomenon that everyone should see at least once in their life.”
Andy Barton puts it like this:
“It was just fantastic. I know that millions of people have seen them. And millions more will see them tomorrow, or next week. But, this is definitely one of those ‘remember the first time’ moments that I will never forget.”
Now to Mark Chase: “Swirls of green and purple light filling the sky before fading to make room for the next wave. Eventually the lights began to fade and the show was over. I headed back for my snow cave fueled by what I had just seen […] It was the most amazing experience to be standing so insignificantly watching such an amazing display of the worlds beauty. Something I will never forget for the rest of my life.” What can we learn from these people's experiences?
1. Seeing the Northern Lights for the first time is special.
2. You can not expect to see them just because you travel north to do so.
3. The memory of seeing the Northern Lights seems to be something people treasure forever.
And my favourite:
4. The Northern lights are like nothing else in this world. That's just a fact.
The generous people at The Aurora Zone sent me a link to this collection of first reactions. Please read it!
My personal story about how I, a Finn, slowly have grown to love this phenomenon more and more will be subject to a future blog post. Until then, read the stories about my photos in my webshop:
www.nordic-landscape.com/shop A big THANK YOU to all who willingly gave permission for me to quote them!
A mild Aurora at the horizon. Still astonishingly beautiful.