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Kathryn Stride
We had another successful language exchange in Marbella at the weekend, with lots of new members as well as many familiar faces.
A relaxed atmosphere and friendly and interesting people made for a really enjoyable afternoon practicing languages! Here are some photos from the day....
Join us on Saturday 16th April in Marbella for the next language exchange. Contact us or visit our Facebook page for more details.
We look forward to seeing you all again very soon!
Kathryn Stride
We love to travel here at LanguageLinker so we thought we’d share some of our adventures with you and start our own travel blog! What better reason to learn a language than for travelling the world!
We have been lucky enough to visit some incredible places over the years, which we will be sharing with you, but most recently and to celebrate New Year’s Eve in 2015 we travelled to Tromsø in Northern Norway for an Arctic adventure!
I have written about some of things we found out whilst there to give you some useful tips and advice if you’re planning on a similar trip!
Tromsø itself is an island, and the main town of Tromsø is relatively small so it’s easy to get around and see on foot…..just watch out for the ice in winter, we all fell over at some point of the holiday! We stayed for 4 nights in Tromsø and we packed so much in, including reindeer sledding, husky dog sledding, whale watching and we also went on a northern lights dinner cruise (which turned into a high speed may day call rescue….but that’s another story)! On New Year’s Eve we went to the Arctic Cathedral for a concert and then enjoyed the celebrations with hours of fireworks over the port and of course a few drinks and dancing!
We recommend this place to anyone and to go for New Year was an experience we’ll never forget. Absolutely amazing!
As our trip was during winter we were in darkness all day and night except for 2-3 hours a day when there is a ‘twilight’ and the sky lights up with some incredible colours of reds and greens….beautiful.
Flights to Tromsø
Our flights were with Norwegian and they were fantastic, we had a brand new plane, loads of leg room and comfortable seats. They offer complimentary wifi onboard. The prices were really good considering the time of year we travelled so it definitely pays to book early. We booked in July to travel in December. The flight is only 3.5 hours from London Gatwick.
Just note if travelling with Norwegian (even to and from Norway), you can’t pay onboard in Norwegian Korona it has to be Sterling or Euros or they prefer a credit card.
Tromsø Airport
The airport is really small, when you walk down the steps off the plane you are directly onto the runway (which was covered in snow!) we loved this as you immediately know you’re in the Arctic! Once through passport control you are in the arrivals hall where there is a small duty free shop, the luggage belt and 1 toilet.
We didn’t pre-book any transport from the Airport to Hotel as the tourist office advised us it was easy just to get a taxi, which was very true. We were lucky as our luggage arrived on the belt very quickly so we then made our way directly to the taxi rank, we were 2nd in the queue, but 5 minutes later the entire queuing area was completely full so if you are planning on getting a taxi rather than a pre-booked transfer then get there quick so you don’t have to queue in the freezing cold! The taxi journey from the airport to the centre takes 15 minutes or so and costs around 200 NOK (about 20 Euros/£15) which between the 4 of us was well worth it rather than getting a bus and then walking on foot to try to find the Hotel. On bank holidays the price of the taxi goes up, so on our return to the Airport on New Year’s Day we were charged 250 NOK (about 25 Euros/£18.50).
Everything went so smoothly on arrival that within 50 minutes of landing in Tromsø we had already travelled into town, checked into our Hotel and we were out exploring the town and looking for a pub!
Tromsø Bars/Restaurants
We were warned before our trip that Norway in general is very expensive, and the excursions are very expensive but well worth it. Some restaurants are expensive too but there are a quite a few great places to eat that offer reasonable prices. We found Vert Shuset pub/restaurant near the waterfront really good, they offer unlimited soup with bread for 1550 NOK (about 15.50 Euros/£11) or lasagne (which was really tasty) for 1685 NOK (about 17 Euros/£13).
We also liked Kaia pub/restaurant in the port just down from the main square, which had a good variety on their menu and by night it becomes a great place to enjoy a drink and live music. We danced the night away here on New Year’s Eve!
If you are looking for a light lunch, pop into the 7/11 supermarket as they have freshly made paninis which they toast and are only 50 NOK (5 Euros/£3.50), take it away and find a place to sit and enjoy the beautiful surroundings!
Expect to pay a lot for alcohol, a pint of beer will cost you around 11 Euros (£8) it is definitely worth it though if you go to Macks Beer Hall. You get an authentic experience, and it’s a really friendly pub. Don’t think I’ve ever seen so many different types of beer on tap! It’s the oldest pub in Tromsø so has a lot of history.
Tromsø Accommodation
We stayed at the Clarion Hotel With which was absolutely fantastic, it is located right in the port with incredible views over the sea and to the Arctic cathedral, and with it being in a central location all the excursion pick up points are either directly in front of the Hotel or just a 2 minute walk away. Included in the price of the room you get unlimited tea, coffee and hot chocolate all day (much appreciated when its -10 outside!), breakfast buffet with a wide selection of hot and cold food, complimentary waffles in the afternoon from 3pm-6pm and from 6pm-9pm a buffet dinner with a great selection (soup, salads, burgers, fish, pasta, vegetables). They call it a light dinner but you could easily have a 3 course meal with the selection they offer. This saves you a lot of money as you don’t need to eat out if you don’t want to.
The rooms in the Hotel were modern and really spacious. We had a Superior sea view room, and it was definitely worth paying for the sea view as you can see the harbour and look out for the northern lights whilst lying in bed!
Highly recommend this Hotel to anyone for everything that’s included and the staff were really friendly and helpful.
You can book this Hotel at www.nordichoicehotels.com we paid 4948 NOK (approx. 500 euros/£380) in total for 1 room for 4 nights on a half board basis over New Year.
Tromsø Excursions
I would recommend booking your excursions on www.visittromso.com (this is part of the Tromsø tourism office, so you can feel secure when booking). Also you can compare all the different trips. Also I’d recommend booking all excursions in advance as they get booked really fast.
We went into the tourist office when in Tromsø and it was absolutely packed with people queuing who wanted to book excursions, with over an hour’s wait to be seen and I expect many people would have been left disappointed not able to get the trips they wanted.
So if you don’t want to waste any time whilst you are there and you don’t want to be disappointed then I would recommend to book everything online in advance.
Reindeer sledding and Sami experience at Camp Tamok – pick up is in the centre of Tromsø and you travel out for around 1 hour 30 minutes to arrive to Camp Tamok. As this is such a remote location your chances of seeing the Northern Lights are much higher and there is spectacular scenery. We chose to the reindeer sledding at night time and whilst it was -15 degrees we did get a really authentic experience and we were lucky enough to see the lights! We also had a fantastic talk with the sami people learning about their culture whilst sat around the fire in a lavvu tent, before heading for a traditional sami meal (reindeer broth). Very professional and friendly people, well organised.
This excursion cost 1595 NOK per person (approx. 160 Euros/£125) and is 7 hours long including travel time. You can book directly with Lyngsfjord Adventure at www.lyngsfjord.com or on the Visit Tromso website.
Polar museum – located in Tromsø centre, this is a very interesting museum about the town’s whale, polar bear and seal hunting history as well as some interesting stories of locals. Entrance fees are payable upon entrance of around 60 NOK per person (6 euros/£4.75).
Husky dog sledding at Villmarkssenter – we were picked up in Tromsø and driven to Villmarkssenter around 30 minutes away to arrive to the howling of the huskies just as the twilight was starting! Great tour guides and very professional and friendly. We chose to have a guide for our sled which meant after greeting our husky dogs we got to cuddle up in our 2 man sled with a blanket! The sledding lasted an hour and we went out across frozen lakes and enjoyed the most spectacular scenery. This excursion is so much fun, the dogs are very friendly and some of them are real characters (one of ours actually escaped as he was too excited)!After we got to greet the husky puppies and then have lunch around the fire before being taken back to Tromsø.
This excursion costs 1590 NOK per person (160 euros/£125) including all transportation and lunch and is around 5 hours in total.
Northern lights dinner cruise with Havscruise – this trip leaves from the floating jetty (directly in front of Clarion Hotel With where we were staying). It is run by Gulli and Cato, a husband and wife team, who immediately made us feel very welcome. Havscruise is a catamaran with a lovely lounge area with sofas and comfortable seating. They only accept a maximum of 12 guests on board so it is never crowded. Travelling onto the water you get a beautiful view of Tromsø by night.
Unfortunately the night we went on this trip there was a mayday call (some kayakers had fallen into the water) so by law all boats out on the water had to respond. So rather than staying in the calm waters looking out for the northern lights our trip turned into a high speed mayday rescue mission….luckily the story had a happy ending and all of the kayakers were pulled from the water alive. Cato told us that in the 12 years they had been doing this job, this was the first time it had happened so it was unlucky, but we also had an experience we didn’t expect!
After the rescue was over we were all feeling very sea sick as we had to travel at such high speeds in choppy water and most of us couldn’t eat the lovely dinner that Gulli had prepared…. Except for Ismael that is, he still managed to eat all his dinner (and most of everyone else’s)! We were served a fish dinner with vegetables, hot drinks and pudding.
Gulli and Cato did all they could to make up for the fact that we didn’t get the northern lights dinner cruise as booked and allowed us to stay on board for an extra 2 hours to go searching or the lights!
The northern lights cruise is usually 3 hours long and costs 1250 NOK per person (around 130 Euros/£100). This can be booked directly with the company at www.havcruise.no
Whale watching with Havscruise – we went back on board the catamaran with Gulli and Cato for an incredible whale watching trip. Cato knew just where to head to where there were no other boats and we were amazed to watch the humpback whales leaping out of the water to feed on the herring. Incredible sight. This trip includes hot drinks and complimentary (and delicious) waffles.
I highly recommend this trip as all of the other boats take 30-40 people so the view you get isn’t as good especially when everyone runs to the same place to see the whale. On a smaller boat it is more personal and you get up much closer to the whales and you travel out further!
The whale watching trip is a 3-6 hour trip and costs 1200 NOK per person (around 120 Euros/£93). This can be booked directly with the company at www.havcruise.no
Arctic cathedral concert – we enjoyed a 1 hour classical music concert at the Arctic cathedral on new Year’s Eve, this is a beautiful cathedral with amazing acoustics and the music was very festive. You can book tickets for concerts held at the cathedral on the Visit Tromso website.
All prices are correct as of December 2015.
All together, just an incredible experience. Still can’t believe we packed so much into the 4 days. Trip of a lifetime!
Kathryn Stride
Another successful language exchange event in Marbella with some of our LanguageLinker members.
With the purpose of bringing members from our website face to face to meet and practice languages, every month we arrange a language exchange event in the ​Marbella area.
Everyone is welcome to the event, all ages, languages and levels. Only we encourage people to register on LanguageLinker and participate: "Practice a new language and help others learn yours".
It was a pleasure to see so many familiar faces again and we also loved to welcome new
members who participated. The family grows ... A great group and wonderful people!
This time with nine different native languages being practiced (Spanish, English, Russian, Danish, French, Arabic, Italian, German and Swedish), twenty-three people of different ages, nationalities and levels. We had a great time practicing languages and learning about other cultures.
Thank you all for coming!
Here are some photos of the event:
We hope to see you all again in March for the next language exchange event (we will let
you know the date very soon)!
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