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I saw the lights!

Yes I finally got to see the Northern Lights.  Wow.  At first I was disappointed that the lights were white...I expected green at least!  However....this is my feeble attempt at photographing the lights...


and as you can see they are green! Apparently when the aurora is weak (if that was weak I would love to see strong!) it does not produce enough light for the cones in our eyes to see colour however the camera has no such limitations.  All I know is WOW WOW WOW.   We stood outside the bus and we were surrounded with white light dancing around us everywhere - some of them were beacons that would then change.  At one point it looked like four blocks of light on one side.  Amazing!!!  So something else ticked off the bucket list.  I wish I had gotten better photos but I decided to relax and just be in the moment and enjoy the lights and that I did.  A fellow had his SLR on a tripod and he got awesome shots and the lights were actually green with tinges of yellow and red in them.  The lights started as we were driving but it took a while to find a place to park as the usual place was blocked in with snow......ah yes, snow...

We left the depot at 10 and were back after 1 a.m.  The bus dropped me a fair distance from the  hotel I had been picked up at so a kind English couple (never did find out their name so I call them "Mrs. and Mrs. Orange Parkas") walked with me until I knew where I was going and was half a block away.  They found their place first - not really cool to drop people off at that time of night so far away from their accommodation.  The excuse was the bus would not go down that road - well guess what - a bus from the same tour company (three buses went out together) went down that road a couple of minutes later.  Now Reykjavik has on average one murder a year but I didn't want to the one!!

Some people come to Iceland just to see the lights - they were several on the bus.  To be honest I did not expect to see them and on my first try.  I guess the tour was cancelled the night before and the night before that they were a no show.  I am glad luck was on my side.

I have a nasty cough (I sound like a three pack a dayer) now as a souvenir but oh well - I SAW THE LIGHTS!!!

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