Archive for the tag 'splendiferous'

Photo Observation 2

 

2. found in promotional photos for the Hotel Kakslauttanen’s accommodations, <http://www.kakslauttanen.fi/en/accommodation/>.

3. Theme: Cold

4. The Northern Lights is one of those bucket-list dreams few people get to realize in their lives.  With most of the best viewing locations North of the arctic circle (or South of the antarctic circle ), properly seeing the lights in their full glory is rather difficult.  With individual glass igloos available to spend the night, The Hotel Kakslauttanen in Finland offers a unique chance to view these beautiful displays of light and color , protecting you fromt he elements in your own bubble of life and warmth as the cold of the night settles in outside.

Despite any and all scientific explanations of what makes up these lights given to me, a breakdown of ions and particles can never covey what the aurora is.  My parents, who saw the aurora borealis in Alaska a few years ago, tell me no photo they have ever seen—no matter how splendid or vibrant, can convey the pure magic of the skys almost literally igniting above you and around you.  The cold of the far North is a cold of merciless elements and life unfit for normal human existence.  Writers like Jack London remind us of the near primal existence that IS the North.  To experience these lights, however, is an experience that would justify the pain of the cold, justify the treck into the far reaches of the globe, to live these lights before you.

Outside the igloos, the air has dropped below zero, the wind sweeps through the trees, a thin barrier of glass separating the elements from your sleeping bag as you watch the night unfold above.  This would be a night I’m sure nobody could forget.