Midnight Watch in Alta: Catching the Northern Lights

Northern Lights display in Alta, Norway

We safely docked at the port of Alta last night. Temperature? A solid minus 1°C—just enough to remind you that you’re definitely not in the tropics anymore.

One of the main reasons we’re here is to catch the northern lights.

Good news: they didn’t ghost us.

When I started my midnight watch (or “shift,” for the office crowd), I had this feeling something was going on outside. You know that instinct—like when the house is too quiet and the kids are suddenly behaving.

So I stepped out.

And there it was.

The northern lights—aurora borealis if we’re being formal—just casually floating across the sky like it had nowhere else to be.

Not gonna lie, moments like this make the cold a little more tolerable… just a little.

Midnight shift doesn’t sound so bad after all.