Beyond the Arctic circle (Russia): Winter

Soon will come December 22-the shortest daylight hours of the year. I don't know how it is in other countries of the world, but here in Russia it is the darkest time. In St. Petersburg on December 22, the day will be only 5 hours 53 minutes.

This time would still more, than there, where now polar night. I'll tell you about the polar night because I saw it. My daughter and I went beyond the Arctic circle. There are several Russian cities, one of which is home to my sister.

Last winter we went to the Kola Peninsula, to the shore of the Barents sea. There is one of the most Northern cities of Russia - Murmansk.

The region north of Arctic circle is known as the Arctic. Look at the map. On it you can see which countries also have Northern areas.

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I really wanted to understand what the polar night looks like and how dark it is at this time. It turned out that there is a small period of time when it is light outside. It's 11: 00 to 13: 00 in the morning. In this case, the sun does not rise above the horizon, but its rays illuminate for some time. On clear days, beautiful yellow sun rays can be seen on the horizon.

It looks like sunset or sunrise, like my first photo. This photo was taken around 13: 00

The rest of the time it's dark outside. It's a little weird and funny. I felt the feeling of very long evenings. And in the morning it was so dark that I had to look at the clock to understand that it was 10:00

In the North, it is also very cold in winter. There are often temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius. We brought a suitcase full of warm clothes. And caught a cold of -30!!! This weather continued for several days. It was impossible to be outside. It's good that we went with relatives by car.

The terrain there is hilly, with low mountains. The roads twisted like the serpentine.

There are no forests with large trees. The trees there grow low because of the cold climate. We drove a lot, and I looked out the window. In winter, there is absolutely naked and deserted area. But in the summer these hills are covered with thickets of berries and mushrooms.

One day we were driving on the highway, and my sister pointed to the sky. "Look, it's Aurora!"

I looked up at the sky and saw clouds and the Milky Way. But my sister showed one "cloud" and said that Aurora, which is poorly seen. I couldn't photograph it because it was dark, but now I tell everyone that I saw Aurora.

My sister came up with the idea that we should be treated to local delicacies. We ate different kinds of fish, crabs and scallops . All these species are found in the Barents sea.

Since this is the Barents sea coast, it is very developed fishing and shipping. This lighthouse is designed to keep ships from getting lost. The lighthouse is painted in bright orange to be clearly visible.

This is the view from the small mountains on the frozen Bay. It was very cold that day.

And here the small trees were covered with snow.

I really liked the sculpture I saw in Murmansk. The sculpture is a woman who looks at the sea and waves her hand. There is an inscription "Those who wait". The sculpture shows the sailor's wife waiting for him at home while he is at sea.
That's very touching!

We came for the Arctic circle in the summer, and saw a very different nature and scenery. I'll show it in one of the next posts.

Сheers

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