IND READING: Hammerfest (prompt 5 chapter 2-3)

In this chapter, Bryson ventures to northern Europe. He takes a bus that travels 30 hours nonstop to the farthest point north that public transportation will take you. It is bitterly cold. Why is he doing this? He wants to see the northern lights. I personally have always wanted to see the northern lights, as it must be a spectacular sight. He didn't really have a set time limit on how long he would stay there, but he would not leave until he saw the northern lights. Night after night went by without any northern lights appearing. The wait was especially torturous since the town he was in was the opposite of lively, on top of the fact that he had nothing to do. However, one night the lights finally came, and the way in which he described it moved me: "There appeared a translucent cloud of many colors - pinks and greens and blues and pale purples. It glimmered and seemed to swirl. Slowly it stretched across the sky. It had an oddly oily quality about it, like the rainbows you sometimes see in a pool of petrol. I stood transfixed." Also, the connection he draws to a pool of petrol is part of the humerous Bryson writing style that really makes this book very enjoyable.

NORTHERN LIGHTS