Thursday, August 2, 2012

The Midnight Sun

I probably have not given enough space to this most, .....well, amazing phenomenon.  At the North Pole, it lasts for 6 months and at 71 degrees north latitude, it lasts from May to July.  It's difficult to describe a world that never gets dark, where you can read on the deck at midnight and after, and where my body simply did not register getting sleepy until about 3 am when the sun was back up anyway.  I had wondered about the heavily lined drapes in my stateroom - aha, to fool your body into thinking it was night. 

My body adjusted within 30 hours and I was back to being my normal, sleep-deprived self - remember how when you were a child and you had to go to bed and KNEW you were missing something special?  Well, I did not have to miss anything but sleep and enjoyed every waking hour.

Years ago I worked with a Swedish company and the agent told me that because winters are so long and hard, the company closes every day at 1 pm during the summer so that the employees have more time to enjoy the summer.  Quite a good idea.

I have wondered how long it takes to adjust to winters -3 months of darkness??  Once, on a ski trip to central Norway, we never saw the sun.  The hills around the lodge were not particularly high but the sun did not get above them.  On the other hand, the nights were magnificent with a gazillion stars and twice, with aurorae.  Certainly, they would be compensating factors.

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