You know the saying, the best things in life are free? Well it seems that this holds true for Northern Lights when I saw it on Sunday evening. Ironically, I was here in Finland back in December 2010 and went on a road trip to Lapland with friends, with the hope of seeing the lights but it didn’t happen. In fact, over the 4 days we were in Lapland, the dark skies were as clear as it could be, while we stood freezing on our toes (it was -25C!).

So when Blue Eyes saw his colleague’s FB status that aurora borealis was over Hameenlinna’s skies and suggested we go and check it out, I was doubtful (my usual pessimistic self speaking..). Even if indeed the Northern Lights are hovering on our skies, it might be impossible to see them considering that there are many street lights around the flat.

Blue Eyes decided that the lake area might be a good position to wait and see if we could catch a glimpse of the lights, as it’s darker and less disturbed by street lights. We stretched our eyes to the darkest point and tried to see if the lights were indeed in the skies. Slowly we saw a line appearing and it grew larger and larger, and became rays of green over the dark skies. And soon it disappeared and reappeared again, moving invincibly.

Taking photos of it wasn’t easy. We didn’t have a tripod with us so Blue Eyes had to find a place to put the camera and set the timer with the right shutter speed to capture the moment. He made many attempts and only few came with decent sharpness and exposure. Still, good thing we managed to capture the moment!

Blue Eyes said if the skies had been completely dark, we could watch how the lights danced in the wind. But hey, who’s complaining? Considering that this was happening almost at our door’s steps, I’m counting my lucky stars that we caught glimpses of it!

ps: Found out the next day that the lights were seen in many parts of Finland on Sunday. The news piece here.