The day I caught the plane

I studied the course 2009 - 2010 in Jönköping, Sweden, as an Erasmus Student. It happens to be one of the best things I have ever done. According to the locals, that was the coldest year since 1905. I made the most of it and traveled a lot; in one of those trips, on december 2009, I went to the north of the country, to Kiruna, with a lot of exchange students of the University.

We spent one night in a cabin in the forest, living like the locals used to decades ago. The purpose of that part of the trip was to do some activities like cross-country skiing or seeing the Aurora Borealis at night, which, by the way, started before two o'clock in the afternoon.

That night, after staying up until late waiting for the Northern Lights to show up, we went to bed in huge disappointment, as we couldn't see them. It was around one o'clock.

After some hours of sleep, I woke up feeling a desperate need too pee. I found that particularly annoying, as the toilet was outside the cabin, in the forest, and I had to walk in the snow with a pleasing temperature of -30 degrees Celsius, aproximately. It was about six o'clock in the morning.

Obviously, nobody else was out there. Nobody. Not even an animal. It was, probably, way too cold for them too. But it was then, while peeing, when I saw it: The Northern Lights. Those bright light blue stripes in the sky. Shining. Making odd figures. What a magical moment. It kept me standing up there; a Spaniard in the middle of nowhere just staring at the sky. I was there for nearly ten minutes, and, then, I went back to bed, feeling strangely happy and grateful for that beautiful moment.

Having to urinate in the dark was totally worthy.