First night of the Norther Lights -- it snowed

A great feature of the Hurtigruten is they announce when the Lights are visible.  Everyone runs out to see.  I was outside at about midnight -- then it snowed.  WHAAAAAT?  Can't believe this-oh no, does this mean we won't be able to see it?

Then at 12:05 am, we saw it.  Where?  Where?  Everyone was saying.  I heard a man say to his wife, "use your imagination".   Is this for real?  The only thing I saw were clouds, yet when my friends photographed it, there were beautiful vivid green colors, just like in the pictures.  Only we didn't see that with the naked eye.  Looked like translucent jellyfish in different moving images.

I was finally happy to see a Northern Light that looked like a big curtain.  Yes!  It didn't just look like a cloud--it was really an image!  My friend caught it on camera, but I never any colors, just the image.

The Hurtigruten provided a tip sheet on taking photographs of the NLs and the most important thing is to capture it in your memory.  Don't fiddle around with the camera -- just experience it.  So I did.  When I got back to the room, I quickly drew the image I saw and the image I saw in my head.  Below is my artists rendering.

Here is the real deal.  Aren't I a good artist?  See what I  mean by curtain?


My friend tagged me on all the beautiful green photos on Facebook and a million comments of "oh you are so lucky", "oh I must find out more about this trip, it is on my bucket list", etc. etc.  I began to feel like a fraud.  We didn't see the pictures that were posted yet everyone thought we did.  What should I do?  Come clean?  Tell everyone I saw what was posted?  Well I'm telling you now.