where to take my solstice vacation
 

during the winter, some people get SAD(seasonal affective disorder), but not me. i seem to have the opposite disorder(if there is such a thing). i've always been sensitive to the sun. i sunburn easily, and a bright sunny day the visual equivalent of a really loud person that's always in your face, and just won't shut up.

i've heard that during the winter solstice, alaska has about a month where the sun never rises. that sounds like paradise...
except that it's winter... in alaska...
i already live in minnesota, where it's winter for six months out of the year.
taking a vacation from my -20 degree surroundings to go to an area that gets to -30 or colder would be less than ideal...
i've looked into winter solstice in iceland. it seems to stay right around freezing there, but unfortunately, it's not completely dark.

so this is my question;
is there anywhere in the world where i could completely avoid the sun, but not have to deal with ridiculously cold temperatures?
in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed, so does that mean that if i go toward the south pole during the summer solstice, there would be a similar situation?

i've tried some google searches, but it seems like most people are looking for the opposite of what i want, hence, information seems to be a little difficult to find.

any ideas or information anyone has would be greatly appreciated.
thanks in advance

Even though it doesn't get completely dark in Iceland, it's doubtful that you'd be contending with blazing sun; of course, you could always sleep during those few hours when it's gray outside instead of black. The temperature in Iceland is moderated by the effect of the Gulf Stream, so it's not bitterly cold, and it's a beautiful and fascinating country. (Here are a few reasons to go: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...in-iceland.cfm )

The same effect does happen in the southern hemisphere, but of course you need to be past 66.30'S, and what you have there is Antarctica--not accessible in the Northern summer for tourists.

just on the outside chance you are not a first time troll

www.svalbard.net in winter just your cup of tea

dark 5000 polar bears 2000 people go for it!

this post sounds like a fake

Northern Norway - warmed by the gulf stream so not ridiculously cold along the cost at least. it has the Polar night you seem to want too. Consider the Lofoten islands, or Tromsø maybe.
Alaska along the coast will not be as cold as Minnesota either - due to the warming effect of the sea.

Alternatively visit the Netherlands - we have daylight but days and days of grey - not a sight of the sun. And that's just the summer ;).

first thing; i'm not a troll, i'm just looking for something that isn't usually sought after, or heavily advertised.

second; thanks for the responses. norway is a great idea. i'm actually half norwegian, and my sister spent a year there as an exchange student. we normally take a family vacation for the holidays. since she speaks some norwegian(at least i hope she still remembers some), that would make things a bit easier.

third; as i continued to do more searching, st petersburg came up as one of the most northernly cities to have a population over one million.
i looked at a bunch of different sites, but the only thing i found about the amount of sun were multiple mentions of the famous "white nights"... and that is definitely not what i'm looking for...
although... if they have white nights(presumably in the summer solstice), that would mean that have complete darkness in the winter solstice... right? or is st petersburg not far north enough for that?
as i was looking at st petersburg, one thing did really jump out at me... the orthodox christians don't celebrate christmas the same time as more western countries do... to them, december 25th is just another day(as it should be). as a non-celebrater of christmas, the sheer joy of not having to deal with the complete ridiculousness of this holiday would be hard to pass up... (although it's tempting, i'll spare you from my anti-christmas rant).

so... am i correct in assuming that st petersburg gets no sunlight in the winter solstice?
if so, that would leave me with a tough choice...

either my ancestral homeland, but still have to put up with christmas, or go to st petersburg, and put up with sub zero temperatures...

Reykjavik Iceland (and that's in the south of Iceland, at that) is actually about five degrees further north than St. Petersburg or Oslo, so would be slightly darker. Just as in the "white nights" where there is a difference between night and day, but both are still light (kind of a pearly gray), you will have a difference between night and "day" in any of these places--just not a huge one.

Russia is great for a lot of reasons, though, and St. Petersburg is really worth the five hours and fifty two minutes of gray "day" you'd have. Actually, St. Pete can be pretty gray year-round due to the high cloud cover. What else (other than "no sun" and "no Christmas") are you looking for in a trip? Art, architecture, museums, nature, shopping, nightlife...?

If you do a search on the net you can find which towns experience Polar nights and when - they often get a bit of twilight but not real daylight.
In Norway you would need to be in Finnmark province, or on Svalbard (which is dark from early November to the end of January) to get the full effect for the longest time - but Svalbard is expensive to get to and extremely cold in winter.
Anywhere where which gets the midnight sun also gets polar nights, but the length of time they experience them is less the further south you go.
In Tromsø the sun is below the horizon until 15th January, but due to the mountains isn't actually visible until 21st January. It is dark in December. No one forces you to celebrate Christmas, anywhere. And in countries like Norway it is not the commercial event it is in the US.

For the summer solstice it is a different matter though - there are no civilian settlements far enough south to be affected by the polar night.