Yay, finally I'm starting to catch up on all the sweden-adventures that are still missing on this page…
First of all, the second week of january, I went on a Lapland-tour. So cool!!! But lets start at the beginning……
… on a Saturday at half past one half of our group met close to the Stockholm central station to get on the bus. The next stop was Uppsala, where the rest of the group got on. And there we were, one bus full of young people, eager to experience Lapland! It took until the next morning to get to our first station, Kiruna. We got off the bus, got our stuff into our rooms and had about 30 minutes to change until we had to leave for the first big event – the dog sledge and snowmobile tour! It was really cool and I loved how happy the dogs seemed – every time we stopped the were really eager to get running again! And of course the landscape was beautiful!
In the afternoon I took part in a tour in the mine. Kiruna actually only exists, because of the iron ore in the mountain. And they are still digging! The visitor centre we were in was at about 750m below the top of the mountain, right now they are getting the iron ore from over 1000m below the top and they are planning a new level right now, even deeper! That was quite impresive.
The next day then we had time to explore the town of Kiruna a little. On the first picture you can see the town hall, with a tower completely made of the iron from the Kiruna mine. On the second one there is the church of Kiruna, built after a sami tent. The Sami are the aboriginal people of northern Scandinavia, but later more about them. The little sledge you see on the third pic is used in Lapland quite a lot, for shopping or other things to carry. I love them :D
On the third day we went further north and on our way there we visited the ice hotel. That is so cool, all rooms made of ice! Most impressive were the suites, of course. Each of them is designed by a different artist. The second stop on the way was in a sami-hut. The family that owns it is a reindeer-herding family and the woman told us about their lives while we sat around the fire and tried some traditional food.
That evening after we had arrived in Abisko we had a barbecue, sat around the fire and had a good time when suddenly our giude came and told us that northern lights could be seen nearby. Luckily I had my camera and tripod with me ;-) It was really cold, just standing there watching and taking pictures, but I guess it was worth it ;-) It was amazing! Actually those were pretty weak, the next evening while we were in the sauna and in front of it, rolling in the snow, we saw even brighter and cooler ones, but I did not have my camera with me that night. But I will definately never forget that experience! On the day we were in the sauna we also went to Narvik, a norwegian city not too far from Abisko, where a very big fjord ends. You can see that on the second picture. But unfortunately it was very cloudy that day, so when we went up a mountain from where you were supposed to see the fjord very well we could not see a thing^^ Most of the group went down in the gondola again, but a few girls and I decided to walk down. That was a good decision, because that way we at least saw some of the mountain and, occasionally, even a little of the town of Narvik ;-)
The day after that we had some free time in Abisko left until we went on around noon. Since the long hiking trail "Kungsleden" starts (or ends) in Abisko, I convinced two others to walk it for a little bit. It was cloudy and all white, but still really nice and I definately want to walk it for a little longer (a week or two) in the summer some time!
And then we got back on the bus and started our way southwards again. But one more stop was to be on our way, in Jokkmokk. On the way there we crossed the arctic circle, and of course many people had to take a picture standing below the sign – I decided to just take a picture of everyone taking pictures :D
We slept in cute little huts there and the next morning we saw the following spectacle when the sun was rising: That was so cool!
After that we visited the Sami museum in Jokkmokk, which tells a lot about Sami culture and history and was really interesting. And in the town we saw the cool dancing reindeers ;)
That was, in a nutshell, my trip to the north of Sweden, to Lapland. And it was truly magic :-) (And of course I have many many more pictures, just tell me if you want to see more ;-))
And my january adventures are to be continued…
