The Exchange VI. The Lapland Express
In my first month at Uppsala I had heard more than a few people mention a trip to Lapland, a region in the far north of Sweden above the Arctic Circle. It was a bit expensive but after some friends peer pressured me I ended up signing up. Boy am I thankful they did! In a welcome break from the early morning starts that seem to define my adventures, the tour bus operated by Scanbalt arrived around 2pm just outside the Flogsta ICA supermarket. Waiting for the bus was a collection of familiar Flogsta faces, coming with all shapes and sizes of luggage. This assortment of suitcases and backpacks were all crammed under the bus and we settled into our seats for the long drive. Some how I managed to score two seats for myself on the top deck of the bus, I swear I didn’t smell that bad.
We were due in the mining town of Kiruna at 9am the next day, 18 hours on the bus later. We made an hour long break by a roadside diner so the drivers could have a breather. Fair enough too considering they had started in Stockholm. Whilst they were slurping away on their coffee I amused myself with a short walk across the frozen lake behind the joint. This ended up taking half an hour or so, so by the time I got back to the bus it was time to get back underway. One amusing incident occurred at our dinner stop at Max (a burger joint). One of the girls around the table exclaimed “Who’s Elizabeth?”, Beth being a kiwi girl also from Otago. It transpired that she had been asleep when the bus stopped and neither he nor the other girl next to her from Christchuch had woken up. This resulted in them being ‘locked’ in the bus. Even better, in an effort to escape Beth had sat in the drivers seat, this ended in a stern telling off from the driver when he returned to open the door for her. Other than that and a quick stop in Umeå to pick up the last of the group the rest of the drive to Kiruna was uneventful. I managed to get a few hours sleep and awoke to a view of forests as far as the eye could see, with an orange sun rising behind the trees. It really was breathtaking.
When we rolled up to Kiruna we were treated to a full buffet breakfast. To me this meant eating as much as possible in an hour time period. Fair to say I felt quite sick afterwards. The first van load of people left to the husky farm whilst the rest of us picked up our winter overalls from storage before being given a city tour by our tour guide Australian Alex.
The tour took under an hour. There really isn’t much in Kiruna except the mine and the stuff that is slowly falling into the mine (aka the town centre and a beautiful church). The first van loads returned around lunch time and then it was our turn to try out dog sledding and snow mobile driving.
After some questionable van driving we miraculously made it to the farm. There was a collection of small buildings surrounded by cages containing as many cute huskies as you could ever want. Our crew all shuffled into a small changing shed to get our winter woolies on. After that we marched outside and were given places on sled behind some very enthusiastic doggos.
It was a little bit squishy, but that just keeps you warm eh? The pace of the sled was not lightspeed but it was enough, and it was quite atmospheric with the snow falling and Alistair leaning out from behind me with the GoPro. As with most things in Sweden the sled ride was concluded with fika by a teepee with a fire burning inside. Our attention was stolen by the huskies as the other sled teams rolled (slid?) up beside us. If you really want to know the key to the heart of a 20 to 25 year old girl I can confidently suggest a sled team of huskies.
After the orgy of cuteness we swapped places with those that had taken snowmobiles to the fika tent. I was saddled behind the Frenchie Eléa as we sped away across the snow. I tried my best to take some photos behind us of the other snowmobiles but this was no easy endeavor. Firstly taking photos backwards is never going to be an easy thing, secondly I wasn’t actually sure I was allowed to be doing this and it meant I wasn’t holding on. This resulted in some rather shaky photos, but better than nothing eh?
When it was my turn up front I made sure to really give the throttle a good blast, although I was a little worried I would break something as the machine was only in first gear. Somehow we made it safely back to the collection of buildings and Eléa celebrated surviving my driving.
The ride back in the vans was just as sketchy as I remembered it but again we made it. My first priority was going for a walk in my jandals through the snow to the local ‘System B’, the government liquor store. After I had finished my shopping I started on dinner, which was just a combination of things I had grabbed from the fridge before I left coupled with pasta and pesto. This actually turned out surprisingly well, and so I celebrated with a trip to the sauna. There were a whole bunch of us in there sweating out to our hearts content. This was followed by games of cards in the dining room. Unfortunately I had chosen to join Alex and a few others in a game of ‘Mao’. The easiest way to explain it is that there are a few rules, but no one is allowed to explain them to you. Sound frustrating? that’s because it was.
I got so frustrated in fact that I had to take a time out with my camera, and so I wandered out to the church and lay in the snow with a very vain hope that the Northern Lights would show themselves. However that was not to be, so I settled for photos of the moon instead. Eventually a whole flood of people came out of the hostel in the same vain hope of seeing the lights. I ended up having a chat with the Estonian and fellow law student Karina. The conversation about law really did make me feel sleepy (or maybe it was the 18 hour bus trip?), so it wasn’t long until I retired to bed.
My premixed porridge the next morning proved to be a success, especially with the addition of honey from Beth. The first thing on the agenda for the day was visiting the ‘Ice Hotel’ that is built every year just out of Kiruna. The hotel was about as expected, a hotel made of ice. I guess it was cool (pun intended), but I think I equally enjoyed sitting in the non-ice reception in the sun having some yarns with people.
After that we buckled. up for the hour or so drive to the Saami camp north of Kiruna. We pilled out of the bus onto the snow and made our way to a collection of animal pens and a semi-permanent teepee structure. Here we were greeted by two larger than life characters dressed in traditional Sami garb, including splashes of bright colours and reindeer furs. The duo rather reminded me of the hunters I met several years ago in East Ruggedy Hut on Stewart Island when I was doing the Northwest Circuit. The pair bounced off one another with quips and banter, it was quite entertaining to witness. We split into three groups, with one going inside the teepee, one going to the reindeer enclosure and one going off with the granddaughter of one of the men to learn lassoing. The idea being that we would all rotate and get to experience each thing.
I started with the reindeer. The Saami man dubbed me camera man, as no surprises I was wielding my camera. He showed us how to feed the reindeer lichen and get your hand cleaned at the same time. The reindeer were definitely up for a photo. One white individual was a bit greedy, always eager for another piece of lichen. Some of the cuter smaller reindeer were a bit more timid, so most of the photos ended up being with greedy guts.
With our lichen stocks depleted we moved on to try the lasso throwing. This might sound like the ‘dud’ option out of the things on offer but we actually had a lot of fun with it. As it turns out it is quite fun to prance around with a pair of antlers on your head. When a lasso did eventually close around my antlers a tug of war was initiated between me the reindeer and the lasso holder. It was all quite a laugh.
The final place on our rotation was the teepee. The Saami man welcomed us inside to a room carpeted with reindeer pelts, arranged around a central open fire. Now this man was a talker and we went off on tangents about the 101 different uses for your own pee, Jovana’s relationship status and just about everything inbetween. We also got a chance to try dried reindeer and reindeer broth, both of which I can say have an… interesting flavour. The guy enjoyed talking about pee so much that we almost missed the departure of our bus to Abisko!
Abisko was only another hour north of the camp. Enough time for me to start feeling drowsy before falling asleep. As I did so I was rudely awoken by the announcement we were in Abisko. The hostel was rather posh for my standards, with the kitchen/commonroom looking out over a vast frozen lake. For the evening we split into two groups to go enjoy a campfire in a teepee not far from the hostel building. This was a cosy affair and all manner of things were soon sizzling over the embers.
When it was time for the next group to take over the fire some of us headed to the hostel sauna, because why not? Once we were sufficiently dehydrated it was time for some card games and a very enthusiastic game of spoons.
If the weather was good enough there was a chance we could have taken the bus to Narvik, which is across the border in Norway. So in the morning our contingent gathered in the hostel to hear whether the conditions were good enough to get the bus through. Sadly this was not the case as the avalanche risk was high and thus the danger of getting stuck in Norway. Death by high prices anyone? Luckily the trains were still running, so the majority of our group took that option and went to Narvik anyway. I opted to see a bit of the countryside around Abisko on foot instead, a result of remembering my frustration of being stuck behind dirty train/bus windows. I ended up falling in with two Swiss guys and we made plans to snowshoe in the national park.
The weather was fine and the scenery was truly stunning. We were an interesting sight, loaded down with snowshoes, warm clothes and some cheeky sleds in case we found a good slope.
We went for several hours, enjoying the sunshine and soaking up the beauty of the place. There were a few ominous clouds that began to linger around the mountains surrounding us, which unsettled the boys a little bit. I was a tad more blasé in my approach and was keen to make the most of being out by going on further for a short while. The other boys decided to turn around and they were smart to do so, the weather flipped in the space of 5 minutes and I became enveloped in a snowstorm.
Pushing on was out of the question, so I turned tail and hurried to try catch the others (and keep warm!). As it happens I found that they had stopped to wait for me, but not before one of them had sent me a very polite email-like Facebook message requesting I should come back. The snowstorm was short lived and the sun shone again on us, much to our delight. We took a slightly different route back to the hostel, including a slight detour to make use of those sleds we had been lugging around all day.
Thoroughly battered from sledding and weary from walking we stumbled happily back into the hostel. Those that had gone to Narvik were still absent so the place was quite quiet. I almost went for a nap, but before I could reach my room I ran into a classmate from law who was planning on going sledding outside the hostel. Despite my exhaustion I forced myself to tag along. What followed was half an hour of hilarity as we made use of an icy slope 50 metres from the hostel. This was not the most intelligent thing I’ve ever done, especially considering that at the bottom of the slope there was a jump, which resulted in multiple wipe outs.
When I got back from that I finally got my nap in. Yay me. That was followed by a speedy dinner as we were scheduled for a sauna down by the lake. Sadly I must have had too much wine whilst I was cooking it as an Italian girl came up to me and told me that I really shouldn’t be eating that pasta. I was ashamed. After that my dignity was gone, so I tried reclaim some street cred by wearing shorts on my way to the sauna down by the shore (weird flex, but okay).
We had split again into smaller groups and so there were maybe 20 or so people jammed into the sauna. The result of this was the door was always being left open (maybe to ‘vent’ my frustration?). Not far from the sauna was a ladder that descended into the icy depths of the lake. It was the scene of many shrieks of shock, close calls on ice with jandals and a lot of laughter. I can highly recommend running shuttles from the sauna to the ice and back again, leaves you feeling quite fresh.
Sadly our time at the sauna did not last forever. Not quite satisfied that I was dehydrated enough, I jogged back to the sauna under the hostel for a bit more pain. Satisfied with this the night was concluded by more card game antics and a trip to inspect the tents of two German fellows who the girls were feeling quite sorry for. Now, by this time it was past midnight and my body was really feeling quite broken, so there was nothing for it but to return to the sled slope for a couple more suicidal runs before bed.
The next day the wind was really blowing a gale and the visibility was next to nothing. A perfect day for cross-country skiing. Spoilers, it wasn’t. After breakfast those that had opted to go skiing headed out to the gear shed to meet our instructor and collect the necessary equipment. This quite predictably involved a lot of faffing, which was an omen of how the next few hours would pan out. Don’t get me wrong, the whole experience was fun, but everyone had varying degrees of ability and the wind started to get extremely chilly, so there was a lot of cold waiting around. This was especially true towards the end as we made our way back through a blizzard across a frozen lake!
There was just enough time to have a quick shower before we all loaded onto the bus to go south again in the direction of home. This was bittersweet, but I think everyone was suffering from a lack of sleep! We made two quick stops on the way back, one to see the sunset at the arctic circle sign and one to grab dinner at a diner. We the place with a contingent of Swedish and Norwegian military personal, with the odd tank sitting out in the parking lot for good measure. As an asides I can say moose really just tastes a lot like beef.
So that finally concludes the passage of the Lapland Express, big thanks to everyone who came on the trip, I won’t forget that adventure in a hurry!
