Lost in Lapland!

I just got home from the most fantastic trip to Lapland which is a region in northern Scandinavia and Russia occupied by the Sami people. The Sami is the northern most indigenous people of Europe. Most of Lapland lies north of the Arctic circle. A majority of the Sami people today herd reindeer. So here's an in-depth account of my journey to Lapland!

Day 1: Saturday March 2nd -

We departed from Uppsala around 2:30 in the afternoon. I went to Lapland with two of my Dutch friends, Dieuwertje and Silke, and my Aussie friend Lana. Nothing exciting happened. It was about an 18 hour bus ride so there was napping, reading, games, and a couple movies. Max burgers for dinner! I don't think I've mentioned Max Burgers yet. It's a Swedish fast food restaurant similar to McDonald's except it is not as international. But they have a similar menu - burgers, fries, shakes, chicken nuggets, etc. The Max Burger is their specialty and it has a special sauce on it. I will need to stock up on the special Max sauce before I go home. It is so good! I think it's just a seasoned mayo but it is delicious. And we drove through the night.

Day 2: Sunday March 3rd -

Arrive in Kiruna around 7:30am. We had breakfast at our hostel and bundled up for an adventurous morning. We got to go snowmobiling and dog sledding! I had never been snowmobiling before but it's very similar to jet skiing except you have less freedom if you're following tracks. It was really hard to try and go out of the tracks. We wanted to go faster but of course, we had to go the same pace as everyone else in the group. It was still so awesome! I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Me and Lana

We were lucky - it was absolutely gorgeous! Cold but gorgeous!

I want a snowmobile!

Lana, me, Dieuwertje, and Silke

Then we got to go dog sledding! The dogs were surprisingly strong - they looked so small and scrawny when we were petting them before our ride but they could pull all four of us and our driver.

Our dogs!

More sled dogs!

After an eventful morning we returned to our hostel to start a walking tour of the city of Kiruna. Kiruna is an old iron mining town with the world's largest underground iron mine. We also saw the Kiruna Church which was built to be nondenominational so all would be welcome and in Sami style with the triangular shape. There are 12 gold statues that sit on the roof of the church and each represents a different emotion from happy to angry to sad. Fun fact: Because of the lucrative mining business, Kiruna is slowly being relocated. The iron mines are so profitable that it is worthwhile to relocate most of the city. Eventually the relocation will include the church and the first buildings in Kiruna.

Kiruna Church

The Church is made completely of wood.

My camera battery severely suffered in the cold weather. The temperature in Lapland did not go above -11 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit). I'm slowly getting the hang of this whole temperature conversion thing! Because of the cold, my camera battery drained really quickly so I don't have any other pictures from our walking tour.

That night we went out to a small bar in Kiruna but the drinking age was 23 so we just had tea and talked! We went home early to get a good night of sleep but of course, we missed the northern lights! The rest of the group stayed out a little later than us and saw phenomenal northern lights.

Day 3: Monday March 4th -

We had to do grocery shopping for the rest of our trip on Monday morning because the places we were going were so small that they didn't have a grocery store nearby! Just afternoon we departed for the Ice Hotel! The Ice Hotel is a hotel made entirely of ice and snow. The Ice Hotel in Sweden is in the village of Jukkasjärvi which is Sami and means meeting point. It was the world's first Ice Hotel and is rebuilt every year and stands from around December until mid April. All the ice used in the hotel is taken from the Torne River which runs just behind the Ice Hotel. The ice used each year is actually ice cut from the river in the previous March. So the ice used in the Ice Hotel I saw was actually frozen last winter and cut from the river in March 2012 and then stored in a cooler adjacent to the river for 8 months until construction of the 2013 Ice Hotel began in November 2012. The ice is used to make the beds, chairs, pillars, walls, and even glasses in the hotel. The Ice Hotel this year includes an Ice Bar, a Chapel, a reception area, a main hall, and 65 rooms that people actually stay in! The Ice Hotel is covered in snow because snow acts as an insulator for the ice. They keep the hotel at a balmy -5 degrees Celsius to keep the hotel from melting. Guests at the hotel also have warm accommodation available if they get too cold in the night. And of course, after checking out all the unique rooms and the Chapel, we headed to the Ice Bar where they serve all the drinks in glasses made of ice! The water of the Torne river is extremely clean and clear, which is why they use it for the Ice Hotel, and you can also drink it which is why it can be used for the glasses.

The arch to the Ice Hotel

The Outside of the Ice Hotel

In one of the rooms!

The main hall

In the main hall

Another room - Each of the suites was different. and all of them were extremely intricate. 

At the Ice Bar with our ice glasses!

Each year, the Ice Hotel is remade and it has the same general architecture because they use the same molds for the frame year after year but different artists are hired to decorate and carve to create the artwork of the hotel. It is so crazy how much work goes into this hotel that is just going to disappear in 5 months. In mid-April, when it gets too warm, they pull out all the man-made items in the hotel such as wiring for lights, smoke detectors (yes, according to Swedish law, every hotel room needs a smoke detector regardless of what the hotel is made of), and mattresses, block off the ice hotel, and let it melt back into the river. The Ice Hotel was astounding. So pretty and detailed.

We then hopped back on the bus to go hang out with some reindeer and some Sami people. We got to feed the reindeer.

Lana and Didgi feeding the reindeer

Reindeer reindeer reindeer!

After that we spoke with a Sami woman who told us more about the Sami people. The Sami people consider the year to have 8 seasons, each season is dictated by the reindeer they herd. Fun fact: There is not a single wild reindeer in Sweden. All the reindeer in Sweden are owned by a Sami person. In June every year, the reindeer's ears are marked so the Sami can tell who owns which reindeer. It is also offensive to ask a Sami person how many reindeer they own. Owning reindeer shows wealth so asking that would be the same as asking "how much money do you have in your bank account?" She also prepared a little snack for us of crackers and reindeer meat and a reindeer drink which was made by cooking all sorts of reindeer bits including the bones in water. I tried both! The reindeer meat wasn't too bad! The drink was not my favorite thing. I think the hardest part was not knowing what was floating around in my cup.

We hoped back on the bus to head toward Abisko National Park which was where our hostel for the next two nights was. We got settled and had an awesome barbecue and bonfire while we waited for the northern lights. We saw a bit of the northern lights but they weren't very strong so no pictures :(

Day 4: Tuesday March 5th -

We went to Norway! We hopped on the bus to drive to the Norwegian town of Narvik. We stopped a couple times for photo opps. It was cloudy and overcast but still amazing to see! I really enjoyed the bus ride to and from Norway because there were so many pine trees covered in snow so it looked like we were driving up in northern Minnesota. It was lovely. Norway has more pine trees in that area because of the moderated climate due to the Atlantic Gulf Stream. Sweden in the north near Abisko is considered an Arctic dessert because it receives very little precipitation. Narvik and Abiko are only about 50 miles apart but have vastly different vegetation.

I got to see the Fjords of Norway!!

The water doesn't freeze because of the Atlantic Ocean Gulf Stream

History Lesson: Narvik was the location of many battles during wars because it was a passage to the ocean for Scandinavia. During World War II it was occupied by Germans and the Norwegians did not like that one bit. If a Norwegian was riding on a city bus and German came and sat down next to them, the Norwegian would stand up to avoid sitting next to the German. This caused the Germans to put a law into effect that made it illegal to stand on a bus when there are open seats on a bus. We then took a little cable car up the mountain to walk down! We did not realize that it would be such a scary task. We did know that we were going to walk down a mountain but still, it was very steep. We ended up sliding down! And then walking walking on the wrong path so we ended up walking on some icy road that did not bring us back to the bus. But we figured it out and so we were no longer lost in Lapland! 

We rode the bus back to Abisko, made dinner, and prepared for our Arctic swim! It was absolutely freezing but so much fun! We sat in the sauna for about half an hour then ran out in the cold wearing just our swimsuits and boots to jump in a hole cut out in the frozen lake. It was so exhilarating, we did it twice! The temperature outside was around -16 degrees Celsius. Brrrrrr. 

Here's the hole we jumped in!

Day 5: March 6th -

In the morning we had free time to eat breakfast and pack up and then we had a short walk around the national park. We saw the start of a 400 kilometer hiking/nordic ski trail which is apparently a well known trail. We then had more free time so we obviously went back to check out the sauna and ice hole that we jumped in the night before. The water had frozen over on top. We ran around on the lake for a bit taking pictures. The view was incredible because the lake is surrounded by mountains and the sun was out and the skies were blue!

On the lake!

Lapland Adventure Team!
Didgeridoo, Silke, Siana, and Lana

We then hopped back on the bus for our 18 hour ride home. It was a long trip. We watched Bridget Jones and the Avengers, had a trivia competition, and slept. We made it home to Uppsala just before 8am on March 7th. 

All in all, Lapland was an awesome trip. I was expecting the first day to be the best but each day following was surprisingly fun. I'm so glad we got to go north for a few days!

I'm trying to upload a video from sledding in Norway and from our dog sledding but it is taking ages so I'll have to try again when my computer isn't being so pokey. 

Looooooong posting! That's all. I'm off to Prague in the morning! So much travel! Later Gators!