Training for the Iditarod

Sometimes I regret my decision to come to Sweden in the winter. Its cold therefore a lot of attractions are closed. My guide book is always telling me the best time to visit this city or that region is the summer. But finally, I have visited a place in Sweden that is best experienced in the winter. I left on Wednesday night for my 19 hour train journey north, past the arctic circle to the land of the northern lights and unimaginable cold. I traveled with the girls I usually travel with- Titia and Rose from my floor, along with 7 others, some of which I sorta knew, and others that I didn't know at all. We were a diverse bunch- french, australian, brazilian, german, spanish, netherlandsian (thats probably not right), and of course american. The train was not as bad as I expected and before we knew it, we arrived at our destination, Kiruna, a mining town in the north of Sweden, in the region called Lappland. In the summer, the sun never sets, in the winter, the sun never rises. Luckily we got there before the darkness set in. Although I never really saw the sun, there was about 4 hours of sunrise/sunset everyday.

We stayed at a place called Camp Alta, in the middle of the wilderness next to a big (frozen) lake. The cottage was nice and there was lots to do around the camp. The first night, we took a snowmobile tour around the lake and to the ice hotel (a hotel made entirely of ice) Unfortunately for us, the hotel was not yet finished (we were a few days to early) so we were unable to take a tour of the inside, but we did see the outside, and it looked pretty cool. Snowmobiling was also very fun. The fact that it was dark outside added to the excitement. The next day we decided to take a train to Narvik, Norway. We had heard that the view from the train was really something, and it certainly was. We spent the entire trip taking pictures out the window. I was happy to finally see a fjord. Once we arrived in Narvik, we didn't have much time until the train went back to Kiruna, so we wandered around some parks and down by the harbor. Again, there were many weird baby statues...but then again, we were in Norway...

View from the train to Narvik

The following day was our dog sled tour. We were suppose to have 2 people per sled, then take turns driving, but for some reason, they gave us each our own sled. The dogs weren't huskies like I thought they would be. Huskies are for longer expeditions I learned. We had racing dogs. I'm not sure what breed they were, but they certainly were fast. All I had to do was stand with a foot on each side of the sled and step on a brake, which dug down in the snow, when I wanted to slow down. The tricky part was braking with one foot while maintaining balance on the other, especially if the dogs were turning at the same time, or decided to cut corners sending you flying off a snow ramp. I didn't fall though. The only bad thing about the experience was the temperature. That day it was 25 C (in Kiruna they don't bother saying negative in front of the temperature, this is understood) and at one point got as low as 30. We stopped for lunch in a Sami tent (the Sami are the indigenous people of Sweden that herd reindeer in Lappland) and attempted to warm up, with out much success. Thankfully, we took the short way home after lunch and once we were back we played with the dogs and puppies for awhile and went back to our cabin. That night it was very clear and we saw what we thought were the northern lights, although it was not very bright, but at least it was something. The stars were also bright, so I looked for the only constellation I know and located the northern star. I had to look up much higher than I'm used to.

Sunrise over the lake

The last day, we spent the day enjoying the free activities at the camp. We woke up early to see the sunrise (early = 10:30) and then went cross country skiing around the lake. Afterwards we had a camp fire, and I showed them how to make smores (I had my sister bring graham crackers from home because I plan ahead like that) Would you believe these people have never heard of smores? Everyone liked them though. Our train back to Stockholm left that evening and 16 hours later we were back home. All in all, I had a really great time. This was probably my favorite trip of my time here. I made lots of new friends, a little too late though. I'm starting to get really sad about leaving Stockholm. I was trying to remember my cell phone number from back home the other day and I couldn't do it. I hope I at least remember how to drive. 2 weeks left...