It's been a few weeks since my last post but that is mostly because of the final stages in the semester.
I probably won't be putting up any new blogs for a while, just because I will be traveling until I get back home January 11th. Here's what I've got planned:
Tomorrow (Friday the 18th) Final exam, final dinner with the interantional org. Then get on a bus at 1:45 Saturday morning to Stockholm. Get all my stuff stored at the airport, wait a few hours, take my flight from Stockholm to Munich, then Munich to Marseille.
Dec 19-Jan 4: Spending Christmas with the Treillet Family, including Snowboarding in the Alps!! I'm very excited to snowboard while in Europe let alone in the Alps! Then hanging out with Melchior for New Year's.
Jan4-7: ?? I still don't have anything planned for these days, but I'm looking to make my way to Norway and swinging by some fjords :)
Jan 7-9: Slovakia. A friend here (Martin) in Sweden has invited me and another guy from Wisconsin (Danny) to come visit him in Bratislava. It may seem like a short visit, but for the main reason because of Ryanair not having flights every day.
Jan 11: Depart from Stockholm back to the US
After that, I'll be moving back into the house in Whitewater, chilling there for a couple of days, spending a couple more days at the Dells with some friends, then back to Whitewater to start up the next semester!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Kiruna: THE trip! part 1
So I have been back from my excellent trip up north in Kiruna. It was definitely worth it to go on this trip, and experience things I don't think would have been possible any other time than while I'm here in Sweden. There was a lot going on, so I will try to tell you every little bit I can! Again, I apologize for the length...I'm thinking I should have split it up into parts like the Slovenia trip. What's better? All at once or in parts?
Our group of six left 4:30 PM we left Jönköping and started our 21 hour journey to Kiruna. On the 2nd train, which would cover from 6 until 10 AM the next day, Jai (from Australia, lives on my floor) and I had just regular seats, while the others had sleeping cabins, yet we paid for the price of the sleeping cabins...we were not excited about spending the next 18 hours in regular seats! So after talking to the conductor who checked off our tickets, she said she would see what she can do, because she thought the sleeping car was booked. After 10 minutes, she came back with the wonderful news that she had two beds for us, which definitely lifted some weight off our shoulders.
After that we found a room that is mainly meant for pets, but also has a table to seat 4 and two side seats that you can fold down and sit on, so all 6 of us spent a lot of the night in the room playing cards and talking. Getting to sleep wasn't that bad either, I was reminded of my Slovenia trip when I slept on the train before. There were 6 people in on cabin, and luckily we had the bottom beds so we didn't have to try to climb and disturb anyone.
When we woke up, there wasn't as much snow on the ground as I thought there would be, but there was a lot more traveling north to be done. We had breakfast there, but it wasn't the greatest breakfast I've ever had. We changed trains at 11 and started to see more snow on the ground and on the trees. It was nuts because we just kept going farther and farther up north and into the heart of the arctic circle. On a pamphlet that was on the train, it had the fact that if you spread out the density population of the Lappland throughout all of Europe, there would only be 11 million people, just to show that there aren't many people around at all!!
We got into Kiruna around 2:30, to a dark evening look. I checked the sunrise and sunset earlier and saw a 9:30 sunrise and a 1:30 sunset...and it did look like it was 5 or 6 in the evening, yet it was only 2:30!
We eventually found our hostel which we actually passed with Jai saying "oh, that looks like a nice house!". It didn't look like a hostel at all, but was run by a middle-aged woman. One thing we did right away was make a snowman, as Jai hadn't done that before. The snow wasn't good packing snow, but we were able to pile some snow on, carve out what looked like snowballs, and added the necessary accessories to make a good snowman :). Dinner that night consisted of pasta and some brownies for dessert.
At the hostel, there where a few other girls who were staying there at the same time. There were three girls from Austria and Germany were also staying at the hostel and were going on the same trip as us! The other group I'm not sure where they were from, but overheard the others talking to them. They had just gotten back from the same trip we were taking the next day and gave us a heads up of what it was like. They described the trip as "fine"...which kind of left the rest of us a little hesitant of how it was going to be. One reason I think they didn't like it as much as we did was because it was just those two with the guides, no one else. Which means they would have had to chop up the wood themselves for the cabin, and I can understand that they might have felt a little lonely out in the wilderness....they also told us that our group would be 30 people, which was a lot more than what I was expecting.
Later on that night, Jai and I went on a walk to see a little bit of Kiruna. At one point, we walked up a trail with trees all around us. We had been watching a lot of Survivorman, Man vs. Wild and the movie Into the Wild....so we wanted to make a fire ourselves! or at least try....haha
We gathered up a few sticks, and with my Swiss Army knife started shaping up the sticks as we had seen on TV. After a few minutes though, we knew if we wanted to start an actual fire without matches, it would take FOREVER, so we kept walking around. It didn't seem that long of a walk, but we didn't get back to the hostel until 1 AM and had to get up for the pick-up at 9.
The next day we woke up around 7:30 and had some breakfast. When we booked the trip, we told the guide (Henrik) that we would be at the Yellow House hostel, but found out later the place was booked. Point North was only a few blocks away though, so we decided to just walk over to get picked up. We were running a bit late though, and Jai and myself decided to run to the Yellow House, have Henrik pick us up, and get the others waiting at Point North.
We got to the hostel and saw another group waiting outside for the same trip. There was an old man I thought was for us, but it was a different company and he couldn't get a hold of the people he had booked.
A bit after 9, Henrik came with a big Dodge van and a trailer with the dogs inside. We told him there were others at the other hostel and we went to pick the others up.
Then there was a 15 minute ride out of Kiruna to the starting point of the trip. There we saw the rest of the group and there was only 20 total, instead of 30 like the girls told us last night. Some people had to borrow the snow pants and boots that is included in the package, but I had brought my snowboard gear including goggles pants and boots.
After a few minutes, Henrik gave us some instructions for handling the dogs as we were to put them on a long leash while getting the sleds and snowmobiles ready with our luggage. Basically, we had to walk the dogs on their two back legs, because as soon as they are out of their cages they are ready to run around and all they know is how to pull. I was surprised how strong the dog was and how lively all the dogs were. Jai and I named our dogs that we carried out. His was Chooch and I went with a Swedish name of Bjorn. There were a total of 15 dogs, 5 dogs per sled.
Henrik then gave us a little run down of the dog sledding. All we had to do was brake if we got to close to the other sleds, as the dogs might get tangled or start fighting with each other. Henrik would be in front of the dog sleds with a snowmobile, a trailer with our backpacks we brought, and a roller so smooth out the snow and leave a nice trail for the dogs to follow. So there was no steering for us to do, just enjoy the ride!
The group was then split up into 3, so one group would have two or three to a dog sled while the other two groups drove snowmobiles behind them. The only bad thing about the snowmobiling is we couldn't go any faster than 20 kph, mainly because there was also a trailer hooked up to the back of the snowmobile to carry the rest of the group, and had to stay behind the dog sleds. The dog sleds could go anywhere between 10-15 kph. Luckily, I was put in the group that didn't have a guide on the snowmobile, so every now and then I would go pretty slow and build a gap between myself and the other snowmobile and floor it just to give the others a little jolt :)
My dog that I got to pull. His name is Bjorn :)
I was in the last group to get the dogs. Right away you can tell a big difference with riding the dog sleds and the snowmobiles: quiet and smooth. What was also interesting is when the dogs weren't pulling the sled, just sitting waiting, they would be going nuts. But as soon as that sled started going, they stopped barking and did what they have been trained to do: PULL. The dog sledding was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It may have something to do that I love dogs, and that I haven't been around a lot of dogs here in Sweden at all.
At the end of the travel, we made it to a river and had to cross it to get to the cabins. The raft we were on seemed a bit sketchy, I think there was a slow leak, the water didn't look that warm...but the crossing wasn't that wide. We got to the cabin around 1 or so, and probably left around 10:30.
Our group of six left 4:30 PM we left Jönköping and started our 21 hour journey to Kiruna. On the 2nd train, which would cover from 6 until 10 AM the next day, Jai (from Australia, lives on my floor) and I had just regular seats, while the others had sleeping cabins, yet we paid for the price of the sleeping cabins...we were not excited about spending the next 18 hours in regular seats! So after talking to the conductor who checked off our tickets, she said she would see what she can do, because she thought the sleeping car was booked. After 10 minutes, she came back with the wonderful news that she had two beds for us, which definitely lifted some weight off our shoulders.
After that we found a room that is mainly meant for pets, but also has a table to seat 4 and two side seats that you can fold down and sit on, so all 6 of us spent a lot of the night in the room playing cards and talking. Getting to sleep wasn't that bad either, I was reminded of my Slovenia trip when I slept on the train before. There were 6 people in on cabin, and luckily we had the bottom beds so we didn't have to try to climb and disturb anyone.
When we woke up, there wasn't as much snow on the ground as I thought there would be, but there was a lot more traveling north to be done. We had breakfast there, but it wasn't the greatest breakfast I've ever had. We changed trains at 11 and started to see more snow on the ground and on the trees. It was nuts because we just kept going farther and farther up north and into the heart of the arctic circle. On a pamphlet that was on the train, it had the fact that if you spread out the density population of the Lappland throughout all of Europe, there would only be 11 million people, just to show that there aren't many people around at all!!
We got into Kiruna around 2:30, to a dark evening look. I checked the sunrise and sunset earlier and saw a 9:30 sunrise and a 1:30 sunset...and it did look like it was 5 or 6 in the evening, yet it was only 2:30!
We eventually found our hostel which we actually passed with Jai saying "oh, that looks like a nice house!". It didn't look like a hostel at all, but was run by a middle-aged woman. One thing we did right away was make a snowman, as Jai hadn't done that before. The snow wasn't good packing snow, but we were able to pile some snow on, carve out what looked like snowballs, and added the necessary accessories to make a good snowman :). Dinner that night consisted of pasta and some brownies for dessert.
At the hostel, there where a few other girls who were staying there at the same time. There were three girls from Austria and Germany were also staying at the hostel and were going on the same trip as us! The other group I'm not sure where they were from, but overheard the others talking to them. They had just gotten back from the same trip we were taking the next day and gave us a heads up of what it was like. They described the trip as "fine"...which kind of left the rest of us a little hesitant of how it was going to be. One reason I think they didn't like it as much as we did was because it was just those two with the guides, no one else. Which means they would have had to chop up the wood themselves for the cabin, and I can understand that they might have felt a little lonely out in the wilderness....they also told us that our group would be 30 people, which was a lot more than what I was expecting.
Later on that night, Jai and I went on a walk to see a little bit of Kiruna. At one point, we walked up a trail with trees all around us. We had been watching a lot of Survivorman, Man vs. Wild and the movie Into the Wild....so we wanted to make a fire ourselves! or at least try....haha
We gathered up a few sticks, and with my Swiss Army knife started shaping up the sticks as we had seen on TV. After a few minutes though, we knew if we wanted to start an actual fire without matches, it would take FOREVER, so we kept walking around. It didn't seem that long of a walk, but we didn't get back to the hostel until 1 AM and had to get up for the pick-up at 9.
The next day we woke up around 7:30 and had some breakfast. When we booked the trip, we told the guide (Henrik) that we would be at the Yellow House hostel, but found out later the place was booked. Point North was only a few blocks away though, so we decided to just walk over to get picked up. We were running a bit late though, and Jai and myself decided to run to the Yellow House, have Henrik pick us up, and get the others waiting at Point North.
We got to the hostel and saw another group waiting outside for the same trip. There was an old man I thought was for us, but it was a different company and he couldn't get a hold of the people he had booked.
A bit after 9, Henrik came with a big Dodge van and a trailer with the dogs inside. We told him there were others at the other hostel and we went to pick the others up.
Then there was a 15 minute ride out of Kiruna to the starting point of the trip. There we saw the rest of the group and there was only 20 total, instead of 30 like the girls told us last night. Some people had to borrow the snow pants and boots that is included in the package, but I had brought my snowboard gear including goggles pants and boots.
After a few minutes, Henrik gave us some instructions for handling the dogs as we were to put them on a long leash while getting the sleds and snowmobiles ready with our luggage. Basically, we had to walk the dogs on their two back legs, because as soon as they are out of their cages they are ready to run around and all they know is how to pull. I was surprised how strong the dog was and how lively all the dogs were. Jai and I named our dogs that we carried out. His was Chooch and I went with a Swedish name of Bjorn. There were a total of 15 dogs, 5 dogs per sled.
Henrik then gave us a little run down of the dog sledding. All we had to do was brake if we got to close to the other sleds, as the dogs might get tangled or start fighting with each other. Henrik would be in front of the dog sleds with a snowmobile, a trailer with our backpacks we brought, and a roller so smooth out the snow and leave a nice trail for the dogs to follow. So there was no steering for us to do, just enjoy the ride!
The group was then split up into 3, so one group would have two or three to a dog sled while the other two groups drove snowmobiles behind them. The only bad thing about the snowmobiling is we couldn't go any faster than 20 kph, mainly because there was also a trailer hooked up to the back of the snowmobile to carry the rest of the group, and had to stay behind the dog sleds. The dog sleds could go anywhere between 10-15 kph. Luckily, I was put in the group that didn't have a guide on the snowmobile, so every now and then I would go pretty slow and build a gap between myself and the other snowmobile and floor it just to give the others a little jolt :)
My dog that I got to pull. His name is Bjorn :)
At the end of the travel, we made it to a river and had to cross it to get to the cabins. The raft we were on seemed a bit sketchy, I think there was a slow leak, the water didn't look that warm...but the crossing wasn't that wide. We got to the cabin around 1 or so, and probably left around 10:30.
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