So it's been more than a month since I've been back home. It's a bit nuts to think that a few months ago I was almost halfway around the world traveling to all the different places. Now I'm back to this familiar setting of Wisconsin. It's a bit sunnier here for sure, so that's nice!!
I do miss Sweden though, but I'd say that's a good sign that I enjoyed myself, which I definitely feel I did! It's probably easy to understand after reading my entries. I have been telling a few people the Copenhagen trip story, which is a pretty long one to tell...haha but it's great to see people's reactions.
It's been a bit hard to talk to some of the guys that I lived with in Sweden, but everyone is just as busy with internships, working, school, and it doesn't help having completely different time zones. I hope at some point, we are able to get together again and catch up, but who knows when that will be!
The one thing I would have to say about studying abroad, is maybe I should have picked a more different place/culture than Sweden, like Far East, or Africa or somewhere like that.. Don't get me wrong, Sweden treated me quite well, but after all the traveling I did, I knew there were many more places to experience! I feel like Sweden gave me a taste of the international feel, and I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more!!
As with most people who have studied abroad, I would recommend it to anyone out there thinking about it. It's a great way to see the world while also going to school, not many times in your life you can say that you have time to go abroad!!
So you've read my stories and seen the pictures...so I hope you all enjoyed following me on my journey and any comments you wish to share, just leave 'em!!
Thanks,
Matt
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Risoul--The Alps!
Hello everyone, sorry again for not keeping this real updated, but I did get back to the states fine and had quite the experience! I have school starting up this week, but I'll try to wrap things up with what I did in France and the week in Norway and Slovakia.
Luckily, I was smart enough to bring the computer and keep track of the days I spent in the Alps for four days. Here's what I wrote:
Day 1: We got up around 8:30 and made it to the first chairlift before 10. The weather was perfect! Not a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze. Of course, I didn't have any working batteries with me, otherwise I would have been able to take some great pictures! All you could see around you are mountains, it was great! It was also great to be back on a snowboard!! I haven't been that excited to go in a while. I think the thought of me snowboarding in the alps made it that much better. The resort was much bigger than I first thought! There's two main stations: Risoul and Vas. Around 1 we had lunch near a forest before Dominique took off for the day. We then met up with Coriolan's brother-in-law, Guillaume. He was from the Risoul area and had been skiing just as long as he had been walking. He definitely showed us some cool runs and it was great to try and keep up with his speed! The rental board I have isn't all that bad either. It's a bit rough on my knees, and I think that comes from the angle of the bindings aren't what I'm used to. It's just a few more days with the board, so I think I can manage.
Luckily, I was smart enough to bring the computer and keep track of the days I spent in the Alps for four days. Here's what I wrote:
Day 1: We got up around 8:30 and made it to the first chairlift before 10. The weather was perfect! Not a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze. Of course, I didn't have any working batteries with me, otherwise I would have been able to take some great pictures! All you could see around you are mountains, it was great! It was also great to be back on a snowboard!! I haven't been that excited to go in a while. I think the thought of me snowboarding in the alps made it that much better. The resort was much bigger than I first thought! There's two main stations: Risoul and Vas. Around 1 we had lunch near a forest before Dominique took off for the day. We then met up with Coriolan's brother-in-law, Guillaume. He was from the Risoul area and had been skiing just as long as he had been walking. He definitely showed us some cool runs and it was great to try and keep up with his speed! The rental board I have isn't all that bad either. It's a bit rough on my knees, and I think that comes from the angle of the bindings aren't what I'm used to. It's just a few more days with the board, so I think I can manage.
Day 2: I was hoping for the same kind of weather as day 1, but we woke up to a cloudy sky and couldn't see as many mountains around us. Not long after we started to ski/snowboard, it started to snow. It was snowing pretty much all day and I can only hope that we are treated with a combination of the day 2 snow with day 1 skies! But Guillaume heard we may have RAIN tomorrow...boo! Hopefully he's wrong. I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be for not snowboarding in a while and then going the day after starting the season. It was quite windy at the top of the mountain as well. It's pretty interesting to see all the people around. I'd say there's a 4 to 1 ratio of skiers to snowboarders. It's pretty interesting to see that the size of the resort and yet there aren't any terrain parks open! Yesterday, we passed by a couple rails and a box, but it was closed. I have to think that this time of the year is their busiest time, and why they don't have a terrain park open doesn't make sense to me. Tyrol, being only a fingernail to the size of Risoul's resort has a lot more for snowboarders! But I have read that in Europe it's typical for them to not have a lot for terrain parks, but that they keep the runs well conditioned, which I find true.
Day 3: Woke up to a pretty cloudy day again and it wasn't all that cold. In the very beginning, it was ok because the snow wasn't sticking at all, and there were some breaks in the clouds so I was able to take some more pictures of the slopes like I should have on day 1. But soon enough it was starting to mist and then turn into a light rain. When we would get to the top of the mountain, we couldn't see a whole lot because of the low visibility and it was quite windy. Towards the end, I decided to take a look at the terrain park that they had open that I didn't know about before. It was nothing special by today's standards. A couple rails and a jump at the end. It was towards the end of the day, so I wasn't all that interested in trying it again after going there just once. The snow wasn't all that great because of the light rain, it made it pretty heavy and not that easy to cut into with the edge of the board. Overall, it was an OK day though. I'm glad to be here because not many people have this kind of chance to spend a 4-day vacation in the Alps like me! Hopefully the last day can bring some decent weather, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Day 4: Woke up early just so I could see how it would be to get there before everyone else. It was pretty icy still thanks to the rain on the 3rd night. I was able to get a great picture (see above) of the top of the mountain while there was some blue skies, so the picture looks deceivingly nice compared to what I had to snowboard in. The snow itself wasn't good: icy on the top and heavy underneath. I was having troubles catching my edge on the snow for turning, so there was a few falls and cut up my wrist from the layer of ice on the top of the snow....We didn't ski/snowboard all day, because we were getting wetter and wetter. We had one more sandwich ritual before leaving back to Aix.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Next travels...
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!
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!
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.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Kiruna: THE trip! part 2
After everyone was across, we made our way to the campsite. There was two main cabins for the group, a sauna, an outhouse, a cabin that was used for the dinner and lunches, a little octagon gazebo with a fireplace in the middle where we had lunch later that day. The group was then split up into two groups of ten and our group got the Lappish cabin, one of the first thing built at the campsite, and was built by Henrik himself. It was definitely a tight fit, but the focus wasn't on staying in the cabin the whole time.
After we got our stuff settled in our rooms, one of the first things we had to do was cut and chop up some wood for the cabins, for the sauna, and for the lunch later on that day. We also needed to get fresh water from the river for drinking, cooking, and for the sauna as well.
With 20 people, it didn't take that long. There were only a couple axes, and a few more saws, so there was a bit of a bottleneck when the wood got to the axes for chopping. Three pairs of people would cut the wood while two people chopped. One of the axes broke fairly early in the wood cutting...so we were left with just one. We needed about 6 boxes of wood for the cabin and 2 boxes each for the sauna and BBQ.
The "P" doesn't stand for parking....
So for the first lunch, we had basically smoked meat..almost like a hotdog and was quite tasty with some homemade tomato sauce, ketchup, beans, potatoes and some red cabbage stuff that I had never tried before. I was a bit hesitant on the cabbage, because I don't usually like it, but this red cabbage stuff was pretty good.
The atmosphere was pretty good for eating too because of the octagon-shaped shelter we were in. The other four people from Austria and Germany were nice to be with. Maybe a bit more than the other group who had a bunch of French people that never said anything to the rest of us, always talking in French and didn't help out as much as the others when cutting and chopping wood...oh well, some people like to just let others do the work!
After lunch, there wasn't much else to do but go back to the cabin and just sit around and talk. After a while, we were able to figure out how to use the gas stove and get some hot water for tea/coffee.
It wasn't that long between lunch and dinner as I had hoped. I wasn't that hungry, but I knew I would probably want to eat then instead of missing out on dinner!! This time we ate in the kitchen/guest cabin. It was a guest cabin for a local guy I thought was named Steve, but I guess his name was Stick...he had a couple of dogs with him, including a very playful puppy that he was training for reindeer herding...so we couldn't pet him because of the training, but whenever he wasn't around, everyone would give him attention and pet him.
For dinner, we had reindeer meat with some noodles and sauce that was from the meat juices. The meat was great, just typing about it is making me hungry for some. It had a smoky and a bit more salty taste than most meats. Again, there were many helpings of dinner.
After dinner, the other group was going to use the sauna first, as everyone wouldn't be able to fit all at once. So the rest of us walked up and down the river and hoping for some clear skies and maybe a possibility of seeing the Northern Lights that everyone had on their mind before the trip even started. I had seen the Northern Lights a couple of times back in Ashland, Wisconsin but that was 2 times in a span of 10 years...so quite rare. But still a great image of green in the skies and I wanted to see them again, but throughout the whole trip we never saw them. It was clear the last night we were there, but no such luck. They were saying that the day after we were leaving there was a good chance of seeing them, but time wasn't on our side for that!
When we got back to the campsite, it was our turn for the sauna. I hadn't been in a sauna for a while, but it was nice to just relax after a long day of traveling and working. At different points in the night, people would go outside, roll in the snow, maybe scream and give their bodies a bit of a shock, then run back inside! It was an entertaining sauna session to say the least.
After the sauna session, Jai and I started a fire with the help of the information given to us by one of the guides for a fool-proof way of starting a fire. The more bark the better! We sat around the fire for a while. People would join us every once in a while, and Jai brought a little speaker, so we were able to hook up someone's iPod and listen to some music during the night.
At the dinner table, Stick had mentioned there was a Lappish tent set up not far from the campsite and said if anyone was interested, they could try sleeping there for the night. One phrase that Jai and I had been saying throughout the trip was: "what would Survivorman do?" Suvivorman for those of you who don't know, is a show about a Canadian who goes to these different places and all he has to do is survive for about 6 days. He has to film everything himself and he usually gives you survival tips. I introduced Jai to the show a few weeks before, so we were ready for the Arctic Circle :)
So we decided to give it a try, and if it didn't work after an hour, we would just go back to the cabin. No one else wanted to try the tent except for us. My bright idea, I just took the one sleeping bag they gave us, which wasn't very thick. If I had just looked a little closer, I would have seen the very thick blanket at the end of my bed...which would have made a world of difference, but I didn't and was stuck freezing for a while before getting some sleep. Luckily, I had set my alarm on my cell phone to wake me up a hour later. I woke up still cold and told Jai that I was going back. He was sleeping like a baby with HIS nice, thick blanket...silly me!!!
When we got back to the cabin, we decided to sleep in the kitchen/main room on the benches that are also used for beds. It wasn't the most comfortable sleep I've ever had, but at least it was better than in the tent!
Florie-Anne et Juilette in the kitchen/main room. I slept on that bench on the left
The next morning, we had a basket of sandwich stuff to make for ourselves and soon enough it was lunchtime. Usually, there would be more activities for us to do, like ice fishing or cross country skiing, but it was still pretty early in the season for cross country skiing and the river wasn't frozen yet. But some people went sledding around the campsite. I was more content with just relaxing a bit before lunch.
For lunch, they made a very tasty soup that also had reindeer meat and some vegetables. The guides definitely know what they were cooking, maybe because they have cooked it many times before. Nonetheless, it was tasty and filled us up.
The rest of the day didn't have too much else going on besides the cleaning of the cabins and getting ready to leave. As we were waiting, Henrik was bringing another group of 9 to the cabin. One of the guides asked me to help her bring in the raft and I got to meet some of the others from the new group. They were curious how it was, and I could only tell them how much fun I had.
After about an hour later, it was our turn to go back to Kiruna. We left around 3, so it was already dark. It was the same concept as when we first came: three groups, one on the dog sleds and two on snowmobiles. The group of 7 French people actually had to get back before their train was leaving around 5, so they got to go first on the dog sleds, and after their turn, one of the guides would drive them back with the snowmobiles a bit faster than 20 kph..
Everything seemed to be running smoothly until there was a stop of about 15 minutes. Something was loose on Henrik's trailer that was making the trail for the dogs. After a few attempts, it was fixed (I guess) and we continued on our way. I was stuck with the last group, so I think we got the dogs at their most tired state, but were still going pretty strong. There were a couple of fights between the dogs in front of us, and Henrik gave the dogs involved a swift kick to tell them to knock it off. We eventually got back to the starting point, returned some of the things we had to borrow, and got dropped off back at the hostel in town.
Jai and I sleddin'
We went back to Point North and after some discussion of either 1) telling the lady who runs the hostel our story, and hope that she understands and pay for the extra two 2) just try to keep the two people hidden the night and avoid the fee and avoid getting the two people kicked out into the night, we chose to tell her our story and hope she lets us have the two others stay in one of the rooms with us. She had been nice to us before, so we saw no risk in at least asking her. She was very understanding and said it was ok to have the others stay and pay for the night. We were very grateful and I have since then submitted some reviews of the hostel we stayed at, and the one that wasn't open when we needed it to be...it's on google maps if you like: type Kiruna, search for hostels and look for Point North and then Kirunarumsservice for the other one.
The rest of the night was spent just chilling and watching TV. We played some terrible memory game with National Geographic cards, watched Eregorn, ate some thai chicken and rice combo made by Jai. And again we tried seeing the Northern Lights but with no success. Oh well, that's for the next trip!
Next day, we woke up a bit later than we probably should have because we still needed to pack, but that ended up not taking as long because we knew how to pack all the stuff from before. We had a quick breakfast, then got in the taxi and headed to the airport. It was -17 Celsius (1 Fahrenheit) when we got to the airport. The flight itself was only 1.5 hours to Stockholm Alranda.
Then we took the shuttle bus to the bus station in Stockholm (about 50 minutes away). We said goodbye to Emanuel, Guillaume's friend who spoke no English who had to catch a bus to another airport. Next, we got some Burger King for lunch and said goodbye to Jai who was going to stay in Stockholm for one day, because he still hadn't seen the city...I'll probably have to do the same before leaving January 11th to go back home. After lunch, the rest of us took a direct bus back to Jönköping. I am not thrilled with taking the bus as compared to train because of the cramped feeling in the bus and it is a bit noisier...oh well!
It was a great trip, something I will remember for a loooong time. There's nothing else I can think to say about it, except maybe next time I find myself in Lappland, I go in February or March when it's a bit colder, you can do more stuff and see more things (Ice Hotel, ice fishing, etc), but who knows when the next time will be!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Kiruna: pre-trip
So a few weeks ago, a few of us students (6 total) who couldn't go on the trip to Kiruna with the school decided to plan a trip of our own a week before!! We will leave Wednesday (25th) and get back Sunday (29th).
We will be taking a train up totaling 21 hours! Should be interesting...
Then one night in a hostel in Kiruna. The next day, a two-day package of snowmobiling and dog sledding, and an overnight stay in a cabin.
The last night we will stay in a hostel again (a different one).
We will fly to Arlanda Airport and take the bus back to get back around 4 Sunday afternoon.
The amount of clothes I'm bringing is probably going to be way less than the others, because I'm used to the cold and it's still pretty early in the season for it to be TOO cold for me.
There is an ice hotel located in the town, but it won't be ready when we are there, but it would only be to see it, not stay in it, so I'm not too bummed about that.
There might be a possibility of northern lights, hopefully I can get some pictures of it!
A few days after I get back, I should have a new post...see you then!
We will be taking a train up totaling 21 hours! Should be interesting...
Then one night in a hostel in Kiruna. The next day, a two-day package of snowmobiling and dog sledding, and an overnight stay in a cabin.
The last night we will stay in a hostel again (a different one).
We will fly to Arlanda Airport and take the bus back to get back around 4 Sunday afternoon.
The amount of clothes I'm bringing is probably going to be way less than the others, because I'm used to the cold and it's still pretty early in the season for it to be TOO cold for me.
There is an ice hotel located in the town, but it won't be ready when we are there, but it would only be to see it, not stay in it, so I'm not too bummed about that.
There might be a possibility of northern lights, hopefully I can get some pictures of it!
A few days after I get back, I should have a new post...see you then!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Slovenia: final chapter!
By now, the arena has definitely filled up more than in the beginning. I wouldn't say it was sold out, but pretty close to it, and you could sense the crowd getting antsy once they heard the music from the movie "psycho"...something that they did on their last tour as well. Once the music changed to that, you knew everyone was ready and in about 5 minutes they were going to start their show. I was able to get much closer to the stage than where I was for Opeth as well. It still didn't help there were a few tall Eastern European people in front of me...curse my height! oh well...
From the past blog, you can probably guess that Dream Theater were going to get their share of pranks being pulled on them. This was probably the most entertaining concert I had been to. Entertaining in the sense of what was going on besides the music.
In the first song, there's a vocal part for Mike that involves some "growling"...well the video crew made a little video to help enhance the moment.
You can't tell from all the way back there (I don't think), but around the 0:52 mark in the video, one of the members of BigElf came and dumped something on his head, probably fries or something. THAT was probably the funniest thing I saw that night. Mike's humor is a great part of the band, and just made it funnier that he started singing the cookie monster song.
There were a few other songs that I hadn't heard them play before, another reason why I like what Dream Theater does. Usually, it's Mike who makes up the set list. There are a few common songs, like ones of the new album, but then he also keeps track of what songs they played the last time, so if you wanted to hear a song but they didn't play it that time, chances are they could play it then! Or at least something different.
For those of you who are interested, (I'm guessing just Luke on this one) the songs they played were: nightmare to remember, rite of passage, JP break/solo, hollow years, jordan break/solo, erotomania, voices, in the name of god, count of tuscany.
I have seen Green Day twice, and they pretty much played the same songs except for the first time I saw them, because that was before their American Idiot album. Not to say I didn't like the songs they played, but it's nice to hear some songs that may not be that popular to some, but favorites for others.
One of my favorite songs from the DT concert was hollow years, a song that I usually don't listen to the album version. During the Jordan break/solo, he played a little bit of the Slovenian song that Simon told us about earlier. I think the crowd got a kick out of it, and I knew somewhere in the audience Simon was telling his other friends that was him who taught Jordan that song!
Here's another prank was pulled in between songs recorded by Jordan on stage. haha I was wondering what some of the Slovenian fans thought of all the pranks going on. If they enjoyed it or not. Either way, it was a very unique show and I'm glad I got the chance to experience it.
I also found it interesting how short of a wait there was for the encore. There was only about half as long of a wait for them to come back on stage as in previous concerts...maybe they were just ready to end the show before anymore pranks were pulled.
After the last song, I knew the after show meeting was next thanks to the show in Copenhagen. The concern of if I see Alex and the other guy from the hostel came into my mind and sure enough I saw him talking with some guys around him in the front of the stage. It was good to see he at least got a front row view of the concert, so he had at least some on ME! haha. I also saw Simon and was introduced to a couple of his other friends that he brought to the show. I used these guys to hide myself from Alex, because I knew if he saw me, he would want to know what I was doing next and with a shiny VIP pass around my neck, things would need to get answered! But, he never saw me.
So Simon, his friends, and I were told to go around outside for the after show stuff, like what I had to do for meeting up with Jordan. There were more fans outside this time, and a barrier around the doors. I was able to flag down one of the crew members from earlier, and he brought us into a little cafeteria room where we waited for Jordan, just like last time in Copenhagen.
So we chatted a little bit with Jordan. He signed some autographs, took pictures and even the singer/guitar player from Opeth came in to say goodbye to Jordan. He told us another prank that I couldn't tell happened. He had a remote controlled farting machine set up, so whenever the guy who works the in-ear monitors wanted, he could switch to the farting machine and give the band members a very unexpected sound!! This happened a few times, including a very soft part in a solo for Jordan. I guess they got a picture of his "priceless" reaction to the noise, haha but I didn't see any strange face from Jordan during the concert. After a few more minutes of talking, Jordan was ready to leave. I said goodbye and thanked him again for what he has done for me. I can't think of many musicians who would do all the stuff Jordan did for me..but then again I don't know that many famous musicians!
Then it was time to say goodbye to Simon and his friends. They had invited me out for a night out on the town, but I was pretty tired and ready to get some sleep, as I probably wouldn't get any real sleep because of the trip back until 3:30 in the morning on Tuesday, and it was still Saturday night!
Before the concert, I was in the hostel looking at travel arrangements for going to a place called Bled. One of the guys back on my floor had been there and said it was a great place to go. I figured to go to Bled and then take the train to Villach, because it's on the way, two birds with one stone!
Sunday morning, I talked with Alex a little bit and he wanted to show me something. I was hoping that he somehow got something signed, but instead he was just showing me his ticket. Since they got there so early, the doors weren't really locked, so they were able to get in without their ticket stub being torn off...they played catch with some of the other crew members as well. I told him how 'awesome' that was, and refrained from showing him all of the cool stuff that I had! After packing up and saying goodbye to everyone, it was off to the bus/train station to get a ticket to Bled and more importantly, my train ticket to Milan.
The train ticket ended up not being nearly as expensive as the one on the way back, and it wasn't the exact same route either. I would leave from Bled at 9 at night, get to Villach, then to Venice and THEN to Milan at 8:30 in the morning Monday. This time I didn't have a sleeping car ticket, which definitely helped bring the cost down.
The trip to Bled took a little bit more than an hour, and the first thing I went to was the Lake. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves about how awesome the lake is!!
First I decided to take the hike up to the castle. On the hike, I took off my jacket because I was starting to get warm. When I got to a point to take a picture of the town from the tower:
I double checked to make sure I had everything. All of a sudden, I couldn't find my train tickets that I kept on the inside of my coat....quickly, I started backtracking down the trail and not too long did I see a family with the Dad holding my tickets!! By the expression on my face, I think he knew right away the tickets belonged to me. I said thank you MANY times, and with the limited English he knew he responded with "Super!", haha. I made sure to put them in my backpack and continued on my walk.
Fortunately, it was just as nice that day as it was Sunday. I then decided to go on a walk around the lake which took about an hour or so. The water was very calm and very clear and probably very cold!
Here is a castle on an island in the lake. You could rent a rowboat and go to the castle, but I decided not to do that. Maybe if there was another person with me I would but just one person in a big rowboat seems a bit lonely!
Here was the castle that I was up on before. I didn't think I hiked up ALL of that, but apparently I did!
Here's the first picture I took in Bled...quite bright!
One more for good measure...
So by the time I made it around the lake, I was ready to go back home...but it was only 4 o'clock!! It was STILL a holiday, so there weren't a lot of places open and the sun was starting to go down and the air was getting colder...eventually, I made it to a coffee/bar and had a cup while reading a snowboarding magazine I bought way back in Stockholm the first day. It was nice to be in Bled, but after the lake, there wasn't much else to do.
After asking where the train station was that was on my ticket, I was informed by a hotel receptionist it was in the next town...about 6 km out...so my plan of action was to take the bus, but it didn't leave until 9:10 and the train was leaving at 9:36..still enough time if the bus got to the station on time....
I was waiting for the bus longer than I had hoped. Looking at the schedule at the station, it said one would leave at 8:30, which I was going to take just to give myself enough time to get there and maybe get something to eat in the next town. The bus never showed up. I checked the schedule again, and it should have been there, holiday or not...my next gamble was that the 9:10 train showed up. there were also some phone numbers for a few taxi companies that I was prepared to call if the bus was a no-show. 9:07, no bus I start to think it's probably better just to call the taxi, and maybe while I'm calling the taxi, the bus will show up. The taxi driver says he'll be there in two minutes. around 9:14 the bus finally shows up a little bit before the taxi. I'm thinking I'll be able to get on the bus right away, and get going. NOPE, bus driver takes his time, helping the other passengers with their luggage, and goes up and down the isles....and all I want to do is get on that damn bus!!
Behind the bus I see the taxi waiting for me. I try to be polite in telling the bus driver I'm in a hurry and his response: "sorry I don't speak English, do you speak Slovenian?" with a shake of my head HIS response was "MEH", shrugs his shoulders and continues checking the bus. That pissed me off quite a bit and I went to the taxi driver instead.
He was much nicer than the bus driver and we chatted the whole 5 mintues before dropping me off at the station. I gave him a nice tip because without him, I might have missed the train and that would have ruined a lot of my plans and cost me much more than the tip...And it was true, as the train was coming to a stop, I saw the bus going by the station...I would have been late for the train if I stuck with the bus! I wanted to shout obscenities (that won't be typed on this blog) to the bus, but kept them in my head instead.
So began the long journey. I got a little bit of sleep, and made sure to set my alarm on my cell phone a few minutes before I got to the next destination in case I went into a deep sleep.
In Villach, I was sitting by myself when a guy came and sat RIGHT next to me...I started thinking maybe he wanted some help, as I had seen him earlier asking people for something. Or maybe he wanted to take my backpack. Either way, I just sat there until he asked me something. He wanted to know if I had a Visa..I was thinking the student Visa, but he meant Visa credit card. He was looking to get a train ticket to Rome, but he didn't have a credit card to purchase from the machine, and was going to give me cash for the ticket. I decided he wasn't going to try any funny business, so tried to help him out. It didn't work though, because it was an international trip, and needed to be done in person with someone at the ticket counter. I had the same problem in Milan Thursday night. I tried to purchase a ticket to Ljubljana from one of those machines but it came up with an error message and a guy behind me pointed me to the long line of people at the ticket counter.
After no such luck, and even going through all the possible options to show him I couldn't possibly do it for him, we went back to sit down. His name was Muhammad from either Afghanistan or Pakistan, I couldn't tell because his English wasn't the best. More than a few times he was trying to tell me something and I wasn't quite sure what he meant. I also had to talk very slowly and needed to repeat myself a lot so he knew what I was saying.
His story was that he was going to Rome to see his friends who had been there for a while. The situation back home wasn't very good, so Italy was a safer option for him. I'm not exactly sure how he got to Villach, but he had been to Turkey, Hungary and Iran before.
During our chat, I decided to show him my snowboard magazine, just to show him what kinds of stuff I like to do. I think he found it interesting and asked how some of that stuff was possible!
Not long after, it was time for me to leave. I hope he was able to get to Rome somehow...
My next stop was to a station in the Venice area. Where I waited a couple more hours before making my way to Milan. It was a long couple hours for sure, because NOTHING was open (not even bathrooms). So everyone had to wait outside and it was quite cold that night...not exactly the weather I was hoping from Venice, but it was also early November...
I almost got on the wrong train too. While waiting, I looked at the schedule for the train to Milan, but I was looking at one that didn't get to Milan until around 8:45, and I was anticipating getting there at 8:30. I looked at my ticket to make sure it was correct, and I saw that there was another train to Milan later, but it had less stops. I was almost tempted to take the earlier train just to get out of the cold, but that's just silly.
We made it to Milan with a lot of rain. There were a lot more businessmen by the end of the ride than in the beginning. The pace was definitely set to fast once everyone got off the train at the central station. I quickly got a ticket for the shuttle bus and got on the first shuttle bus...only to wait for 15 minutes before leaving at 9. I didn't really keep in mind much traffic there would be in Milan on a Monday morning until I was on the train in Venice.
It took 35 stop-and-start minutes before getting out of Milan. At the rate we were going in the city, I thinking I was going to miss my flight, which left at 11:20. Finally we got out of the city and it was much better traffic. At the airport, I was lucky enough to be second in line in a lane that just opened for Stockholm after entering a line of 15 people. I got checked-in quickly and was able to grab something to eat. Traveling can be a stressful thing, but I could see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Again with the airline I was traveling with, (easyJet) they have that extra charge to get on the plane. Here's a picture of the "line" for the flight...basically a few people getting in at a time, then all the other people who didn't pay the extra fee waiting for their turn...a bit ridiculous.
The flight was also ridiculous with 150 people on a 156 seated plane. I had no room to put my backpack overhead, so I had to keep it underneath the chair in front of me. I didn't move much on that flight, and tried to get as much sleep as possible. My iPod also ran out of batteries, so it was the soft sound of others talking around me, the occasional announcement on the PA, and of course crying babies!! yippee!!
We got into Stockholm Arlanda around 2, where I had to wait again for another couple of hours before I started my long journey back home. If I would have paid attention to the returning route, I probably would have changed it, because it didn't make much sense. I could have taken a shuttle bus which left every 20 minutes or so from Arlanda to the CityTerminal in Stockholm, and then catch a bus back to Jönköping that way. Instead, I took a bus that went west, and then a bus that pretty much doubled back and went southeast to the CityTerminal....there were definitely a few hours I could have saved...oh well! Lesson learned for next time.
One thing I found interesting were the workers at the Arlanda airport. They had scooters that they could ride up and down the terminals. Some scooters looked newer than others, and I was temped to take one for a ride myself when I saw one by its lonesome.... :) It's not the best picture, but you get the idea.
Stockholm was much nicer to wait than in Venice. I got some Burger King for dinner, and walked around the streets as much as I could and made sure not to get lost. I was thinking how interesting it would have been to walk around Stockholm back in August when I just got to Sweden, instead of going to bed right away at the hotel. I still don't feel I've experienced in Stockholm, because it was nighttime and I again had other plans.
The bus ride back wasn't my most comfortable or pleasant one. I was hoping there wouldn't be a lot of people on this bus, or at least someone next to me so I could get in a comfortable position and sleep all 5 hours before making it to Jönköping at 3:30 in the morning. NOPE. There was quite a few people, and lucky me, I was one of the few people who had someone sit next to them! There were a few kids on the bus, who had been excited waiting for the bus earlier, and the talking didn't stop when they were on the bus...there was also a foreign couple who sat in front of me and didn't know the concept of whispering. I was getting irritated with anything people were doing that was interrupting my efforts to sleep. At one stop, a few people got off and the guy next to me took the empty seats. Hurray! more space for me...NOPE. Of the couple people that got on at the stop, one guy decided to sit next to me! He was also coughing a lot and I could hear his music through his headphones. At some point, the talkative couple got off on an early stop, and I was finally back in Jönköping.
I went to bed around 4 after checking a few things on the internet.
And so ended my epic trip to Slovenia!!! I can't imagine what I would have thought 4 months ago if you would have told me what happened...I probably would have thought you were nuts.
Thanks for reading my ramblings!! It looks like my next trip will be to Kiruna after all, because a few students who couldn't go with the schools organized trip are trying to organize their own trip in late November. One of the reasons I went to Slovenia was because I COULDN'T go on the Kiruna trip, but it looks like I'll have my cake and eat it too!
After Kiruna, I'll be spending my Christmas and New Year's in France...then before you know it, I'll be back in the States!! Time definitely feels like it has been flying by...
From the past blog, you can probably guess that Dream Theater were going to get their share of pranks being pulled on them. This was probably the most entertaining concert I had been to. Entertaining in the sense of what was going on besides the music.
In the first song, there's a vocal part for Mike that involves some "growling"...well the video crew made a little video to help enhance the moment.
You can't tell from all the way back there (I don't think), but around the 0:52 mark in the video, one of the members of BigElf came and dumped something on his head, probably fries or something. THAT was probably the funniest thing I saw that night. Mike's humor is a great part of the band, and just made it funnier that he started singing the cookie monster song.
There were a few other songs that I hadn't heard them play before, another reason why I like what Dream Theater does. Usually, it's Mike who makes up the set list. There are a few common songs, like ones of the new album, but then he also keeps track of what songs they played the last time, so if you wanted to hear a song but they didn't play it that time, chances are they could play it then! Or at least something different.
For those of you who are interested, (I'm guessing just Luke on this one) the songs they played were: nightmare to remember, rite of passage, JP break/solo, hollow years, jordan break/solo, erotomania, voices, in the name of god, count of tuscany.
I have seen Green Day twice, and they pretty much played the same songs except for the first time I saw them, because that was before their American Idiot album. Not to say I didn't like the songs they played, but it's nice to hear some songs that may not be that popular to some, but favorites for others.
One of my favorite songs from the DT concert was hollow years, a song that I usually don't listen to the album version. During the Jordan break/solo, he played a little bit of the Slovenian song that Simon told us about earlier. I think the crowd got a kick out of it, and I knew somewhere in the audience Simon was telling his other friends that was him who taught Jordan that song!
Here's another prank was pulled in between songs recorded by Jordan on stage. haha I was wondering what some of the Slovenian fans thought of all the pranks going on. If they enjoyed it or not. Either way, it was a very unique show and I'm glad I got the chance to experience it.
I also found it interesting how short of a wait there was for the encore. There was only about half as long of a wait for them to come back on stage as in previous concerts...maybe they were just ready to end the show before anymore pranks were pulled.
After the last song, I knew the after show meeting was next thanks to the show in Copenhagen. The concern of if I see Alex and the other guy from the hostel came into my mind and sure enough I saw him talking with some guys around him in the front of the stage. It was good to see he at least got a front row view of the concert, so he had at least some on ME! haha. I also saw Simon and was introduced to a couple of his other friends that he brought to the show. I used these guys to hide myself from Alex, because I knew if he saw me, he would want to know what I was doing next and with a shiny VIP pass around my neck, things would need to get answered! But, he never saw me.
So Simon, his friends, and I were told to go around outside for the after show stuff, like what I had to do for meeting up with Jordan. There were more fans outside this time, and a barrier around the doors. I was able to flag down one of the crew members from earlier, and he brought us into a little cafeteria room where we waited for Jordan, just like last time in Copenhagen.
So we chatted a little bit with Jordan. He signed some autographs, took pictures and even the singer/guitar player from Opeth came in to say goodbye to Jordan. He told us another prank that I couldn't tell happened. He had a remote controlled farting machine set up, so whenever the guy who works the in-ear monitors wanted, he could switch to the farting machine and give the band members a very unexpected sound!! This happened a few times, including a very soft part in a solo for Jordan. I guess they got a picture of his "priceless" reaction to the noise, haha but I didn't see any strange face from Jordan during the concert. After a few more minutes of talking, Jordan was ready to leave. I said goodbye and thanked him again for what he has done for me. I can't think of many musicians who would do all the stuff Jordan did for me..but then again I don't know that many famous musicians!
Then it was time to say goodbye to Simon and his friends. They had invited me out for a night out on the town, but I was pretty tired and ready to get some sleep, as I probably wouldn't get any real sleep because of the trip back until 3:30 in the morning on Tuesday, and it was still Saturday night!
Before the concert, I was in the hostel looking at travel arrangements for going to a place called Bled. One of the guys back on my floor had been there and said it was a great place to go. I figured to go to Bled and then take the train to Villach, because it's on the way, two birds with one stone!
Sunday morning, I talked with Alex a little bit and he wanted to show me something. I was hoping that he somehow got something signed, but instead he was just showing me his ticket. Since they got there so early, the doors weren't really locked, so they were able to get in without their ticket stub being torn off...they played catch with some of the other crew members as well. I told him how 'awesome' that was, and refrained from showing him all of the cool stuff that I had! After packing up and saying goodbye to everyone, it was off to the bus/train station to get a ticket to Bled and more importantly, my train ticket to Milan.
The train ticket ended up not being nearly as expensive as the one on the way back, and it wasn't the exact same route either. I would leave from Bled at 9 at night, get to Villach, then to Venice and THEN to Milan at 8:30 in the morning Monday. This time I didn't have a sleeping car ticket, which definitely helped bring the cost down.
The trip to Bled took a little bit more than an hour, and the first thing I went to was the Lake. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves about how awesome the lake is!!
First I decided to take the hike up to the castle. On the hike, I took off my jacket because I was starting to get warm. When I got to a point to take a picture of the town from the tower:
I double checked to make sure I had everything. All of a sudden, I couldn't find my train tickets that I kept on the inside of my coat....quickly, I started backtracking down the trail and not too long did I see a family with the Dad holding my tickets!! By the expression on my face, I think he knew right away the tickets belonged to me. I said thank you MANY times, and with the limited English he knew he responded with "Super!", haha. I made sure to put them in my backpack and continued on my walk.
Fortunately, it was just as nice that day as it was Sunday. I then decided to go on a walk around the lake which took about an hour or so. The water was very calm and very clear and probably very cold!
Here is a castle on an island in the lake. You could rent a rowboat and go to the castle, but I decided not to do that. Maybe if there was another person with me I would but just one person in a big rowboat seems a bit lonely!
Here was the castle that I was up on before. I didn't think I hiked up ALL of that, but apparently I did! I really liked taking panoramic shots of this place....
Here's the first picture I took in Bled...quite bright!One more for good measure...
So by the time I made it around the lake, I was ready to go back home...but it was only 4 o'clock!! It was STILL a holiday, so there weren't a lot of places open and the sun was starting to go down and the air was getting colder...eventually, I made it to a coffee/bar and had a cup while reading a snowboarding magazine I bought way back in Stockholm the first day. It was nice to be in Bled, but after the lake, there wasn't much else to do.
After asking where the train station was that was on my ticket, I was informed by a hotel receptionist it was in the next town...about 6 km out...so my plan of action was to take the bus, but it didn't leave until 9:10 and the train was leaving at 9:36..still enough time if the bus got to the station on time....
I was waiting for the bus longer than I had hoped. Looking at the schedule at the station, it said one would leave at 8:30, which I was going to take just to give myself enough time to get there and maybe get something to eat in the next town. The bus never showed up. I checked the schedule again, and it should have been there, holiday or not...my next gamble was that the 9:10 train showed up. there were also some phone numbers for a few taxi companies that I was prepared to call if the bus was a no-show. 9:07, no bus I start to think it's probably better just to call the taxi, and maybe while I'm calling the taxi, the bus will show up. The taxi driver says he'll be there in two minutes. around 9:14 the bus finally shows up a little bit before the taxi. I'm thinking I'll be able to get on the bus right away, and get going. NOPE, bus driver takes his time, helping the other passengers with their luggage, and goes up and down the isles....and all I want to do is get on that damn bus!!
Behind the bus I see the taxi waiting for me. I try to be polite in telling the bus driver I'm in a hurry and his response: "sorry I don't speak English, do you speak Slovenian?" with a shake of my head HIS response was "MEH", shrugs his shoulders and continues checking the bus. That pissed me off quite a bit and I went to the taxi driver instead.
He was much nicer than the bus driver and we chatted the whole 5 mintues before dropping me off at the station. I gave him a nice tip because without him, I might have missed the train and that would have ruined a lot of my plans and cost me much more than the tip...And it was true, as the train was coming to a stop, I saw the bus going by the station...I would have been late for the train if I stuck with the bus! I wanted to shout obscenities (that won't be typed on this blog) to the bus, but kept them in my head instead.
So began the long journey. I got a little bit of sleep, and made sure to set my alarm on my cell phone a few minutes before I got to the next destination in case I went into a deep sleep.
In Villach, I was sitting by myself when a guy came and sat RIGHT next to me...I started thinking maybe he wanted some help, as I had seen him earlier asking people for something. Or maybe he wanted to take my backpack. Either way, I just sat there until he asked me something. He wanted to know if I had a Visa..I was thinking the student Visa, but he meant Visa credit card. He was looking to get a train ticket to Rome, but he didn't have a credit card to purchase from the machine, and was going to give me cash for the ticket. I decided he wasn't going to try any funny business, so tried to help him out. It didn't work though, because it was an international trip, and needed to be done in person with someone at the ticket counter. I had the same problem in Milan Thursday night. I tried to purchase a ticket to Ljubljana from one of those machines but it came up with an error message and a guy behind me pointed me to the long line of people at the ticket counter.
After no such luck, and even going through all the possible options to show him I couldn't possibly do it for him, we went back to sit down. His name was Muhammad from either Afghanistan or Pakistan, I couldn't tell because his English wasn't the best. More than a few times he was trying to tell me something and I wasn't quite sure what he meant. I also had to talk very slowly and needed to repeat myself a lot so he knew what I was saying.
His story was that he was going to Rome to see his friends who had been there for a while. The situation back home wasn't very good, so Italy was a safer option for him. I'm not exactly sure how he got to Villach, but he had been to Turkey, Hungary and Iran before.
During our chat, I decided to show him my snowboard magazine, just to show him what kinds of stuff I like to do. I think he found it interesting and asked how some of that stuff was possible!
Not long after, it was time for me to leave. I hope he was able to get to Rome somehow...
My next stop was to a station in the Venice area. Where I waited a couple more hours before making my way to Milan. It was a long couple hours for sure, because NOTHING was open (not even bathrooms). So everyone had to wait outside and it was quite cold that night...not exactly the weather I was hoping from Venice, but it was also early November...
I almost got on the wrong train too. While waiting, I looked at the schedule for the train to Milan, but I was looking at one that didn't get to Milan until around 8:45, and I was anticipating getting there at 8:30. I looked at my ticket to make sure it was correct, and I saw that there was another train to Milan later, but it had less stops. I was almost tempted to take the earlier train just to get out of the cold, but that's just silly.
We made it to Milan with a lot of rain. There were a lot more businessmen by the end of the ride than in the beginning. The pace was definitely set to fast once everyone got off the train at the central station. I quickly got a ticket for the shuttle bus and got on the first shuttle bus...only to wait for 15 minutes before leaving at 9. I didn't really keep in mind much traffic there would be in Milan on a Monday morning until I was on the train in Venice.
It took 35 stop-and-start minutes before getting out of Milan. At the rate we were going in the city, I thinking I was going to miss my flight, which left at 11:20. Finally we got out of the city and it was much better traffic. At the airport, I was lucky enough to be second in line in a lane that just opened for Stockholm after entering a line of 15 people. I got checked-in quickly and was able to grab something to eat. Traveling can be a stressful thing, but I could see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Again with the airline I was traveling with, (easyJet) they have that extra charge to get on the plane. Here's a picture of the "line" for the flight...basically a few people getting in at a time, then all the other people who didn't pay the extra fee waiting for their turn...a bit ridiculous.The flight was also ridiculous with 150 people on a 156 seated plane. I had no room to put my backpack overhead, so I had to keep it underneath the chair in front of me. I didn't move much on that flight, and tried to get as much sleep as possible. My iPod also ran out of batteries, so it was the soft sound of others talking around me, the occasional announcement on the PA, and of course crying babies!! yippee!!
We got into Stockholm Arlanda around 2, where I had to wait again for another couple of hours before I started my long journey back home. If I would have paid attention to the returning route, I probably would have changed it, because it didn't make much sense. I could have taken a shuttle bus which left every 20 minutes or so from Arlanda to the CityTerminal in Stockholm, and then catch a bus back to Jönköping that way. Instead, I took a bus that went west, and then a bus that pretty much doubled back and went southeast to the CityTerminal....there were definitely a few hours I could have saved...oh well! Lesson learned for next time.
One thing I found interesting were the workers at the Arlanda airport. They had scooters that they could ride up and down the terminals. Some scooters looked newer than others, and I was temped to take one for a ride myself when I saw one by its lonesome.... :) It's not the best picture, but you get the idea.
Stockholm was much nicer to wait than in Venice. I got some Burger King for dinner, and walked around the streets as much as I could and made sure not to get lost. I was thinking how interesting it would have been to walk around Stockholm back in August when I just got to Sweden, instead of going to bed right away at the hotel. I still don't feel I've experienced in Stockholm, because it was nighttime and I again had other plans.
The bus ride back wasn't my most comfortable or pleasant one. I was hoping there wouldn't be a lot of people on this bus, or at least someone next to me so I could get in a comfortable position and sleep all 5 hours before making it to Jönköping at 3:30 in the morning. NOPE. There was quite a few people, and lucky me, I was one of the few people who had someone sit next to them! There were a few kids on the bus, who had been excited waiting for the bus earlier, and the talking didn't stop when they were on the bus...there was also a foreign couple who sat in front of me and didn't know the concept of whispering. I was getting irritated with anything people were doing that was interrupting my efforts to sleep. At one stop, a few people got off and the guy next to me took the empty seats. Hurray! more space for me...NOPE. Of the couple people that got on at the stop, one guy decided to sit next to me! He was also coughing a lot and I could hear his music through his headphones. At some point, the talkative couple got off on an early stop, and I was finally back in Jönköping.
I went to bed around 4 after checking a few things on the internet.
And so ended my epic trip to Slovenia!!! I can't imagine what I would have thought 4 months ago if you would have told me what happened...I probably would have thought you were nuts.
Thanks for reading my ramblings!! It looks like my next trip will be to Kiruna after all, because a few students who couldn't go with the schools organized trip are trying to organize their own trip in late November. One of the reasons I went to Slovenia was because I COULDN'T go on the Kiruna trip, but it looks like I'll have my cake and eat it too!
After Kiruna, I'll be spending my Christmas and New Year's in France...then before you know it, I'll be back in the States!! Time definitely feels like it has been flying by...
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