Few Photos Too

The Vasa Museum

The Norwegian Fjords

Playing Around Outside the Icehotel

Inside the Icehotel

We Did it Norway

The next day was a travel day from Kiruna to the coast of Norway in Harstad, a small fishing town. Trains, busses, and all the while with the contingent of about 12 finicky, inappropriately-dressed Brits that had arranged the same tour. At one point I stepped two feet away from them to take a photo as we waited for a bus and one of them approached me and said, “Excuse me, do you speak English? Is the right bus stop?” I had to remind her- politely I think- that I was in their group and had been traveling with them for about 6 hours by this point. It was later on the bus into Harstad that I thought I might have to push a few of them over a cliff, when the North-London lady behind us started to literally read out every sign we passed at the top of her voice!

Anyway, we eventually pulled into the port-town and were given rooms in the ‘prettiest hotel in Harstad,’ a hotel for ‘people on the go.’ It was hilariously ugly. Like two grannies had tried to decorate an old Communist hotel from Siberia. Anyway, we were so exhausted we just ordered a pizza and fell asleep (Norwegians apparently love pizza. It’s been the first restaurant we’ve seen in every remote nowhere place we’ve pulled into.)

The next morning we waited in a loading dock on the port during a snowstorm for the ship to arrive, the Hurtigruten ship Nordkapp, which was an hour delayed due to foul weather. And man, the weather IS foul in this country during winter! Never again shall I complain about the weather in Dublin. Because of it we had to skip past what is said to be the most beautiful part of the journey southwards along the fjords, the Trollfjorden and passage through the Lofoten Islands, to arrive directly at port on the south end of the Lofotens in Svolvaer. All the same, the coast is glorious! More so than we had ever expected. It is as if the Alps had sunk. Everything thrusts upwards, and along the narrow band of habitable land at sea-level we have been amazed to see lonely little houses all along the way. We got off at Svolvaer and had a walk around the lovely little town centre, surrounded by towering peaks on all sides. Norway is one of the very few countries in the world to still engage in commercial whaling, and Svolvaer is apparently one of the main departure points for it October-January. The cafe we went into even had a whale-burger on the menu. Despite this, the town and surrounding islands are beautiful, and we would love to return to experience it in summer.

Yesterday we spent the entire day onboard the ship, and once we had passed Trondheim the sea became increasingly rough. I had been doing well up until then, but as the ship pushes up the crest of a particularly large wave and then freefalls back down, and then does it all over again for hours and hours…the only sane thing is to be prostate in your bunk. Vince, of course, hasn’t been bothered in the least by it ;) He convinced me to go to dinner last night (where most tables remained empty) but I had to leave midway through L

Today we will arrive in the city of Bergen, where we will spend two nights (on land, thankfully!)

XOXO

The Northern Lights

The excursion in search of the Northern Lights was a four hour ride on snowmobiles with a group of ten others through narrow forest trails, across frozen lakes and down the wide ice-bound Torne River, approximately 25 kilometers of driving. The temperature should have been -30 but it was maybe ever a max of -2. Very comfortable. Vince was the driver, as my license has recently expired – that said, the machine looks pitifully simple to operate - Stop. Go. Hand warmers on. That sort of thing.

The sky was clear and the stars and sickle-shaped moon lit up the snow without any competition from city lights. The loud roar of the snowmobiles cut through the peace and silence, and there was a powerful smell of diesel along the forest trails, but revving up the engine to 60-70 kilometers per hour along frozen rivers made it all worthwhile.

We finally stopped in a clearing. Above us the Northern Lights seemed to flutter like strands of pale blue ribbon. At first they were not very impressive, and we were just getting ready to leave when BAM! A ‘finger’ of cloud stuff swooped accusingly down on us, and as we gasped a melody of dancing colors surrounded us, so close you felt like you could just reach up and grab them- pinks, teals, greens. Just color itself playing in the sky and showing off. Stupendous. No photos can do it justice. After about 20 minutes the show died down, and we got back on our speed-machines and zoomed off to dinner in a wilderness hut of salmon sandwiches, moose soup and more lingonberry juice.

That night we slept like the warm dead.

XOXO

BWAAFUCKIMSTILLALIVE...or, the Icehotel Experience

We thought we were having fun in Stockholm, but man, that was nothing! The Icehotel was possibly the most fun I've ever had in my life. How come? Well, partly a mixture of snow, alcohol and gravity which I had never before realized went so well together…

When we arrived in Kiruna (200 clicks north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden) we had arranged a husky sled ride from the airport to the hotel itself, situated on the banks of the expansive frozen river Torne 14 kilometers distant, driven by a pixie-ish Indonesian-Dutch-Chinese girl who had spent most of her life in the tropics before falling in love with the dogs and deciding to stay up there. Kiruna seems to be one of those sticky places on the Earth that strange adventurers are drawn to and find themselves unable to leave. (Bea, Nick – you would love it up here!) The ride was pure magic, although the stench of dog-shit pervaded the trail and Vince - sitting in the front - had to dodge a few poops that flew out of the dogs as they ran ;) But the dogs were friendly and very smart, and we were surprised that they were actually no bigger than normal house dogs.

That night we braved “sleep” in the Icehotel. Some of the brochures we read said that “most people find one night in an ice room sufficient.” Well, yeah. Once-in-a-lifetime by dint of the fact that it is FUCKING FREEZING and not really possible to sleep very well because every hour and a half you wake up with a jolt and a “BWAAFUUUCKIMSTILLALIVE.” I also had to check Vince was still breathing every few hours. So, beautiful room, great ‘experience’ but we didn’t have to be prodded out of the room when morning came.

The next day we took a tour of the raison-d’etre of the town – the LKAB iron ore mine in Kiruna, the largest and most-advanced underground iron ore mine in the world. It is always astounding to see these massive feats of engineering and terraforming. As I said, the town exists because of this mine, and in fact most of Sweden’s wealth in the 19^th century came from it. So the townspeople take the small inconveniences in stride, such as the fact that the entire town shakes every night between 1:15 and 1:30 am as the blasting caps in the mountain are detonated, and also that they have mined out so much ore that the town has to be relocated in the next 3 years because it is sinking (not to worry though, the Dutch have offered to move it for them, probably in trade for the mountain of slag they have created!) Anyway, to get some sense of the scale of the operation, the mine makes a profit of 1 million euros every 70 minutes round the clock every single day, yet one TON of processed iron pellets costs only 80 euros. Bargain, I just can’t think what I’d do with it. Obviously, I’m alone in that.

When we got back to the hotel we had a warm cabin for the night- thank god! If you want to come up and just see the place (it is fantastic, it really is) but you don’t want to tempt the cold grip of death, these cabins are very comfortable and spacious. It seems like maybe they overcompensate for the ice rooms by super-heating the cabins, as it was so warm we actually had to crack a window.

At 7pm we got on our ski-doos with a group of about 10 people to chase down the Northern Lights….

More on that to come. ;)

PS: Still can’t upload pictures because finding a USB port has proved difficult. Too bad… so far we have taken over 600 snaps! The more to bore you with at a future date.

Leaving Stockholm

Unfortunately cannot post pictures now, as am on public terminal in Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, waiting to fly up to Kiruna in the very north of the country. Vince and I have had two very nice (exhausting) days here exploring the city...we had expected an ice-bound capital but it has been anything but; the weather has been a balmy 4 degrees both days, not a glimpse of snow anywhere and without the horrendous windchill of Dublin it has been quite pleasant. The Swedes we met have complained of having had a very "boring" winter and only one snowfall in the city back in December.

Ah, global varming.

Our first day here we spent a few hours in the Vasa Museum, which is a large building built around a perfectly preserved 17th century King's warship, which sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage in the Stockholm harbour when it was hit with a light gust of air. Terribly expensive lesson in proportions that must have been (the ship stands 5-6 stories high, had a capacity of 450 men, and an extra meter and a half in width would have saved it.) Anyway pictures of that to follow...Vince took over 200!

Right, well, hoping its going to be a little bit colder if we climb a few latitudes...

XOXO