Wow it's been a while since I've had a chance to update this. Mainly because I'm now back in Australia after my Lappland trip. I finished up all my 4 units, all in as good of a standing as required to get the pass mark and gearing up for my last semester at Uni!
So where did we leave off, Lappland? Okay! Well I didn't freeze to death but I wasn't far off. Little tip if you are going up there, make sure you stay away from "warm" sports attire like Helly Hansen or North Face and invest in some thick wool attire, it's cheaper too! One major mistake I made was wearing gloves with fingers, I know it doesn't look cool but those mittens allow your fingers to build up warmth together rather than freezing individually. Anyway now we have the cold tips out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff.
The bus journey was to be around 26 hours or so, yeah that's right, 26 hours. Luckily the bus we went in has seats that convert to beds so you can actually get a decent sleep during the night. On the right hand side there is Nik and Jonas geting "comfortable" for the long bus ride. The journey heads east first to pick up students from Linköping University, then continues east before finally heading north (in the right direction) just before getting into Stockholm.
Finally, after many aches and pains we arrive in the mining town of Kiruna, we are finally in Lappland! Kiruna is a very small yet very charming little town and is fairly modern looking for something that is so remote and designed as a mining community. So what was there for us to do here, well I wasn't interested in checking out an iron mine, but I was interested in dog sledging and snowmobiling!
The dog sledging is damn cold, I had every piece of clothing I owned on as well as a ski mask AND an extra outside overall layer that the tour company supplies AAAAND these massively thick snow boots...still not enough! With the wind chill on the moving sledge we were dealing with -30C of toe and finger freezing degrees! Because of that damn overall I couldn't easily access my camera so I only have some after pictures.
The next day we head out to Arbisko, a town that apparently has the best chances possible of seeing the Northern Lights and is our playground for Cross Country Skiing. Now this was my first time doing this "sport" but it's pretty easy to get the hang of after about 10/15minutes. Kind of the same principal as ice skating but you keep the foot movement straight and you have sticks to help you slide along.
Just outside of Arbisko we visited a remote Sami family. The Sami are the native/aboriginal people of this northern strip of land that stretches over Norway, Sweden, Finland and a small part of Russia. They are nomadic people who follow their Reindeer which is their livestock, currency and provides them with everything they need to live. Asking a Sami person how many reindeer they have is the equivalent of asking you how much money you have sitting in your bank account, so we were asking politely not to ask that! So you could imagine what the running joke was every time we were asked if there were any questions. I know it's immature but when you are told not to do something you REALLY want to do it when you would never have thought of it in the first place!
Over the border to Norway where we head to Narvik. Narvik is the (apparently) third best skiing spot in the world. However we were not there for the skiing but for the awesome view...and it was awesome!
I can't remember if this was before or after Narvik but we did stop off at the Ice Hotel...annoyingly it was a few days from it's official opening so we couldn't actually go in there. But we were allowed a "exclusive" look behind the scenes of the factory and the museum of old Ice Hotel sculptures. I honestly would rather have just looked in the hotel itself, okay it was still cool but I really had my heart set on seeing the lobby and a room there.
There is a lot I have probably left out, and since this was over a month ago I will probably have to come back and edit this post a few times but the main thing is it is up and that took a rather large crane to lift me off my arse in order this alone to happen :-)
So what am I up to right now?
Well it's back to the normal life in Perth for me. I am back in the same apartment my girlfriend did such a nice job of keeping warm for me and I've had to do the "grown up" thing and get another job. It's just a duty manager position at a coffee chain but it is close to home, pays me money (which I so desperately need right now). Basically, it will do for now. I'm getting my units organised for my final semester and also getting the ones I did in GU transferred to their equivalents here at ECU.
Maybe this will be my last blog entry, maybe not. We shall see!
