Exploring Lapland
I had a great trip last weekend to the very north of Sweden. For the first time I was above the Polar/Arctic Circle. I was travelling together with Marika from Finland and Richard and Mario from Germany. Since Richard is half Swedish and Marika had Swedish in school for a couple of years, we spoke (or tried to speak) Swedish as much as possible. I think I’ve learned a lot - hopefully I can keep everything in mind.
Friday
Our trip started in the early morning. I was picked up and then we drove straight to Jokkmokk. The trip took us about 5 hours, including a stop at the Arctic Circle. We almost had an accident with a reindeer, but this seems to be nothing exceptional in the wilderness of northern Sweden. In Jokkmokk we visited the famous winter market which was held for the 400th time. It is a traditional Sami market where you can buy original arts and crafts, food and of course lots of commercial crap. I bought some kind of “reindeer wrap” and a delicious moose sausage. Later on we visited the Sami Museum. In the evening we drove to our cabin in Gällivare where we had dinner and a boozy UNO night.
Saturday
Since the others did not really get up on time, I did a little walk in the morning. While you can see tons of bikes in Umea, you primarily notice snowmobiles/scooters here. After breakfast we continued our tour and drove to the famous Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi. This is definitely worth a visit! Even if you probably can’t afford to spend a night there, you can have a look at the rooms with their distinct and artistic ice décor. The hotel is supplemented by the Absolut Icebar, the Ice Church and the Ice Theatre. After checking in the Yellow House in Kiruna and a short walk (the city is not really interesting, but watch out the church), we drove back to Jukkasjärvi to see the Ice Hotel in the dark. Now you can enjoy a wonderful atmosphere with illuminated sculptures and buildings. I should buy a bigger tripod… After viewing the 400-years-old parish church we drove back to Kiruna. In the common kitchen we spend a nice evening with some people from Italy and India. Played UNO again.
Sunday
Mario and I decided to get up early in the morning to take part in the tour to InfoMine, an “amazing visit to the biggest underworld mine”. Kiruna is famous for its iron ore production (even my parents learned that in school 40 years ago) and is still one of the biggest suppliers in the world. Interestingly the mine is run buy LKAB, a company which is completely state-owned. The tour was in Swedish and the guide talked a little bit too much, so that there was not enough time to explore the extensive museum. But still it is worth a visit.
We left Kiruna after lunch and had a wonderful journey through snowy Lapland. It is really impressive and picturesque to see the white and hilly landscape and the setting sun. The streets were completely snow-covered (remember that these are European roads). After about six and a half hours we were back in Umea. Altogether I paid something around 1200 SEK for the weekend. Jättebra!
More resources:
Pictures of the trip will be published soon!
