The Chronicles - the photo evidence: Then we ended up back in Sweden

OK Rewind a little.. still in Finland.

Thursday, August 9
In the morning we were still in Finland, in Kuopio

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See? that's the train station.

I forgot some vital photos. We hopped on the train without making reservations and found that we were on the oldest train of all time. Seriously. There were hat racks. The train was so old in fact, that they hadn't invented stow-away trays. Don't believe me?

In the seat pocket in front of you, you pull out the tray!

And it clips into your seat! We're going to die.

These are from Ina's camera. There's a lot of them. She's in the bathroom. I was kind of confused, then realised she was trying to capture this:

The toilet dumping water and whatever else directly onto the tracks... I haven't seen this since Italy ca. 2003.

So we took the train to Kemi, the last place the train goes. Then caught a bus to Tornio.

The border. At the bus station, we realised we'd have to wait an hour for the bus to cross the border, so we flippin' walked. See??

Last photo of Finland! That's us walking across the border. We subsequently had to run across the highway because there was no pedestrian crossing. Geez guys.

Here is a pic of my journal. See the map and the border and the ikea? it's for real.

We got to the bus station and bought our tickets, hung out for a while, Ina ran and got some groceries, while I looked around the station.

Well then, a Sex Card? Sweden, wow.

After that train ride, I was pretty concerned about our welfare on a bus in Sweden, luckily.

We rode with the Busgods.

It was a double decker bus and we hopped up on top and hung out. It was an all right ride, kind of rough. Ina and I began to examine her purchases. She'd picked up some soup.

That contained Karl Johan as an ingredient. HAHAHAH. We were in tears we were laughing so hard. The soup was sick.

When we got to Lulea, see map. It was pouring rain, so we got a cab to the hostel to find that the owner thought we were coming a lot earlier than we planned, and luckily we got a hold of him before he got totally trashed for the evening. He wasn't very nice, our room wasn't bad though:

The ladies score a double room, again!

With a lovely ficus painted on the wall.

At dinner we ended up talking to a bunch of people, 2 Swiss-Germans, 2 Brits, 1 Norwegian whale hunter and one thing led to another, and all of us went for $12 pints at the local Irish bar (in the middle of nowhere Sweden!). After one drink, we tried to find another bar.

Sunset, around 10:00 pm.

and a hedgehog wandering the streets. Oh Sweden.

Friday, August 10, 2007: To the Arctic Circle!

In all probability there isn't an actual sign that says "now crossing the arctic circle," and if there were, the train conductor did not announce it and I was probably sleeping. There I said it.

First pic inside the freaking arctic circle!!! We hopped off the train with a load of people in full out hiking gear, who were also appropriately dressed. Let me tell you, it was COLD! Oh yeah, we're in Kiruna, Sweden.

We went to the hostel, got in a bit of a fight with the owner, but it was fine and got settled in our "double room" which had 3 beds. huh?

my bed.

Ina and her beds.

Here is the yellowhouse hostel we stayed at:

Our room was the to the right of the path that goes straight ahead.

Reception/sauna/breakfast.

We began to wander around. Mines.

This church looks like a Sami tent. The sami are the natives of Scandinavia, they too got the short end of the stick. Why does everyone stick it to the natives??

It was pretty cool though. We got there about 4 minutes after they closed. Scheiße.

Yeah Sweden... and the Sami flag on the end there.

Kiruna is a small iron ore mining community. It's really poor and deserted.

Everyone also has really tiny balconies.

Oh yeah, Swedish:

The room had a TV with cable. We even caught what can only be described as Swedish Idol, but it's really anyone's guess.

Extravagant dinner?

Saturday, August 11: ICE HOTEL!

Early, early in the morning, we were the only two people who got on the bus to Jukkajärvi, about 20 minutes outside Kiruna to visit the first ever Ice Hotel.

Apparently we got there a little late...

Think about how cold it was though, that they could have this huge chunk of ice out without it melting.

However, they did have a huge meat locker.

They gave us these poncho things which didn't do much for those of us over 5'4" Damn you Ina.

Ice Elk look a lot like ice moose.

See what I mean? SO cold.

There was an exhibit about Linneas, the guy who came up with the double naming system we use, like homo sapien. Who's the nerd now?

Accidentally stumbled into Superman's living room. It's pimp, check out the fur on the couch.

hahaha. Ina shrunk.

So then we saw this curtain in the giant ice wall behind this pillar and of course, being the adventurous types, we crossed the giant ice wall.

whoooa! Ice bar! sweetness.

That's the name of the town with the first ice bar/hotel, see? Check out the pyramid of ice shot glasses. You can in fact order one and they pack it so it can get anywhere in the world in 29 hours. What would you do with it though?

Them Swedes and their vodka.

It was incredibly cool.

As you can tell by the number of photos.

Then we wandered back to the other side..

It was really pretty.

drop of frozen water.

SO cold!

snow, snow, snow.

Eventually we went back outside and it seemed slightly warmer, I guess being in a freezer will do that to you.

There was this tent with a fire, we tried to warm up.

around the hotel grounds.

Where the hotel usually stands. The ice comes from the river there.

Ice shot glass. Fancy!

The deep freeze we paid a lot of money to get into.

At this point it was just before noon and we had to wait until 3:00 PM to take the bus back to Kiruna, so umm we had to seriously kill time. Not to mention it was flipping cold out... so, we spent a lot of time at the gift shop and in the hotel lobby.

lobby action

more lobby action.

and more.

There are cabins all year round.

We decided to find out what Jukkasjaervi has to offer.

Freaky bus stop.

Old village thing.

Houses that sunk into the ground.

Fences.

They also had a reindeer farm but you know, we're cheap.

these look a lot like the Swedish version of Western girls, except that they're stuck in the arctic circle.

more houses stuck in the ground.

Dog parking.

Riverside views.

There is a rather cool photo that's missing because Ina burned the CDs for me late at night and so well she forgot to include one folder. Perhaps it'll arrive in the next few months?

Eventually, our friend the bus driver came by again and took us back to town.

Back in Kiruna. You'd think because I know exactly what that means, I wouldn't find it funny, yet I do.

We tried to go hiking, but ended up wandering these old mine roads.

It was nice though. We kept seeing signs for WC and only later realised it was for some competition/event.

It was sad and depressing in the same way going back home was in Garden State. I am such an emo little kid.

Just some nature and junk.

Ina conquering something.

Kiruna in the distance.

Mushroom girl strikes again.

and again.

After this, we started walking back to the hostel, and I feel something in my foot, I look down:

Look at those ROCKS!

And again.

My room. (It was kind of hard to explain that to my German family)

We actually ran into one of the Brits from Lulea there, he was hanging around for a few days to meet up with his girlfriend to go hiking. The hostel was this huge man convention, it was hilarious. Just swarms of men. Lots of people start their hikes from Kiruna.

Sunday, August 12: Holy crap!!!

Most of you know the basic story here, we were supposed to catch a bus at 10:44 to Narvik, Norway. We were at the bus stop waiting in the cold for almost an hour before we got a ride from our bus driver friend to the train station because that's where the bus was leaving from. Turns out, we missed that bus (which was running instead of a train) and we were stuck in Kiruna for a few more hours. Frick. After the panic and more panic and more panic. We figured out that we'd just have to skip Trondheim from our trip...and spend a full day on a train, not a huge deal. The problem is that we had to make sure that there was space on the ferries and everything and we'd have to pay extra and things are expensive in Norway. Understand the freak out?

Anyway, so we eventually walk back up to the bus station to catch the 2:45 PM bus to Narvik. Having been on these buses before, I'd seen that they had a thing that said visa, so assumed they take visa. They did not. We did not have enough Swedish crowns, so the bus driver said I had 5 minutes. I ran to the ATM up the hill in the city centre, first machine didn't work, second one did. I ran back down to the station to find that the bus waited for us and ran on board to find that I had dropped the scarf I'd bought in Stockholm, oh well.. and my wallet with all my credit card and useful ID. Frick! Actually, what I yelled in a hugely north american accent was "SHIT!" so I ran back and luckily found it right near the top of the hill. Of course. At this point, we were sure that we'd be thrown off the bus by the driver or the passengers, but nope! Thanks Swedish bus drivers! I was freaking out by this point and it was a bumpy ride, so I popped some gravol and missed the first bit of the beautiful journey.

Ina took pics, but alas, they're in the misisng part.. I eventually awoke from my stupor.