Lapland

Lapland

It was the only trip I really wanted to do here in Sweden. Not happy enough to be in the north, I wanted to go further, discover a land where the humans have less right than wildness and where every landscape seems to be infinite.

I haven't been disappointed!

We left Sundsvall with most of my group of international student, two Swedish from the student union and a couple of student from Stockholm and London. 50 students, for 12 hour in a car with a very strange, funny, really nice guide (forgot her name again, sorry): memorable trip!

Day 1: arriving in Kiruna, dogs sledges and snowmobile.

We arrived at 8 in the morning in Kiruna, one of the most northern cities in Sweden. We had a few minutes to prepare our room and have a great breakfast before the first activity: Dogsledges. I wanted to do this since I was a little girl.

We were four by sledges, trailed by eleven dogs. But not Huskies or whatever polar dogs. It was Eurohound dogs. A new European breed.  The dogs were fast and made the sledge jumping sometime. Funny and scary!   

Right after having a coffee rest in a sami tent, I put my ass on a snow mobile for the first time of my life. Of course, I was the only one to get bogged down. Poor Christelle who was stuck on the snowmobile with me.

Then, in the evening, we went to a bar (where I didn’t drink anything, not rich enough! Can you believe it?) before trying to see the northern light. We didn’t, or not a lot. Too cloudy. Even if we spent a few hours to watch the dark sky, we had to go back in the hotel, disappointed!

Day 2: Jukkasjärvi and the reindeer farm.

The second day, we went to the famous ice hotel Jukkasjärvi. Even if it’s wonderful, I will never ever sleep by -5° and pay that much for that. Freezing! The hotel is made every years differently. Each room is designed with a different architectural style. Lovely. Some of them seem to come directly from a fairy tail.

In the afternoon, the entire group moves to a sami reindeer farm. We had the chance to feed the animals and learn a little bit of the sami tradition related to the reindeer which are considered more important than human in the sami culture. The woman gave us reindeer soup. But I couldn’t eat this. Indeed, impossible for me to eat an animal right after seeing it alive.

In the night, we had a barbecue in a big sami tent, with all the student. A happy and friendly atmosphere. And suddenly, something happen outside: A high and impressive sky activity, the northern light. Everybody was screaming and taking pictures. One of the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.      

We spent the night in Abisko National Park, near one of the biggest lake in this part of the world.

Day 3: Narvik and the artic swim

For the third day, let’s go back in the bus for a short trip to Narvick, in the fjord area of Norway. One of the thing I really don’t like in these kind of organized trip, is that everything is…organized, even the “taking picture views”. The concept is quite simple: the guide decide to stop the bus and the travelers have 5 minutes to take as much pictures as they can… so Asian!!  Anyway, the fjords are truly exceptional.

We spend 2 hours in Narvik. The tour “offers” us to pay 150 SEK (18 euros) for using the ferry to get to the top of the mountain and ... take pictures of the beautiful view! Boring! With Thibault (a French guy), we decide to economize our money and climb by feet… for going down by sledges. Hilarious moment!

The last activity was a sauna followed by an artic swim in the frozen lake… By night! If you think that you had the opportunity to find out what cold is in your life, it’s nothing compare to jumping in a -3° water, right after leaving a 80° room when it’s -30° outside. I swear!

Day 4: Mooses

The last day was a day off. We had free time to walk a last time in the national park!

After a few minutes, when Christelle said something like “I saw something in the forest”, nobody truly believed her (to be honest, I was the one who didn’t believe her). With a more careful look, we realized that it was really something. At the first I thought it was a tree, then, maybe a very big horse. But in fact, it was a moose with her baby. These animals are bigger than I expected. For a few minutes, Christelle, Maureen, Jolanda and I turned into hunters to go closer to the animals and…. Take pictures!

Picture by Maureen Gayet

It was time to go back in Sundsvall. We left the amazing landscape to find our routine back.