Arctic Expedition

This past week was more hectic than usual: dog sleds, snowmobiling, reindeer and northern lights all packed into 5 crazy days in the Arctic Circle! Not a typical week, but a great one! Let's start at the beginning...
On Friday morning, (4:50 AM to be exact), I waited with four other exchange students for our taxi. Our flight was leaving at 6:30, so we had to be at the airport by 5:30. At 5:00, I started to worry and after calling the cab company-I was assured that my suspicions were correct: there was no taxi coming for us. In a panic, Simone woke up a floormate of ours, Christian who graciously volunteered to take us to the airport. THEN, we found a cab and well, long story short-we made it in time after many obstacles. It was definitely an Amazing Race (AR) moment. We had a lot of those on this trip, actually. After our flight to Trondheim, we boarded the ship that would would stay on for two nights until we arrived in Harstad.
The ship was beautiful! I felt like I was on a mini-cruise AKA it felt like home. The only difference was on THIS ship, food wasn't free which was too bad. After three days surviving on pretzels and chocolate, I was really wishing there was a way to eat something of actual substance. Nevertheless, the scenery was beautiful and I spent two days admiring the landscape, playing cards, and getting to know the other 29 students that had come from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and England. Also as a side note-we were basically the only people on the ship under the age of 60. They were all wearing Norwegian sweaters and, as a result I thought I saw my grandparents 80 times.





Going through the fjords was so beautiful, but sadly my pictures just don't do the journey justice. The last time I was in this area, it was summer so it was really cool to see the fjords in the winter.


You can tell that everyone else thought it was beautiful because people were taking pictures. A lot.

On Saturday, I spent about two hours talking to a guy named Gary that I met playing cards. He was from Tacoma, Washington so we had a lot to talk about. Our conversation covered many different topics. We talked about my past and future travels, my cycling trip up the Mississippi River, the rare and blessed relationship that I have with my parents, and his somewhat estranged relationship with his son. Needless to say, we bonded hard core and it was so great to talk to him. I ate dinner that night with Natali (who was the trip leader), Evie (from Australia but studying in Sweden) and the 6 Dutch guys. It was definitely the nicest dinner I've had since being in Europe, but the portion sizes were a little too small for my taste. But, like I said I had been eating only pretzels and candy for the previous two days so I would've eaten the entire kitchen if I could've.
The next morning, we arrived in Harstad. It was a beautiful little town, but it was a Sunday so nothing was open. When I say nothing, I literally mean NOTHING. So we just walked around for...4 hours admiring the scenery. I also spent some time re-inacting scenes from "A Walk To Remember" (acting as both characters, Jamie and Landon) as well as performing multiple numbers from High School Musical 1&2 for my friends. Words can't describe how incredibly entertained I was. Not sure about the others...


Then, we boarded the bus that would take us to Narvik. The bus ride provided me with some beautiful views!!





After we arrived in Narvik, we boarded the train to our first stop in Sweden: Abisko. We walked to our hostel, and I was astounded at the beauty that was surrounding me! All you could see was white, and the tips of mountains. It was FREEZING cold, but our hostel was warm so that's all that mattered. That night, I went along with some other people for a late night walk. We were hoping to see the Northern Lights, but unfortunatley it was too cloudy. We still had a good time playing in the snow that NEVER ENDED.




We woke up early the next morning to go to Kiruna. I was very excited because dogsledding was the main event for the day! We had a few bumps in the road-well technically, it was the reindeers that delayed our train by 1 hour and 45 minutes. They had set up shop in the middle of the train track, and apparently they are very stubborn...It was ok though, because I had a "deck a cards" to entertain myself.

Once we finally got to Kiruna, we indulged in some delicious food-REINDEER pizza to be more exact! It was nice, actually and nice to have a hearty meal. Kiruna was the first chance I got to see how the people up North really live. It is definitely a little different than in Bergen. For one thing, everyone rides around on these fancy little snowboard/dog sled/skateboard...

And there are lots of things made out of ice...

But the MAIN attraction to Kiruna was the dog sledding adventure we were about to go on! We were picked up by the dog sledding company and driven out into the wilderness. We were decked out in proper dog sledding attire (don't be jealous of my outfit) and I somehow found myself in a very awkard situation. Don't worry-I will give you all the details. Basically, Lucas (from Austria) was working at the dogsledding company and was in charge of helping us get dressed. He said that we could bring our cameras and video cameras, but we should put them in our pockets. I put them in the suit pant pockets and then Lucas put on these giant gloves that I had to wear and made it VERY difficult to do anything. (see outfit)

Anyway, then I realize that there is a chest pocket that had a zipper pocket that I thought would be better to put my camera and video camera in. But I had to ask Lucas for his help because I couldn't do it with my mittens on. This was our conversation:
A: Hey Lucas, could you come over here for me? I need your help.
L: Sure, what is it?
A: Could you go down my pants and grab my camera?
L: Umm...I don't think I'm allowed to do that.
A: Ha. Ha. No but seriously, can you get my camera from my pocket? (I swivel my body towards him so he has easy access. He takes out the camera and puts it in my hand. Problem: the mitts are preventing me from being able to open the chest pocket that I want to put the camera in) Lucas, can you put it in this pocket (I stick out my chest towards him)
L: Yes I think I'm able to do that. Are you giving me permission to touch you there?
A: YES LUCAS, just do it!!
L: OK OK!!
A: Wait, Lucas you only got my camera. I need the video camera too. It's in the same pocket so can you just do the same thing again?
L: You'd like that wouldn't you.
A: LUCAS COME ON I'M SERIOUS!
(He reaches down in the same pocket, but my video camera isn't there. It is now that I realize it's in my OTHER pocket)
L: There's not even a camera in here, Annika. You are just making excuses now.
A: NO NO!! I forgot it was in the OTHER pocket! Please just check!

This banter went on for awhile and basically it was the funniest 2 minutes of my life. In the end, everything worked out, and we met our dog sled guide and got ready to go on our adventure! We were going sledding at night, so it was difficult to get really good pictures, but I was really happy we went at night because we were going through the forest under a clear sky full of stars. Talk about an incredible experience! Our experience became a little more adventurous when we hit a tree and the sled almost broke. It was hilarious and though our guide Ogso was embarrassed, she was laughing right along with us when we all had to work together to get everything back in order.





Then, we had dinner (salmon soup, to be specific) in a tipi over a fire. It was so wonderful to be out in the wilderness away from the rest of the world simply enjoying each other.



I couldn't get any good video footage because it was so dark, so I apologize for that-but rest assured, it was amazing!!!
The next day we started the day off by going "snow scootering" as they say up here. Again, we got to put on some really great outfits, and my friend Annika (from Germany) was my partner.

She was a speed demon and I was the girl holding onto her so tightly I nearly squeezed her to death! I was glad she decided to go first because I was a little scared. My experience on snowmobiles hasn't been the greatest in the past. The first time I encountered a one, I broke my leg in two places. The second time, I ran into a tree breaking the whole front end. Before the trip, we had to sign a waiver agreeing to the terms that we would have to pay approximately $500 if any damage came to the scooters. As you can imagine, when I was driving I was gripping those handles so tight my hands were aching by the end! We rode for about an hour-the scenery was gorgeous and we spent some time on the river and also in the forest. I was able to get some video footage during a short break!

It felt great to be out with the wind on my face (even though my nose nearly froze off!) and our mid-way stop was the famous Ice Hotel! This places was incredible. We went on a tour and learned all about the process of making the ice hotel and got to tour a few rooms. My favourite was the bar-complete with reindeer couches, glass cups, and a dance floor-all made out of a combination of ice and snow AKA "snice". I also really enjoyed the ice church where over 100 couples get married each year! CRAZY!




Our last stop for the day was the Sami village where we saw some reindeer which was really cool. I felt a little bad because I had just had them as a pizza topping the day before. Anyway, then we all rode back on our scooters and took the overnight train to Stockholm. At around 7:00, we were able to see the famous Northern Lights! It was quite amazing to see them in "real life" rather than just on a postcard. However, the best I can do for you is a few pictures.



The rest of the trip was pretty calm. Below is a picture of our whole group in the Stockholm station just before going to the airport. We had some great times and I hope this entry gives you a little insight into the trip!

That's it for now!! I'm off on a cabin trip for the weekend so I will talk to you all lata!!!
Sending love from the diva. :)
A