Stockholm

We arrived on a crisp sunny morning at Stockholm station. 

On a normal day I would probably have said it was freezing. However, after having spent ten days in the arctic circle, it was positively balmy!

After dropping our bags at our new hostel we went out to explore the city by strolling along the river.

Stockholm is truly a beautifully crafted city. The gothic architecture and rustic feel of the buildings along the riverbank are amazing. It's impossible not to look around in a relaxed sense of awe at the historic buildings.

We then wandered north of the river, up to the market section. We found a beautiful indoor market. It was filled with so many sights, smells and hubbub I got swept up in the traditional Swedish moment and bought what can only be described as a giant Swedish meatball. On the first nibble it was great. Anymore than that and it was so strong, kind of like a black pudding patte, I started to gag. Good job I bought a 2kg slab...

After the market we wandered back through the streets of Stockholm and to our hostel for a shower and off to a pub for an evening beer.

The next day the snow had managed to catch us up. So we went for another walk and to the Swedish history museum.

After the museum mum went home for a nap while I went on a walking tour of the old town. It was really good and below is the smallest statue in europe! 

I met a couple of girls on the tour who were studying in Stockholm for a year. 

The next day I recounted the walking tour for mum. Leading her down the winding cobblestones and sharing my new knowledge was great fun.

Here is where we met a snag.

Although Stockholm is a great city, it's not a city of great variety. So after 4 days we decided to take advantage of europes cheap flight network. We booked our tickets to spend our last 3 days in Poland. We got to the bus depot 5 hours before our flight. That, unfortunately was not enough time!

We missed the airport bus (we had pre paid for) by 5 minuets and the next bus wouldn't leave for another 7 hours! We then had to tramp through the snow back to our hostel and managed to book in again. Pros and cons. We were now in separate rooms so at least I'd get a decent night sleep without mums snoring!

I'm really glad we stayed in Stockholm in the end. We went on a lovely guided boat cruise out to the archipelago.

We also got to go over to the university and meet Maria and Hannah (from the walking tour) who showed us around the uni, made us some delicious cakes and took a walk up to a winter beach.

Overall a great trip to Stockholm and to Sweden. Pretty much nothing went to plan, but we had a much better time than we could have ever imagined.

I'll never forget sharing a hot cup of lindenbury juice, dashing through the winter woodlands on a dogsled, sneaking into the ice hotel or watching the phenomenal northern lights with my mum. My best friend.

Now I can't wait for the rugby World Cup with dad!

The blizzard and the big trip

Soooo, Narvic's pretty shit...

I know I'm not being fair on the industrious Norwegian town, but I don't care.

We arrived late. There is nothing to do, as there is no town centre, and the hostel was very average. I'm sure on a sunny winters day the snow capped mountain that overshadows the small town of Narvik is a beautiful sight and give hundreds of good hiking tracks, lookout sports and ski slopes. But for the day we were there, it was pretty lame.

You can tell a lot about a place when it has a statue of a dead baby near the train station.

We arrived, had a wander, went to bed.

I awoke the next morning feeling a little harsh. I wanted to give the place a fair go. So I set off alone to scale the mountain, see how high I could go.

What weather!!

The traffic lights had been stripped from their posts by the wind. I was skidding backwards on ice as I walked forwards. Literally moving two paces backwards to every one pace forwards. For once it was a good job I was going in the wrong direction as I ended up where I needed to be!

I perceviered up the mountain. Past countless people slipping, sliding and falling everywhere.

I got up a fair way and essentially skiied back down from one street sign to the next.

I picked up mum and we set off for the station. The wind was still so strong mum physically couldn't walk against it. So, she was using me as a wind break. Walking behind me, holding my backpack. About half way to the station the wind died a little so she let go of me. Only for it to start off again, before she could grab hold she was 5 meters back. Skidding backwards shouting and crying out as she clung to a bit of fence beside the road. With the wind screaming in my ears I heard nothing and plowed on.

Eventually I turned to see mum, like a rag doll, clinging to this fencing for dear life laughing her head off.

I went back and reattached my windstrewen mother to my pack and got us to the station.

There is a glitch in the Swedish rail network. You cannot book online without a Swedish bank account. You also can't book a bed on a sleeper train at a station. It has to be done online. So we were facing 17 hours overnight in a seating car. Even better, a seat costs more than a bed...

We had a yarn with the conductor, who after trying to charge us another £60, we got to phone head office to appeal our case.

Eventually we were upgraded, at no extra charge, to a lovley sleeper cabin. Which we got all to ourselves! The only snag was a stupid jobsworth woke us up at 5:20am as he didn't check his sleeping chart properly and accused us of being stow aways! 

We got the old fella on side and pushed on to Stockholm on a snowy Friday morning.

Lights, huskies and a random flit into Norway

LAfter we arrived back from the fabulous ice hotel we decided on a quiet night in.

We were about half way through a movie when I casually glanced out the window. The sky was a vivid neon green. I double took and casually said to mum, "the lights are on." In an instant we had the window open and the chair half balanced on baked bean cans on the table; this was our makeshift tripod. 

The nights sky was amazing. Neon green glows erupting from nowhere and gently spreading into bands and hooks in the dark sky above the snowy roof tops.

It was beautiful. Although I did get a bit nervous as I thought I saw voldemort's dark mark at one point. Poor old Harry's been through enough, he deserves a normal life with Ginny and the kids.

It was great to enjoy the lights with mum. Really nice to enjoy something so special with someone so special to me. We even skyped dad, woke him up and got him involved via Skype!

The next day we went out husky sledding.

Husky sledding was by far the highlight of the trip so far. There was not a fault to be had. The musher, Matt, was really nice. The dogs were beautiful, friendly and fun. We sat on lovley warm raindear hides and sledged through the gently rolling winter wonderland. With whispy clouds above us, picking colour from the slowly setting sun. There were snowy mountains in the distance as we quietly slid through woodlands, snowy meadows and over frozen lakes.

Magical.

We had now done everything we wanted to in the arctic so I got online to find a new adventure. The train from Kiruna to Narvic in Norway has been dubbed 'the polar express'. Due to the amazing winter scenes that unfold out of your window. That's good enough for me!

We hopped on the train the very next day to Narvik, Norway.

Into the snowy wilderness!

Yesterday we were picked up by a very smiley local man named Stig. He drove us deep into the arctic outback. After stopping to pick up some firewood we arrived at his cabin in the woods.

We wrapped up nice and warm and set off into the woods to his reindeer. 

We entered the pen and helped him feed his small herd of 5 fully grown reindeer, including one albino, who was by far the friendliest. And one baby reindeer who's mother died in childbirth. It was great getting so close to these handsome creatures. They seemed to like mum a lot more than me. They were happy for her to pet them; but ran a mile if I came within a meter of them!

After the reindeer were fed and happy, we had a big lunch of ground moose meat. Stig had shot the moose a few months previously and thawed some for us.

With a full belly I went off x-country skiing, while mum relaxed in the cabin listening to music.

Stig had to come chase me down as normally he said people only go into the first clearing on the skii's 45 minuets and 10km further down the road I found me sliding along having a pretty good time.

I still think skiing is silly but given the choice I much prefer this Nordic skiing over down hill. It was like going for a nice jog.

After my skiing adventure mum and I chilled in the cabin a while before I went off to light the sauna fire for the evening time. 

We then had a beautiful fish supper, and after nightfall set off on the snow mobiles in the search for the northern lights. 

It was astonishingly beautiful flying through the midnight black night with only the stars and headlights for visibility. The snow hung soo thickly off the tree branches like snow monsters or gothic style church grotesque's. We went through open plains, ice covered lakes and thick woodland as we glided along.

I cornered badly early on and sent my snow mobile into very deep virgin snow. With a little encouragement/heckling from Stig I floored the throttle and ran alongside pushing out of the drift. Later on when I was off my snowmobile I played chicken with Stig. I lost and tried to comically jumped aside. I didn't realise how close I was to the edge of the compacted snow mobile route. I tripped on the snowy ledge and fell head first into the very deep snow. I had to front crawl swim my way out, it was that deep!

After the utterly magical ride through the frozen wonderland of Narnia, I mean Lapland! We headed over to the sauna.

Stig and I went to the fresh water spring on the snow mobiles to get some water for the sauna. While we were pailing the water into containers a big fish swam right up to us then buried down into the ground. This excited both of us. Stig probably even more than me. He said he's never seen a fish in there so now he knows where to do his fishing!

It was the best sauna I've ever been in. I think the wood fire and natural coals make a huge difference to what you get in most gyms in the UK. On one of my regular trips out to the -20 degree snow (for a little roll around) I saw the green glow of the electrical storm, which is the northern lights. I even got mum outside in nothing but her swimming costume to see the green glow. It was amazing. Unfortunately by the time I got changed and had the camera ready the best of the vivid light was over.

No matter, we went to bed happy again.

The next day we rose at 9 ish and after giving the reindeer another feed we went out for another brilliant snow mobile adventure!

We then had a little play in Stig's igloo and took some more funny pictures before heading over to the ice hotel.

We stopped off to see the amazing ice hotel on the way back to town. Words cannot describe the superb craftsmanship and unbelievable sculptures in the ice hotel.

Here are some pictures to help show you some of the icy magnificence.

Snow festival

The big event. The reason we came all this way. Four snow sculptures, a handful of stalls in the tourist office and Wall-E in Swedish...

I can't lie, we were a little disappointed with the 'festival' but we still had a good day. We detoured past the completed sculpture park to see the completed statues on the way to the tourist off ice. On the way we passed a children's playground made of ice and snow. Of course we got involved!

We snaked through the frozen maze. Created with giant slabs of ice and snow. Then went around the giant igloo and I even muscled my way onto the ice slide. Skidding down on my back, legs akimbo. I nearly took out the small wall at the bottom!

Unfortunatly we missed the sculpture award ceremony. Our welsh friends won artists choice, which they were very happy with. After we congratulated them we snuck into the back of the cinema and watched the second half of the film Wall -E in Swedish. We also had a little slip on the ice. mum bumped her head and bottom. No harm done.

After a trip around the town halls art gallery we settled in for a night in. Half way through our terrible movie mum spied a little light out the window. 

THE LIGHTS! THE LIGHTS!  Quick as a flash we were dressed and wrapped up warm trudging through the dark woods in a nearby park.

Unfortunatly, by the time we got outside the show was over. So in we went ready to start our real arctic adventure in the morning!

Arctic Kiruna

We went for a nice night time walk when we arrived in Kiruna. It's a lot colder in the arctic with the temperature tonight -25 degrees. Plenty more layers for us!

We were very lucky with our hostel. Due to a school trip sharing the hostel our dorm room had been double booked. This meant we got upgraded to a private twin room. Very nice! Now  I only have to deal with mum's snoring!

After an evening stroll and a good nights sleep we set off to see the snow festivals ice sculptures. There were four huge snow sculptures. We had a little browse round and ended up having a really nice chat with some of the competitors. A welsh couple from near Swansea. They were sculpting two giant puffins with fish hanging from their rounded beaks.

We then went up to the tourist information to enquire about the frisbee golf course in the north of the town. We struck gold. The young guy, Robin, working at the desk actually built the course with his dad. So he phoned up his dad who promptly popped around and picked us up and took us to the course.

We tried playing a hole in four foot of snow. Mum took one step in and got stuck, she couldn't get her leg high enough to take another step! As she retreated Morice and I pressed on. We both, very swiftly, lost our disks in the deep snow. I pressed on with mums and got in in six.

That evening we went on a last minuet aurora borialis trip. We got picked up at six by a very friendly young Swedish guy named Finn. Finn turned out to be quite the fountain of knowledge as the evening progressed. So much so that for days after mum and I caught ourselves saying to any one who would listen "Finn says..." "well Finn was saying..." "Finn said..." Maybe we'll start a fan club!

The tour was great. We drove out into the abyss of the frozen töurne river. Climbed into the sled, lined with reindeer fur, and rode through the frozen woodland pulled by the snow mobile.

We shortly arrived to the frozen expanses of the mighty river. A 'colosseum' or half an igluu had been built with big red candles lighting it with dramatic golden flames, contrasting beautifully with the snowy landscape. 

Finn started a fire to keep us warm in the -35 degree countryside. Then we sat awaiting the green lights of the aurora sipping on delicious hot lindenberry juice. 

I snuck off to make some yellow snow during the evening and some others on the tour thought I'd seen the lights so started coming after me. Mum had to run distraction. 

After a while we hopped back on the snow mobiles up to a beautiful little hut nestled in the woods. Here we had a delicious steaming bowl of reindeer meat and potatoes followed by some hot Swedish pudding. Finn also taught us how to light fires with magnesium.

Although we hadn't seen the lights, we had had a lovely evening. On the way back in the bus we glimpsed a bit of green sky, so we did see the lights, although it was through thick clouds.

We went to bed happy.

Skating on the river

Today mum and I went down to the Luleå coast, the sea around the archipelago is soo cold it freezes around a meter thick.

Mum and I grabbed a couple of kick sleds. Like husky sleds with long ice skates instead of skis and went out on the ice for some fun.

We went pretty well sliding along the ice. Between the city and the heavily wooded islands it was magical.

Mum got pretty tired after about half hour so she sat on the seat of mine and held her sled infront of her. We got a good head of momentum up and were going at a fair pace. Then CRACK! We had some how manage to skate at the perfect angle to hit our right skate into a crack. The skate cut down a couple of inches down and tossed us both hurtling off the sled. Luckily we were both unhurt but having cracked the ice we were pretty worried we would be dunking into the terrifyingly nippy waters. Luckily again nothing happened. We had a giggle and went back to our own sleds.

After the sledding we taught the train up to Kiruna, inside the arctic circle.