Sweden and the Arctic Circle

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Oooops - we found this blog in the archive, and realised that it hadn't been uploaded....so here it is, only a few months out of date. As many of you know, we are now (March 2008) safely home, settled in a new apartment and have decided to finish our blog, starting with this one! More to come soon....and now back to the middle of October in Scandanavia

We only spent a few days in Sweden....we had decided to make it a short visit so that we could have time to head further north into Norway. Jen's brother Chris is travelling with us while in Scandanavia, which added to the fun.

In Stockholm we stayed at a campground just outside the city to keep our costs down....we were already feeling the wallets get lighter....Scandanavia is bloody expensive! After touring Stockholm, we headed north on the train....way north.

Highlights:

Camping again! Chris brought the camping gear that we had sent home in Australia with him. It was nice to get back into the tent for a few more chilly nights...a hot water bottle in the sleeping bag kept us cozy (thanks for the tip Chris!) as we were pretty much at the limit of our summer weight gear.

We liked the European attitudes to pets...they can go everywhere, subways, stores, restaurants, etc.

Finding the 'Frontline Rail Jam' snowboarding competition in a central square in Stockholm. Party atmosphere and a good show, with snow trucked in for the occasion. Loved the cheesy swedish MC.

After proclaiming that he could 'sleep anywhere', Chris finds out the hard way what overnight trains are like...and this one was a pretty cushy one. We had facing seats to stretch out on, and the tracks were pretty smooth. Of course none of us got much sleep, so we were happy to be able to check in early to our hostel and get some sleep.

Crossing the arctic circle! We crossed the arctic circle on a train, headed for the end of the line in Narvik, Norway. We were further north than any of us had ever been (68 degrees!). The landscape was pretty barren, but not completely 'arctic'...it is much warmer here than comparable latitudes in Canada due to the gulf stream winds that keep it warm here.

Seeing reindeer in the wild...or maybe they were on big farm...still they looked cool running through the woods for the five seconds we saw them.

....and a lowlight....We were in the land of the 'midnight sun', where you can experience either light all day in the summer or dark all day in winter. Except that we were here in October, when the light is exactly the same as it is back home. When you're travelling for a year, it's hard to get all the timing right!

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Photos

Viking Envy
Jen's brother Chris getting horny in Stockholm

Weird Sidewalk Art
Store fronts in Stockholm with art installations...you can see the little camera dangling from a pole that is filming Chris and I as we take this picture.

Female Ceremonial Gaurd
We were impressed that the ceremonial guard at the Swedish palace was a woman - the first one we've seen on the trip

Pirate Adventure
Getting slightly loaded drinking port and scotch out of our pirate adventure cups to keep warm as we played cards in the dark at the campground in Sweden

The Vasa - Circa 1628
Andrew checked out this double decked gunship which sank on it's maiden voyage because of design errors - an impressively preserved cock-up

Moose
Checking out the scandanavian wildlife at the Skansen historic village in Stockholm - including this friendly moose cow that let us pet her huge muzzle

Frontline Rail Jam 2007
Stumbled upon a snowboard rail comp in the middle of Stockholm - had a good laugh at the English MC....they pronounce J as Y, so it was the Rail Yam