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Kiruna
Sorry for my late blog but I have just been incredibly busy this past 3 weeks.
But I will tell you about my trip to Kiruna. Well it started at 4:30 in the morning where I went to the Malmo airport with another exchange kid from Canada. We had a short stopover in Stockholm for around an hour where we met up with heaps of exchange kids. But before long we were all on our way to the Artic circle. Kiruna itself is actually a two hour drive up from the beginning of the artic circle so you can imagine how cold it was there.
A few hours after our arrival and having lunch we went straight to the ice hotel. Words can't explain its beauty. Absolutely everything there was ice: the seat, beds, the walls. Most of the rooms had a theme as well where there were ice sculptures- one room had a theatre in it. We didn't sleep there because most rooms cost around 500au per night the real expensive ones can go up to a few thousand a night. But it was amazing to see.
The accommodation was pretty good we got a kitchen and bathroom which was a step up from Åre. In my room there was my best friend Taine from South Australia and also a girl from Canada and Japan. That night I gave the other exchange kids some vegemite to try. From what I have gathered Eastern Asian countries don't mind it, Americans and Canadians dislike it but it's the south Americans that loath it- despite it actually. We also went to a Sami (native swedes) reservation. There we got to feed reindeer and later that night eat it- it's a bit like kangaroo- very chewy and you can feel the healtiness of it.
The second day of camp we visited the mines at Kiruna. It was a little boring and we didn't do much but we went there. Next we went via sled to a deserted place on the lake. The ride was a little bumpy and we saw a dead reindeer but the sight seeing was quite nice and it was cozy. There we had three activities and were put into three groups- I was in the pink group. First we played European football with goggles on that made it hard to see. It was a little exhausting so we went and had fika by a fire which was lovely. Activity two was icefishing. It was better than Bollnäs because we weren't as cold. But we didn't catch anything, I guess it was okej though because we got to bond though. Finally the third activity was snow mobiling. We didn't get to go that fast on it but was still pretty fun experience.
The third day we went to the boarder of Norway and Sweden. It was beautiful! The trees, the nature, the landscape, amazing. There was this one mountain with a gap in between it, the sami people believed it was a place where you could reach heaven so many people in the day were sacrificed there. Here we went snow shoeing which was exhausting but beautiful- I will never forget the views there. We also played Swedish rugby in the snow which doesn't sound to hard but when the snow is at your knees it is quite exhausting indeed. We ended this experience with tabogating!!! It was fun when we all went down in a snake together because it would break and we'd fall everywhere.
That night we had a fancy rotary dinner. Taine and I wore our most boganest clothes we had including odd shoes and wearing the aussie flag. At the dinner the kids from the school at Kiruna cooked our food and the music kids were our entertainment which was nice. We also had reindeer for dinner tonight. After we also had to sing our national anthem- we were pitch perfect.
And the final day…. We had a quick tour of the town before going to the airport and further on the plane. I'm going to miss so much the kids I've met on this trip they were all lovely people and I can't wait to see them on the euro tour. I'll especially miss Taine- I love that girl so much. But before long I was back in the quiet town of Hjärup (pronounced yeah-up).
- comments
Shirley Henschell I do need to come visit, sounds wonderful