17/07/18 This morning I bring back the car to the airport and catch a plane to Sweden. I prayed for the fuel level to stay full, as I filled up the tank in the city and there is a half hour drive to the airport. I also hope no extra scratch will be found on the car so I can get my warranty money back.
The first plane to Oslo left on time, which was great so I could catch the second to Stockholm. I could not resist buying some chocolate at the duty free ?. SAS checkin is great, as you just need to scan your QRcoded boarding pass to get through the gate. The second flight (to Stockholm) was half an hour late, but that was not an issue as I just had to take a shuttle bus to the city and walk 15min to the hotel. Bad point for the travel agency who said the shuttle bus price was SEK99, which is the children price.
The vibe I get from the city is awesome, I don’t know if this is due to the heat (31 degrees at landing time today ☀️) or the city itself. I can see plenty of cool bars, restaurants and shops. Stockholm city looks great to live in. I saw a few bikes too which makes me think that summer here must be really nice. I was expecting to be a lot colder, but I guess the heat wave hit here too.
The hotel booked by the agency (Clarion) is indeed well located, and the staff was super friendly. As I arrived late (9.30pm), the grocery shop next door was about to close and the restaurants around started to clean and tidy up so apart from room service, my dinner options were limited, so I bought something from the 7eleven shop. They really are everywhere!
18/07/18 The room was good (I even got an upgrade to a twin room) but there was no aircon, just an electric fan. I usually don’t use the aircon, but as there was 31 degrees outside, it was suffocating inside. I managed to slighty open a window but the night was short, also because I wasn’t sure if I could make it to the train in the morning, as the website mentioned that Stockholm City station was closed due to the escalators being unsafe until the end of the month. The hotel staff confirmed that Stockholm Central (as written on the ticket) is the same station, but long trains there run on ground level, not underground so they thought I would be fine. We tried to call the rail info number, which opens at 6am but the voice mail said it opens at 8, so I just had to hope that the staff was right. My alternative would have been to catch a taxi to the next station.
After a rushed breakkie (they open at 7 and my train was at 7.50), I packed for 5 days, left my big suitcase at the hotel as I will come back here in a week (well played travel agency), walked to the station and luckily I could get on the train, I was relieved. My Swedish journey starts with a 5h train trip to Östersund.
Upon arrival, I went straight to the hotel to drop my bag then stopped by a local burger shop, Sibylla, for lunch. Nice to see that here you can refill your soft drink and your sauce, like I remember in the US back in 2008 at McDonald’s. If people can behave and not steal or trash the equipment, it is a nice service.
As I don’t have much time here, I went to the Jamtli museum as per the agency recommendations. It is actually more of a historical park, where buildings dated from 1700’s and 1800’s are open to the public. They kept the tools, deco and costumes as per back then, and they offer animations throughout the park. They also have permanent and temporary exhibitions, like one the Vikings and another on Kiss, rock band from the 70’s, with their fancy scene costumes and guitars. It was a nice walking afternoon, but this was probably best for families and kids (you can pet farm animals, enjoy the carousel, get on a mini bus, etc). The paper I received suggests I should go to Frösön island, but I got out of the museum at 5pm so not enough time to make it. I decided to have dinner at the hotel (a nice goat cheese salad and a raspberry & blackcurrant swedish cider), as the restaurant was outside, pleasant when it still is over 25 degrees.
The hotel is also an old building with a big ball room in the middle. Deco not so much to my taste but clean and friendly staff, who offered to make me a sandwich for breakfast tomorrow morning, as the buffet opens at 7 again and my next train is at 7.30. The travel agency should really review the practicality of their itinerary, it is great to include breakkie but only if you actually have the time to enjoy it. And I am a breakkie person! I hope they will ask for feedback so I can help improve the trip for others.
Before bed time I zapped on tv and found another episode of an artist competition in England I watched the night before, where painters and/or drawers go through some challenges to become better artists. It is kind of mesmerising to watch them draw and paint. They are all amateurs with various skills, styles and preferences (water colour, pencil, oil paint, etc). Quick thought for Amanda (if you read this) who certainly have great talent drawing on an ipad, this competition might be something for you when you feel ready ?.
19/07/18 This morning I reach Vilhelmina, after another 4h train. The town has a pretty view on the water, but the town is really small. I followed the trail around the church and explored the shops, all located on the main street. I bought some local sweets at the supermarket and went back to the hotel. Next train departs at 11.13 tomorrow so this time I will have time for breakfast.
20/07/18 Today’s train trip is 4h again. The sun is till strong, 27 degrees. The train was packed (well it is made of only 1 wagon car), the people who didn’t get a reserved seat had to rotate to sit down on the 2 unreserved seats.
I arrived at the Hotell Laponia (this whole trip is about Lapland) around 4pm. I walked down to the lake where the hotel has a restaurant with a beautiful view on the lake (sounds familiar?), freshened up and had dinner there (halloumi salad). Then I binged on Orphan Black before going to bed.
21/07/18 another train today to get to Gallivare, a city of 8000 people. On the way, we had to stop a few times because reindeers cross the tracks. I had the chance to photograph one of them when we stopped for dinner. It is very cute and they have hairy antler which I didn’t know.
Near Gallivare, there are a few small towns around, most people here live thanks to the mining industry. They work in shift and shops opening hours follow the same schedule, you can get groceries from 5am to 11pm. It reminded me a conversation with Claire, who works in Perth in similar conditions.
I just had time to drop my bag and freshening up, then it was time for a night bus tour in the area (well there is not much else to do here in the summer anyway). I was the only English speaking on board and the guide was kind enough to still translate everything for me. On the way to mount Dundret, she told us stories and facts about the area.
Mining activity started in the late 1800’s, today LKAB, the biggest mining company in Europe apparently is working across 3 sites in the area, sometimes further than 1km deep.
A train brings the material to the harbour on a 68 wagons train, which carry 110 tons each. The locomotive is one of the 2 strongest locomotives in the world.
They extract mostly iron, which is if really high quality (72%, compared to 40% in Australia as they say). They have been doing this for so long, that the villages around the mining sites have to relocate. By 2032, all the houses have to be moved or abandonned/demolished. On the night bus tour, the guide showed us a video of entire houses being moved by truck, in one piece! Over the years, a lot of houses and churches have been moved from one place to another, for safety reasons as the explosives make the area very unstable. The explosions, between 12am and 2am, generate earthquakes in the surroundings. Old people who have been moved already to safer areas say they can’t sleep anymore because they don’t feel the ground shaking anymore.
People have been offered 25% more than the value of their house to move, there are still 5000 people who need to move before 2032. By driving in the area, it makes me realise the massive effort that needs to be done due to the mining activity. For example, they control the ground stability everywhere so they install measurement devices everywhere. The fences surrounding the digging zones need to be often moved. More roads need to be built for the people to access the new living zones created. The cost of mining industry is colossal! If is said that LKAB has a budget of 2.5 billion kronas just to move houses.
Driving closer to mount Dundret, more pine trees are visible. They look really funny because they are very skinny, compared to the ones I saw before. Apparently this is due to the snow in winter, the weight is too heavy for the long branches. It is still about 27 degrees and full sun (even at 11pm) so it hard to believe that winters are strong here (it snows 9 months of the year!). The skinny pine trees are just a clue.
On the top of mount Dundret, the view is nice, as we can spot 11 areas of Sweden when the sky is clear. Too late for the midnight sun, we still have a nice view. Only one bad side, the bloody mosquitoes!! There are many in the area and as usual, I am their favourite target. They get so annoying that I had to get back on the bus. This gave me the chance to chat with the driver, another lady, who went to Melbourne in 1989 to work at a sausage factory ?. She lives in the south but moves to Gallivare during summer to drive the midnight tour bus. I am surprised and impressed to see that almost everyone speaks English here. In all the places I stopped in Sweden, also the small villages.
The Quality Hotel (original name isn’t it?), located next to the train station, is very modern and clean. They have a rooftop bar, an oudoor pool, a modern gym, a bowling and a steakhouse.
22/07/18 As today is Sunday, breakfast is served till 11am so I can take my time. After checkout, I explored the town by foot but everything was closed, so I quickly went back to the hotel where I had to wait for the night train (which was 1h late) to get back to Stockholm. My first night train, great experience. There were clean sheets waiting for me and I met 2 German girls who shared the room with me.
