LAPPLAND

The group.

Inside Kiruna Church.

Kiruna Church. This building is considered to be one of Sweden's most beautiful buildings in all it's history.

Heading NORTH.

Last weekend, I went with 8 others to Kiruna, Lappland, Sweden, located North of the Arctic Circle! It was a truly amazing trip. We saw the northern lights, went snowmobiling, visited a couple of old viking churches, went dogsledding, and saw the Ice hotel. Needless to say, it was a trip packed with exciting adventures, and I loved every minute!

Since blogspot only allows me to put up 5 pictures per post, I decided to make multiple posts from each "excursion" so that you could see more of what we did. This one has some pictures from Kiruna, our "base" town during the trip. ENJOY!

Northern Lights

Wow.

I still can't believe it.

Reindeer meat, potatoes, and lingonberry sauce. It doesn't look very good, but it was tasty!

Trying to get warm after being in the -25 C cold.

We looked ridiculous. But we were warm! Or at least as warm as we could be :)

On Wednesday night, we went on a Northern Lights snowmobiling tour. We met the guides at 6:00, and quickly put on what seemed like 50 lbs. of clothing...overalls, hats, gloves, glove liners, masks, goggles, you name it. If it was designed to keep a person warm, we had it. 

We loaded into a couple of vans and headed out away from the town to the "home base" of the tour group where all of the snowmobiles are kept. As we headed out, we watched the temperature drop...and drop...and drop. By the time we arrived at the "station" it was around -25 degrees Celsius. So pretty chilly. 

We were given some quick instructions on how to operate a snowmobile, and then we set off. There were two people per machine, and I drove first. We went through various landscapes including wooded areas with narrow paths, and wide open spaces. At one point, we stopped in the middle of a huge open area, and everyone turned off their engines. Everything was pitch black except for the sky. It was filled with brilliantly shining stars. Really, they were absolutely FILLING the sky. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. We could see a few planets and some constellations. We were in a living planetarium. Gorgeous.

After trying to comprehend the beauty of what we had just seen, we got back on our snow mobiles and continued on our way. After about 7 more Km, we came to hut in the woods where we would eat dinner. Our guide made a fire, and we tried to warm up a bit. For dinner, we had reindeer meat and potatoes with lingonberry sauce. For dessert we had cloud berries. It was delicious. I never thought I would feel that way about eating rudolf, but it was really good :)

Soon afterwards, our guide told us to quickly go outside. As we stepped out of the cabin, we looked through the trees, and there they were: the northern lights. It was INCREDIBLE. The were bright green and were slowly moving in a swivel-y fashion. The guide soon discovered that I had a digital SLR, and we quickly set up a hand-made tripod to attempt to capture a few shots. As you can see, we were successful! 

Later, our guide told us it was one of the clearest nights of the year. Unbelievable. I still can't comprehend that I saw the NORTHERN LIGHTS with my own eyes. Oh man. Amazing. :)

Doglsedding

Off we go!

Preparation...

Pro.

The eyes! The BLUE BLUE eyes!

One of my many new friends :)

On Friday we went on a dogsledding tour! It was so much fun. We were picked up from our hostel around 10:00am, and then were taken to the kennels where all of the dogs are kept. There, we were able to get bundled up (again:) and help the guides get the dogs ready for the ride. By the time they were all hooked up they were going crazy with excitement. It was really pretty funny to watch them jumping up and down and barking like crazy! 

Soon, we were off. We had two sleds with 10 dogs pulling each one. My sled held three people plus the driver. I was in the middle spot, so i got a pretty good view. 

We went up and down hills, through open spaces and wooded areas, and down some pretty major bumps before we stopped at a tepee for fika. There we were able to "get to know" some of the dogs and just relax a bit. We found out during the break that we had actually signed up for a "combination tour" so we snowmobiled back. Fortunately, everyone in our group was really laid back about it, and we had a great time!

ICEHOTEL

400 year old Viking church in Jukkasjärvi

The Ice Church.

 

One of the best rooms...in my opinion :)

 

Ice Bar.

ICEHOTEL

On Saturday we took a 30 minute bus ride to Jukkasjärvi to see the ICEHOTEL. Wow. It was pretty crazy. Every December, a new hotel is built. It takes approximately 2 months to construct, and then in April, it takes about 2 months to melt. The ice is taken from the Torne River, which runs behind the hotel, and is considered to be one of the purest rivers in all of Europe. Its gentle flow and purity give the ice a crystal blue appearance with little to no bubbles. The ice is truly beautiful. Never thought I would say that about ice! 

Every season, a couple hundred artists submit their room deign ideas to the ICEHOTEL, and about 35 or so are chosen to construct their rooms in the hotel. Its pretty cool because there is a lot of variety. Also, the chapel is a new creation every year. This year it had the theme of "woods". Surprisingly enough, it is a popular place to get married! Bah! -5 C is a liiiiittle cold for me, thanks. :)

We also visited a church in Jukkasjärvi dating back to the Vikings 400 years ago. It is the oldest church in Lapland, and has some pretty neat history behind it as well.  

STOCKHOLM!

Jacob's Kyrka

Mårten Trotzigs Gränd

City View

Gamla Stan-Stora Torget

Scansen

Hej Hej!

Well, as many of you know... I just returned last night from a weekend in Stockholm! I went along with 3 other friends, and then met up with a couple more when we got there. We were only there from Friday evening to Sunday night, but we fit in as much as possible. It was great.

On Saturday morning, we woke up early and ate breakfast before heading to the Vasa Museum. It was so interesting. This ship, completed in 1628, capsized on the first day it set sail. It is considered to be one of Sweden's greatest failures. Fortunately, after 333 years of sitting under water, it was successfully salvaged, and now it is really a sight to see. 

After Vasa, we walked around the city for a while, until we finally decided to just head back to our next destination so we wouldn't waste too much time. 

Our next stop was Skansen, an outdoor museum/zoo. It is basically a big park that has a lot of hands on and visual history. It also has an entire section devoted to Scandinavian animals including Älg...moose! We found our way to the top of a big hill in the park that overlooked the city. Despite the cold, it was beautiful, and the sun was peeking through the clouds. Lots of pictures were taken :)

From Skansen, we found our way over to Gamla Stan, and went in the first cafe we saw for fika. Finding a cafe in Gamla Stan is not a difficult task...they are everywhere...but I really liked the one we chose. It was very cute, and the owners were nice about letting us sit around for a couple of hours as we defrosted and rested our legs.

When we left, there was hardly anyone in the streets; most of the shops were closed, and the sky was dark. We spent the next hour or so just meandering through Old town looking in windows and taking pictures of narrow alleyways, fun stores, and Stora torget, the center of Old Town. It was really great...maybe even my favorite part of the trip. Afterwards, we headed back to the hostel for pasta and rest.

On Sunday, we woke up early again, and headed straight to Old town. We (Antje, Anja, Keilin and I) spent the entire day walking through the streets, looking in shops, taking pictures, and enjoying fika :) At one point, we made our way up multiple sets of stairs until we had a gorgeous view of the city. We found Mårten Trotzigs Gränd, the narrowest street in Stockholm, walked by and ooooed and ahhhhed at the various cafe treats and candy shops, learned a bit about the Stockholm Blood Bath of 1520, saw the guards change at the palace, and just tried to soak in every moment. 

After a day full of walking and soaking in the sights, we headed back to the train station and caught our 19:15 train home to Karlstad. It was a short weekend, but a wonderful one that I will never forget. Tomorrow I head to Kiruna, Lapland with 9 others. Bring on the adventure! You will be hearing from me as soon as I return! 

Until then,

Hej då!

Lauren

Branäs

Antje was experimenting with my camera...

Lovely day.

Värmland

Rentals...

Branäs

Today a group of the international students went on a day trip to Branäs, Värmland! Every semester, the international office organizes a trip to a town somewhere in Värmland, so that we can become more familiar with the province that Karlstad is located in. This semester, they decided to take us skiing! I was so excited :)

We met at the University at about 7:00 this morning, and got on the bus for a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Branäs. The ride was beautiful. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera on the bus (it was underneath), so you will just have to use your imagination. Everything was covered in snow and we drove through a valley alongside a creek almost the entire journey. The sun was rising over the east, and it resulted in a pinkish/purple hue on the edges of the sky. Gorgeous. Plus, along side the road there were too many red and white wooden houses to count. I felt like I was in a storybook. 

When we arrived, it was -7 C, which isn't too terrible, but it was chilly. After what seemed like an eternity waiting in line to rent boots, skis, poles, etc, we got on the gondola to the top. We quickly discovered that Branäs is not a huge ski resort, in that we successfully completed every run, some multiple times, in the first half of the day. In addition, apart from the gondola, all of the lifts were T-bars :) Nonetheless, we were able to have a great time just cruising down the slopes and soaking in the beautiful surroundings...and sun! 

It was a wonderful day, to say the least!

Stereotypes

So one thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is stereotypes. Being from America, I knew for a fact that when I came abroad, I would be thought of as an American. That's obvious, right? But it is different, because while I am in no way ashamed of being an American, I knew that there would be certain stereotypes floating about in people's minds the moment they learned where I came from. 

(I want to add, I am not suggesting there are not stereotypes about other countries, or that I do not/did not have any false stereotypes of my own, there certainly are, and I have entertained some in my own mind as well, I just want to comment on the stereotypes of "typical Americans"--hopefully you all understand!)

Anyway, one of my goals that I set for myself before coming to Sweden was to do the best I could to both represent America well, and possibly terminate some stereotypes...at least in a few people's minds.

In a discussion with some international friends the other day, we were talking about what we first think of when we think of another country. For the US, there were a few that I found to be universal: fast food, importance of money, trying to be "cool", over-weight, emotionally and relationally "fake", self-centered, and huge portion sizes. 

This made me so distressed! I mean really, I felt like I had this huge weight on my shoulders, as if I were expected to be able to justify and explain each of these stereotypes. One thing that I often tell people is that America is so diverse in itself. I tell them that yes, there are people who eat at McDonalds every day, who are relationally "fake", and who only care about money, and for that, I am sad. But there are also people who are nothing like that; there are so many different kinds of people, and they cannot be all clumped together. 

After feeling distraught about the whole conversation for a couple hours, I decided that the only thing I could do was to be the best representation of what Americans can be like, and hope that the next time a stereotype pops into their head about Americans they might think, "Oh wait...there was that one girl from America...and she wasn't so bad."

A little encouragement came today on the bus when I was riding back to the University with a group of German students. Martin, a fellow international student and classmate from Germany told me that he thought I was a really nice American. He said, "I usually don't like Americans. They are so fake, and never 'real' with their emotions. Everything is always COOL! or AWESOME! never just normal. But I think you are really nice. And that is a major compliment coming from me....plus you are good at futboll."

So if that's the best I can do, then its better than nothing! :o)