Tromsø

The past 2 days were pretty good to witness Aurora Borealis over Tromsø, I definitively got lucky during my stay in Norway :)

Here are some more pictures from Tromsø and norhern lights:

City center



the unique wooden church of Norway, amazing ! There I could attend a Johannes Sebastian Bach Organ concert yesterday evening.

Some other views of the city, coming back from the Tromsø university museum.

Some nothern light pictures, taken in front of the AMI Hostel, ok I know too many disturbance lights, have to get to a darker place this evening :)

Hurtigruten: Harstad -> Kirkenes -> Tromsø

Here are some news concerning the first part of the Hurtigruten trip!

It started the 29th on Harstad at 8 am with a cloudy sky, but so much to see around.

Local people call this part of Norway: "Swizerland with the sea!" Well I do agree, but one huge difference is the endless landscape!

My first day was practically spend on the boat deck, taking pictures of the Fjords, probably the tourist is getting affected by all the surrounding beauty, and can not stop taking phtoto (do not worry I still have some Gigabytes cards left)

 
We could also witness a wonderful sunset leaving Tromsø towards north.

The first night on board I was not able to sleep much. The sea was calm, but my cabin was located close to the machine room, quite noisy and some twitching part due to vibration. A "roots" get use to extrem conditions, (no I did not get drunk... to fall asleep)



Anyway, the next day the sky was filled up with grey clouds, so nothing special to photograph. I had some more naps than usual ;)

And then it started, the sea became wavy, the first people got sea-sickness symptoms :( As the boat MS Nordstjernen was build on 1956, these older model do not have the new fine technologies, so yes it balanced more and more up and down, right to left... as a preventive care, I took the "mer calme" medicine, thx Céline, then was not affected, and found it like some attraction in a theme park ;)

The day after we reach Kirkenes, the end point of the Hurtigruten north trip. Just some km from the Russian border, amazing to find some people living so far up north, but the town center had everything one needs!

On our way back toward south, I had again chance to witness northern lights all around us on the boat, it was great! Unfortunately, photo won't be good quality, the boat was balancing too much :(

I could go to sleep, satisfied of the nature show, I slept well until this morning 7am. After a furnished Norwegian breakfast (all kind of fish :))...
I occupied by taking the sun on a lie chair on the top deck of the boat, sometimes making some pictures, other time, having coffee ;) the real lazy day of vacation ;) enjoying the landscape!

 The last Photo is some calm wave pattern :)

The Hurtigruten crew responsible of the boat docking, unloading goods, ...

This evening I did check out from this boat an stay over the weekend in Tromsø (little Paris is its name!)

Well I just checked in the AMI hostel, more like the good old ERASMUS time, youth coming from all over the world :) it's fun.

Good night, there should be some activity ahead, let's hope the sky will be clear, and that I will find some place in Tromsø to shoot some more northern light pictures...

Gällivare - Harstad 600km = 12 h

As you noticed, I do not have internet any more, the boat which I choose, does have a WPA wifi access only for the crew :( no chance to get it cracked with an android phone :$, and it was better offline ;)

As entitled, let me come back on my travel from last Sunday. It was a lot of waiting, but eventually I reach the Harstad destination after half a day!

The train from Gällivare to Narvik had 1h15 minutes delay right at start... Finally it did not matter, since my bus living from Narvik to Essenes airport was only at 20:45...

The only no wait commutation was at the airport to Harstad.

Finding an affordable hotel for few hours of sleep at 23:15 was not possible...

The "grand north hotel" was just fine, until you discover the prices the next morning when checking out... 1347 NOK, crazy bastards!
After all what cost the world today? Anyway, I was happy to take the Hurtigruten, and don't get upset during vacation...
 
A big thanks to Patricia and her husband Lars for their welcoming... And here we are with a picture from the artist in front of her art...

Hej då

Hej då Porjus

Well the Swedish adventure comes to an end :((( Tomorrow I will get the train from Gällivare (Sweden) to Narvik (Norway) plus one bus to Harstad...

So tomorrow is a day into the transports!

But the 29 th on 8:00 AM I will be boarding of the Hurtigruten, going from Fjord to Fjord, I am really thrilled about that, discovering new landscapes constantly, let's hope the weather won't be so gray than the last 2 days in Porjus.

I did not made much of these 2 days, a little walking around, reading, resting... But I also did get some photography of the older man I mention in my early post. His name is Björn, I did buy some extra smoked salmon for my last Swedish meal.

cracker and salmon, umm sooo good!


Despite gray weather, one can always make some pictures, here are some clouds and the last sun flares of the day:




Puss

Jokkmokk - Sápmi culture and art

Hi there, try to make some posts in between the northern light activity of this evening, which is not so strong unfortunately (Kp indice is 2).

The past 2 days were occupied by renting a car in Jokkmok (I have it until Friday morning) I could experience driving on an ice road, all the cars are using spikes wheals, so it still has a god adherence to the road.

In Jokkmok, I was in the Sápmi Museum, for 5 hours, I do know much more about the culture of the native people living in the north of Scandinavia (not only in Sweden, Sami are also part of Russia, Finland and Norway)

Here is their colorful flag...


The Sami had many rituals and specific clothing depending on the region they come from. But nowadays, there are more looking like you and me :)

here is a picture of the different clothing trends depending on the Sweden region where these people live:




The Sami ritual was oriented around drums, each family own it's own Drum. But the Shaman was the holy man of Sámi society.

He (occasionally she), functioned as doctor, adjudicator, religious specialist or advisor through the gift of being able to contact the gods or the dead in the spiritual world.

For the Christian, the Sámi drum was the manifest evidence of heathenism. Mass confiscation of drum was a method the authorities hoped would wipe out the ancient religion.

--
Ájtte's exibition guide

Here is one of the 70 drums existing today:


Some of the sápmi people still live from their reindeer horde which provide meat (money from the slaughter house), fur, and eventually the horn is used for making knife or jewelry.

Nowadays, the community has become sedentary, since the transportation (car, snowmobile, ...) are more convenient so that people do not have to follow the reindeer. Many of the wealth from Sweden comes from the Sápmi region, which were long exploited ignoring the Sápmi and there opinions.

I could also notice some wonderful painting at the museum gift shop, the work of Lars Pirak and it's amazing painting (actually one special technique is used: Lirografier)




more to read about him at: http://www.pirak.se/index_eng.html
Lars Pirak died 2 years ago, but I had the chance to meet his son, Mikael Pirak, who is following his father steps


Hejdo

Ice Hotel

Well today's attraction was the Jukkasjärvi ICE hotel ;) imagine a whole new world where almost (some doors are from glass or reindeer fur) everything is made from ice...

Quite amazing what some people can do with frozen water, so during daytime, the hotel is like a museum, quite expensive ~ 25€ entrance fee, but you can experience the new concept by visiting all rooms and different suites.

The suites are personalized by several artists, leaving their touch in the room, which makes it interesting. Enough with talking, here are some pictures.











The last picture is one of the Absolut (Vodka) ice bar, where even the glass are made of ice!

Here is the price list per "normal" (no Valentin's day or other special occasion) night:
1250 SEK ~ 125 €, for a snow room, without ice decoration, like an igloo ;).
1350 SEK ~ 135 €, for an ice room, containing some basic ice decoration.
1700 - 5700 SEK ~ 170 - 570 €, for an art suite room, fully decorated with ice.

cool you down? quite exotic, but probably original !

http://www.icehotel.com

Sweden winter landscapes

Hej Hej, march 21st, it's spring time!!! Well not everywhere I guess! We had 20 cm of fresh snow the past to days, and the temperature is about 13 bellow zero at night.

Anyway, today Patricia organized an amazing trip toward the Norwegian Border in the direction of the "Sarek" National park.


Visa större karta

The sun was shining, offering us wonderful winter landscapes, between forest, ice and mountains...

Here is a selection, chill out before starting a new week :)








Two more things which I want to tell you, it is really common in Sweden to get coffee is often made in bigger quantities and keep warm in cafetiere like on the following picture! The prices varies from 15 to 20 Swedish krone and usually they offer to refill your cup ;)

Well for the french people out there following this blog, here you can get a very large assortment of crackers "Biscottes", but unfortunately no wasa brand (http://www.ina.fr/pub/alimentation-boisson/video/PUB412490083/wasa-le-sauna.fr.html) :(