12:39 Tue.
8 Oct, 2013

Lofoten islands

Day 61 , 86 remain
Lulea , Sweden
10 °C
Fair
7:01 am
5:32 pm

We gathered at LTU on Friday evening. Despite light rain we were all cheerful and looking forward to the trip. I decided to only bring my backpack, so somehow I had to cram all my clothes, bed lining, food and camera in it. Backpack isn’t that big so I ended up sacrificing my clothes, only bringing with me 2 shirts. Mobile phone charger, toothpaste and shampoo were sacrificed as well. Luckily others brought big suitcases full of stuff, so I was able to borrow toothpaste etc. from them.

When entering a bus I was pleasantly surprised. Bus was equipped with free Wi-Fi (even in Norway) and electricity sockets. I was kind of sorry I didn’t bring my laptop with me. When we all boarded the bus, driver greeted us (in surprisingly good English) and told us some info about the trip. Soon after the ride began, he put a movie – Inglorious bastards, on bus TV. I really wasn’t expecting to ever see this move in such a place.

After 4 hours of driving we stopped for the first time in Kiruna. We raided toilets in local gas station and some people bought something to eat. Shortly after we continued. In about 2 hours we reached Norway’s border. The landscape changed dramatically, from wilderness with forests everywhere, to landscape full of fjords. Downside (although I don’t see any upsides) of riding only at night is that you don’t see any landscape through the window. We did another short stop near islands, where we picked up our guide. I didn’t quite understand the story but I think she is Icelander doing I don’t know what in Norway, but lives in Lulea … it doesn’t really matter.

The ride on the islands continued for about 4 more hours. Sadly I couldn’t fell asleep during bus ride, at least not until very end. And that’s a pity, Last hour of ride sun started to rise up. It was the most beautiful sunrise over the islands and untouched nature, I’ve ever seen. Sadly I fell asleep in next second, just to be woken up in 20 minutes when we reached our apartment area (I’ll refer to it as camp side in the future).

Total driving time (with stops included) was exactly 12h, from Friday 7PM to Saturday 7AM.

Cabins where we slept in Lofoten
Cabins where we slept in Lofoten
Cabins were overlooking the nearby lake. The views were breathtaking.
Cabins were overlooking the nearby lake. The views were breathtaking.
View from the cabins
View from the cabins

When we disembarked we brought luggage to our cabins. And I must say cabins looked great. They were all made from wood with enormous windows (whole side wall was a window) and great view over the lake.

There was no time to rest, when we unpacked we had a “Norwegian” breakfast in main building and then we were off to town centre. Oh I forgot to tell in which town we were staying: Svolvær.

I’ve decided to make a lot of smaller posts instead of a big one in favour of optimisation and faster webpage load time. So To be continued in next post.

15:50 Thu.
3 Oct, 2013

Northern Lights

Day 56 , 91 remain
Lulea , Sweden
14 °C
Fair
6:46 am
5:52 pm

Some more pictures of aurora.

Northern lights over Luleå
Northern lights over Luleå
Northern lights over Luleå
Northern lights over Luleå
Northern lights over Luleå
Northern lights over Luleå
Northern lights over Luleå
Northern lights over Luleå
09:50 Thu.
3 Oct, 2013

Northern lights

Day 56 , 91 remain
Lulea , Sweden
8 °C
Fair
6:46 am
5:52 pm

On 1st October there was a massive sun storm. Because certain kind of particles from this storm take many hours to get to Earth it was easy to predict northern lights. Yesterday I was finally prepared, with tripod and in the right place waiting for show to begin. I didn’t have to wait long here is result:

Aurora borealis - green fire in the sky
Aurora borealis – green fire in the sky
07:07 Tue.
1 Oct, 2013

Haven't slept in ages

Day 54 , 93 remain
Lulea , Sweden
0 °C
Mostly Cloudy
6:40 am
6:00 pm

Now (at 7 AM) I’ve arrived from a 4 days long trip to Norway. The trip was amazing and I think worth every penny, though it was very exhausting. In 4 days I think I only slept for 15h altogether. For some reason I couldn’t sleep on the bus toward islands, on the way back I was so tired that I managed to shut my eyes for around 4h.

I’ll go in to more detail in future posts (during weekend) when I’ll upload a big load of picture (I took around 500 of them). For now it’s enough to know that islands are really as beautiful as they say and that Norway is incredibly expensive country.

2 teaser pictures.
For now I’ll let you wonder what it is. Let me just say it’s not a dog or a cat.

Eyes in darkness. What could it be?
Eyes in darkness. What could it be?
From left: Me, Slavek and Mikel.
From left: Me, Slavek and Mikel.
01:41 Fri.
27 Sep, 2013

First snow in September!

Day 50 , 97 remain
Lulea , Sweden
6 °C
Mostly Cloudy
6:22 am
6:17 pm

Oh I hate group projects so much. Another sleepless night, finishing group project … alone.

Enough complaining for now (or I’ll be here till morning). Today (oh I mean yesterday) morning was really cold. A teacher told me that at 7 AM it was still snowing, sadly I missed this spectacular event (for September) as I was sleeping till 9 AM. By that time snowfall has stopped, temperature raised to 1.5 degree above zero, and whatever snow (if any) stuck to the ground melted shortly. Strangely temperature continued to raise throughout the day (and night) to now warm 7 degrees. Ah so much for snow this night …

The temperatures dropped quite a lot this week. I’ve been going to school with cap and gloves for quite some time now, but lately I’ve started to feel cold even in this. Maybe it’s time to upgrade my winter jacket.

Today evening I’m going on a trip to Norway for 4 days. We’ll visit Lofoten islands. They are supposed to be very beautiful (I won’t check pictures beforehand, because I don’t want to spoil first impression). Even though Lofoten is beyond polar circle the temperatures are milder thanks to the warmth of Gulf Stream. Even though to reach it we will pass over mountains where I expect temperatures well below zero. It shall be fun.

I will return from the trip on Tuesday, hopefully with great experience and tons of pictures to share.

For now, here are pictures from another group dinner yesterday and some nicely collared forest as seen from my window few days ago.

Tomatoes and eggs, it's actually  quite good.
Tomatoes and eggs, it’s actually quite good.
Noodles with cabbage and Swedish meatballs made by Liff and Allen
Noodles with cabbage and Swedish meatballs made by Liff and Allen
Autumn colors through the window
Autumn colors through the window
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