The greatest trip of my life

THE GOON SAYS:

And so it shall be called: the greatest trip of my life. My 21^st year is no doubt a year of many firsts. I saw my first snow in abundance, and played like a crazy kid, I remembered thinking its even better than ikea balls.

We started out, all 5 of us, for our adventure on the 28^th of January, before the sun rose, and made our way to Malmo airport. Filled with anticipation, we boarded the plane, only to hear an announcement that we had to get off, and the flight would be delayed for a few hours because there was an oil leak. Better safe than sorry, I had no qualms about it. We went for a leisurely lunch with the meal coupons of 75SEK per person as means of compensation from the airport, and all was well and we were up in the air by 1:30pm.

Malmo Sturup Airport

To get to Kiruna, we had to transfer planes and that for me, is very exciting indeed, because it meant 2 take-offs and 2 landings. I cannot explain my fear and fascination for flying. The first of two priceless moments for me, was when the aircraft gathered enough speed to lift itself into the air, defying gravity and soaring like a free independent entity into the sky, taking all of us along for a joyride. The second of course, is when the airplane descends where we could see everything like a small toy city, when the coast approached us, and we merged into the ground, as the airplane wheels touched the runway. While the plane was about 1 kilometer away from the ground during our descent, I looked down to see a peculiar texture on the ground. It was dark, so I squinted my eyes to see: why are the waves in the ocean not moving? Are they trees? Forest perhaps? The boy turned, and in an illuminating moment whistled to me: Goon, look! Its snow.

In this manner, we reached Kiruna.

The place is an avalanche of ice and snow. I was startled to observe that snow really does glitter, especially in all that abundance. Its all white, but dotted with silver snowflakes, that reflects the light shining on it. I basked in my wonder of all that glitters, of mountains of snow next to the roads, and set off to do crazy things when we reached our cabin. I tried to make snow castles, and snow man, fell backwards to leave my imprint on the snow, stepped into loose snow which came up to knee deep.

Mounds & mounds of snow......

.......... that glitters!!!

Leaving my imprint in the snow!

Snapshot in the snow!

The snowmobiles we took to the ice hotel can go faster than a motorcycle. It was exhilarating to ride across frozen rivers and vast expanse of snow. On the way back from the ice hotel, our snow mobiles were going much too fast, and we were losing control. Suffice it to say, the boy braked and swerve, and at that speed, I was flung out onto the snow. It happened so fast, by the time, I lifted my head, there was a dull throbbing pain, and my helmet was out of place, the two snowmobiles behind me with our friends on it had also toppled and were all on the ground. The boy was on the other side of the snowmobile picking himself up. We went on our way, much slower this time round, and I was convinced never to ride a motorcycle if I can help it.

Embarking on our soon to be ill-fated ride...

The site of the accident....

Living at the Lappish hut was one of the most novel experiences one can ever have. We chopped firewood for the fireplace in the hut to keep warm, as there was no electrical heating. and realized for ourselves that it was indeed back breaking hard labour, drew water from the river, which was quite dangerous, as the ice around the ages might be thinner. So we had to go on all fours to collect water.

I still cannot believe I survived minus 20 over degree Celsius of cold. But that cold and temperature was really hard for us, our extremities, fingers and toes were cold and numb all the time. The worst biting cold, however was on the dog sleds back from the Lappish hut the following day. The sun had set, and there was no light. I went with the American couple, both of whom took takes to drive the dog sled. Every inch of our bodies was covered save for the eyes. On the way back, we had yet another accident. The boy was in the first sled, with the china couple. The Americans laughed and joked their way along, and at a particular moment, paid little attention to the down slope bend approaching. The dogs ran very fast, and the sled slid off the trek, throwing me and the American woman off, and the sled fell on top of us. It was a light wooden sled, so we were fine, but it did knock the wind out of me. The dogs rushed right ahead, with no one on it, (for the American man had lifted his foot off the brakes to help the woman) and crashed straight into the boy about 200m after. And even then they were struggling to run ahead, but the boy was the obstacle that blocked the sled, so they were prevented from it. It was a very painful experience for him.

Kiruna is a lovely lovely place. We saw reindeers and dogs, ate reindeer meat, and had a good time talking and laughing with all the companions that we met there. The man, Arne, cooking for us at the Lappish hut in particular was one interesting person. We had a good story telling time with him on the night we stayed there. On hearing that we were exchange students, he told us that he too was a student and this little place was his school, for he enjoyed talking to all the people that came here, and always learned something from them.

There is so much more to say, more pictures are posted in the boy’s post below.

I will write again soon.