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Lapland: 5 best moments

by zaterdag, maart 19, 2016

Yep! There it is, my first blog in English. People were complaining around me after the last one, so I decided to try writing in an international language. However, this will probably not be perfect, so excuse me if I make mistakes.

I am a happy girl.  Getting the opportunity to get company of 3 passions at the same time: nature, music and writing. So, while enjoying the first Swedish sun at the lake, with some Kensington in my ears, I will try to summarize the best week of my life. This was our trip to Lapland in 5 in five glorious moments:

– The moment I fell in love with Stockholm. It was grey, it was rainy and the Stockholm-ish people are worse than the French. But I didn’t care. From the moment we drove in I was sure: I would love this place. It has the high buildings of New York but at the same time the charm of Rome. The historical part and the rivers in between almost made me feel like I was in Amsterdam. And no, Stockholm is not a mess-up of all the cities I called before. I don’t know how to describe it, but with the cute colorful houses, it is an absolute unique, lovely city.

– Dogsledding and driving a snowmobile. I was completely enchanted with the breathtaking view over the Swedish Lapland and moving through the snow with a certain speed and in a ‘smooth’ way is actually pretty cool. Although I miss driving a car, driving a snowmobile was also pretty cool. And I haven’t even talked about sitting on the backseat behind a Spanish driver. I still remember the pain in my stomach. She drove the bumpy part of the route while cursing in Spanish and I, trying to take pictures, couldn’t stop laughing. It was an amazing day. Dogs pulling a sledge and tough guys driving fast through snow, these are things I only saw in movies.

– The moment you can’t travel anymore because the bus is stuck in the snow. Again: a movie moment, but possible in Lapland. We had to drive for 20 minutes, but first things first: we needed 1,5 hour to release the bus. And actually I am not allowed to speak in the ‘we’-form, because ‘we’, the girls, sat (on international women’s day!) in the bus. We watched how all the boys were outside in the snow, pulling and pushing the bus, while singing, dancing, making video’s and rating the usefulness of the boys.  If there is something I really really really hate, it’s waiting, so I’d never thought I would ever laugh so hard while waiting

– Of course: watching the Northern Lights. Three times in a row. Even on the way back we saw them at an gas station! How many people on earth can say that?! I do now. Everybody was already excited for the whole first day, but I, with my ‘quite cool’ Dutch mentality wasn’t so convinced yet. After all it was still a fact that the sky was grey and it was snowing when we arrived in Abisko (and that’s everything you DON’T need if you hunt the Northern Lights). But, when the temperature lowered, the stars became clear as fuck and the first white stripes were visible at the sky, the enthusiasm hit me like hammer. We ran, danced, screamed almost cried on that damn cold lake. The Lights became clearer and clearer. It was so magical. And the second day was even better. They were brighter and more green than the day before. And we were laying down in the snow, in our bikini’s, after a sauna. Never thought I would ever do that in my life. Two days we went back to the hostel as happy persons. Totally frozen and while falling on the cold floor a couple of times though, because of my fucked-up boots, but that were just stupid details.

– Ice climbing. “If you get that possibility, you really should do it!”, that’s what one of my friends told me before the trip. I doubted for a long time. I am not sporty. I am not strong. I am not flexible. And I don’t have muscles. But I am impulsive. During the subscriptions in the bus I already had handed in the form without having my name written on the list. But when I did my friend a favor to write her name down because she was sitting in the back of the bus, I wrote my name down too. Without any more thinking. And that’s exactly what I did. I stopped thinking about it for a week. But the night before I became crazy of the nerves and cursed multiple times that friend back in Kalmar who convinced me to do it. But after the climbing-tour not anymore. With friends cheering behind me, I made my mind empty, smashed that axe into the ice and pushed my body to the top. When I was there, I needed a few seconds to realize what I just did. And it was amazing 🙂

Being in a bus for 24 hours without having permission to get off during the whole night, being sick for one day and frozen body parts (or hair) doesn’t seem to be the ultimate scenario. But that’s nothing compared to how many fun we had. Sharing a room with ten girls, teaching French boys to speak Dutch, playing games together, drink together, making pictures together, visiting 3 hostels, the Ice Hotel, reindeers, husky’s, Norway and laughing so damn hard… it made the week almost unreal.

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