Waaaaay Back to December 2012

Bath House

I never did tell anyone what I did for my Chrisrmas vacation.   I went on a mission to find a hot spring.  according to a lovely travel App in my Ipad on touristic stuff in Sweden, it says that there is a hot spring in Umeå....Every person I mentioned to this to prior to my departure very politely without actually saying I was wrong, told me that this was something they did not think existed.  As a matter of fact, there are no hot springs anywhere in this country or the neighboring countries. Yet, the Swedish way of saying "No you crazy fool, there is no such thing" is to say - "wow, I didn't think there was a hot spring in Umeå"....Yeah - no hot springs.   This was the closest I got...

A nativity Scene or our Christmas Tree

At the time, it was such a very very very nice trip, even the lame ass train rides.  I was starving for interactions with something familiar, with food, people, company, friends - anything that wasn't Sweden.  For people who I could relate and lament with and for anyone to understand my sense of humor.  I needed to be around people who understood pop cultural references and where I didn't have to explain every part of the joke or memory.  I was so happy to leave this area even though I was heading farther north, farther into the darkness of winter.  It was way colder and really dark.  It had been a while since Ive experienced a Fairbanks winter.  This place was similar.

Sami hut

Paulina was such a wonderful host, making sure I saw parts of her city even though it was winter time and everything was closed.  Which reminds me.  Everyone takes the holidays off.  Meaning, if you expect places to be open while you are on Christmas vacation - the places you are going, those people are also likely on vacation too.

Down town

 Most of the activities that could be done or that were scheduled - they were all done/open up till Dec 23 and didn't resume till Jan 2.  But I got to see the Sami market place that is right behind her house (closed Dec 23), one of the museums, a sculpture park that is part of some campus outside of the city, and went skiing in and around her back yard.

I know Ive told lots of people this when they asked about how my Christmas break was, I will say it again.  The best word to describe it was Eclectic.  Christmas dinner was spent with 11 people and they were from all around the world, with the Russians out numbering the rest of us with 2 people from that 1 country.  Granted it is a big country so I suppose its allowed 2 representatives.  Natalia was from Moscow and Phillip from St. Petersberg.

Cool church

Most of the other people I do not remember their names or am too embarrassed to try to spell their names.  But there was 1 Armenian, 1 Argentinian, 1 Swed, 1 Canadian, 1 Ecuadorian, 1 Japanese, 1 Latvian  1 Mexican, 2 Russians and me.  Dinner was great because there were so many different dishes.  It was also great because we all had similar frustration stories of how we tried to cook a traditional dish from where we were from, but because we didn't recognize the ingredients or couldn't find the same things or somehow had to massage the recipe to fit the Swedish system...how the dish should really be.  (example of a lamentation)

I went to midnight mass with Paulina and Kenichi in this really cool looking church.  It was not as melodic as listening to mass in Latin, but it was still interesting to see the rituals done in this church and of course to not understand a word of it.

This was painted that morning and plowed
by the next morning.  Snow Graffiti 

We had a great time watching the fireworks from the hill behind Paulinas house.  It was so foggy out that you could barely see anything, but still, it was fun.  The hill overlooked a major portion of the city and you could sort of see fireworks from different sections of the city.  We ate the grapes at midnight 12 grapes in the last minute.  One grape per month = one wish to come true.  So far its been 2 months and neither of my first 2 wishes have come true!!  Silly tradition.

One of the strangest and coolest things in the bigger grocery stores in the bigger cities are these scanning machines.  You check out these little scanners and as you put items into your cart you scan it and it automatically creates your bill for you.  You can basically "check out" as you shop.
 It really is based on the honor system to a point.  They do randomly check various people so you could be stopped at any point.  But basically when you get to the check out counter, you go through a special line that all you have to do is swipe your card for payment and go.  Don't really have any photos at the moment.  Will have to remember to bring in my camera the next time Im in a big city.
Some silly signs:

This is a meeting place for people to hold hands?

I think outfart would be more releving

Wow, somebody loves Patrick!!!

Trip to Jokkmokk Part 4: Ice Hotel

The front door

North Star in the wall

The Ice Hotel was close to Jokkmokk and so I thought - hey, while Im there I might as well....Although it wasn't that easy.  I wasn't sure I wanted to go.  Paulina was TOTALLY enthralled with the place and kept saying how wonderful it is and how amazing and she was really selling it.  I looked at the photos and went on line - it sounded cool.  Buuuut each Swedish person I talked to, they didn't seemed too impressed.  Additionally Tuija also wasn't as eager to go either. It was 2.5 hour drive northe from Jokkmokk.  There were opportunities to take a day trip from the market up there (700kr for the ride there and back...oh yeah 700kr = about $100).  I didn't know what the market was going to be like and I didn't want to Cram it all in to the 3 days we had and I didn't want to miss the reindeer race and I was just unsure if I wanted to do it until Thursday evening, I decided that going on Saturday would be a good idea.

Church

The flower room

To be honest, I am very glad I did something else because there really was not much to do at the market that was free or that was in English that I had not already done...except see the parade which that only lasted 20 minutes.  Paulina and Kenichi made a special last minute trip from Umea just to join in for this trip to the Ice Hotel.  As we had a car it was easy transport and less complicated that if you were to take the train, bus taxi combo just to get there.  I guess the area is also interesting to visit because of the space station thing up there and a couple of other smaller sights but I can't recall....

Beam me up

Anyway, the hotel is interesting.  You can pay >$1,000 a night to stay in the "cheaper" rooms.  You do not bring any of your personal items into the rooms they are kept in lockers in the non-melty part of the hotel.  There isn't even a bathroom.  Literally, the room is walls and a platform with reindeer skins on them for bedding.  Some of the rooms have beautiful walls (those are more expensive).  There are about 20 or so rooms that are sculpted "specially".  You can submit an entry design/concept every year - you don't even have to know how to ice sculpt!  They have people hired to bring your creation to life.  Just send in a drawing or two as entries.  You can tell some of the artists really thought about the lighting and how that would all work with and without flash photography.  My favorite for this  being the room named "Beam Me Up".

Kenichi and Paulina in Dragon room

There was only one room that was really amazing in the detail - the "Dragon Room".  The bar was funny to enter - only because of the massive amounts of tourists who were in there drinking the drinks that were associated with their favorite room.  The most popular drink being the hot lingonberry and vodka drink (150kr).  The novelty of the drink is that the glass is ice.

hot lingonberry and vodka

I left my mark

You are probably waiting for it - the BUT in the story well here it is....I would likely never return.  This place was cool, but for someone who has seen the ice sculptures in Fairbanks this place was nothing compared to those.  There is so much potential and yet there are only 20 rooms that get carved and most of them aren't that detailed.  I don't know, there was just something about it that wasn't that impressive.  The kicker to it all is that it cost $50 to get in the door.  Thus one of the major reasons I would likely not return.  I am totally amazed that Paulina and Kenichi go back almost every year.  A place with an entrance fee like that either better have multiple roller coasters, free drinks, or somebody getting naked!  I realize on a good night out on the town I may drop $50 but thats for dinner, dancing and drinks.  The other drawback is that if you ended up at the same time as a tourist bus - holy crap! you'd never get a photo of the room or even into some of the rooms.  

Trip to Jokkmokk: Part 3 the rest of the Market

The market was not as big as I was expecting, yet it still seemed large.

Aaaw you want a hug???

Other things that I did at the market were to catch a concert that was amazing.  It was several groups who came together and played music with each other and by themselves.  I had no idea who they were, but the music they produced was very interesting.  Some folk songs, Finnish Tango, sami fiddle, and just good ol jam music.  The highlight was that I got to see Sofia Jannok.  She only performed 2 songs, but it was still increadiable.  As I do not have a lot of space on Blogger thing, I am posting my videos to the concert as links to youtube stuff.  So, if you want, click on the highlighted words to see some of the concert.
One of the other cool things at the concert was a performance by an Inuit from Greenland.  She started out the evening sitting on a stool applying her make-up and explaining (in Swedish) the significance of the performance she would be doing for us that night.  From what I could make out it is a dance that they would do during the winter to have a mental break from the darkness.  It was meant to have 3 themes but I could only get the gist of 2 - there was a sexual theme and a comedic theme, but again couldn't make out the last part.  Anyway - here's a link to a segment of her performance.  It was way cool and funny.

Tuija with a new friend

Badger, martin, ermine, roe deer fawn

Capercallie and ptarmigan

The market was filled with kinda same stuff that is seen at the winter markets and at the fall market I went to.  Lots of meat stalls, lots and lots and lots of knitted clothing (gloves, hats, socks etc).  But here there were also lots of stalls with skins and pelts and stuffed animals.

Sweets were not enticing when its -27C 

This guy sold me those 3 mugs

There were certain things that are traditional Sami "stuff" which I went shopping for.  One is a Kåsa (pronounced Kosa or koasa like coast).  this is typically made of birch and then you add in the reindeer bone for accent.  Another is the leukus which is a knife with wood (birch or sallow), reindeer antler/bone in the handle and a shieth made of reindeer hide.  When you buy a Kåsa the traditional exchange of goods and money is followed by sharing a shot with the seller.  You can of course buy these from a store where they look like they've been drilled by a machine, or you can buy them where they look hand made.  My guy made it seem like he made them himself...if he did I will never know.  However, mine at least looked hand made.  The bartering was entertaining and ended in a 100 kr discount and him pouring a shot of VERY VERY cold whisky into each mug I purchased.  I was not able to share either with my friends who were all laughing at me as I purchased 3 of these mugs and it was 1pm in the afternoon.

I am kicking myself now for not taking photos of the items for sale or of the people.  I was so enthralled with what people were wearing I forgot to photograph them.  Then, it just became so common place that you'd forget after that.  Maybe next year - or not.  Cuz it isn't likely I will go back.  On both days I was there I missed the parade which would have been the best opportunity as anyone in Sami dress would walk in it...I guess that is reason to return.  Otherwise, the best I can offer is I roomed with Norwegian Sami girls and they got ready every night for the Sami Dance.

Which leads me to my next bit.  I didn't go to the Sami Dance as I heard it was pretty much a disco that you had to pay 200kr to get in...instead I went to the Swedish Dance.  Which was free and really - it was way more my scene.  It was super fun.

The first night was empty, but the second night it overflowed into two different dance halls because there were some 9 fiddlers, 2 accordion players, 3 guitarists, 1 clarinet, 1 flute, and some ladies playing instruments Ive seen before but have no idea what its called.  It was basically a barn dance.  Only a barn dance that was inside some building next to a fire.

Paulina and Kenichi

Tuija is dancing with a wood carver I met at the market

Trip to Jokkmokk Part 2: The Race

I am extremely glad my mother taught me to plan ahead.  Ive gotten pretty lazy lately with the whole lack of planning and the - "we will see what happens when we get there".  In Sweden, this attitude doesn't seem to work as well for me.  Basically, last minute planning leads to lots of lame ducks...days.  Tuija and I learned this when we tried to get tickets to Sophia Jannok (click here for her music - trust me listen to it). There were 2 tickets left when we called and we decided to wait to see if more tickets would open up as suggested by the lady on the phone (because we were silly to think the rest of our travel group would want to join - HA! they didn't even make it to the market). Lucky for me I still got to see her, though not a full showing.  Sophia has taken the traditional Sami music style called Joik or Yoik and mixed it with modern music.  They have singing competitions every year, much like the Eurovision Song Contest, they have a Sami singing contest (click me).  It reminds me of Native American traditional chanting - which I find fascinating that something so similar is found on opposite ends of the earth.  I guess people are so predictable!

So, I had read on the web page that if you were interested in the Reindeer Race you needed to call a number.  I called and reserved my space in the contest which Im glad I did because they only took 8 people per day for the race.  I showed up early which was good cuz I got to be reminded of how small reindeer really are.

The funny part was I had no real image of what to expect and all instructions were in Swedish or Sami.  They took us over to the sleds and said something, indicated to some rope and the guy demonstrated sitting or laying down on the sled.  This I got from the gestures, but what was specifically said - no clue!

the race took about 45 seconds, but it seemed longer.  As you lay down (as all of us chose to do), you hold onto one rope that is attached to the deer and one rope that is lashed to the sled.  Then, its just hold on and don't roll off.

As you are laying there, if you lift your head, all you see are feet, snow, rocks, and more feet.  Or rather hooves.  I was laughing and trying desperately to yell, but laying on your belly with snow flying in your face stinging you and having icicle like daggers penetrate your eyes it makes it rather difficult to get enough lung power to yell....but yell I did...and laugh.  The guy next to me didn't even lift his head.  He kept his hood down and still won!  How lame is that!  It all had to do with placement.  Placement Placement Placement.  If you were on the outside of the track you would win.  

Just so you can get a picture of how you set up and it goes:

Jul Feast! Roast Beast! and Lutfisk!

So, Never really got around to posting this, but the traditional Christmas banquet or feast is hosted by the department every year.  It is a smorgasbord of food.  They recommended you eat the dinner in 7 courses.  Course 1 should be the "fish" and snaps.  So, there were over 20 types of herring.  I tried about 17 and liked 1.  Next course should be the salmon (with more snaps or now beer/wine).  Course 3 is the bear, roe deer, moose, wild boar etc. sausages.  Course 4 is the hot dishes Course 5 is potatoes, bread,  mustards and ham type meats. (more beer) Course 6 is the Dessert but thats different than Course 7 is also desert the cheese and other Christmas candies.  So, really its fish, meat, more meat, bread, hot dishes and uhhh chocolate!
Click here more photos

There is Lutfisk on my plate...thats the part with the peas on it. 

 
the lutfisk was not stinky, it was not good, it had no flavor, it was not as thought.  Lutefisk is made from dried whitefish (normally cod in Norway, but ling is also used) prepared with lye in a sequence of particular treatments. The watering steps of these treatments differ slightly for salted/dried whitefish because of its high salt content. The only flavor came with the sauce and spiced pepper they provided.  Not as cool as I thought.

ooh the moose was sooooo lovely!

Bear pate with herbs and smoked lam

This is smoked reindeer heart.  YUM!!!

pork and kantrell in konjak

Some pork stuff with different mustards

Tales from Jokkmokk - Part 1 The Beginning

Jokkmokk is 1,033 km from Grimsö and according to Google Maps (click to see map), this should take about 12 hours to drive.  It is in Swedish Lapland (more about the Sami people later) and it is just above the marker for the Arctic Circle.

Jokkmokk has been the meeting place for a Marknad for 408 years where Sami people came together to sell their reindeer, trade, find love, and refresh their contacts from other Sami groups.  In more recent times they have been giving Themes to the Marknad celebration, this year's theme was Art.

The options for travel of course are to drive, train, bus, or plane.  Initially, I was supposed to go to the Sami Marknad with 4 people.  Pablo from Spain, Sara from north Sweden, Daniel from Stockholm, and me.  Eventually, due to plans changing, Pablo dropped out because he had a conference in Portugal and Tuija from Finland replaced him.  We were to drive Daniels car as he had the bigger, better gas mileage and a car that unlike mine you could lock, you could listen to CD's, didn't give warnings in a language the owner didn't understand, and was just a little more "tested" for reliability.  We were to leave Wednesday from Grimsö, drive up to Umeå and stay with Sara and all leave the next morning bright and early.  On Monday, Sara wrote us saying she could not go because she did not have anyone to take care of her dog. By Monday night, Daniel said if Sara wasn`t going he wasn`t going.... that just sounded so lame! and be it true or not, the delivery was sad.  It would have been better had he just said he did not want to go cuz in all honesty, it did not matter if he went or not - it was no sweat of my back.  I would never want anyone to be forced to go on a trip as that just ruins it for everyone.  Tuija has a Finish saying about someone who is a sourpuss or has a long face that applied perfectly at the time and its about looking like an elephants... 

  So, Tuija and I had to "scramble" a little (thank god she had a better car than I) to plan our travels, but now it was just the 2 of us. 

We left a little later than originally planned (left after Fika instead of at 8am) and it took ~7 hours to drive to Umeå or maybe a little longer.  The roads were kinda bad.  It was OK, but we did almost crash once because this guy decided to pull out in front of us and I had to slam on the breaks and we were driving on icy snowy roads, the ABS kicked in, the car fishtailed, my reaction was to pound on the steering wheel expecting a horn noise to come.  Instead, I realized I was in a french car and that meant the horn was a little button on the tip of the turn signal.  Who thinks of that?? Who thinks in the dire moments when you are panicking bracing for impact that you would even begin to think "Oh, I must delicately use my thumb or one finger to push a little button that will give this delicate beep beep noise as a solution to getting someones attention to warn of emanate danger!!!" ... Otherwise it was an uneventful trip.  We stayed with Sara - which was very nice of her, ate some home made pizza and left the next morning a little later than planned (start of a theme I think).  Tuija's car was a little quirky like mine, her heater didn't always work properly where there wasn't much control over the amount of heat coming out of the vent - either off or FULL on so my contacts got dried out quickly.  She also had her GPS which was great - except it only spoke Finish or Swedish.  We ended up calling the GPS Gertrude.  Gerty had a bad habit of giving too many directions at once, like the next 4 moves - so it always made it seem like we were turning right because for some reason there was usually a right turn and it was the last in the series of her rhythmic finish instructions.  **Side note: If the Swede's have a sing song, up and down melody to their speech, the Finish have this rhythmic flow that is like a mandolin with sharp cuts.  Finish is more like Hungarian and Estonian than Swedish or Norwegian.**

On the trip we decided to swing into this waterfall, which was rather cool.  Apparently there are only 3 rivers in all of Sweden that do not have dams and this is one of them.

When we arrived in Jokkmokk it was pretty late....or at least it was dark and cold.