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.
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:
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