Thursday, December 1, 2011

From train to northern dogs.
On the train I had a chance to organise some things that I hadn’t had a chance to do for a while, being write up some coaching things for next year, as well as get my blog uptodate. I managed to get some sleep on the train ~ 3-4 hours I predicted. Couldn’t see a lot because we it was dark. But when we changed trains about 7am and took the narvik train to Abisko, it was like traveling into another world – everything was white – with snow covered frozen lakes, snow all over the trees, it was exciting, except that there wasn’t a huge amount of it. It was a short 2 minute walk to our hostel, where we met the kind and interesting man that owned it. Making sure that we knew that we couldn’t have a shower with hot water for longer than about 1 minute, but the room was good.
That day we didn’t do a great deal, we did some shopping and then slept (well mark did) for a great part of the day. We left about 10pm to go down and see the northern lights. Boy was it cold, I don’t know if it was the fact that we sat on a rock watching, or that the temperature was -10 but either way, after a few hours, I needed to get back inside. It was excellent fun – such a strange phenomenon, seeing this green coloured mist drift across the sky. We also found out that photos make it look oh so much better than what it actually is – I wonder if anyone ever writes or says that when they see it.  Luckily mark had his camera, cause the settings on that were so much easier to modify then with my camera.
The next day after waiting for the sun to come up I got my job offer from NarreWarren high school, so I am off to that school next year. Teaching just VCE classes, so goodbye Trafalgar. Thanks, but get stuffed – seems to be the jist going around atm.
Anyway, we walked back to our hostel, freezing but happy.
The next day was trecking day in the snow. Choose a path… We jumped on some walking path and headed in a loop wearing boots we borrowed. It took us past a frozen waterfall – blew my mind, I climbed on it – ice is pretty slippery!! We also gingerly (although quite safely it turned out) walked on a frozen lake. (we later rode snow mobiles over the lake…..)
We went back via the supermarket, quick stop for dinner purchasing, and then did nothing as we had ran out of light already…. Stupid sun… We cooked reindeer and pasta – interesting combination, (it wasn’t that bad) and then bed.
The next day was leave day, we didn’t have enough money to pay for our hostel and the train ticket, so we went in search of an ATM.. alas, we didn’t find one. We luckily found the online booking for the train, and had enough Swedish money to pay for the hostel. We then jumped on the train back from Abisko to Kiruna. We were standing outside the front of the station thinking how we were going to find out who we were going to meet the person that owned the sled dog company and then… a van rolls up and out came mats – the Swedish guy who came straight over to us and picked us up. Nice… So off the dogsled place we went – now to hope for snow, which is not looking good so far…
Train Snowplough





1 comment:

  1. I believe we had this conversation many times:
    Me: "I bet you won't come back to Traf next year"
    You: "I will I will"
    Me: "No. You won't."

    Well look who was right! Upon your return, I believe you owe me a coke.

    Don't know if you've seen Traf's latest newsletter: "Ms. Sally Walk & Mr. Steve Pierce are also leaving to take on new positions. I would like to thank both of them for their contributions to the education of our students"

    Bahaha, that's funny. They think you actually educated us :P

    ReplyDelete