Monday, September 22, 2014

Christmas in Kiruna!

How to write about Kiruna?
First of all, for those who don’t know anything about Kiruna, Sweden, let me fill you in on what I learned this weekend. 

Kiruna, Sweden is a city in the Arctic Circle, one of the better-known cities in Lappland (an area that spans Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia and was once only occupied by the Sami people, indigenous people of this area). 

It is a lovely place, and is often brimming with tourists during the summer and the deep winter.  (We weren’t the only tourists there, but there weren’t many of us.)
We missed out on skiing down Lusovaari, and the sled dog rides.

It is a mining town.  There is an iron ore mine not far from the city center that one can always hear ‘whirring’ in the distance.

But it is a very quiet place.  There aren’t many birds chirping or crickets clicking, so it’s very quiet.

They are moving the town.
That’s right. They are moving the town because there is “iron in them thar hills”, and they would like to mine for it.  Consequently, the iron is underneath most of the town.  This begs me to question, “do they/we REALLY need the iron ore that bad?”
But that is a discussion for another day.

Although I didn’t see any Northern Lights, the Arctic Circle did not disappoint!

Friday when we arrived at the Kiruna Airport, my friend and I were giggling like tourists about the “one airplane airport” that we landed at.  It was very different than every other airport I had seen, and we were just trying to take in all of the hills (and mountains) in the distance.   
We walked around the town for a little bit, checked into our hostel a little early, and then explored the rest of the town.  It’s really not that big, and we managed to see all of the sites in my travel book in one afternoon.  We had several moments wondering, “what are we going to do tomorrow?”

We saw the historic Kiruna Kyrka, build to resemble a Sami hut, and we went back to listen to some organ music and songs later on Friday evening.  When we entered we were given a candle and we got to go to the front of the church to light it and leave it on the altar.  We weren’t really sure why we had candles, or what kind of music/worship service this was, but it was beautiful.  The church was dark and the candles sent light flickering to the ceiling. 
Turns out it was a Memory Service, music to reflect on and pray with for those who have died.  Although we didn’t know that until afterwards it was very peaceful and serene. 

We met a lovely family who was sharing the hostel with us, and they told us all about the mountains surrounding Kiruna.  They also agreed to take us to the top of Lusovaari in the morning so that we could hike down.

Oh, and what a view. My pictures will never be able to do justice to the excitement I felt there.  I’m just a small-town girl from Ohio who gasps and smiles like a child when she sees mountains.  On the summit of Lusovaari we could see for miles – probably halfway to Norway, and we could hear sled dogs howling in the wind.  It was incredible.

We had the choice to hike down one side of the hill – where the ski lift was, it was a straight shot back down the hill to Kiruna, and not very exciting, so we decided to walk and explore the other side of the hill.  We hiked for about 2 hours, around the backside of the hill, past another mining site, abandoned some time ago, and found our way back into town.  That hike was unlike any I’ve been on before and I couldn’t help stopping once in a while to just smile and laugh and realize where I was and register what I was seeing. 

We had lunch back at the hostel and relaxed a bit.  We gained some roommates, backpackers from the Czech Republic who had been in the mountains for 10 days.  It was good that they came to the hostel a day earlier than they had planned because on Sunday morning I awoke to my friend pointing out the window and smiling. 

I looked, and I just saw white.  Oh great, more fog, I thought.  But with my bleary, contact-less eyes I couldn’t yet see that Christmas had come early!
It had snowed, and snowed a lot on the last day of summer.  Even the Swedish family staying in the hostel with us said this was odd. 

Now no one can tell me I didn’t experience winter in Sweden!


Kiruna Kyrka and bell tower 

My way back to Stockholm took all afternoon, and when I arrived at my T-bana stop it was pouring rain.  I ran some of the way home and then gave up running because I was already soaked and arrived at my door drenched.

Funny how the weather can change in an instant.  It’s kind of like Ohio, so I feel right at home.


Hej då från Sverige! 


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