The trips don’t stop! Not even a little! It feels as if I’m in a bit of a contest with myself to see as much as Sweden as possible in this short amount of time. Great for the soul, not as great for the body. However I yet still live!
This week’s adventure is Kiruna, Sweden! The northernmost town in the country with the tundra landscape to prove it. The city was originally built at the end of the 19th century to serve the Kiruna Mine, the largest underground iron ore mine in the world. It’s so big in fact that the town is now being picked up and moved away from the mine site, so that as it begins to sink parts of the town don’t go with it. Truly a marvel of engineering, hatred of fossil fuels aside.
Like true college students, we planned a quick turnaround of taking the overnight train after classes on Friday, spent Saturday in Kiruna where we stayed the night, and came back Sunday afternoon on the same train to make it back Monday morning before classes start. And yes, I am exhausted. But it was worth it!
Our main goal driving us to make it to Kiruna was to see the northern lights, which we did do! It was a bit cloudy and not the best of conditions, but we saw the signature streak of green across the sky that one would imagine it looks like. It was a fantastic experience, especially since we saw it from dog sled!
Seeing the northern lights from the northernmost town in Sweden from a dog sled sounds a bit insane, now that I’m typing it out. But I promise it happened! We also slept in an igloo too, if that wasn’t enough.
It was an absolute once-in-a-lifetime experience. The small group of us that went had so much fun and I can say was definitely worth suffering sleeping on the train for. Going to Kiruna was also academically valuable for me, because the parliamentary body for the Sámi people, Sweden’s indigenous population, is also located in Kiruna which is traditionally Sámi land. I’ve been studying a lot about indigenous politics in Sweden and the Nordics, and getting to see the town and actually observe the geopolitical climate was fascinating. Sweden has a very different (for better or for worse) relationship with the indigenous people than we do in the US and to see the impacts of that on the town and the land was very enlightening. I do recommend reading up on the Sámi as a people group, especially for those living on stolen Native American land like I do.
We slept in igloos, rode on dog sleds, traveled to the north of Sweden, … why we might just end up as real Swedes after this! Like I said last week about Uppsala, being here in Sweden during this time really opens up opportunities otherwise missed, and this is definitely one of them. Even just riding on the train, talking to friends, seeing the beautiful blue sky from our collection of igloos; all are memories that I will treasure and can be grateful for in spite of all the closures from covid. It really goes to show how just a bit of creativity and willingness can create fun even when one can’t travel to Paris, Athens, or to Reykjavik. Go visit some dogs instead!
We’re now into the second half of DIS and boy am I feeling some type of way about it. Here’s to continued safe and silly adventures!
