Time for change

Sorry, I’m a bit behind on updates from the past week. Starting back on Monday, this is what’s been going on (I tried to keep it short and interesting).

Monday 16th

Not a lot of say but that I’m looking forward to change. I keep thinking of things from home that I miss. The Edinburgh fringe, a friend’s text reminding me of Tesco cookies(!), people/places I used to go/things I used to do in St. Andrews. And thoughts about the rest of the year to come…spending winter in Glasgow, the run up to Christmas, going to church in Glasgow. I’m enjoying making plans for the rest of my time in Sweden too. The week before I leave from Stockholm, I’m going to spend some days there and explore : ) I’m looking forward to doing what I want, getting up when I want and eating what I like. Not that I’ve objected to any of those things here but it’ll be good all the same.


Tuesday 17th


My last day at Bäckdal – and something new in the afternoon...cutting the grass! Hahaha. The machine is a bit like a car to drive, I feel like a few more goes on it and I’ll not need any driving lessons! Late afternoon we took the car to a Rubert’s to get some fresh eggs from the hens and checked the house, as he was on holiday.


I’m pretty much packed now. Just some bits and bobs to put in my rucksack in the morning. Really good day though : ) Working in the forest in the morning, the light was so beautiful in the forest. Little things just made this day special. If you’re reading, thank you Anders and Karin for a lovely time here in the north of Sweden. You have shown me wonderful generosity and hospitality.

I’ve also discovered cardamom tea!


Wednesday 18th

On the way to catch the bus, I suddenly felt really excited - like Christmas-when-you’re-a-child excited! Don’t think I’ve felt that way in a long while. There was a particularly agitated man on the bus diagonally across from me – he clicked his pen, shuffled his feet, wriggled about in his seat, pointed his hands out in front of him like he was about to pray, stratched and eventually opened up his laptop rather fiercely before continuing to click and stratch again. HOWEVER, when he started to type, he was like a man at peace, nimbly and delicately typing away at the keyboard. Hahaha, a strange one.

Arjeplog was very quiet, just a small town (but large compared to what we were to come to next!). We treated ourselves to a night in a really nice hotel which overlooks Lake Hornavan. I took a walk round town then indulged in a jacuzzi. I tried to sit in the sauna but every time I set the temperature, it kept rising back up again to 81°C. It hurt my nostrils to breathe!! THEN – get this - we watched tv…TV!! (I had to put the first tv in lower case to make that more effective). Pretty crazy - The Simpsons and ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’. Ace.

Thursday, we visited the Silver Museum, which had a beautiful collection of Sami silver and lots of old Sami artefacts; weapons; clothes etc. Sami is the name of people who lived (and still do live) in Lapland. I bought a ridiculously expensive pair of gloves, 365 Kr! – I’ll leave you to convert that to pounds yourself- they are traditional Sami though and will be extremely warm! Then we caught a bus to Sandviken. This place is tiny. It’s not even a small village or even a hamlet, it’s just a collection of holiday cabins by the lake side. It sits in the Arjeplog mountains just off The Silver Road to Norway (we are only 24km from the Norwegian border AND we’re in the Arctic Circle now).

Today (Friday) we head back to Arjeplog, I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t climb up into the mountains here. The trees are too dense to see anything anyway! Yesterday, on the road we saw an elk mother and calf. The couple that run this place said they often see them in the evening across the road here too. Sadly last night I missed them though : ( Hopefully we’ll spot them on the road back to Arjeplog again!...We did...well, France did but I was engrossed in reading Vogue for the third time and didn't see.


Later...

Here in Arjeplog and back below the Artic Circle…and, it ends up that a hostel is pretty much the same price as the hotel. So we’re back in our ‘one night’ hotel for a second night. Off to Lund tomorrow.

Signing off.


Laura

p.s. I forgot to mention, we were waiting for our bus at Sandviken when it zoomed past 10 minutes before we were told it would arrive. Oh dear. Luckily, the wonderful couple who owned the place zoomed us in the car to the next stop and we got on ok. Minor (maybe major) panic for a second, hahaha!