I believe that the only appropriate word for my travels in Scandanavia so far would be "romping." I have been traveling very far distances and going in no particular direction. The scenery is spectacular.
From Tallinn, I was planning to take a hydrofoil back to Helsinki, but the winds were too strong so the voyage was cancelled. They rebooked me on another line, and I ended up traveling on a huge cruise ship. I met a girl on board who was from Lithuania and we hung out on the two hour voyage. Here's a photo of the ship (much too big for such a short voyage):
From Helsinki, I took the night train to a city in northern Sweden called Kemi. I sat by a girl on the train named Elen who was from Estonia and studying in Oulu, Finland. We ended up playing some good card games (the one I learned from Adam and then Spades after that) and attempted to fall asleep. I learned that night that it is VERY hard to sleep in seats on trains. Next time I will reserve a couchette (bed in a dorm room). I think I got like 2 hours of sleep and was very stiff in the morning.
From Kemi, I took a bus to a town called Haparanda in Sweden. The first sight I saw when I crossed the border into Sweden was an Ikea (how fitting). It was literally on the border:
From Haparanda I took a double decker bus into Lulea, Sweden. I got a hostel there and spent the night. I was so tired I took a nap at 1700 and didn't wake up until 2230 even though I had set 3 alarms. Unfortunately, I was very hungry when I woke up but there were no restaurants that were still open, so I ate a bunch of my snacks. There is absolutely nothing open late or early in small cities in Sweden. All restaurants open at 900 and close at midnight or earlier. Lame. Anyways, I met a guy in the hostel named Adrian said I could stay at his place when I go to Stockholm. I'm looking forward to being back in the city.
In the morning, I boarded the train to Narvik. I sat next to a girl from a very small village in the far north of Sweden called Kuttainen. She was studying to become a teacher. She and everyone else on the train deboarded at Kiruna and I was all alone for the last 2.5 hours to Narvik, which I thought was strange. The train had to stop like 10 times because it is a single track and there were iron ore trains passing which hauled iron mined in Kiruna to Narvik to be shipped out. Anyways, the scenery was amazing, but it was cloudy in Narvik. Here are some photos from the ride:
First glimpse of a fjord:
Norway was super expensive (over thirty bucks for a burger) and there was crappy weather. I stayed one night in a hostel and then took the train back to Kiruna, where it is nice and clear (I really want to see the Northern Lights). I'm thinking about renting a car tomorrow for the day and exploring the area/hiking. Kiruna is quite cold, being a ways above the Arctic Circle (further north than Fairbanks, AK). There aren't too many trees around because it gets so cold here in the winter.
As a side note, guess what I saw as a sign on a door? A Washington license plate! Needless to say, I was very surprised.
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