Not
much to say about my trip to Lulea. i spent most of the day on the
train or bus and it was cold and rainy. There is some pretty nice
scenery – mainly stunted fir and beech forest (being so close to
the Arctic) and lakes, many many lakes.
Lulea
is a pretty pleasant town too – on the sea and on a lake. My only
gripe was the train station – there was absolutely no way for me to
reserve a seat on the 8h long trip i had to do the next day. A bit
nerve wracking! (though it turned out to not matter in the end).
Was
staying in a nice place – with 2 decent kitchens! There was a very
nice Genevan guy in my room – yet another crazy person cycling long
distances – he had cycled to Lulea all the way from Geneva but was
holed up there due to a stuffed knee (very similar to the Spanish guy
i met in Annecy). Apparently it would've cost him 200 Euros to see
the doctor about his knee!!!
The
next day was another longhaul train trip across the Swedish border to
Narvik in Northen Norway. The train was packed full with teens
heading to a festival in Kiruna (about halfway along the trip). Made
for some interesting times with them playing a very random selection
of music on their cell phones. They were accompanied by a large band
(literally – as in the music kind) of kids of all ages who were
heading to Narvik. They kept things interesting until the scenery
took over.
The trip between Kiruna and Narvik has
awesome scenery – from bleak snow capped mountains, stunted
forests, bogs, rivers, land lakes to cute little ski towns. Me and
several other people spent the better part of this bit jostling for
prime window space to take pics out of. The Narvik fjord kept me
standing in the train doorway for at least ½ hour – to the
point where i got stuck there as everyone grabbed their baggage at
the end. I think the locals and the band of kids must've got a lot
of amusement from our “tourist” antics.
Narvik train station was a non-event
(bit of a bugger when you're relying on help to locate your
accomodation) but i managed to meet a lovely mother and daughter
travelling team- Christiana and Tanya (Germans who had emigrated to
Canada). They had fallen into the same internet booking trap as me
(when i originally tried to book the hostel it was showing up as
booked out for 3 months solid! - but when i rang them i got a bed
there, no trouble) so thought they would have to sleep at the
station. They had a lonely planet for norway so i convinced them to
accompany me to the hostel. We ended up in the same, definitely not
booked out “dorm” (the place was a converted classroom –
divided from other “dorms” by those wooden folding door dividers
– it still had a white-board and a projector).
They were heading out to Lofoten too so
we ended up on the same bus early in the morning (which turned out to
be the only way to lofoten – they had decided to stop running the
express boat i had been banking on catching – i'm super glad i
asked for the timetable at reception!). Nice to have someone to
spend the long bus ride hours with.
