28 & 29 June 2008
One reason for going to Gällivare was to see the Midnight Sun. We arrived in town well into the evening and rushed up to our booked accommodation and chucked our bags in the room, grabbed a jacket in case it was cold up on Dundret then headed back to the train/bus station. The bus was packed with tourists but eventually we headed off up the hill. It was quite a steep drive and as we neared the top we saw a few pockets of snow & ice still lying in hollows, trickling water as they melted. We were cosy and warm in the bus and had become used to the warm weather, so you probably can't imagine the shock ('cos we couldn't either) of the cold when we jumped out of the bus at the top of the mountain. Freezing is a close description!! but there was the sun hanging well above the horizon - looking like at least another couple of hours to go to sunset. We found a little hut to shelter from the biting wind, but decided to find a cosy rock to sit behind and watch the sun sink. but it refused to budge, it just hung there in the sky. we were on the mountain top for close to an hour without any visible movement of the sun. and our watches were saying this is midnight 23.59!!! (Later, Michael brought up the issue of daylight saving in Sweden, but I chose to ignore that fact!) anyway, the chill was getting to everyone's bones and the bus driver was making waves that it was time to get back on the bus, so we headed back, my brain still bewildered by the fact that it was really the sun shining at that time of the night. after the bus driver kicked everyone out of the pub that was open up there, we chugged back to Gällivare where the sun was behind a mountain, but it still felt like daylight.
A festival was happening in Gällivare that weekend, so there was a rock concert happening - in broad daylight and drunken youngsters reeling around in what appeared to be 4pm excesses, but when one actually glanced at the time, it was easier to accept that maybe at 1.30am in Aust you would see the same thing.
In the morning, I crept out to check out a Fågeldam - a bird lake actually, and although it was just a pond in the town, there were widgeons swimming around on it - a typed of quite pretty duck that I hadn't seen before so I was chuffed about that.
After breakfast we walked down town where we discovered a market in full swing, almost like Yungaburra market, but not quite!! it was interesting to see the different crafts on offer, a lot of Sami jewellery, bric a brac, but not much in the line of fruit and vegies. we checked out the Sami church, but it was closed so no idea of what was inside it.
and so to the train, with Emma and Michael heading west, while I waited for a later train to go east!
the adventure into the Arctic circle with its midnight sun will be a highlight of this trip and well worth the time!
