Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Kiruna madness.

So another week over, another trip away, another two cities, another country and even more new friends. Not to mention being above the Arctic circle? The Kiruna camp is one organized by the tourism programme of one of the schools in Kiruna and they 3 day adventure for us to see the best parts of the city and its surroundings! Kiruna is a town founded off an Iron Ore mine in the north of Sweden.

After having to make some last minute travel changes thanks to the volcano in Iceland I set off on a 20 hour train journey to Kiruna. Myself, David, Crystal, Stevie and Megan all arrived a day before everyone else. So had a night to ourselves in the hostel, and what did we choose to do?! Go out, explore and generally make dicks out of ourselves by making videos and taking photos. Definitely a great night.

The group of us from the first night. 

Monday morning meant the arrival of the rest of the Rotary students. Having checked up on the information we got from the organizers of the camp, meeting at 10am at the train station, we were surprised when at 9am we get a knock on the door from one of the teachers saying that we were going to the train station now. Funnily enough we were all just chilling in our PJs thinking we had around an hour left. So anyway, we got ready and headed down to the train station to meet the majority of the students arriving via train. It was great to see everyone that I hadn't seen since Åre and some even since Vimmerby, and then to see all the new faces of those I hadn't met yet. We got taken on a short tour of the town by some members of the tourism programme at the school then up to the school for lunch. Then was some chilling, chatting and settling in before a quick trip to the ice hotel! So Kiruna have this ice hotel, that you can actually go and stay in?! For the "small" price of 3000SEK for one night at the cheapest.. We saw a quick presentation about the ice and where its from etc, then got to see the factory where a lot of the ice products are produced and kept, then got to see the ice hotel itself! Very very cool I must say.
        
Getting artsy in one of the rooms in the Ice Hotel

Me, Alex (Australia), Jonatan (Kiruna) and Tash (Australia) in the Ice Hotel

The next day in Kiruna started bright and early, literally.. 5:30am wake up call, and the sun was certainly shining already. We made our way down to the school for breakfast at 6am ready to get onto the bus to go to ..... NORWAY! Yeah, that's right.. I got to venture into my third Scandinavian country. The bus trip was long, but beautiful. Snow covered mountains and lakes, seriously, can life get any better? We eventually made it to Narvik, Norway, the closest port to Kiruna, used to ship out the Iron Ore.  When we were in Narvik we got the opportunity to explore the town, and what were we to do with our time? Jumping photos of course!

Rachel (Australia), Me, Tom (Australia), Julia (Canada) and Brandon (USA)

After 2 or so hours in Narvik, we headed back to Kiruna on the bus, and on the way stopped at one of the many ski slopes for a quick fika before continuing back to the hostel. That night we had a dinner cooked for us by the restaurant programme at the school, also the students of Sami (Lappland) background dressed up in traditional dress for us. The dinner was amazing, reindeer stew, actually tasted great! The students from the tourism programme sung us the national anthem of Sweden and then it was up to us to do something for them. So in our country groups we took turns singing our national anthems, however, some of the Swedish girls remembered the Kiwis performance of the Haka last year, and of course that was requested, Stevie and I tried our best, but it definitely wasn't very impressive! 

Wednesday was another great day in Kiruna. In the morning we got to go on snowmobile tour through the bushes onto what I think was a lake for some fun in games. We got taken behind snowmobiles in old wooden sleighs lined with.... Reindeer skins.. Yeah, that's right. Reindeer! The scenery was beautiful, and pretty unbelievable really. Once we had arrived at our location we got out and played some games. Simple, but so much fun! We played bump, and it was great, so much entertainment provided from the ice and snow. Then we split into groups for some mini competitions, one of which included doing relays wearing beer goggles! After an hour or so we headed back to the school for lunch, and on the way back it was incredibly interesting! We ended up heading into a small snowstorm and a few times whilst going up hills we got stuck, had to jump out and push. So much entertainment in a short period of time. LOVED IT! In the afternoon we went in small groups to different classes at the school to talk to them about our home countries. My group had David and Crystal from Australia and Caroline and Pamela from Brazil. So as we were telling the class about our own country we also got to learn about the other countries that were in our group. That nights dinner was a Swedish favourite... Tacos. Seriously, I think they are obsessed! But don't think I'm complaining here, it's amazing! Haha. Then came the random games, chilling and chats. Some of which included, a scavenger hunt and sardines throughout the school and mafia. 

Thursday meant the end of our awesome time in Kiruna, and that was super sad! Saying goodbye to all of the awesome Swede's we had met and also all of the exchange students again, unsure if I will be seeing all of them again. Luckily for me, Stockholm airport was open for a brief few hours so that we could fly back. Then once in Stockholm myself and David took 2 buses, one into town, and then one back to Linköping. Even though we weren't in Stockholm for long I loved it, and can't wait to get back there and explore. On the bus on the way back home, I spent my time putting together a video of Kiruna! Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzxfZI_0bUc

Kiruna was definitely an experience of a lifetime and I loved just being able to get to be a tourist. I met so many more awesome people this week and made some great friends. This experience is just getting better and better, 3 months down, around 9 to go. LOVING IT



Signing out for another week,
Alex. 







Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Påsk lov - one week, three countries, five new cities..

The last week was one of much travel and little rest! Very hectic, but also very enjoyable.

The week started on Thursday, finishing up school doing a presentation on New Zealand to a class of 18/19 year olds, they seemed pretty interested really, and enjoyed the few short videos I showed them, including the Beached Whale, and the Mitre 10 DIY advertisements from home. Then I got picked up by my host mum to start our 4 and a half hour drive down to the summer house in Mölle, in the south of Sweden for Easter, or Påsk. I got to see the changing scenery driving down the E4, through Småland into Skåne, slowly getting to see more and more spring; a lot of the scenery in this part of the country was pretty similar to driving through the Waikato back home..

Enjoying some of the sunshine in Skåne!

Easter weekend was spent in the summer house with my host mum and brother, then my elder host brother who lives with his girlfriend in Lund. It was so nice to see the ocean again, even though it was no where near warm enough for a swim. During my 5 days in Mölle I got to explore the harbour-side town that is obviously a big tourist attraction in the summer. Also during our time there, there was something called the Konstrundan which was where a lot of the local artists opened their homes to let people in to see their work and to sell it. We went around to a few of the artists homes and all of their work was really beautiful! Another thing that I got to see whilst in Mölle was, Kullaberg. Kullaberg is one of the oldest lighthouses in Sweden. The day that we went to Kullaberg was beautiful weather! So we took a little fika on the rocks and enjoyed the sun while it lasted.

The lighthouse at Kullaberg

On the Tuesday after Easter my host mum, host brother and I headed out on a day trip to DENMARK! One of my favourite things about being in Europe definitely has to be the fact that everything is so close! So we headed off to Helsingborg at around 9, once there we caught the ferry over to Helsingör. We spent the morning walking through the town, and of course for me, taking plenty of photos! Then we caught the train down to Copenhagen. First opinion of Copenhagen = awesome! We just spent the day walking through the streets, down past all of the shops, and the beautiful old building that were everywhere. We walked down from the train station to the harbour where I got to see the new theatre which was beautiful. However I didn't get to see the Mermaid statue, because apparently it's currently in China? I don't really know why, but oh well! I will hopefully be making another trip back to Copenhagen within the next few months and it might be there by then. Copenhagen was so beautiful, just walking through the streets with the sun shining, and a little bit of warmth in the air.

The next day, I caught the bus back from Helsingborg to Linköping because my host mum had to go to Belfast for a conference. I spent the next day getting ready for my trip to Germany and then moving family's! I don't quite know how I accumulated the amount of things that I did, but we will see how things go in the next few months!

GERMANY! So yeah, I went to Germany this weekend for a Water Polo training camp! So much fun. There were 12 of us girls plus the two coaches, and we spend 3 days in Krefeld, in West Germany, training, playing games, being tourists and having a great time hanging out (: We got to fly on the goodness of Ryan Air, now that was definitely an experience. No assigned seats, no checked in luggage, no space, no food or beverages (for free that is). After a taxi, 2 trains and a bus, we finally made it to the accommodation, which was like a small backpackers/hostel located just outside the pool. And our first task.... Break into one of the girls bags because she lost the keys to the locks! Hahah. Definitely an interesting task at 11pm. But we succeeded. Saturday we started with an hour and a half of training, an exploration into the town, lunch, then a training match against the local junior team, dinner, SLEEP! The next two days were similar but we didn't head into the town. 

After I got home from Germany it was time to begin the mission that was, packing up my stuff. I've now moved host family's to my second family for the year.. And surprisingly I haven't really gained all THAT much stuff from when I left, although that's not hard.. Considering that I had a 46kg bag allowance.. Plus three carry on bags, which is generally helpful :) I've moved closer into town so can now bike to school instead of catching a bus for 30 minutes! Don't expect me to biking when I get home though.


All of my stuff! (And this is only 2 more bags than I managed to travel with!)

Love always,
Alex.