Björkliden - 19th August

The next day we decide to continue driving. The weather is rainy again, for the first time there is no fresh coffee and no delicious breakfast before the bus. We drive into town to see if we can have breakfast somewhere... negative! A real city center cannot be found anywhere and we drive back to the shopping Mecca and have breakfast at Burger King... yuck... but hunger drives us in. We still buy a little bit and drive to a museum in Kiruna, where there is a lot to learn about the Sami indigenous people. Well, then a bit of education in the bad weather, can't hurt. But somehow they seem to have a different idea of a museum here! It was located in the basement of a hotel and consisted of a room of about 20 square meters... oh well, let's go. After 5 minutes, we were only slightly wiser and decided to leave the city of Kiruna behind. We want to continue towards Abisko, a large national park.

Looking out the window, I feel like I'm in Scotland. Huge lakes and mountainous landscapes stretch out in a damp haze...! We stop at Abisko National Park, but decide to only take a short walk to the waterfall, it hasn't stopped raining at all by now. Then we go to the only campground here in Björkliden, just 10 km away. Everything here reminds me of winter sports, ski hotel, small lifts, and lots of wood.

It's about 4:30 pm and due to the weather again, we have nothing else to do but drink beer and sit on the seats like two grumpy detectives and observe other campers out the window and feel sorry for the poor people who are setting up their tents in the rain. Cheers to the old Minna...! That's what I call a great observation vehicle.

Although that's hardly possible anymore, as so much water has accumulated in the vehicle and the condensation water takes its usual path. Jörni proudly set up his dehumidifier from the supermarket and was sure that it should be emptied after half an hour... not a drop so far...! But it also works great as a siren for the Minna, in case we need to hurry...

The next day welcomes us with sunshine and the dull view from the previous day is history. We wake up early and after breakfast, we head into the mountains, despite not having proper trekking gear... which is popular here by the way... We hike up and down and take our first break at an abandoned ski lift station (unfortunately we can only quench our thirst with beer, because Jörni didn't bring a drop of water, clever...!)! We take smeared photos with the self-timer, laugh so hard about it, and then move on.

We see herds of reindeer in the mountains, enjoy a great view of the valley, and admire the many streams and the huge waterfall. Big clouds pass by in between, but it stays dry even though it's a bit chilly. Shorts are fine, very good! In the afternoon, we reach our base again, eat fish and salad (hopefully it won't get too monotonous... but we promise ourselves to get thinner from it. Although our minds also think that it works and that we're at least 5 kg lighter, but our bodies see it a little differently. We still have to work on that... but we have time...)!

I go to bed early and read a little, Jörn waits until midnight again for moose, bears, wolves, and today especially for the Northern Lights, as they are called here. You can guess... right... nothing happened!

Maybe next time!

Today we can have breakfast in the sun again, although the wind makes you shiver in between... I'll stick with shorts.

We extend our stay by one night and want to stay here until tomorrow. In the reception, we bought a book with great photographs... so this is what it could look like here, in perfect weather... it's not quite like that, but still beautiful. We decide that we absolutely have to come here in winter... noted!

I take the morning to finish reading my book and enjoy the sun. Jörni goes for another walk with the dog and I sit at my "desk" (in ordinary everyday life, you would simply call it a measly board, but here it serves as a good writing surface) and write down all this stuff. The sun shines so well on the bus that it quickly dries up again and our lucky cat can really show off and hopefully not strain her shoulder joint. By the way, we named her Jaya Hawk... not without reason!

Örni basks in the sun, the dog sleeps, and now I'm going to pick out a few matching photos.

Since there is no internet here, we will have to go up to the hotel later, enjoy the fantastic view with a beer, and use the WiFi so that all this reaches you.

We are now sitting upstairs in the hotel lobby, enjoying the fantastic view of the valley and mountains, and drinking local, 5.9% (!!!!!) strong beer for a measly 85 kronor per 0.3L bottle... oops... and the best part: it doesn't taste good! We're thinking of ordering a mojito... not available. But caipirinha... alright, then we'll let loose today... I mean... we'll enjoy ourselves... we'll be really extravagant... 150 kronor per 0.2L glass... now that's a statement... but we won't get any younger here, cheers!

Tomorrow we'll continue to Norway!

I want to emphasize once again that the beer here only has a weak radler character (almost like water, so it's also suitable as a thirst quencher on hiking trips)... just so that you don't get the impression that our trip here is a drinking tour... that's nonsense up here in the north. Today we might make an exception, if we can afford it...