Phil retriving a stray beer in Torneträsk.

Barbie with fish down near torneträsk.

Sunday afternoon

We have had a few days with glorious sunshine and it has resulted in a summer feel to the whole village. Sunshine always makes people happier. On friday night there was a bbq on the beach of torneträsk just below the research station. Phil, a german guy that has been working a lot on the station arranged it and had been fishing over in Norway so had heaps of "sej" (saithe in English) that we put on the barbie. It was a very nice evening and we stayed up seeing the sun disappear behind the mountains. The photo is taken around midnight and still there is light, you can however tell that the days are getting shorter and that autumn is on its way. As I had not yet had a flat warming party I told people to come around the following night to my place. It was a pretty low key party, not like any of the big parties at Vildanden he he he. Today the rain has come, so our summer days were shortlived but you never know we may get more sun and warmth. Oh yea, one interesting thing is that I think I may have become a little used to the mossies as now the bites do not seem to itch as much as they did in the beginning of the summer.

Hazy view over Torneträsk

View from Nissonsnuohkki

Over the weekend I managed to squeeze in a boat trip on Torneträsk with Peter and Peter and then I went on a hike with Anders to the area around nissonjhoka where we also camped for the night before heading to a little hill called Nissonsnuohkki (the names of the places around here are beyond me, I cannot possibly remember them...). It was pretty good hiking weather we only had a bit of rain in the night whilst in the tent, so then it didn't matter. It was a nice hike and not too many mossies as it was a little windy so that kept them away. I still think that Kärkevagge valley where Trollsjön is situated is a bit more dramatic than the area around nissonjhoka (it is a river by the way). So it was a weekend with some outdoor activities for me. And today I had my first full month wages which I was pretty gutted about after the taxman had took his share of 33%, ludicrous to live in Sweden. Taxes on everything, wages, alcohol, food everything!!! Sweden is a very very very expensive place! Anyhow, I have today booked a little trip down to my old hometown Halmstad to visit Tina Lina for her 30th birthday so hopefully I will be able to enjoy the beach and some sunshine and party with my good friend. I am also organising a moving in party at my place here in Abisko for saturday as I have not yet had one since I got here. Otherwise, the weather has been reasonable here and we have actually enjoyed some sunshine which has been a nice change.

As you may or may not know, I live about 10m away from the traintrack and there is a constant flow of trains carrying iron ore from Kiruna to Narvik passing by at all hours of the day! I have sort of got used to it now and really you cannot hear them that much in the back room (where my bedroom is). However, recently they are doing some repairs and "updating" the railtrack so there has been even more noise... early this morning around 4am I woke up, it is possible that it was not actually the train that woke me but once awake I could not go back to sleep. They seem to just sit there with the train (some type of repair train I imagine it is as it just sits there for ages with engines on of course). It was very frustrating and as most of you know I adore my sleep and anything/anyone interfering with that is in big trouble. Anyhow this repair of the track will continue through the summer and then it will become a bit better I imagine. In regards to the iron ore trains I have counted 52 train carriages filled with ore pellets going up to Narvik and I think they run about 5 times a day, man they must have shitloads of ore in Kiruna. No wonder they have to move the whole city as apparently the city is collapsing as they are digging underneath it. Incredible! As you understand of my new great hobby there is extremely little to do here, I mean I have reverted to counting trains come on who could have predicted I would become a trainspotter he he he.

Christin aka the trainspotter =P

So again the internet has been down and as it is the summer vacation time things are taking time to get fixed… The weather here has been rather ordinary, cold, windy and wet. It is quite funny as the rest of Sweden, particularly down in the South are having a record summer with some nice high temperatures and sunshine. Abisko is said to be a sun spot and has very low precipitation but so far I have seen no indications of this. Since I arrived here I have read 4 books, as I have got no tv I read a lot. Running out of books though so if any of you have any recommendations of good books you like please let me know. On Saturday we had a little get together on the research station in the evening and a few people presented their research here in Abisko (me included). It was interesting to see what the other people are doing; there was a lot on terrestrial ecology and very little on aquatic ecology.

On my bike to work today I was getting cold hands so nearly time to bring out the gloves!!!

At work I have tested out the tangential flow filtration system they got here, will use it to concentrate viruses from the lakes, so running some small tests at the mo. I am also counting viruses from the lakes that have been sampled in Västerbotten and also some of the lakes from up here, so there are a few things to do at work. The crew that I was sampling with in Västerbotten are back here in Abisko to sample some high alpine lakes however they got back this afternoon from an unsuccessful sampling trip as it was too windy for them to get out on the lake and they said they had very little sleep in their tent as it was making lots of noise during the night due to the wind. Reminds me of the time in the tent on Hop Island in the Antarctic we had some incredible wind there. Anyhow, they did not bring back any samples which means I got nothing to do in the lab.

I had some good news from Mr Winkle (a guy that was down in the Antarctic when I was there), he is getting married in March and I got an invite to the wedding so I am considering heading South to be there for his big day.

All the best to you,

Christin

The photographer =)

Photo taken by Olga

Midnightsun in Abisko

View from Nuolja

View of Torneträsk and lapporten from Nuolja. Yesterday midnight I was up to view the midnight sun from Nuolja, there is a chairlift that takes you to the top so I was there with the rest of the tourists admiring the midnight sun and the spectacular view. The weather is very changeable here and yesterday afternoon we had some nice clear skies and no wind (the morning and the night was very windy) so I made the most of it and went up the chairlift as it is open between 22.00 and 01.00 during the midnight sun period (it will shut on the 15th of July for viewing of the midnight sun). It was really breathtaking view from up there a bit chilly and wish I had brought my gloves but on the way down on the chairlift we got a blanket which made a big difference. I will put up a couple more photos from the Nuolja view, enjoy!

The hiking crew infront of Trollsjön (Me, Olga, Renate, Claire and Rick)

Trollsjön at the end of the Kärkevagge valley

Lord of the ring landscape

Kärkevagge valley looking down towards Vassijaure

Yesterday I went for a walk in the Kärgevagge valley with some people from the station (Renate, Claire, Olga and Rick). We went with car to Låktajåkka and then walked from there to Vassijaure and then headed into the Kärgevagge valley and then finally Trollsjön (the lake on the photo) and then back down to Låktajåkka. The first part of the walk we had wonderful sunshine and it was very humid so plenty of mossies then when we reached trollsjön the clouds came down (as you can see in the photo) and then the rain just poured down so we got rather wet walking back to the car. The Kärgevagge valley was beautiful, reminded me of some type of lord of the ring landscape, not seen anything like that before. But the people I was walking with said it looked similar to the landscape in NZ. Trollsjön is the clearest lake in Sweden apparently and it has this sort of dark turquoise look to the water which makes it look very spekky indeed, I did consider swimming in there but soon changed my mind after feeling how cold it was brrr. The area around Abisko is meant to have very low percipition but since I have been here it has rained quite a bit, mainly drizzle but yesterday was the first heavy rain I have experienced. They (the station, ANS) have a cabin in the Kärgevagge valley which I think it is possible to stay in, not sure how they would access this cabin in the winter time??? But now in the summer it is very nice and an easy walk there.
I am putting up some photos from the walk so you can check out the landscape, hope you will enjoy it!

Love Christin

Hello everyone,

The last couple of days the internet has been down here at the station. Apparently the thunderstorm they had in Kiruna has caused some problem and they are taking their time repairing our network. It is amazing how much you rely on the internet to be working, just to check the smallest thing you think hey I check that online… so I have found myself exploring the station a bit and finding out their equipment and socialising a bit with the folks on the station.

I have started doing my samples from Västerbotten however I am still waiting for a small grid to be able to count my viruses on the microscope, hopefully it will arrive soon. On to Abisko news, as you know we have only one supermarket and this place is rather interesting as it caters mainly for Norwegians! The Norwegian border is not too far away and they come here with their cars and buy shitloads of coca cola, sweets, meat and cheese. For them it is cheap here (however this supermarket is probably the most expensive in the whole of Sweden and as there is only one then they can charge whatever they like!). I am starting to dislike the Norwegians though as the shop does not really cater for normal Swedish shoppers (or the people that actually live in the village). Really I suppose I should dislike the owner of the shop, and from what I hear he is not thought of very fondly in the village due to high prices and the Norwegian friendly attitude. The shop keeper drives around in a brand new Mercedes Benz and generally shows of his money not on in a small place no wonder he does not have many friends.

Yesterday I visit the gym on the station for the first time and it is pretty good, reminds me a bit of the one in the Antarctic as it has a rowing machine, bike (no treadmill) and some weight stuff, pretty small but all good. It is nice of the station to have a gym for their employees and I get the general feeling that they like you to keep fit here. Maybe even they are sort of fitness freaks arghhh!!!! The village has bought two kayaks that they keep near torneträsk and I went in one of them on Sunday evening as it was glorious sunshine and the lake looked like a mirror, real flat so perfect for kayaking. I had never been in one before so it was cool fun, was out for about an hour and just enjoying the scenery. Once I got back into land I got demolished by mossies and I think they bite me anywhere they could so now I got tonnes of itchy bites that I cannot stop itching man they really get on my nerves (I know I have said this before but they can really kill a perfect experience and I need to mention them again so you all understand how bad they are!).

I have just managed to get a home phone number in my flat (+46 (0)980-40101) and also sorted out internet for my flat. I think it will all be up and running around the 15th of July.

Oh yea and I got a parcel with lots of goodies from my mum, absolutely brilliant and also TWO bags of polly (my favourite sweets)!!! Tusen tack Mamsen! And I got a wicked shower curtain from Jan Hinker Hartmann, I first spotted this shower curtain when Benny and I visited Jan in Berlin, as he had the same in his bathroom. It is a see through shower curtain in plastic and it has pockets on it so you can put photos/postcards/flyers in it, brilliant idea! (Check the photo of my new shower curtain). Tackar så mycket Jan!

Right that was all for now,

Take care

Christin

Öreträsk midnightsun, Västerbotten

Back in Abisko where the summer has arrived we have very warm weather over 20 degrees, blimey a heat wave! I had a good fieldtrip in Västerbotten and arrived yesterday afternoon with the train that took 8 hours from Umeå!! We (Janne, Jenny, I and Alexander) sampled three lakes in total, they were all in the vicinity of Öreträsk about 1 hour's drive from Umeå. These lakes were in the middle of the mire and a haven for the mossies which really got on my nerves to say the least! We had warm weather down there but to protect myself from mossies I still had heaps of clothes on, they are persistent little buggers I must say. It was really beautiful in Västerbotten as you can see from the photo, which is of lake nedre björntjärn. Lots of carrying packs through mires and dragging the zodiac between the lakes but good fun. We stayed in a little cottage near Öreträsk and they have a very temporary lab there in a barn (converted barn into a lab with a homemade fumecupboard he he he).
After the fieldwork I spent one day in Umeå to check out the town and do some shopping before returning back to the wilderness of Abisko. Umeå is a pretty nice town, not very big around 100 000 people live there and I think around 20 000 are students.
Now I have some samples to attend to... but really I wanna be out in the sun as it glorious weather here. I reckon I will go for a run later on and maybe a swim in Torneträsk (or at least a dip in the water will be cold I think). I am practicing for a big running race (10km) that will take place in Kiruna on the 31st of August and apparently the whole CIRC team is participating so I better get fit for this!
Take care
Christin in sunny Abisko