On the way down from Njulla

Somewhere on this photo is a red cross which is the marked track... who can spot it?

Anyone fancy a ride on the chairlift?

First sampling day

Today I started my fieldwork and it had been glorious weather until today! I pulled up my blind in my flat this morning and shock horror this thick fog was covering Njulla (the mountain where my first lake is!). Typical I thought. However, no rain so I went ahead with arranging things for going up there. I took the chairlift to the top as this is still running and saves time and also my little legs he he he. It was incredible as I got into the big thick cloud, I could see nothing ahead of me. Very eerie and I was thinking, “how on earth will I find this lake”. Anyhow the lake is situated just next to the well marked track so I just followed the track and after about 30mins the lake appeared on my left, so I strolled down and started my sampling. Odd as I could not make out how big the lake was or anything as the fog was so heavy. I got 10L from there which I put in my backpack and struggled back down to the chairlift. Success at least I managed to sample my first lake and now I just have to wait for the little bacteria to grow in the lab. Got more labwork tomorrow but it is good to be busy. Feel very tired after the fieldwork, I always do but it is sort of a nice feeling as you have been outside and I know I will sleep well tonight.
I also signed up for the Kiruna 10km run on Thursday, first I was thinking not to do it but I changed my mind and thought hey I can do that no worries. It will probably take me over an hour though but as long as I finish the race, it is all good I say.

View from Björkliden

"Spike" feature in Narvik

Narvik

So this weekend I went over to Norway and the city of Narvik. I travelled over there on the bus which took just about 2 hours. Incredible view of the Rombok fjord as you got close to Narvik. It was a very hot day, it has been hot and sunny here for a quite some time now. I had a strole in the big city and enjoyed the activities in the town. I get the feeling that Narvik has a bigger population than Kiruna, however I don't know this for sure. But Narvik had deffo more shops than Kiruna =)
They have a very interesting feature in the middle of town of a big "spike" (not sure how to describe it check the photos). It was big and shiny and fascinated me of course. There were also some people doing kite flying in the air which I manage to get a cool photo of. On my way back I got talking to the bus driver who was very nice and lived in Kiruna, he told me a lot of gossip about Abisko and people around here. Small places people knows everyones buisness, funny I reckon.

We all know tuborg is the best beer in the world now another reason for it!

Tjabrak

Had a very relaxing weekend with a bbq at Torneträsk on friday evening and saturday I had dinner at a workmates place and then we had the task of putting up the 12man tent that they have bought for the department. Was just to test how easy it was to put up and yes it was very easy so that was pleasing to know for potential use of it in the field.

Sunday another glorious late summer day and I went for a run down near the lake and relaxed at home. Today has been yet another warm day and I went out in the field with Stina (a student working on her project up here). We went to a place nearby Tjabrak lake which is about 50km from Abisko village so we drove for a bit and then walked for about an hour to her sampling spot. The weather was great and I manged to climb some small hills to get some better view of the nearby area which was very specky indeed. On our walk back we stopped and picked blueberries there were heaps of them and I think we picked about 1,5kg so did very well. Later I am preparing a blueberry cheesecake that I will bring in for "fika" (morning coffee) tomorrow. We also had to stride through a little river and on our way back we were pretty hot so we went for a little dip in this river which was very refreshing and a nice finish to the day.

So I better get on with the cheesecake =)

I found something very surprising up here…. There is no recycling! I find that both odd and shocking as the only thing we can recycle here in Abisko Östra is plastic bottles (PET) and aluminium cans. All glass bottles, tins etc go straight into a big dumpster outside my house (there are few of them around the village). I suppose it will probably cost more for the recycling people to come out here and they would pollute more getting here to recycle the stuff but still it sort of makes me upset. As a small village should be able to be more or less self contained and be able to minimise the rubbish easily. But the infrastructure is not here for it I suppose and if I really wanted to recycle I could take the bottles and rubbish to Kiruna but that is just 110km away from here. I did hear that they do some recycling at the Tourist station so I think I might go down there (1km from here) to recycle as I feel bad throwing glass bottles and recyclables in the normal dumpster. Some things never change in life, we people like to have it easy and even in isolated places we thrive to obtain this without thinking about the consequences it may have upon the place where we live. But then again I cannot say I live the “way I preach” as I to like to buy things and be part of our big consumer society. Who can honestly say that they do not love the moment when they have just bought that gadget/piece of clothing and they can finally try it out. But maybe next time you pick something up to buy maybe just stop for a bit and think, do I really need this and if you then hesitate the slightest then I am sure that you do not need it. I will try this next time and let you know if I managed to not buy it.

Instead I say spend all your money on exploring our world, travel meet new people and take time to spend with your family and friends. Talking about travelling I booked myself a flight to Australia last week and I will go over there for xmas and new year which I am really looking forward to. Oh yea, and it is starting to get darker here, we will soon enter the dark season which I am very much looking forward to. According to me, the summer should be hot and the winter should be freezing cold. I did not get a very hot summer this year but I am hoping it will be a crisp dark winter up here in Abisko!

On the beach in Tylösand, with tylön in the background













I, Ewa, Tina and Ida on the beach

Sunset in Tylösand

Outdoor bar at the hotel Tylöhus.

Singing happy birthday to Lotta in Indonesien.

The sisters Viklund (Tina and Magda) giving Lotta a well deserved drink.

Barbeque at Tylösand beach. The big crew down nearby the clock and the island called Tylön in the background.

Halmstad

What a weekend... I travelled down to Halmstad on thursday just afte lunch and the train journey was a killer indeed... I managed to sleep in my seat for a bit but felt pretty rough when arriving in Gothenburg. I had a couple of hours there before my train to Halmstad departed. So strolled around there and enjoyed people and the warmth and the feel of a big city again. Finally got to Halmstad around 17.00 and Tina met me at the trainstation and she looked as good as ever. I caught up with her friend Ewa while Tina went to see her granma, as it was her birthday. Then we headed out to town and ended up in a rather empty club as the summer is over in Halmstad and most tourists have gone. Saturday lunch time we managed to get everyone organised to head to the beach and there we lapped up some sun enjoying a few beers and stayed around there to see the last after beach at tylöhus (the hotel near the beach which I actually once worked at in my young days). We set up barbeque and more drinks on the beach, followed by a swim in the sea of course and watching an amazing sunset. It was so nice and warm and the day could not have been better for the birthday girl Tina (and also Lotta in Indonesien). After the barbie we headed into town and for more party and funnily enough ended up in the same night club we went to the previous night, this place is rather classic is all I got to say about that... As Lotta was not with us in person we had a photo of her with us (apparently this photo has also been at Roskilde so Lotta would not be missed there) and this photo (in a frame) got showered with several different drink types to make sure Lotta was also enjoying the big party with us. On sunday lunch time it was Tina's actual birthday which we celebrated in the park nearby where she lives with champagne and present opening and again a wonderful day with sunshine, Tina (turning 30) did not look a day older than 25 as the photos can show. On monday it was time for me to head back to Abisko however I managed to squeeze in a couple of more hours on the beach before the long train journey home.
I won't bore you with the train journey, however I did change my seat for a place in a cabin with a bed as it was impossible to sleep in the compartment sitting up as the train was full and on top of that a drunk man was talking loudly ignoring anyone trying to get some rest...
Anyhow some photos from beautiful Halmstad, and I must say that I am proud to come from this place my hometown.

Heatwave!

Blimey it is hot here... the heat is lingering on up here in the sub Arctic. Incredible as it feels more like somewhere in South Europe. Now I know what the rest of Europe have been feeling for most of the summer, bring it on I say. I like the heat. There are a few people saying it is too hot. What I do not understand is that people always complain about the weather (including me), however as the Swedish saying goes... "there is no bad weather only bad clothes" (inget dåligt väder bara dåliga kläder, rhymes in Swedish so a bit more fun then). So tomorrow I am heading south to Halmstad. I am a bit apprehensive about the journey down there as I will travel by train and it will take 24 hours!!! Hopefully I will be able to sleep on the train and it won't be too many people on it. Unfortunately my headphones for my walkman are broke (only soudn in one ear very frustrating) but I will pick some up in Gothenburg. I will have a few hours in the big city to do some bank buisness and check out the shops before heading down to Halmstad. Just had a quick look on the weatherforecast for Halmstad and it is not looking too bad, they have some rain at the moment but looks like it is clearing up so a day on the beach on saturday and sunday I am hoping (saturday some cloud but on sunday a big fat sun he he he). So next week you can all look forward to some photos from Halmstad and Tylösand yippie!