Currently in Abisko we have a lovely snowstorm. The wind starting blowing on Monday night and we had plus degrees so on Tuesday morning I could actually see the bare ground again much to my disappointment! But this morning when I woke up after another extremely windy night there was new fresh snow and a struggle getting to work in blowing snow conditions but it does make you feel alive that is for sure. Just have to love the extreme weather! So the weekend just passed I was in Jokkmokk which is about 4 ½ hrs from here. Jokkmokk has an annual winter market which is a great festivity with lots of Samii traditional things and stuff to buy. Actually it started as a big get together for all the Samii people but nowadays I think it attracts people from all over the world. I have never seen so much fur for sale, reindeer, fox, wolf and seal fur. There was a salesperson all dressed up in fur from top to toe, incredible, deffo not a place for an antifuractivist he he he. I mainly admired all the Samii people and their wonderful outfits and their cute little boots. For me there were three highlights of the market, the amazing beer tent which was like a huge pyramid tent and just the idea of having this beer tent in the middle of winter with these huge heaters blasting inside it was just such an awesome idea and so atmospheric. The second was the reindeer racing, which involved a reindeer and a sled where a person laid down on and tried to hold on as well as they could, if they came off the sled then they were disqualified. Third and probably the thing that made the biggest impression on me was the concert we went to on Saturday evening, it was a Samii band from
and a video of the reindeer that nearly escaped the racing here:
http://www.jumpcut.com/view/?id=0D48A1B6D8BE11DCBBF4000423CEF5B0
Reindeer racinghttp://www.jumpcut.com/view/?id=7648F426D8BF11DC8D8C000423CEF5F6
Niko Valkeapää
http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=08A3B420D8C311DC9D78000423CEF5F6
