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SWEDEN

8th of March, 2007

Dear Diary

I arrived at the Central Station of Gothenburg ridiculously early in the morning. After I’d dropped off my luggage at a safe-deposit box, I sleepily made my way through the crowd, ignoring the shouts of faceless people handing out newspapers in a language I did not understand. Trying and failing to stifle a yawn, I caught sight of Pizza Hut, and suddenly I was painfully aware of the lousy excuse for a dinner I had eaten yesterday, and even more aware of not having had any breakfast yet save for a tiny chocolate bar and a miniscule cup of coffee. Crossing the street with only one thing in mind, I was almost run over by a tram. The driver shot me a look of such anger I felt momentarily paralyzed, and was nearly run over again, this time by a huge, green truck. I decided to take the tram, afraid of actually being run over. The lady next to me was saying something, in very broken English, about a green bunny to what appeared to be a very confused-looking Asian tourist. ”You see, this well-known bunny is the mascot of the famous amusement park “Liseberg”.

The stupid place wasn’t even open, not that I wanted to go there but… Still. The lady with the annoying pink hat started to talk about one of Gothenburg’s tourist attractions called “Universeum”. She strongly recommended that the poor tourist should visit this strange place where you apparently could swim with sharks, hug monkeys and look at extraordinary art. I stopped listening as the lady started to talk about her grandchildren, and spotted a brochure on the floor in front of me. The headline was “Universeum”, and as I glanced it through, I realized that it is a science centre about nature. I should have known that “Pink Hat” was not reliable. After some time the tram returned just outside the Central Station. I went inside and caught a train that was just about to leave, heading for Stockholm. I got on, and my journey continued.

Dear diary

19th June 2007

I have now arrived in Stockholm. I found a tourist brochure at the trainstation, I read that the old part of Stockholm has the biggest range of resturants, studios, tourist stores and museums and I thought it would be the perfect place to see what Stockholm has to offer.

I took the bus to the old part of Stockholm from the train station. I decided to start with the royal castle. I was lucky it was open since it’s only open during the summer. The castle is a large building, and I heard some woman say that the castle has 605 rooms in it.

I followed Västerlånggatan, wich is the main street in the old town. There were old buildings with shops and resturants, and I could feel the old and classic atmosphere in my whole body. When I walked along Västerlånggatan I saw this small alley called Mårten Trotzigs gränd, it couldn’t be more than one metre wide. I walked in to café on the corner and sat down at one of the tables beside the window and had cup of coffee.

There were a middle age man who was reading the paper on the other side of the table; it looked like he was from the neighbourhood. I asked about Mårten Trotzigs alley. The man told me that the street is the smallest one in Stockholm, and it’s only 90 centimetre wide and have 36 steps. Mårten Trotzig was an immigrant from Germany, and he came to Sweden in the end of the 16th century. Mårten bought the house along the street and since he paid with copper he became the richest inhabitant in Stockholm.

I said thank you to the man and walked out from the café and I was now walking down the street and saw a newspaper bundle on a park bench I sat down and looked in this paper, and there it was, a trainticket to the north of Sweden.

Dear Diary,

The travel to Luleå from Stockholm went well, although it was kind of hard sleeping on the train while having a complete ice hockey-team talking and laughing all around me.

When I arrived in Luleå and got off the train, the first thing I did was to bump into this really cute girl! I think she was about eight years old and she had two braids on each side of her head. Anyhow, I bumped into her and all of her things went down on the ground and one of her things was a holding a lot of toys and they all fell to the ground! I helped her pitch them up right away. Then she said the strangest thing: “I knew this would happen. Thank you for your help. Now you need to follow me somewhere”. First I thought she wanted some kind of compensation, but then she continued. “Luleå is not the place for you yet.” By then I had already learned not to ask what was happening with me, since everything is such a mystery nowadays.

We went on a bus and I think we sat in it for an hour or so and finally (FINALLY!!) it stopped at a bus station in a town the girl called Piteå. We got off the bus and the girl gave me a note and told me I should go there and then she also left me a brochure to something called “Piteå Havsbad”. Then she left me standing on the bus station all alone.

The town looked quite dead and the only person around was a man sitting on a huge, square-ish snowmobile with a furry hat on his head. I looked down on the note which said “Piteå Stadshotell” and I decided to ask the man where I could find this place. He didn’t look up as I approached him t before I had a chance to open my mouth he said: “You should go that way, and when you’re finished up packing I want you to get your ass back here! Alright?”

All I could get out was “Yes, Sir”

The man had pointed on a large building with a big, round, black roof a bit further away from where I was at the time. I grabbed my belongings and hurried off.

The building turned out to be a hotel, a really nice one as well, so I got one room, left my things in it and returned to the bus station. I was really hungry by then so the man took me to a hamburger bar close to where he was sitting, “Sunes”.

The hamburger was great, a bit greasy but the man told me that was the real way to eat a hamburger. When I was finished the man gave me a helmet and told me to hop on his snowmobile. “This is going to be so cool”, I thought since I had never ridden a snowmobile before. Boy, have I ever been more wrong in my entire life!? The snowmobile-ride turned out to be like the biggest death-trap ever! The man went total ballistic and just kept pushing the gas harder and harder, my hands were holding on as hard as they could, and I didn’t dare to open my eyes until we finally stopped somewhere in no-mans-land. “Great!”, I thought, “I almost get killed and when we stop we’re not even back at where we started – no! We’re somewhere with just a big pack of ICE!” When I looked around I realized there were like ten other snowmobiles there and no one to drive them, except an other man in an even bigger hat than the first man. And his hat was even furrier.

The man looked at me and said “Piteå Havsbad”, I just nodded at him. No way I’m going to be nice to someone who takes me out to Sahara made of ice. “You’re lucky” the man continued, “You’re up for a real treat. And for some reason you’re getting it for free. Follow me.” “Thank you, I guess” I thought to myself.

I followed him to the other man hanging around the snowmobiles. He was introduced to me as Harry.

“Pick one” Harry said.

“Pick one, what?” I wondered.

“Pick one of these ten beauties!”

“WHAT? AM I SUPPOSED TO DRIVE ONE OF THESE MONSTERS MYSELF?!”, I cried in my head, but all I said was “Okay” and pointed out a blue one with white text that said “Yamaha”.

“Now, get on it” Harry told me. “Have you ever been on one of these before?”

“Absolutely not” I answered truthfully.

“Okay. These are the rules: You never drive pass me, you never go faster than 50km/h, and you park them EXACTLY on this red line painted in the snow. Get it?”

“I think so”.

“Good Now. This is there you gas, this is where you brake…” Harry gave me a quick lesson in how to use and handle the snowmobile.

40 minutes later, when we got back from the ride I felt tired, angry and relieved that it was over at the same time. First Harry had yelled at me for going 2 km/h too fast and then he yelled at me when we got back for parking 30 cm too far away from the red line. Harry seems like a really annoying person. I wouldn’t like to be married to him. Ha ha.

Anyway. The man who took me there told me I had learned something today that I could use in the future – don’t know what yet, but I guess it’ll show later. He took me back to my hotel and once again I was terrified sitting on his black “Ockelbo” as it was called.

The last thing he told me was “Tomorrow you’ll take the bus 14 to Luleå at 10:35 AM, ALRIGHT?” So, that’s where I am right now, sitting on this boring bus on my way to new adventures. I don’t care what I’m going to experience – as long it is as far away from snowmobiles as possible. Over and Out!

The train ticket to Jukkasjärvi

Dear Diary

I woke up on the train and I am on my way to Jukkasjärvi. When I look around I see a lot of Japanese people. I suppose they are heading up north to look at the phenomenon ”northern lights” or to the Ice Hotel as I am.

A reindeer

Suddenly I feel a bump in our ride. The train is slowing down and I open the window and put my head out, I see a reindeer lying on the railway in front of the train. I hear the reindeer very low but very clear calling my name. I jump out through the window like a cougar, very swiftly.

I run to the reindeer and it said “Hello friendly stranger, ride my spirit to the Ice Hotel”. So I did.

I have now arrived at the Ice Hotel, it is a wonderful sight, and it is amazing how they have built this place out of only ice. Everything is made of ice, even the beds. But you get to sleep on reindeer hide so you keep yourself warm. There are a lot of Japanese tourists with cameras. And for the first time I have seen the northern light, it is colorful and sometimes really big, sometimes small. I think it is very beautiful.

This is the Ice bar located in the Hotel.

I am sitting here in the middle of the night in the ice bar having a drink out of ice glasses. And I think there might be something wrong with my drink because I am starting to feel strange, and in my confusion a man looks over and say “you should go see Poland sometime, son”. I think I will make a visit.

Dear diary,

?? March 2007

When I woke up in Luleå I looked out and saw the beautiful weather. But I soon found out that it was -22 C and too cold to be outside. But in the park outside my hotel there was a huge ice sculpture shaped like a fish that can be used as a slide. I just had to try it and it was actually very fun! After that I took the advice that the portiere had given me and decided to go to Teknikens Hus. It is a place where kids in an easy way can experience different things in science. The most exciting things I did were to see how it looks in a cockpit in an aircraft. So many buttons! I also found it exciting to make my own paper.

The ice sculpture-salmon in the central park of Luleå

When I got back to the hotel I found a note that said that I should go and watch Luleå Hockey play a game. So I went downstairs to ask the portiere when the next game was, and he told me that it was tonight against Linköping. It was a really good game and Luleå outclassed Linköping and won with 6-0. After the game I was very tired so I decided to sleep right away. That night I dreamt that I was a pilot that flew around the world!

The ticket from the icehockey game

My last day here in Luleå I’m going to watch a basketball game since my train for Kiruna/Malmberget does not leave until 11,00 pm. The basketball game is between Plannja Basket from Luleå, which won the Swedish championship last year, and Jämtland basket. That's going to be very fun to watch.

Chapter 3