If you want to go dog sledding you go North, specifically to Kiruna, the most northern Swedish city. The yellow lines on the map are the country borders. Norway has the most Northern point on the land but Kiruna is about as far North as you can get while staying in Sweden. The red line is the Arctic Circle.
A map showing where we were compared to where I live in Uppsala.
Flying from Stockholm to Kiruna is two or three times more expensive than taking the train... so we took the train. If I were to do it again I'd fly. Going there, the train left around 7pm and didn't get in until noon the next day. Coming back I left at 2pm and got in at 5:30 in the morning. Another thing to note is that with snow comes train problems. You'd think that for a country that gets snow every year, and lots of it, they would have worked this all out by now. When we were 15-20 minutes from Kiruna station the train suddenly stopped. We were told that there was no power in the station and seeing as it was an electric train we had to stop. After waiting an hour we were redirected to another station. This was our train station.
There was no platform; you just hopped off into a very deep snow bank. A bus then brought us to Kiruna station. Thankfully, the dog sledding people waited for us and picked us up at the station (we were originally going to go to them because we were suppose to have an hour from the time our train got in to the start of the dog sledding.) So on that note, also make sure you have time between arriving in Kiruna and the start of the tour, just in case.
The company we went with does week long tours and overnight tours which you can add extra nights to. We went for two nights which I would recommend. If you can afford the time, I think going for a week would be amazing. The first night two other people joined us along with the guide tour. We went by dog sled across a lake to the company's cabins. They have quite the little village - albeit with no running water (freezing pipes) and no power (I'm not entirely sure why not). It being a Saturday night, there were lots of other groups there, each with their own tour guide. The second night it was just my friend, the tour guide, and myself.
The dogs sleep outside in adorable little house. The first night all the houses were full.
Snow makes for great insulation.
You are expected to help out which includes using an axe to break up the frozen dog food.
And getting water from the water hole in the lake.
Our tour guide breaking through the ice.
My friend making the hole bigger.
It's a very big lake.
Looking at the lake with the water hole. You are in the middle of nowhere with no running water, electricity, or much cellphone reception.
Because there is no power you use candles for light. Not lanterns but actual open flame candles. My friend (from the USA) and I talked about it a lot because it seems that in North America we are collectively afraid of open flames and would never use candles as the main light source. Our tour guide thought it was absurd that we used fake candles. So I got to wash the dishes by candlelight and on the second night when I went to the outhouse, I had to light a candle in the dark.
Our tour guide made all of our meals. We had delicious reindeer and potatoes the first night, and salmon and rice the second. Yogurt and sandwiches were for lunch.
After we got back from our tour we had some time in Kiruna. I saw several people use a sled when grocery shopping.
There was also a snow sculpture competition.
In Uppsala, the response to snow is to throw down some gravel and go: "now you have traction!" In Kiruna they don't even do that. It was hard to find where the side walk ended and the road began. In the back you can see part of the iron mine. The entire town of Kiruna has to be moved because the mining is weakening the ground. Along with tourism, mining is the base of the towns economy.
The train ride back was thankfully uneventful, I was just very tired during my 8am mandatory seminar. Tomorrow lots of scenery pictures.
Don't be too hard on the Swedish trains and snow. After all, our ferries stop running when it's windy!
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