Out of two options, Costa Rica or Northern Sweden, I chose Sweden. I suspect most people would think I’m mad. Let me explain my reasons why I chose this freezing cold, windy, mosquito ridden, bear roaming part of the world and how I got here.
3rd August 2020
I leave for Hamburg today. My blablacar is at 4pm outside Leipzig central station.
I will be spending forty-plus hours on transport between Leipzig and Årrenjarka in the north of Sweden, so I’ve decided to stay the night to rest between each changeover.
The first pit stop is Hamburg, where Laura will be helping me once again. She became my saviour and provided an opportunity to escape the UK at an incredibly short notice.
The more I talk about Sweden to people, the more excited I get. I think I should reign in my expectations. I feel slightly anxious, but I think that’s because I haven’t packed yet.
The podcast recording went well yesterday with Zsòfi and John, so I’ll have to edit that soon.
Zsòfi and I went for a “last dinner” yesterday evening. I had my last schnitzel in Germany for… well I suspect it will be a while.
They do it different here with a fried egg on top.
The restaurant (Upper West)was really cool too, located behind an old commercial plane.
4th August 2020
It feels a huge relief leaving Leipzig.
I really did have a good time there, but I just didn’t connect with the hosts and the atmosphere of the house changed once they returned from holiday.
It’s funny writing that sentence, when I’m talking about hosts returning to their own house.
We just see the world in different ways.
I had a great stay at Laura’s house. We watched sunset by the harbour after I arrived with my blablacar.
The four-hour blablacar was alright. The driver didn’t speak completely fluent English, but we held up conversation most of the trip. The other two passengers pretty much slept the whole way.
We were going to leave the harbour because it was getting cold, but I checked my skyview app and convinced Laura to wait until the moon came up.
I found it mind blowing. The lighting was far too low to take a worthy picture, but we could see Saturn, Jupiter and an incredibly bright orangey-red moon as it emerged from behind the docks.
Today I made Laura a full English breakfast – kinda. It was a vegetarian version, so missing the best bits, but it was still good I have to admit. It has been a while since my last one.
We also did some arty things, drawing and making a stamp for my logo – though obviously I made it back to front, because I didn’t think ahead about the physics or whatever.
I’m on the bus to Stockholm, Sweden, so it is difficult to write with the bumps, so I’ll write more tomorrow.
5th August 2020
The fourteen-hour flixbus from Hamburg to Stockholm wasn’t so bad.
I’ve also managed to find a couchsurfing host for the evening. He’s called JF, and he’s from France originally. He seems pretty cool so, but I’ve gone to the rooftop chill area of his apartment building to give him some space until he finishes work at midday.
We’re going slack-lining later. I haven’t done that since I was a child, so it’ll be fun I’m sure.
6th August 2020
I intended to write in here yesterday evening as well as the morning, as I didn’t want to forget anything, but by the time we returned from slack-lining I was pretty tired.
Slack-lining was difficult!
I’m surprised I stayed on long enough for this picture to be taken even.
We had one final meal of liver, bacon and cheese before bed.
We tried the liver raw as it was the best quality beef liver. It didn’t taste anything like I expected it to really. I thought it would have an iron taste, but actually it was sweet and tasted like grass with a hint of dairy, creamy taste.
It turns out that JF also applied the carnivore diet to his lifestyle and follows many of the same influences I do on YouTube and such.
This is actually incredibly important for me to meet someone sticking to a similar meal choice.
Everyone the same age as myself that I meet are vegetarians and vegans – or the extremely bad dieters with no thought of health – health of anything, body, mind, earth or universe.
JF has a date this afternoon, which is good because it gives me an reason to find a cafe and get some work done.
My sleeper train is at 21:08 from Stockholm Central. I arrive at Boden C at 10:15. I then take another train from Boden C to Murjek. I should arrive in Murjek around 11.30 tomorrow.
Lastly I take a bus from Murjek to Årrenjarka, my final destination.
8th August 2020
I couldn’t write yesterday as I lost my pen.
I wish I could have got my thoughts out on paper, as they were full of beautiful imagery.
The sleeper train was an awesome experience and one that I’ve had on a wishlist for a while now. I would still like to do a multiple day train through Russia or China though.
I still remember laying in bed, looking out of the window at the full moon, a perfect bright orange glowing circle behind the silhouetted forest trees.
The night was also very strange. It was becoming incredibly dark in Stockholm when we left, but the further north the train travelled, the lighter the sky became. I knew they had like twenty-three hours of sunlight at the moment, but it still doesn’t comprehend until you see it.
Finally though I am here in Arrenjarka. Everything seems great. It’s not quite as wild or remote as I expected, but of course there is a large dependency on tourism and in turn the goverment.
I thought it would be a little more offgrid, but I know this is going to be a really good experience already.
I wonder if I will find the balance of offgrid with internet access & and small luxury that I desire. Maybe I’m wishing upon a star?
Anyway, I must return my focus to the present as today I will be introduced to the sixteen adult huskies and seven pups – and now I need to get ready.
Final Note.
Thanks again for reading my travels. I sometimes wonder if my travelling posts should be more explanatory, but I do like this method of journal blogging. It correlates greatly with my wellbeing articles.
I feel it makes sense to finish the post here, upon the arrival of my new workaway, as it simply does it’s job of telling the story of how I got here.
I also have some of my next post written already and it’d be way too long to combine my initial weeks here with the journey.
To return to the post’s opening paragraph, choosing Sweden was due to… well, multiple reasons.
Partly the decision was based on Covid. Sweden never really locked down and it was much easier to travel to than Costa Rica. I have written about making easy decisions in the past and why they are usually wrong in my wellbeing article, Decision Making.
Though I have a counter to this ease of difficulty.
The opportunity in Costa Rica was only looking after some children – of which mainly played video games all day. The opportunity in Sweden, where I am writing this from, is looking after the sled dogs in the remote wilderness. I have Sarek – a huge national park in Sweden – just a short drive away. I’ve been told you can go weeks hiking the trails without seeing another person.
So actually the difficulty here is much harder than Costa Rica and I’m glad I chose it. Without going too far into the next post, I have already started regaining muscle toning and my energy levels have improved greatly.
Anyway, as I said. Next time.
In other news back home, my sister seems to have discovered the necessity for travel, which is only a good thing. I hope she gets out into the world soon and discovers a career is not life, but a provision of false confidence.
Please share with others if you have enjoyed my post. There are still a lot of people out there looking for some inspiration during these bizarre times!
