A week or two inside the Arctic Circle

When you are travelling it's inevitable that some places you visit will leave a much bigger impression than others. We really only picked Muodoslompolo as a long term stop because there was some volunteer work available, meaning we could stay for a week and hopefully see the northern lights. There were a few other options of places to work in the north but Oliver in Muodoslompolo seemed like the kind of guy we'd get on with. I'm so glad we chose to volunteer with him. 

Amanda took this doozy of Oliver and Mini using her Dianamini
film camera - Say no to hipstamatic iphone camera aps, use film. If
you see a square photo on this blog it's from Amanda's Dianamini

Olivers house

Reindeer, potatoes and lingon berry jam

Oliver moved to Sweden from England a few years ago, bought himself the old community centre in Muodoslompolo and has been chipping away at making it into his home. It's a gloriously massive building and he was happy to have two extra pairs of hands to knock out a few jobs. I spent my first few days helping Oliver construct a storage area for his heating fuel while Amanda was busy doing some gardening and sanding. The weather was really mild; we were there around the autumn equinox so had a pretty normal daylight to dark ratio. But there were a couple of wicked frosts and some awesome clear nights. So for about a week we were helping out around the house, taking frequent trips to Muonio in Finland for supplies, and meeting Oliver's awesome friends. We ate a fair bit of reindeer meat, which is like venison but even more flavoursome, drank some great beer, and worked on our baking skills. I adapted a vegan brownie recipe (to be full of butter) which was a glowing success and Amanda conquered the art of swedish style cinnamon pin wheels (Kanelbullar) as well as smashing out some pretty awesome loaves of bread. 

Amanda's fantastic Kanelbullar - even the locals were impressed

We were really lucky to see the the northern lights a couple more times during our stay. One night was really spectacular. Bright green, almost blue, fingers of glowing light were sweeping in long arcs across the northern horizon. We sat outside for a long time ignoring the sub zero temperatures and gawking at the visual delight of excited particles emitting photons 80km above our heads. It's hard to get decent photos with pocket cams, especially when all you want to do is gawk. One night, as the outside temperature hit -7C, we were sitting in the sauna drinking beer and sweating in the sticky 70C heat. When the heat became too much to handle we'd pop outside and steam for about ten minutes until the bite of the frost finally penetrated our red hot skin. Repeat twice, then rinse and sleep like you've never slept before.

Oliver has some amazing friends around Muodoslompolo. I met Jönne when I was outside pulling nails from some wood and he pulled up in his hearse. This buzzed me out a bit until I looked in the back and saw it was full of tools and other bits and pieces. He asked about my van and I told him about the fuel pump issues we were having. After a quick gander he assured me it was quite fixable and suggested we pop around to his place that night and he'd have a look at it. So later in the evening we took what was left of our very cheap, and not very delicious, border crossing beer and nursed Edward over to Jönne's place. He had some astounding nic nacs and memorabilia around his house; my favourite was a soviet moon globe from the 50's. The 'dark side' was black as there was no way of photographing that side in those days. Awesome. Anyway with a quick tap of his mig welder he had (as a not so rigorous idle test showed) fixed the leaky pump, so we retired to his upstairs sitting room and drank our cheap beer.... and then some of his delicious beer. It's exciting to meet someone who hordes amazing stuff and isn't afraid to get things out and play with them. Jönne's 1930's gramophone still works and his acetate first pressings of 30's big bands still sound incredible. He also has an mint vintage Bang & Olufsen stereo. We listened to some incredible records and marvelled at the euphoria induced by pristine analogue audio. Jönne told us stories of travelling in a home made camper around eastern Europe. Back then the USSR was in full swing and he gave us a interesting insight into what it was like being a tourist the in the communist states. I can't remember exactly but I think he even drove all the way to Iraq. Basically Jönne is my hero on a hundred different levels. Nowadays he makes little wooden birds for a living. You can check them out here. We saw them in loads of different tourist shops in Finland over the following few weeks. Just before we left he gave Amanda his old Kodak Box Brownie camera from the 50's because he was stoked to find someone that would use it again!!

Jönne getting it done

Gramophone + acetate jazz and swing records = Bliss

We were also very privileged to met Äke. He helped run the community centre before Oliver purchased it, and they have been great friends ever since. Meeting Äke was like meeting a jolly and wise wizard from some ancient fairytale. Like a mix between Geppeto and Gandalf. He lives with his wife in a beautiful house nestled next to a wooded area, surrounded by log cabins that he has built from scratch. Äke used to make amazing knife handles out of wood and reindeer antlers. They had stunning intricate carvings of reindeer and elk and must have taken many hours to make. His rheumatism has slowed him down a little but he's still very active and it seems like there's always someone around that Äke is giving a hand to. We visited him many times during our stay. His coffee is strong and zippy, and the treats delicious (pikelets with cloud berry jam were a hit). Amanda wishes Äke was her Grandfather.

Äke, coffee, pikelets and cloudberry jam - perfect

After our week long stay in Muodoslompolo, it was sad for us to say goodbye. Oliver took off for a trip to Finland for a few days and we stayed for what we thought would be one more night before heading back south. But when I tried to start the van the next day it took some serious encouragement and polite reassurance. I assumed starting it in sub zero temperatures was the problem but when I lifted the bonnet my heart snapped a little. The fuel pump was leaking at an all time high so we had to abandon our plans for heading down through Finland that day. It was a real downer for us. We had no idea why it was leaking so bad but thought that maybe the cold nights had possibly caused the already perished seals to be completely ruined. We thought about abandoning the rest of our trip and flying back to the UK. No one in Sweden had the fuel pump we needed, and not many people anywhere else in the world had them either. Äke to the rescue using his magical skill of turning up at just the right time. I had the bonnet up and was trying to remove the pump seal to take it over to Finland and find a replacement when he pulled up and saved my freezing hands from losing any more blood. He towed me to the nearest garage (just a cool 15km away) and kindly translated for me, explaining the problem to the pessimistic mechanic. After a weekend of waiting they decided they wouldn't touch it with a 50 foot pole. Edward was just too old and not worth the effort. We contacted Oliver who said we could stay in his house as long as we needed to figure out a plan, even though he wasn't there. THANKS OLIVER! So we spent a few days trawling the internet looking for pumps that would fit our van but really had no luck. Oliver kept in touch and was kind enough to send some ideas our way. A couple of depressing days later we finally found a pump on ebay UK that looked like it might work. I got stuck into taking out the old one and (magical timing again) Äke popped round to see how I was going. Then Jönne drove by and stopped to talk to Äke. I swear these guys are part of a secret league of extraordinary gentlemen who are at all times waiting at alert level 4 to rescue people from every day mishaps. Jona pulled the pump apart and spotted ruptured O rings on the throttle spindle. Another twist of fate (or magic) and Äke pulled a box of various rings from the back of his truck. Sorted. No leaks. No problems. Jönne came around the next day and welded the broken bolt back in place so we had a semi permanent fix. Elation ensued. We were pretty happy that Edward would be on the road again. By this time Oliver was back so we stayed another few nights to hang out and watched the All Blacks world cup semi against Australia.

Mini changed my long held negative opinion of cats

Now that the van was running we decided a quick sprint into Norway was worth the short 400km round trip. We headed for Kautokeino, a small village near where Finland, Norway and Sweden all meet. We couch surfed with a nice couple there. Gerlinde and Berndt were so lovely. They both work for the Sami theatre in Kautokeino where they put on plays and musicals in the traditional Sami language. They have even toured to India with the show. Berndt had some wicked guitars lying about; my favourite was a bass ukulele with rubber strings!

Ice meets liquid in Kautokeino - The sun never got much higher than this

Confident in Jönne's repairs and having spent yet another 'last' night in Muodoslompolo, we finally said a sad farewell to Oliver, Holly and Mini. We will have to go back one day and experience Muodoslompolo in the grips of the northern winter, do a bit of cross country skiing and lay in the snow after scorching hot saunas. When I grow up I want to be like Jona, and when I grow up even more I want to be like Äke.

Goodbye kittys!

Oliver is looking for more volunteers to give him a hand around the place. If you're thinking of a trip to Lapland (and if you're any where near Europe you MUST go to Lapland) you should definitely go and stay with Oliver. You'll never forget your stay there. Get away from the expensive tourist traps and let Oliver and friends immerse you in the Lappish pace of life. Click here to see his profile on workaway.info

Northward - Forests, ten o'clock screams and reindeer

Counting myself lucky that I didn't get caught stealing a shower from the sports club in Copenhagen, we made our way north to Helsingor to catch the ferry to Helsingborg in Sweden. We could have gone over the big bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo but, even though bridges are awesome, ferrys are exciting and motorways are boring. On the way to Helsingor we were pulled over by a policeman who I assumed was going to ticket me for only having one head lamp working (they have to be on day and night in Scandinavia). He went to Amanda's window, naturally, and was surprised to find we were from New Zealand and were planning to drive all the way to Lapland. He said good luck and wished us well. There was no mention of the busted headlamp. The ferry crossing was uneventful and Helsinborg was nothing special. There was a distinct lack of internet cafes so we resorted to grabbing a coffee at McDonald's and hooking up to the wifi for an hour or so to check future travel plans and couch surfing arrangements. This turned into a filthy habit for the rest of our trip; they are just so easy to find, and always have internet. But the coffee is so awful.

Our last Danish in Denmark

Once we left Helsingborg we felt like (to quote Reon Murtha) we were on the track proper. Hundreds and thousands of pine trees lined the smooth and straight single laned roads that regularly dipped through small valleys with lakes on either side. Nearly all the houses were red with white trim (a throw back to when red paint was cheap because of all the iron ore mining). It was pretty easy to find camping spots as the country is so sparsely populated. We'd spend our days easing ever north and taking walks in cute little towns, and our nights cooking awesome one pot meals on the gas hob and playing cards or board games in the back of the van. We visited Öland, an island off the south east coast of Sweden. There are tonnes of stone age and iron age ruins here and we spent over a day roaming around checking everything out. When night fell we found what appeared to be a pretty normal camp spot in an area called Trollskogen (Troll's Forest). We went for a stroll in the dark and it was spooky as hell. The knobbly old oak trees look like Ents and I swear they were watching us. When we woke the next morning the sun was rising over the Baltic sea and streaming directly into the back windows of the van. It was surreal. 

Eskjo

Runestone -  Öland

Mushrooms on Öland

Our camp site near Trollskogen

After Öland we made our way to Linköping where Emma, another friend from Dunedin, was home for a few months visiting her parents. We stayed there for a few nights and got treated to some amazing Swedish hospitality. Fish bake with apple sauce was a revelation. As was lingon berry jam with cheese! We had to check out IKEA and their amazingly cheap coffee and hotdogs (although the dogs were about the size of my pinky finger). Emma took us to Gamla Linköping (Old Linköping), where we got shown the workings of an old printing press by some enthusiastic old timers, then for a walk through an amazing local forest. We even got to meet some local horses. Emma and her parents were amazing hosts and we felt quite at home.

Amanda and Emma in a forest

 I will buy a horse one day and ride him around like a train in the night. 

We said a fond farewell to Emma and family and then spent a couple of days in Stockholm, camping in a huge park near Saltsjö-Duvnäs and catching the train in to town to avoid parking and congestion charges. We didn't plan to see anything in particular and just roamed the city for two days. We watched the All Blacks destroy the French in a packed Irish bar, again avoiding all the chest thumping racist code heads chugging pints and making dicks of themselves at 10am in the morning. After the rugby Amanda went looking about while I busked for an hour or so on a big tourist alley. I got a pretty good response and made a few kroner. Stockholm is really lovely but riddled with tourists and so bloody expensive. We found some nice parks to relax in the awesome autumn sun. I think it must have been around late September by this stage so we had to start adding layers to our summer attire to keep out the fresh northern air.

Our sneaky Stockholm camp site, next to an abandoned forest hut

The green arrow is the camp site and the red marker where we got the train each day

Our friend Nick lives in Uppsala, just north of Stockholm, so we went and stayed with him for a few nights. He was pretty busy with uni so we showed ourselves around the town and generally chilled out. He lives in a large student accommodation complex so there's lots going on, and awesome (free) commercial laundry facilities nearby. It's the little things, aye. Every night at 10pm every student in his area screams out their windows. It's called the ten o'clock screams and cracked me up every time I heard it. I took this recording of it.


10 o'clock screams


We planned to go out drinking one night so had to take a bike ride into town. Two bikes between four slightly drunk people meant some awesome old school doubling went down. It was pretty crazy. Our bike was an old hack that Nick had fixed up and was a bit of a beast to ride but it was hilarious. Back pedalling to brake is awesome, especially when there's two of you going down a huge hill towards a busy intersection/pedestrian area. It was a grand laugh. When we got to town, all the pubs were shut for some silly reason, but the student bars were open. No student ID meant no entry so we missioned back home to Nick's, getting a little lost on the way and generally fighting to keep the two of us upright on the old bike.


There are some cool op shops in Uppsala, but we didn't really have a need for vintage clothing. We did find an awesome thick woollen blanket which was going to be essential as we progressed north. Just before we left Uppsala I noticed a bit of diesel on the ground under the car. I thought I'd have a crack at seeing if the seals were all okay and tried to undo a bolt on the injector pump. It snapped straight off. It turns out it was made of gravy. We managed to get it back together with the tiny bit of thread that remained and went to the nearest mechanic. He was the first Scandinavian we'd met who didn't speak English, because he was actually Turkish. With the clever use of google translate he quoted us 8000 kronor (about $1600nz) to sort it out. No thanks mate. We tried a few other places and none of them would replace the small bolt we needed, they all wanted to put a whole new fuel pump in. Money grubbing bastards. It was still working, but the fuel pump was literally held together by a thread. So after a day of deliberating and staying at Nick's place another night we decided to risk it all, gaffer tape the bolt to the pump so if it came off we could find it again, and leg it the 1200km to Lapland in the North. 

Gaff fixes everything

I saw an Elk just north of Uppsala, but Amanda missed. I made a bold promise that we would see another before getting to the far north. Elk (or moose if you're North American) are hilarious looking and sometimes get drunk on fermenting apples and try to climb trees.


The journey north took us three days. We avoided driving after dark so we didn't hit any elk or reindeer on the road. Everyone in Sweden has HUGE mother fathering spot lights on their cars to see animals from 200m away. We had one headlight with a range of about thirty metres. The first night after leaving Uppsala we stayed just north of Sundsvall, and the following morning took the scenic route along the Höga Kusten (high coastal route). Endless hours of easy driving roads breezing through never ending pine forests. Our next camping spot was a little south of Lulea next to a small gated village. It was a nice spot right near the water and we spotted some red squirrels in the morning. While I was making coffee an old local came down to check out what we were up to. He didn't seem too phased, maybe a little suspicious. We had a brief chat with him, and he continued on his way. Around lunch time we stopped in a rest area next to some flooded huts. I have no idea why they were there.

Morning wake up north of Sundsvall

Breakfast sunrise

Buzzy flooded huts

Later in the day we finally crossed the Arctic circle, which was pretty exciting. Somehow the fuel pump was still holding together so I did a dance under the sign and wondered if anyone else had danced there. We saw quite a lot of reindeer on the way, grazing in some tasty green fields by the road. At bout 5pm we finally made it to our destination. After keeping our eyes peeled for elk all day we saw one just as we got to Muodoslompolo and my promise held strong. 

Happy and free Reindeer

Blue team GOOOOOO!!!!!!!

A month earlier we had signed up to a website called workaway, and organised a stay in Lapland where we'd be volunteering in exchange for food and accommodation. Out host, an awesome English guy named Oliver, needed help to renovate his massive place. As soon as we had arrived and unpacked, Oliver took us to a restaurant in Finland where we had some deliciously huge pizzas with smoked reindeer and other exotic goodies on them. They were AMAZING! When we got back to the village we had a tour of Oliver's gargantuan house and met his Norwegian tree cat, Holly, and her kitten Mini. Our accommodation was bunk room style cabin, separate from the house and attached to a sauna! Really nice place. It felt like being on school camp.

Holly the Norwegian tree cat and he amazing tail, 
with Mini the half Norwegian tree cat/half one-eyed-cat kitten

The stars were amazing up there and on our first night we were lucky to see the Northern lights. They were not too active, but it was still bloody incredible. There was also an uncanny amount of shooting stars, maybe one every thirty seconds or so. I have never seen a sky that impressive. Tekapo comes close, but the sky in Muodoslompolo is HUGE. You feel like you are above the atmosphere. Every now and then a shadow would pass silently over us. It was a snow owl checking us out, in super stealth mode. Complete silence on the top of the world. Surreal.

Some faint aurora action over our cabin; not the last we saw of the Northern Lights