The reason I chose Sweden for SEP was probably because of the chance to see the Aurora. Kiruna was the top priority in my list of places to travel to as that's where there's abundance of northern lights. And so, I embarked on my journey to conquered the Aurora in one of the northern most habitable place on earth, Kiruna. It took us a torturous 22 hours of train rides to get there and all of us were hoping that our effort would not go to waste. Everyone's primary objective was to see the Aurora.
A total of 9 people including 2 other non Singaporean friends we've made here joined us in this journey up north. I would say Kiruna was probably the best thing Sweden has offered as far as I'm concerned, simply because we managed to see the aurora. Although not at its highest intensity, we were glad enough that we witness this beautiful phenomenon. Its not everyday that you get to see it as it very much depends on the weather conditions and the clarity of the sky at night. Another thing to note is that the moon is not at its fullest and brightest as the light it emits will diminish the Aurora. That explains why we did not see a very colourful and bright Aurora.
Still, it was mission accomplished for me and apart from that, we managed to drive the snow mobiles and ride the dog sledge. For me, it was more of controlling the dogs and withstanding the crazee weather condition there. Imagine the tears from my eyes actually froze as the sledge was sliding through the cold. For a moment, my eyelids got stuck and i had to rub it to open my eyes....i guess pee will freeze too in that condition. Not joking...
We also stayed in this hut where we had to chop our own fire woods for our sauna, BBQ and to keep ourselves warm. Sauna in a freezing environment is no different from one back at home unless u run naked(almost) into the freezing outdoor after your sauna session. It was really quite shiok actually, refreshing as well. BBQ..was not so fantastic...too little for the cold and hungry. :P Lunch was quite interesting as we had raindeer meat with pasta. Taste a little like lamb meat and beef. And yes, we had to fetch our own water from the stream nearby. Water from Nature. It was quite clean and refreshing though. No problem with anybody's stomach after drinking it for 2 days. There was a little 'skiing' session as well. though not like those damn pro environment but we had a taste of how difficult it was to ski upright down the slope without falling. Only one of us managed to maintain balance down the slope. I was close...i managed to squat down all the way down the slope. :P Not easy ok... We also had a snow fight back in the town. I thought we were behaving more kiddy than the kids around us...haha..
While all seems fun and enjoyable, one disappointing thing was that I didn't managed to capture decent pictures of the Aurora...crap...it was too dark and I couldn't do an auto focus and had to do it manually. Even so...I couldn't really make out what was infront of me...really really dark. And I was stupid enuff to leave my 50mm Prime lens back in town. Anyway, nothing much I can do about it unless I go back there again...which I think I might if I'm rich in future :P. Till then, here are some of the photos taken during the trips. Not so easy to take pictures with no gloves on at -15 degrees celcius...:P
Train Station in Kiruna. Yes..that's all.
Icy white everywhere and the Sun never really rose fully..
clock tower in Kiruna
Interior shot of Kiruna's Church
into the wilderness we go before we can reach our hut
took this while i was on the snow mobile. Nobody's head was up..hoho
one of the huts where we stayed.
this was what surrounded the place we stayed.
The stream where we fetched our water from
The Aurora...best of those which I captured...all blurred... :S
Group photo by the Hut. We invited this Belgium Couple to join us. Btw it was another 6 seconds shot. :P
The train Station at Stockholm was so much nicer. Took it while waiting for our train back to Lund
A total of 9 people including 2 other non Singaporean friends we've made here joined us in this journey up north. I would say Kiruna was probably the best thing Sweden has offered as far as I'm concerned, simply because we managed to see the aurora. Although not at its highest intensity, we were glad enough that we witness this beautiful phenomenon. Its not everyday that you get to see it as it very much depends on the weather conditions and the clarity of the sky at night. Another thing to note is that the moon is not at its fullest and brightest as the light it emits will diminish the Aurora. That explains why we did not see a very colourful and bright Aurora.
Still, it was mission accomplished for me and apart from that, we managed to drive the snow mobiles and ride the dog sledge. For me, it was more of controlling the dogs and withstanding the crazee weather condition there. Imagine the tears from my eyes actually froze as the sledge was sliding through the cold. For a moment, my eyelids got stuck and i had to rub it to open my eyes....i guess pee will freeze too in that condition. Not joking...
We also stayed in this hut where we had to chop our own fire woods for our sauna, BBQ and to keep ourselves warm. Sauna in a freezing environment is no different from one back at home unless u run naked(almost) into the freezing outdoor after your sauna session. It was really quite shiok actually, refreshing as well. BBQ..was not so fantastic...too little for the cold and hungry. :P Lunch was quite interesting as we had raindeer meat with pasta. Taste a little like lamb meat and beef. And yes, we had to fetch our own water from the stream nearby. Water from Nature. It was quite clean and refreshing though. No problem with anybody's stomach after drinking it for 2 days. There was a little 'skiing' session as well. though not like those damn pro environment but we had a taste of how difficult it was to ski upright down the slope without falling. Only one of us managed to maintain balance down the slope. I was close...i managed to squat down all the way down the slope. :P Not easy ok... We also had a snow fight back in the town. I thought we were behaving more kiddy than the kids around us...haha..
While all seems fun and enjoyable, one disappointing thing was that I didn't managed to capture decent pictures of the Aurora...crap...it was too dark and I couldn't do an auto focus and had to do it manually. Even so...I couldn't really make out what was infront of me...really really dark. And I was stupid enuff to leave my 50mm Prime lens back in town. Anyway, nothing much I can do about it unless I go back there again...which I think I might if I'm rich in future :P. Till then, here are some of the photos taken during the trips. Not so easy to take pictures with no gloves on at -15 degrees celcius...:P
Train Station in Kiruna. Yes..that's all.
Icy white everywhere and the Sun never really rose fully..
clock tower in Kiruna
Interior shot of Kiruna's Church
into the wilderness we go before we can reach our hut
took this while i was on the snow mobile. Nobody's head was up..hoho
one of the huts where we stayed.
this was what surrounded the place we stayed.
The stream where we fetched our water from
The Aurora...best of those which I captured...all blurred... :S
Group photo by the Hut. We invited this Belgium Couple to join us. Btw it was another 6 seconds shot. :P
The train Station at Stockholm was so much nicer. Took it while waiting for our train back to Lund
Btw, I've also just returned from a trip to Spain actually. Will post the pics from Spain later as I still have a little work left undone. 9 days to home! :P
4 comments:
Very good! Best series I seen so far from you but you're going back to Singapore! zzz
waaah
kiruna is beautiful! i want to go! :)
have a safe journey back
xiaowei: actually the town is quite boring with nothing to do...their movies are only shown on weekends...hoho..but its really quite a view when u are out in the wilderness
Johnny: thanks for the comments, i guess its something different from my usual 'orange tint' pictures. :P
auroras r nice...so amazing...
meow
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