My first journey beyond the Arctic

A very good friend of mine, who I met after many years read my earlier blogs and encouraged me to write and share more of them. This blog is dedicated to my friend, who helped in connecting me back to good old memories as I restart my blogging.

For a long time, I had nurtured a desire – a desire to see what is beyond the arctic. As a child, I remember reading about the arctic circle in my geography lessons. On my business visit to Denmark, I decided to take this trip to see what is beyond the arctic circle. The celestial phenomenon of Northern lights connected me to this opportunity.

I initially thought of Iceland as the destination. A lot of search on the internet revealed no good and economical tours which suited me. Being on work in Denmark, it took most of my time on week days and my offshore projects had kept me busy on weekends. So with hardly any weekend to spare for this wonderful Northern lights trip, but still with this raging desire to see one, I decided to DO SOMETHING on my last weekend before I left Denmark!

Frantically, I kept searching for some weekend tours which offered Northern lights tours. But either they were 4 days or beyond or were too expensive.

It was almost Wednesday, and still I had no clue of a trip which could show me my mystical northern lights. After I couldn’t find any suitable tours in Iceland, I shifted my focus to Norway, I found a couple of good tours which had Northern lights tours to offer. Most of them were in the Northern most part of Norway in Alta and Tromso. I searched for ways and means of getting there. Taking a flight was the only option. Now, I had a problem, I could leave Copenhagen only on Friday evening and must return on Sunday. I didn’t and couldn’t take off from work for this. Again the search for flights started. Either the flights were very expensive or at inconvenient time. My heart sank! I felt I would never make it at all!

The next day, I went to work as usual. During lunch time, I casually asked my Danish colleague and friend, Per if he knew what a kick sledge was (as these were some of the terms I had picked up from the Internet and did not know what they meant!). Per explained that it was a sledge for beginners. Then I enquired if he had crossed the Arctic circle. He replied in the affirmative. Getting more curious, I asked a little more about his experience. He said he had been to a place in Lappland in the northern most county of Sweden called Kiruna.

I got really excited. That night, I came back and did various searches for Kiruna. I found some interesting sites which offered daily package tours. Then, I looked up for flights. I found some flights via Stockholm leaving early morning on Saturday and returning on Sunday. Perfect! That is exactly what I wanted.

The next morning, I called up the tourist board at Kiruna for more information. They gave me the contact of some hotels and also said getting an accommodation was difficult. I quickly looked up the internet to check the hotel details. The Hotel Kebne which the tourist board had mentioned appeared to be decent. I called up the hotel to know the availability and price. The hotel had rooms available and was decently priced at 650 SEK. Requesting them to keep the reservations, I called up the tour operators “Kiruna Guide tour” for more information. They said they were fully booked but had only one seat for a person for their 5:00PM tour. Excited, I confirmed for the tour from my side.

Coordinating with the flights, Kiruna Guide tour and accommodation, I finally found a good match!

I called dad and mom to take their permission for this tour. I initially thought, they would discourage me from taking this tour. But to my utter surprise, both dad and mom whole heartedly encouraged me to go ahead.

With my parents permission, there was no stopping! I completed the reservations and flight bookings. Now everything was set for my trip to Kiruna. I was very excited about this trip to Kiruna as this was my first trip beyond the Arctic circle and that too in peak winter. Did I say peak winter? I checked the weather forecast at Kiruna. I was horrified to see that the maximum temperature was -10deg C with a wind chill of -18 deg C. Wow! What am I going to do? I didn’t have the right clothes for this kind of temperature. At most, with all my clothes, it would have helped me withstand -5 deg to -6 deg C.

The idea was to layer the clothes on. The air between the layers acts as a good insulator and keeps the cold from getting in or rather from the heat escaping out!

Now after all the arrangements were done, I began to doubt myself. Had I gone crazy? Crossing the Arctic circle in peak winter? What was wrong with me? Oh! My God! Why did I  have to book this trip? Wasn’t the cold in Denmark enough for me? (And BTW the temperature in Copenhagen had been between +3deg C to -4deg C). What if something happened to me due to the cold, or falling off from the snowmobile? What if the flights got cancelled? I had to be back to the office on Monday and leave to India on Tuesday early morning! Despite all this, there was a tiny voice screaming aloud saying shut up and go!!

With these conflicting thoughts tormenting me, I went as usual to work. I told Per of my weekend adventure plans. He first asked me “Are you going mad?” I told him, I couldn’t help it – His description of dog sledging in Kiruna was so impressive that I couldn’t resist leaving to Kiruna. He told me not to worry too much about the temperature and to be prepared with layers and layers of warm clothes.

The D day arrived. I woke up early in the morning and got ready to leave to the airport.

What a surprise at the airport! I met Thomas, my danish friend. He was on his way to Las Vegas but couldn’t get a direct flight off Copenhagen. So he was flying in the same flight as mine, via Stockholm.

We briefly spoke about the project and the overall status for sometime before boarding and also in the flight. He had a very short time before boarding his next onward flight and hence we couldn’t catch up later.

So as the plane made a descent in Stockholm, I got to see the snow covered beauty of Stockholm. I managed to take some pictures from the flight. I had a two hour lay off in Stockholm before proceeding to Kiruna.  I spent the time at Stockholm airport looking at airport lounge and the shopping center. Some how, I was not too keen to go out to the Stockholm city, probably because I was way too excited about the trip to Kiruna.

The flight to Kiruna was on time. I somehow had expected that there would be very little crowd to see this cold and remote place. I was wrong as the flight was completely full, so full that it appeared even airlines was not ready to handle them as the food supply was in shortage. Enjoying amid the chattering south European tourists, the plane finally was descending down to Kiruna. It was a strange sight from the plane, a sight that I had never seen before. Full of white snow with tiny green patches. I wondered how a plane could land in such a place. The plane landed in the Kiruna airport and I got a first feel of the place. Being a very small airport, there was no aerobridge facility. After getting off from the plane, all the passengers had to walk towards the airport. 

Wading my way in the snow, I finally made it to the airport. After collecting my baggage, I went out of the airport to board a taxi. The amount of snow around the airport was over whelming. It was indeed a very strange experience for me. I had never seen so much snow in my life. I initially got scared and ran back inside the airport. Gathering guts again, I walked out slowly, waded my way through the snow and hired a taxi to take me to my hotel. The Hotel Kebne, where I had to check in was at the city center not very far from the airport. I arrived at the hotel a little past noon. I finished the checkin formalities at the reception and checked into my room. My room was very cosy and small with an attached bathroom. The reindeer prints on my bedcover reminded me that I had indeed crossed the Arctic circle!

I ate some bread and butter which I had packed for myself as afternoon lunch. I was too hungry to miss this, as even in the flight I could not get anything to eat due to the shortage of packaged food. After lunch, I went around the hotel and checked with the hotel staff about how to get to the city center. I learnt that the city center was at a walking distance from the hotel.

My snowmobile tour was scheduled to start at 5:30PM from the city center. I walked towards the city center wading my way in the thick snow. The city center was buzzing with tourists though most of the shopping complexes were closed. Most of the tours were starting from this place. The city center was a small area with shops and buildings lining it. I noticed two beautiful ice sculptures of polar bears at the center of the city square. I reached my designated tourist center. This place was a souvenir shop and a tourist center. I went in and enquired about the tour showing the staff my tour booking. They guided me to the basement of the building. I headed to the basement and found a couple of other tourists trying on snow mobile clothing. Realizing that this was the start of the adventure, I checked with the tour guide on what kind of clothing I should be trying on. He directed to me to a large walk in closet where there were a lot of jackets, socks, mittens, gloves and shoes. I searched for something that fitted me and got dressed in it. It was a strange feeling wearing these clothes over my four layers! But definitely, I could have worn more to beat the chill outside.

I chatted with some of my comrade tourists and found out that I had an American couple and a Portuguese couple in my troupe. Soon, we were joined by our guide Per who directed us into a car. I sat beside the guide who drove us to the designated spot outside the city of Kiruna from where the snow mobile tour started. We got down near (well nowhere actually!) something that looked like village sheds. All of were ushered into a large shed wherein we saw huge Yamaha bikes with tanker like “wheels”. So, this was a snow mobile, thought I. The guide gave us instructions on how to use the bike – brakes, accelerator, steering etc. I was not too attentive as I had decided not to drive the bike. Probably, I was a little paranoid about falling off the bike and breaking my bones (how stupid of me, I think now! Even if I had to break my bones, I think it was worth the experience!). I sat behind Per who rode the snowmobile for me. The American couple and the Portuguese couple were on two other bikes. We started off the tour with the Per driving behind and the others ahead of us. We drove for a short a distance on tar roads and then took a detour into the forest. My! My! We were on rugged land covered with snow. The sturdy bike was on a rug ride on the Arctic land! Wading our way through small arctic shrubs and heaps of snow, we reached a place which looked like a huge play ground but was infact the frozen Jukkasaravi lake! This is where we had to stand and look for the Northern lights. A few meters away was a small hut. I initially didn’t understand what it was. After some time of sky gazing unsuccessfully, Per led us into the hut. The hut was a small one fit to accommodate about 10 persons. In the center was a small stove. Per had got some food to cook for us. I realized with amazement that we were going to have a small campfire dinner. I had already informed him earlier that I was a vegetarian and could not eat meat, fish or egg. He promised to give me some vegetarian food. While Per got the hot food ready, we had another chance to go out and sky gaze for the Northern lights (unsuccessfully! again). After some time, Per called us for dinner. We entered into the hut where there was a small fire on which our dinner was getting ready. Lanterns hung around the hut and lit up the hut making it appear very cosy. Dinner was served amid chattering. The main course consisted of some savory dish made from Reindeer meat – a very popular dish in Lappland. My menu was of course vegetarian – boiled potatoes, a glass of juice made from some kind of berries and a sweet dish. I hungrily hogged the food and washed it down with some strong coffee. The others ate the reindeer meat dish and seemed to like the unusual taste – all except the American lady because after eating it, she complained of uneasiness and went out to puke!

While merrily having our dinner, Per told us a lot about Lappland. From his talks, I gathered that Per grew up in Lappland and knew Kiruna like the back of his hand. He told us how it is so easy to find the way in a forest rather than in a city, If Per is to be believed, the way in which the tree leaves droop is a good guide to directions!

With our dinner almost complete, we got ready to get back to the frozen Jukkasaravi for another session of searching for the elusive northern lights. We could hear the sledge dogs howling in the dark at some distance.  The sky was clear except for some patches of clouds. We kept looking in all directions least we miss the celestial spectacle. Some how, it seemed that it was simply not my lucky day because though we tried to look hard for the northern lights, we could not get to see anything. After a while of sky gazing, it was time to pack up and get back to Kiruna city. Very disappointed, that we could not see the northern lights, all of us set back on our Yamaha snow mobiles back to the shed and from there back to Kiruna city by car.

With a heavy heart, I got down at Kiruna city center. Bidding goodbye to my comrade tourists, I walked towards my hotel. After having some left overs of bread and butter, I decided to retire for the day. I simply could not sleep. I kept thinking of the wonderful celestial spectacle that I might be missing being indoors. I decided to venture out again in the dead of the night. It was almost midnight and biting cold outside. With layers and layers of jackets, sweaters and gloves, I set out walking around the hotel. I discovered that a lot of people actually “lived” here.(no prizes for this J!). The streets were completely deserted. Probably, I was the only person out at the hour of night. I was so obsessed with the northern lights, that it did not matter to me that I was alone at the hour in some unknown cold place on earth. I just wanted to see it no matter what. I kept gazing at the sky hoping that I could get to see the lights. But no! Despite being out for nearly an hour and half in the biting cold, I could not see the lights. Realizing that it was stupidity to keep searching for the elusive northern lights, I decided to return back to the hotel.

The next morning, I got up early and had a wonderful continental breakfast. After that, I walked up to the city center and bought for some souvenirs and returned to the hotel.

So does it really hurt me that despite all this effort of travel I could not see the northern lights? No, on the contrary, I was glad that I overcame my fear of being lost in this snow land! Reassuring myself that someday, I would be able to see the northern lights, I packed my belongings and left Kiruna the next morning for my onward flight to Copenhagen via Stockholm.