Winter at the Arctic Circle

Snowmobile envy

Starting this post as I usually do, I’m just going to write a short post as a check-in to what I’m up to now. I’m back in the north of Sweden after travelling to both Iceland and The US, New York specifically where I went to University. Have had an incredible trip, Iceland is amazing, and in NY it was great to meet up with old friends. Also, the world is opening up after the pandemic and it’s really interesting to see how it has changed. Because I notice a change, not sure where we’re heading. Haven’t been to New York since 2018 so it’s a changed city, but still, one of the greatest cities in the world. But, this is just a short check-in so more about Iceland and New York later.

Not sure if I’ve been jet lagged or not, might have been more jet lagged during my trip. Also, when coming back up north the snow helps to beat the jet lag. Now is the time when the winter is starting properly in The Arctic. The winter is long up here. During Christmas we have very few hours of daylight. And before the the snow comes, it’s dark. Now, one month after the midwinter solstice, the light is back and with all the snow that’s been falling – there is light again! When the sun hits the snow it’s glistering.

I took this photo on Kalix river last weekend. When the water on top of the river is frozen and there’s lots of snow, so much of life is happening on the river. The rivers have historically been people have been transporting themselves and are traditional meeting spots. Nowadays, people are taking walks on the river since there’s a foot path made there during wintertime, people are skiing where there are ski tracks, some are fishing as you can se on the photo where the two children have a drill on their snow kick bike – which is a traditional form of transportation up here in the winter. To be able to fish in the wintertime you use a drill to make a hole in the ice so you can get down to the flowing water and catch some fish. And of course, there’s snow scootering going on. Kalix is actually a centre for snow scootering and have talents that compete internationally in snowmobile, or snow scooter which is a direct translation from Swedish. Furthermore, the Swedish finale in Iceracing will be held on the river at the 10th of March this year.

So, a quite short “Hello” from me, and “I’ll be back!” as Arnold said in a movie.