Partying in Pajala; Hip Hop n Happening in Haparada; Let Loose in Lulea

We woke up fairly leisurely on Wednesday and made our way back into the village because we had seen a tourist information bureau there the night before, and seeing as we had nearly had no accommodation last night because all hotels were closed, we thought we should ask if the tourist information could phone on ahead and see if there was anything available in Pajala, our intended destination.  Fortunately the clerk at the tourist information was very obliging, and managed to book us a room in the Pajala youth hostel - all we would have to do would be to phone when we arrived in town.

The church in Karesuando

So we set off.  Not far out of Karesuando we saw a sign for a lookout spot, so we decided to drive up there.  We had barely gone a few metres and lo and behold, you wouldn't read about it.  We got bogged again.  Now at this point, I do have to point out one small little fact - I was not  the one driving the car!

Problem - this time we are well and truly out in the middle of nowhere - no good Samaritan snowmobilers in sight... what are we to do?  

Nothing for it I guess, but to dig our way out, with our bare (well, gloved) hands.  Oh boy was it cold!  But fortunately we were successful, and we made it on our way.

Until we saw a cute little field a little farther up the road.  Hey, we're in Sweden, right, surrounded by snow, the only objective of the day is to get to Pajala by nightfall... we can take a little time out for a snow fight, right?  So we did!

The rest of the day was spent driving to Pajala - at only a few hundred kilometres you'd think this would be achieved in 1, maybe 2 hours - but with the extremely icy conditions, the going is real slow.  Plus we like to stop and take photos... so pretty much it took the whole day to get there.

To be honest, there isn't much to do in Pajala.  Apparently it has the world's largest sundial, so large though, that we couldn't find it.   There's also a big owl statue there, this has something to do with the fact that a specific species of owl is native there, or something like this.

Anyway, we phoned up the guy for the hostel and then made our way to meet him.  He let us into our room - a cute little cabin in the woods, overlooking the frozen river.  The cabin had a cute verandah, and one room consisting of 4 bunk beds, a kitchen table, kitchen, and bathroom.  It was really quite sweet.  No TV mind, but then that's ok, maybe tonight I'll catch up on my reading, or my travel diary.

No chance.  After we cooked up some dinner we chatted the whole evening away.  I didn't think it was possible to talk that much, but it sure was pleasant, and I enjoyed myself.

The next day we spent a very enjoyable morning taking portrait photos in the snow near the cabin, before heading into town to see if the tourist information could book us accommodation in Haparanda, our destination.  Amazingly, they could!

We then leisurely set about driving to Haparanda.  Again, extremely icy roads made the going a little slow, but we made relatively good time to Overtornea, where we stopped for a hamburger for lunch.  On the way we encountered some reindeer crossing the road, lots of reindeer and moose signs and so on.  Don't know how effective this sign was though, nearly covered in snow!  That really was the height of the snow at the side of the road!

We made it to Haparanda by nightfall.  Haparanda is also on the border with Finland, which has a border town too - Tornio.  Effectively they are both the same town, but the Finnish side, Tornio, is much more developed - Haparanda is more like the sticks.  We popped in to Tornio, as the party atmosphere in Haparanda was just too much for us to handle (not!) - no, all the shops were closed, so we thought we'd stand a better chance in the much more lively Tornio, however being an hour ahead, their shops were closed too.  So we drove around for a bit, and then headed back to Haparanda.

We stayed in the youth hostel in Haparanda and were effectively the only guests, other than 2 old men.We met one of the guys when we went into the kitchen to cook.  This bloke made Grizzly Adams look sexy, I tell you.  Balding, but with a seriously overgrown beard, and an unkempt appearance.  He was sitting there, going through the paper - the next morning when we saw him (at the same table) he was making phone calls so I expect he was probably looking for work or something... The irritating thing about him, and his mate, is that they didn't clean up after themselves - leaving crumbs and bits of bread and cheese on the benches (after having cut them without a bread board) after I had just wiped them down... oh well, you get that sometimes in hostels...

I decided to have a shower after dinner and headed off to the ladies.  The ladies showers were like a big changing room in the gym - there was a huge room for changing and hanging up your towels, but only 2 showers - and neither of them were in separate, lockable cubicles or had shower curtains - they faced each other.  What is it with the Scandinavians (or even the Germans, I remember from my German hostel experiences) and au naturale showers in hostels?  Huh?  Anyway, there was a door leading off the main changing area (adjacent to the shower head), and me, being naturally inquisitive, went and had a look.  It lead to the sauna - but get this, it must've been a unisex sauna, because the door on the other side lead to the men's showers!  And it wasn't locked, or lockable... which means that even though I had locked the main door to the 'ladies showers', any Tom, Dick or Grizzly Adams would be able to walk in on me in the nick in the ladies through the sauna door!  Suffice to say I was real quick in the shower, I tell you!

The next morning we decided to have a quick look around the church at Haparanda, as it has the dubious honour of being voted as Sweden's Ugliest Church!  Have a look for yourself, the thing looks like an airline hangar!  It was nice enough inside though...

We then left Haparanda and made the relatively short (by our standards) drive back to Lulea.  We made very good time and that meant that I would have enough time to return my sheets which I had 'borrowed' from the youth hostel at the beginning of the week.  The only problem was, we didn't know if the hostel dude would be in the place or not, so how could I sneak the sheets back in if he was?  But luck was with us, for as we were filling the car up in the petrol station, who should cycle past but the hostel dude!  The coast was clear, Jun stayed with the car, and I ran across the road to return the sheets.  This was fraught with danger though, as the snow had begun to melt and the ice was very slippery as a result.  I managed to get in the front door of the hostel building with the code from our previous stay, but he must've changed the inner door code, as it wouldn't work!  Crap!  What to do, what to do?  So I just chucked the sheets on the ground and took off...!  

We spent the afternoon in Lulea looking for a bag that Jun wanted to buy from a place called Design Torget, but to no avail.  We then headed off to the train station, parked the car and returned the keys before catching the overnight train to Stockholm...