Above the arctic circle

Hello from the very cold north. We left Stockholm 3 days ago by train, all day to get to Oostersund, dinner, which I am sure was delicious but by now I don’t remember. Yesterday we started traveling by coach, the highlight being going to a Sami homestead on a lake — BTW, everything is on one or more lakes in Sweden; even living on the gulf of Mexico, I don’t feel like I’ve seen more water than there is in Sweden! Our guide, Lotta, is a small woman, definitely under 5′ and she had on green wellies that would fit a child. But she was funny and fun — assured us that they drove cars, lived in a house, used computers, slept in beds, etc. and then told us what life had been like when white Christians came to save the Sami — I saw on signs that they spell it Same, not Sami — it was the same story as for all Indigenous people. We have some Australians and one guy was saying that was how it was there and I said it was the same in US, even to the boarding schools and the beatings for speaking their language. Luckily, their language survived and is spoken today, even by school children. Lotta gave us the bad news that the reindeer weren’t around; it’s rutting season so they are off in the woods doing reindeer things. She and her husband have built several types of dwellings used by the Same by the river and gave us herbal tea that she assured would make us healthy and dried (but soft) reindeer and tiny little strips of dried (also sorta soft) pike — all was quite yummy. She took us into one dwelling that looked much like a hogan and told us about how life was lived in there. Her husband, whom she never named I don’t think, told us about herding. They have 2 alotments, one for winter and one for summer, only now they take the herd between them in trucks instead of herding them. After that we left and I can’t remember if we did anything else or just came to our next hotel, which we’ve been in for 2 days. While other folks were trying to squeeze into the elevator, Laird and I sat and had drinks — he a goldberry sour and I a forest gin — really good northern Swedish gin, really good tonic and whatever else, served with rosemary sprig and cucumber slices and peppercorns (I could do without the peppercorns, they just get stuck in the straw). We finally found our room; it took awhile because it is numbered 235 it’s on the elevator’s first floor (the European first floor — I thought only the British did that).

Today we went to the arctic circle, jumped, well hopped, over a bit of red rope and got our certificates. We did see a small reindeer group on the side of the road going and I later saw a young buck on our side of the bus. Then we went to Jokkmook (sp?) to a really good museum about the Sampi (another spelling) — they did a really great job, but too many explanations had other languages, but not English. Lunch in the museum cafe was excellent. Then we came back and I wrote this down. Oh, and we saw more reindeer on the way back. I really want a reindeer hide, but, alas, they are heavy. Maybe I’ll figure out a solution — or maybe not.

Tonight we are having dinner in what they call a teepee, but I’m sure that’s not really its name. So time to get ready. We are hoping to see northern lights tonight, if we can stay awake. It is damn cold here. Like really cold.

Dinner was great, salmon mousse, Swedish meatballs, roasted potatoes, lingonberries, cabbage salad, pickled cucumbers — and I skipped dessert to have a third salmon mousse.

Chances of seeing northern lights have plummeted — 95% if we were still above the arctic circle, but we aren’t; now saying it’s like a 3% likelihood here. Too cloudy where we are. Bummer!