Vi älskar Luleå!

Hej Hej!

this is a "spark", you can go really fast with that

So I’m now back from Laponia and it was just… AMAZING!

From the beginning to the end it was just perfect, I couldn’t expect something better!

First of all the arrival by plane gave me a first nice feeling when I discovered the frozen sea and those large areas of snowy forests. When I landed on this décor I just had the feeling to be totally cut from the rest of the world, it made me think about those pictures of Northern Alaska that you can observe sometimes on television.

The first day was simple but it was the beginning of a “dream”. My friend Annelie, who I thank a lot, came at the airport to take me by car, there I discovered the wonderful landscape of the north with huge snow wall everywhere in the streets and the garden, between 1.5 and 2.5 meters. Directly after we’ve been to her school because she had one small lesson. So I’ve been with her class and met some of her friends (that’s the way they do in Sweden!). The second part of the day we’ve been walking for a while on the frozen sea and then we made a huge cake cause it was her birthday and after a dinner with her family we’ve been to a small party where I met her friends, after what we moved to a night club where there where a university party. There were more French people than Swedish people at this party.

After a long night I met Annelie’s friends to make a sauna together and then jump in a hole in the ice as you can see on the pictures. The temperature of the air was about minus 10 degrees but it was one of the best experiences of my life! After this crazy bath, I followed my new friends to see a hockey match a the stadium: Luleå (one of the best team in Sweden) against Färjestad. The atmosphere here was crazy, I loved it! After a wonderful victory of Luleå we moved back to Annelie’s place where there were her birthday party and here again, a lot of fun!

The third day began with a walk on a small mountain with Annelie and her father. Arrived on the top of this mountain we had a wonderful view of Luleå and the entire region, the landscape was wonderful! Here we made a fire and ate some typical Swedish sausages, it was really good. As it was late in the afternoon and we were I little bit tired, we stayed home the rest of the evening.

Alfer a calm evening in front of TV and a great night we had a ballad on the ice with ice-skates and a “spark” (the red thing that you can see on the picture). We’ve been by foot to a small island, it was really nice. At the beginning of the evening we moved to Annelie’s friends and there the most wonderful in the world happened… NORTHERN LIGHTS appeared in the sky!!!  It was the last evening, a snow storm was about to arrive some hours later and I was afraid to not see it but finally it appeared and it was just… MAGIC! Those big green lights in the sky moving slowly, like some water, stayed there about 20 minutes. And during 20 minutes I stayed out in the cold air, observing the sky. (The qualities of my pictures are not that good because of the strange “night mood” of my camera but still…) So to celebrate this event and my last evening in the North we had a small party with my new friends.

I was kind of sad to leave the North so fast but I was also really happy. I discovered there a wonderful place with fantastic peoples. I think that I couldn’t expect better days up there; it will probably stay in my memory as one of my most exciting moment in Sweden. I’ll be back there, I swear!

I really would like to thank again Annelie, Annelie’s family, Robin, Johan, Elias, and all those that I met there! It was unforgettable!

TACK SÅ MYCKET ALLA!!!

I also would like to noticed that the weather was very nice and thanks to Annelie’s father who is a hunter I’ve been eating elk, moose and deer every day and it was really delicious.

Otherwise tomorrow I’m taking the ferry boat with my rugby’s team for 3 days to go in Finland to play a rugby tournament.

So see you next week to talk about it.

Take care!

the island we walked to

 

view of Luleå from the ice