After a 20h train ride, including around 11 hours in a night train, three changes, two of them at five in the morning, unplanned due to a freight train accident, we arrived at Kiruna station on Tuesday, November 9th, 2021.

We were a little lucky because we met Lysell (I hope I spell her name correctly) on the night train, who, as it turned out very quickly, works at Camp Alta, our accommodation. She immediately offered us that her boss could take us to the camp when he picks her up from the train station. We initially declined with thanks because we had booked the transport anyways and had to buy plenty of food for the next few days. Nevertheless, she organized for us that at least our backpacks were brought to the camp and that her boss would pick us up at the supermarket later. So we walked through Kiruna without our heavy backpacks and first noticed how deserted the city looks. In the „shopping center“, consisting of a cafe, a pharmacy, a hairdresser, a jewelry store and two clothing stores, we were the only ones. A little later we met a few more people in the supermarket;). On our first day it snowed and it was cold. We were really happy when we were driven to camp in a warm car.

We had booked a cute little hut with a double bed and shared kitchen and bathroom. The camp is really highly recommended if you want to visit Kiruna: https://campalta.net/

The owner is a very friendly man who had pity on us and gave us a special offer for the Cross-country ski rental, so we wouldn’t get bored.

At first I was a little afraid that we would get bored, but then we were both sick on the second day. Most likely we got infected from the children, who were also sick on the weekend. So we stayed in bed for the first few days, relaxed, watched Netflix and tried to avoid others as much as possible, which was not that difficult because the camp was still quite empty at that time.

When we felt somewhat better again, we dared to ski a few times and, among other things, went around the lake.

Otherwise, of course, we slept in and mostly watched the sunset around 2 p.m.

What gave us a lot of joy was observing the sky every day, as it always looked beautiful and very interesting.

An unbelievable spectacle – the northern lights!

On Saturday it was the first time! We saw the northern lights – only faintly! At first I wasn’t sure, because the grayish, slightly green, veil could also have been a cloud, but on a cell phone photo you could see the green shimmer very clearly. This time it was already impressive. Although the lights were only slightly visible in the sky, it was still unbelievable to have observed this natural spectacle. Nevertheless, that evening I was fascinated by the starry sky, which is quite different from what you can observe at home, almost even more. Not only that the stars were much easier to see due to the lack of light smog, but also the feeling of seeing completely new, never-before-seen stars, somehow impressed me very much.

And we were even more lucky! The following Monday the northern lights could be seen even more intensely! A group of Italians, who were really loud, made us coming out of our hut. And it was definitely worth it! In fact, for about an hour, the green lights could even be seen dancing across the sky! Enough time to take some nice photos and enjoy a glass of wine with a German couple. For that alone, the long journey was worth it!

The tourist program – snowmobile and husky tour

In order to have tried it out, we decided to spend some money on the snowmobile and dog sledding tours that were offered. It wasn’t cheap, but we think it was worth it.

On the snowmobile tour we were in a group of around 20 people plus two guides – the head of the camp and one of his employees. Always in pairs, we first drove over the lake at 20-30 km/h and later even 70 km/h. It’s a different feeling when, unlike in the car, you really feel the speed. 30km

/h feels incredibly fast and it took a bit of courage to drive faster in the end. It was unbelievable fun and nobody needs to know that we were consistently the slowest;).

You might think that the husky tour turned out a little quieter. But that’s really not true! When we arrived at the dog farm, we were greeted by loud barks and when it started the dogs, who were full of adrenaline to run, sprinted off. Since we steered our sled, pulled by five dogs, ourselves too, it was not so easy at first to brake the dogs a little, so the we not collide with the sledge in front. This attraction was also a lot of fun, even if we were completely frozen after about 2 hours of driving despite our ski clothes and extra winter overalls.

Still, I had a few concerns. I just cannot imagine that it is appropriate to keep 150 dogs in kennels with 3-4 dogs each and to send around 50 of them off once a day with the sledge. Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to talk to the people on the farm in more detail, I would have been interested in whether the animals would get exercise or activity in any other way besides the sled tours. After about 20 minutes of lunch, which was included in the tour, we were „kicked out“ and brought back to our camp.

Bonfire evening and new friends

Towards the end of our stay the camp filled up a bit and we got to know Cassie from the Netherlands. She had taken a few days off and traveled to Kiruna to see the Northern Lights. She is an incredibly talented and inspiring person with a beautiful voice. We had many interesting conversations with her in the kitchen and played guitar together around the campfire in one of the campfire huts, sang and roasted marshmallows over the fire.

These 10 days in Kiruna were really varied and incredibly interesting. It was really worth it to have taken this opportunity and it was a bit sad when we had to leave on Saturday, even if we were really looking forward to Stockholm.

Hey då and see you soon;)!