For this trip, we rented a car so we could spend a day in Narvik without having to worry about train schedules. It proved a good idea because weather conditions made us head to Narvik a day ahead of what we planned.
I had read that this drive is fascinating because the minute you get into Norway, it's a completely different feel from Sweden. It sure was! Look at those mountains and the ocean!
OK, so I just love the hats I made for Scott and me. Super duper warm. Sam is wearing her Altuma hockey hat. We are all wearing Sweden hats!
After going to the
Narvik Krigsmuseum (Narvik WWII museum), I was hoping we could go to the top of
Narvikfjellet, but like everything in Norway, it was just too expensive, so these photos are from as close to the top as we could get...the base of the ski hill. Not bad, though, eh?
While I know gendered bathrooms are becoming more and more problematic, particularly in the U.S., I could not help but love these signs at the ski hill bathroom. I mean, pretty great, right?
Many wind turbines are transported through Duluth, headed towards southern Minnesota, so it was fascinating to see a bunch of turbines in the mountains right inside the Norwegian border.
I did not take a lot of photos during our day trip to Narvik. To be honest, there was not much to Narvik beyond the beautiful views. It's simply a small port town, like Duluth, that I would imagine lovely to live in, but not all the wonderful things about it are necessarily accessible to a day tripper. And, of course, we had to get the obligatory pictures at the border.
Our two days in
Riksgränsen were a bit...well, they make for great stories. We got there on opening day, so while check-in was a breeze, it felt a little bit strange having very few people around. Like super eerie. More on that in a minute. It also happened to be super snowy, like white out conditions, so skiing was quite challenging for Scott and Sam.
I don't have any of their pictures from their actual skiing, but as you can see from the photo, you simply cannot see anything at the top. Scott and Sam had to navigate skiing by looking for the poles. They did, however, get to ski in Sweden and Norway in one run!
While those two skied in blinding conditions, I stayed in the lobby working on a geography class I had been taking. I decided to order myself a $6 latte. What you see there is exactly how it came out. Um, for $6, that glass could have been a bit more full, don't you think?
Back to the hostel. This is the common area. Quite different from the SFT Abisko hostel and for sure from fancy Åre! It felt like a mental health facility from the 1980s - it was eerie and funny all at the same time. Eventually, it filled with a bunch of Norwegians. We learned that Riksgränsen is basically a Norwegian resort because it's literally the border, and it's cheap for Norwegians to ski/stay in Sweden. On our last day, while we were making sandwiches for the road, Sam had to leave this common area because, as she said, "it's like a Norwegian frat house in there." Indeed, a bunch of 20 year old boys were making frozen pizzas, playing games, and on their phones, etc. Scott asked one of them why they were not skiing, he pointed out the window and said, "the weather," with a face that said, "duh, old man." Ah, a reminder that some hostels are indeed just for the young.
One of the funniest things about this hostel was the bathroom. We were pretty happy to have our own bathroom after having to share at the SFT Abisko Hostel, but when we saw the bathroom we were really confused. I guess we just take a shower over the sink?
I knew there was something more to it, so I moved the "door" and ta da, you have a separate shower area. Good Lordy. We laughed and laughed. Later we learned that this is referred to as a "Stockholm shower" because it saves space. Typically in a Stockholm shower the shower is over the toilet, so in reality this one gave us more space. Ah, Sweden.
The best way to describe the hallways in this hostel is to simply show you [shaking my head, laughing].
Overall, Sportlov was a really fun week with all sorts of adventures. Travelling is not always easy. In fact, there were many hard parts to this trip, but sometimes you just have to make a face and know you'll look back at the good and the bad with fondness.
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