DAY 03 - the arctic circle, sami culture and a fake wedding

lotta's parents come to pick up lucas and emelie, and lotta, janne, sepp and me leave for jokkmokk. of course we have to stop at the arctic circle - after all, sepp has never been so far north before!


sepp and michi at the arctic circle

there's another stop along the road, for sandwiches. perfect weather for driving - not as sunny and warm as the previous day. we get to jokkmokk in the afternoon and make straight for ájtte, the sami museum, which is very informative, and definitely worth seeing if you are in the area. it tells a lot of how the sami people lived in the past, and also how they live in modern times.

after the museum, we briefly visit the church across the road, where lotta tries to drag janne aka franz to the altar. she actually succeeds, and there are photos to prove it. :) we are not sure that whatever we say will count as actually marrying the two of them, and janne still owes lotta the ring as well. ;)

a short walk, and then some food at the local pizza-cum-hamburger place. we decide to spend the night at the hotel jokkmokk down by the lake (talvatissjön).


talvatissjön in the evening

but of course we cannot possibly end the day without a walk, therefore we decide to walk up storknabben, the lookout point in the area. great thinking not to bring the mygga (insect repellent) - those bloodsucking monsters are out to eat us alive. why is it that they love to go for the head?! yuck!! so when you actually manage to get and kill them, you have pieces of little blood-smeared corpses in your hair! disgusting!

anyway, that only makes us walk faster. nice view from up there, and the evening is milder and sunnier and warmer than the day.

back at the hotel we play pool - sweden vs austria; and sepp and me win! hooray! it takes us forever though, and i think the norwgians who are waiting to play after us are beginning to think we are doing that on purpose ...

some table tennis, and an expensive glass of wine, then lotta and i leave the guys to their endless table tennis match and have a chat in our room.

day 03 photos