A colleague from work invited us to spend the weekend with them, travelling about 400 kms north to Arjeplog, a small town in the northern region of Norrland. They had spent all of their kid raising years there and Christer, a GP, still works there one week a month, so still has ties to the area. It was a fascinating weekend, as there was also a German fellow who usually rents their house over the winter months. He is one of the over 400 workers mainly from Germany who spend a number of months in the area in winter, testing everything to do with cars – from brakes, to tyres, to who knows what else on ice roads made on the lakes. Apparently the car testing industry keeps this area going, while many other rural areas in Sweden have reduced in size and wealth with the move into the cities for work. We day tripped another 150 kms across the Arctic circle and then to the Norwegian border (where a smart Swede has realised the potential to sell all manner of groceries from a pantechnicon van on weekends to Norwegians from across the border, (his prices being cheaper than in Norge).
The countryside was covered in snow which turned colours of pink, orangey, and brown in the light of the very low sun. We say herds of reindeer and a solitary fox. It was quite beautiful and very special to be tramping the hills, and stopping for fika (coffee in a flask and smoked reindeer meat, cut up into small pieces and fried in butter over a camp stove, then eaten on flat bread) while sitting on the reindeer skin sit-upon that we carried with us as protection against sitting on the frozen ground.
En route home we visited a Sámi settlement owned by a man who used to fly floatplanes and helicopters for medical evacuations and GP visits. His wife and family (of grown up children) have found a niche market in providing meals to bus tourists from Norway, up to three tours a day, and up to 400 people for Christmas, in their series of restaurants in their settlement. They are both collectors, Mrs Sámi had masses (maybe 250) Tomtens (Father Christmas’s’) on shelves around the rooms and he had more than 15 piano accordions, which he plays regularly for the guests. Unfortunately he was recovering from a knee replacement – modern medicine reaches the most remote places!-so was rather quieter than his usual self. Sámi is the name for the indigenous Lappish people, who live in the northern regions and have the rights to ‘farm’ the reindeer. Tomten is Father Christmas who of course comes from this area and epitomises the Sámi people – he is small, white-haired, a little portly, wears a red top and in the folklore has elves that help him feed the reindeer and help him in the forest etc. So that’s where the story comes from. And they even wear shoes with turned up toecaps! The only difference we could see were the two very new and shiny snowmobiles parked next to the house, in place of the old sleigh. But hey, with a knee replacement, I guess you can’t complain about using a snowmobile to get around.
The countryside was covered in snow which turned colours of pink, orangey, and brown in the light of the very low sun. We say herds of reindeer and a solitary fox. It was quite beautiful and very special to be tramping the hills, and stopping for fika (coffee in a flask and smoked reindeer meat, cut up into small pieces and fried in butter over a camp stove, then eaten on flat bread) while sitting on the reindeer skin sit-upon that we carried with us as protection against sitting on the frozen ground.
En route home we visited a Sámi settlement owned by a man who used to fly floatplanes and helicopters for medical evacuations and GP visits. His wife and family (of grown up children) have found a niche market in providing meals to bus tourists from Norway, up to three tours a day, and up to 400 people for Christmas, in their series of restaurants in their settlement. They are both collectors, Mrs Sámi had masses (maybe 250) Tomtens (Father Christmas’s’) on shelves around the rooms and he had more than 15 piano accordions, which he plays regularly for the guests. Unfortunately he was recovering from a knee replacement – modern medicine reaches the most remote places!-so was rather quieter than his usual self. Sámi is the name for the indigenous Lappish people, who live in the northern regions and have the rights to ‘farm’ the reindeer. Tomten is Father Christmas who of course comes from this area and epitomises the Sámi people – he is small, white-haired, a little portly, wears a red top and in the folklore has elves that help him feed the reindeer and help him in the forest etc. So that’s where the story comes from. And they even wear shoes with turned up toecaps! The only difference we could see were the two very new and shiny snowmobiles parked next to the house, in place of the old sleigh. But hey, with a knee replacement, I guess you can’t complain about using a snowmobile to get around.
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