Sunset at 1pm, Copious amounts of Jagermeister, pissed Swedes walking down a hill
..........This must be the north of Sweden
*From somewhere near the Arctic Circle *
The last week of my life has been spent in the little hamlet of Hemavan, north west Sweden, approximately 80kms south of the Artic Circle. I can easily say that it was one of the best weeks I've ever had whilst on holiday. Whilst the town and the surrounding mountains where extremely picturesque and about as close as you can get to snowboarding heaven, it was the people themselves that made the week that much more enjoyeable. Most evenings was spent on a mountain side hotel where you could either ski or board into at the end of the day - which around here was 3:30pm or so as the sun tends to set about 2 hrs prior to then. From that moment on the poison of choice is Jagermeister and beer, either seperately, together or however way you'd like to consume it. Another amusing thing is that that the line 'Hi I'm Australian' still holds its value reasonably well up here - it's usually followed up with the response, 'Australian, what the F**k are you doing here man, let me by you a drink'. Let me tell you, you can get pretty toasted by just speaking to people with the right accent. You can also get toasted by simply walking down the main slope back to the village and 'trying' to stay as upright as possible. One of the more memorable moments was seeing Jay taking a 3am run on my snowboard, having never snowboarded before and seeing disappear into the night only to hear 'Awww - sh*t' a few seconds later.
Now, for all the snowboarder and skiers out there, let me just say that the last two days here was spent snowboarding in knee deep powder snow, making turns through trees and doing jumps that were altogether big for my liking but still going for glory anyway. They were easily the best conditions I've had in the 10 years that I've been boarding.
Another sport that a few of us got into on New Years morning was the new Olympic sport of 'snow swimming'. The rules of this sport are to get absolutely drunk, strip off to your underwear and run out of your cabin into a freezing cold night jumping straight into the snow. Freestyle tends to be the stroke of choice but backstroke was also a strangely popular option ....... usual responses after the event was 'Oh F**k ... Oh F**k' and 'Why did I let you talk me into that'.
I'm still in Stockholm tomorrow before heading off to Vienna after that - more from me in a few days !
..........This must be the north of Sweden
*From somewhere near the Arctic Circle *
The last week of my life has been spent in the little hamlet of Hemavan, north west Sweden, approximately 80kms south of the Artic Circle. I can easily say that it was one of the best weeks I've ever had whilst on holiday. Whilst the town and the surrounding mountains where extremely picturesque and about as close as you can get to snowboarding heaven, it was the people themselves that made the week that much more enjoyeable. Most evenings was spent on a mountain side hotel where you could either ski or board into at the end of the day - which around here was 3:30pm or so as the sun tends to set about 2 hrs prior to then. From that moment on the poison of choice is Jagermeister and beer, either seperately, together or however way you'd like to consume it. Another amusing thing is that that the line 'Hi I'm Australian' still holds its value reasonably well up here - it's usually followed up with the response, 'Australian, what the F**k are you doing here man, let me by you a drink'. Let me tell you, you can get pretty toasted by just speaking to people with the right accent. You can also get toasted by simply walking down the main slope back to the village and 'trying' to stay as upright as possible. One of the more memorable moments was seeing Jay taking a 3am run on my snowboard, having never snowboarded before and seeing disappear into the night only to hear 'Awww - sh*t' a few seconds later.
Now, for all the snowboarder and skiers out there, let me just say that the last two days here was spent snowboarding in knee deep powder snow, making turns through trees and doing jumps that were altogether big for my liking but still going for glory anyway. They were easily the best conditions I've had in the 10 years that I've been boarding.
Another sport that a few of us got into on New Years morning was the new Olympic sport of 'snow swimming'. The rules of this sport are to get absolutely drunk, strip off to your underwear and run out of your cabin into a freezing cold night jumping straight into the snow. Freestyle tends to be the stroke of choice but backstroke was also a strangely popular option ....... usual responses after the event was 'Oh F**k ... Oh F**k' and 'Why did I let you talk me into that'.
I'm still in Stockholm tomorrow before heading off to Vienna after that - more from me in a few days !
posted by Helisher at 1:49 am
2 Comments:
H! I can't bloody believe it! You're already gone and I hadn't even replied to your last email! for god knows what reason I thought you were coming to Europe in Feb and that I therefore still had time. Either way I have to say I was very disappointed when you mentioned Chamonix because it's very FAR from where WE ARE! (and since I just took a 10 day break over Christmas and drove 2000 kms I can't take any more time off away)... besides if you're coming to France for snow you risk being bitterly disappointed this year... it's way warmer than usual here.
Bah... happy new year mate :) If you change your mind and decide to drop by the pyrenees instead, you know where to find me! :)
xx
Snow swimming? LOL! Swimming in the harbour is one thing when drunk, slamming yourself into the snow while drunk is another thing all together. Hope no women saw you doing that, the shrinkage factor would have been extreme :-P
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