Great weekends are often never planned, leaving you open to any experience, having no expectations of whats to come, which means the chances of you having a mind blowing experience are very good. This first weekend in October was no exception.
After a hectic week at university, we decided as a group of friends to take time out. I had seen that Åre, the popular ski town (http://www.are360.com/en-gb.aspx) was having a autumn market this weekend. So we decided to check it out for a day. Student tickets were booked on the train and we decided to meet up on Saturday morning to go to Åre, departure time, 07h18, prefect.
I must just mention at this point, that we had also decided that Friday night we’d meet up, maybe watch a home movie, or just enjoy each other company as a group of friends. This happened, we ended up going out, having a great party and getting home at 02h30. Let me just say that when the alarm went off at 06h00 on Saturday, the realisation of what we had done to ourselves with 3 hours sleep was a grim reminder that this was going to be a long day. I wasn't the only one who felt this way, thankfully, and the train left with us all catching up on a brief hour of power.
Arriving in Åre, the drop in temperature was a great way to wake us up. We arrived a few hours before anything opens (everything opens at 11 in a small town), so a simple breakfast bought from ICA, a local supermarket has to suffice for the time being. We decided that the guys and girls would split up and we could explore and enjoy the market to our own wills.
Åre is a stunning looking town, focussed on skiing, but trying hard to keep its self popular throughout the year. With a backdrop of mountains and a lake, it certainly wins a prize for a good looking town.
The market was a collection of traditional food, delicacies, sweets, hats, crafts, plants...blah blah you get the idea. There is only so much traditional spicy sausage, Elk heart and fresh bread you can eat in a day. Nonetheless, it was really good to just get out and enjoy the sights and sounds of the place. Lunch was traditional raggmunk, (potato pancakes, served with bacon and lingon).
With most of the town explored by lunch time, the girls suggested that we take the gondola (cable car) up to the top of the mountain, Åreskutan. Great idea it turned out to be. The cable car is approximately 2.9kms long, goes up over 853meters in height to near the top of the mountain, which there remains 800 metres to climb to the very top, a height of 1420 metres. Once up, it was freezing! The temperature was probably 6 or 7 degree’s, but the wind was thumping, with wind chill, it was probably 2 or 3 degree’s.
The climb up started really slowly, there was snow up on the top, which was a great distraction to most of us up there. First snow in Sweden since arriving here...
Climbing over rocks, ice and snow is not a strong point for our two Asian friends, so the going started really slow. They eventually decided to walk back to the warmth of the station on the mountain, which left Kai, Sonia (a German girl which this was first time to hike a mountain) and myself to climb to the top of the Åreskutan.
In short, it was amazing. The view was incredible, the wind was whipping like mad, it was a feeling of total elation being on the top.
Once down, we enjoyed some more traditional food, ever tasty glass (ice cream) and just chilled out till the train arrived to take us back. Happy faces all around from a full day out...
Well back to routine this week, another test and more academia awaits...
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