bye for now

The sky started to look a little 'bluer' so I decided to put the rest of my clothes on top of my rain poncho. Clear skies, orange on one side, no wind, only the sounds of my steps I could hear and my breathing for hiking a couple of hundred meters to the peak of Norra Storfjallet. The light of the rising sun hit my eyes, the glaciers down below mostly covered by a dense white cloud was as the 'bed' in case I fell. I just sat inches away from the clif and watched. By the end of this entry you'll see two pictures of this morning and two of the evening before. I was alone for a good time watching this marvelous view. I knew nobody would show for a very good time. Sunrise must have been around four in the morning for these lands for being so north and during summer time.
After a while then I walked down to the next cabin and after three hours I made it at nine in the morning. People was having breakfast. I felt like having lunch. I bought some canned meat and cooked the rice I was carrying in my bag. Talked to some people and then took a nap. I began my walk back to tarnaby at midday. It was another nine hours walked by this time the land was flat and dry. The day was sunny and the snow mountains were just impressive to my right side. I saw several deers, like the Rudolph type. I crossed some rivers without shoes, I got water from the creeks and drank it. I saw some campers but they were still sleeping of perhaps already out. The signs for snowmobiles make me just imagine how this place would be at winter. Maybe I try that too in the future, but I am not too much of winter person.
By nine o'clock I was back at the hostel. Matt told me he didn't expect me too soon. What I did can not be topped even by an extra week, I said. He quickly mentioned that they needed help organizing their hostel (www.tarnabylapland.com he has dared to mention me on his page) for a big biking event the following week. So they offered me bed and food for three days if I could help. After a beer I went to sleep. Next day we started working and my legs gave me some 'shaking' on and off during the day.
I named the earlier entries as six months minimo I and II because on the seventh of August when I got to Tarnaby was exactly six months since I left the US and the eight of August, when I spent the night on the top of Norra Storfjallet, was exactly six months after I got to Salvador-Brasil for the beginning of this trip. Nothing was planned to be here at this time. But I like to think about this coincidence.
I don't know how much longer I will be travelling now. After my hike I went to Bergen in NOrway to visit Pia and Ellen whom I met in Rio de Janeiro. They are beginning college now. Young girls full of energy and motivation. I stayed with them for a week and we had a great time. Went out with their friends, went to the house of a classical music composer (Edvard Greig), did a hike to a mountain and met other people. Now I am back in Stockholm after I quick stop in Oslo. I am making the route back. I still want to stop in Holland and later on perhaps in Italy, but I am not certain yet. I won't write on this blog as often now. I will take time for me now before heading back to the US.
Thanks for reading and for the comments. I appreciate all of them and please feel free to write me at jtello02 at hotmail.

A night in Lapland

The hike


Alone


The Hut


You name it


Warm Smile

Six Months Minimo II

I figured I needed to be on the mountains for a while and hike some kilometers so I charged the credit card to Hamevan, on the Lapland area of Sweden. The fifteen hours will have to pass by quickly so I pulled again the 'Italian Grammar' book thinking that I could be entertained by it. 'The DaVinci Code' was a quick reading but I thought I was reading a movie script. I liked the facts the author wrote but not too impressed with the story, too perfect, too Hollywood.
I started on train but at the first stop in Umea I had to change to a bus. There are plenty of seats on these buses so it is not that bad after all. I saw a girl with a big backpack so I decided to talk to her and ask her about the hiking trails. I wanted to walk from Hemavan to Amarnas but she quickly told me that was a six day trip. I only wanted to do two days. Another girl heard our conversation and asked me if I had reservation for a hostel. When I told her I didn't she offer to give me a bed at the hostel she and her boyfriend run in Tarnaby, the town twenty minutes south of Hemavan. I decided to get off the bus with her. Her boyfriend Matt, an Australian who moved to Tarnaby for this business, was waiting for her so the three of us went to the hostel. Lindy was her name. She and Matt had one more guest, Quincy, who was on a fishing trip. Quincy and his buddy Lars were back at Tarnaby and were about to cook what they caught. I was invited to dinner with Lindy, Matt, Quincy and Larsh. Very nice salmon with rizoto, bread and some ham. Larsh is a chef and after several glasses of wine and some boysh talk until five in the morning we went to sleep. Next day was my day to hike. Alone but wishing to meet somebody on the road I was dropped by Matt in Hamevan and started my journey at three pm. Before, we did a quick stop to get a rain coat, some fruit and water. The pictures on this entry describe a lot better what I may write. Peaceful, quiet, distant and perhaps loneliness is what I felt on the hike but nevertheless it was quiet a sight I had in front of my eyes. A couple was with their kid walking. The little girl, around eight years old, was also with her small backpack. At six fifteen pm I made it to Viterskalstugan. Three ladies running the cabin told me there was a hut 500 meters short from the top of the mountain if I didn't want to pay the 240 krones (around $30 US). I thought it was still early for me to hike up to that hut and spend the night there without spending a penny. Reason number one. Reason number two: I would be really close to the peak of the mountain to wait for sunrise and take some pictures from the very top of Norra Storfjallet at 1,766 meters (5,793 feet)above sea level. I continued my journey and soon I started to see the valley down and far. It was a foggy and cold day and the hike was very steep. There were orange dots painted on some stones showing the route to take to the top. Soon I couldn't see anything down below. I was wet from sweating and the fog. It then became dark due to the fog and I was getting tired. I think I was climbing for about two hours and I couldn't find the hut. I admit I started to get a little nervous. I was getting tired and walking down would have been too dangerous since the slope was very steep and I had to use my hands sometimes to get my balance or avoid falling. I reached the top and still couldn't see the hut. I couldn't see more than 30 yards in front of me. My compass showed i was in the right direction to the hut according to the map, south. I gave up and decided to walk to the next cabin. I knew it would take me about three more hours and I had to rush to get there. As I kept walking I saw the hut. I saw the silhouette of it and I thought I was watching a horror movie when castles or people appear from foggy empty places. Once inside I took my wet clothes and changed for dry ones, a T-shirt, a long sleeve shirt, shorts and a pair of socks. There were two wooden benches and a table, a box with some pencils, matches and paper. I tried to sleep but everything was very cold. I could hear the wind blowing and I didn't dare to walk out. My feet got very cold, the bench got even colder and I was getting sleepy. I decided then to start moving my arms and do some small jumps to get my blood flowing.I didn't want to over do it because it meant to sweat and have wet clothes again and I didn't have anymore. My mind started going really fast, I knew it was too dark to walk, besides it was on the way down. It was even dangerous and my legs were weak. I thought to myself this is the craziest thing I have ever done. I have been called cheap bastard in many languages by someone on this blog, this is an opportunity for that person to call me that again in Swedish. I thought it was very irresponsible not to have a sleeping back with me. At the same time I have to say that the idea of not giving up climbing the mountain was stronger than saving thirty dollars for the room. But once I was up there, I said: "Now what? Now that I am here, what? Now that i am very cold, alone and just following my instincts as my next move,what? just to say I spent the night on top of a mountain?" I thought, my life is more valuable than bragging about this night. I Kept moving and rubbing my hands against each other while I looked and waited for sunrise through the hut's little window.

Six Months Minimo I

I got to Stockholm in the morning and after taking a look at the hung map of the city in the lobby of the bus station I walked to get a bed in some hostel.It was around 7 seven in the morning and I was feeling a little tired. Tired about packing and unpacking for the past six months. I soon realized I only wanted to hang out near the hostel and perhaps with the people there. I didn't have the energy to wonder around or go to museums or do some sightseeing, at least not on my own.I thought about getting back to the US soon. My six months were almost complete so I was happy that I made it this far. That was the third of August. Next day I made friends with Javi (from Spain), Romer and Remy (from France) so we decided to walk a bit and try to catch a boat that would take us to some of the 24,000 (no exageration) little islands of the archipelago. Only Javi and I ended up going. The young french decided to stay in the city. We went to Grinda, about two hours away but we only found campsites. The ride was nice but we thought, or I thought, it was a place to go, camp to spend the night and go back next day, not worth it to go just for a couple of hours. Later on Javi and Danny (from Holland) hit a bar and spent some krones drinking beer and pushing away a guy who insisted on being with us because he wanted to get to know our female friend from Holland, Danny. We had to be a little mean to this guy and finally he gave up. Back at the hostel we spent more time at the patio and talked to other travellers. I planned to stay only two days but I ended up extending my visit every morning for three more days. The last day I decided to move to a hostel-boat (picture). I recomend anyone who will be in Stockholm to stay here if you like hostels more than hotels or just if you want to experience it. One of the guys who works at the hostel in Copenhagen talked to me about Lapland, the northern part of Sweden, Norway and Finland. A place with mountains, rivers and lakes. Away from the city. I really wanted to go with somebody else. Only two people were interested at the Stockholm hostel but they were planning on doing it two weeks later. I thought then to give it a shot. It will be my returning point of my travels I thought. I thought about the fifteen hours between train and buses to get to Hamevan. I hesitated.

Shit happens

Today August 2 is my last day in Malmö. I meant to come here, the city across the bridge from Copenaghen (1 hour away in bus), before heading to Stockholm. Big cities can be a little tiring sometimes, perhaps I am getting a little tired of packing and looking for hostels anytime I arrive to new cities, but Malmö was nice to stop and walk around. One of the biggest attraction is the 'turning torso' building. Look it up, it is great looking and impressive. Yesterday, after i arrived I rented a locker in the central station for my backpacks. Then I went out and walked a little lighter around the city. I wouldn't be surprised if statistics show there is more women that men here, or at least I saw it that way. There are some old churches and buildings. As I was walking around i spotted a building with the sign of the International Youth hostel. I was surprised about that since the tourist information office told me the hostels and camping sites were a little away from the center of the city. this was about to blocks from the main strip of restaurants and shops. I went there and the lady told me this was their opening night. I thought, I could be part of the first customers of this hostel and sleep in a bed that nobody has slept before, a shower that nobody has used before and a toilet nobody has...you get the idea. So after pulling my International Youth hostel gold member card out (haha, no there is no gold membership) I went to the station and went back to the hostel with my bags.
I thought about going out but the rain and I being so tired decided to stay in after having a couple of bread with Nutella.
Today I walked up, went to turning torso building, it was raining still and i was deeply thinking about where other places to go in Scandinavia or if I should get a job as a waiter or something since everything is so expensive here. I went to the bus station, charged my credit card with the ticket to Stockholm for tonight at ten at night (it is 8 pm as I write this) and to walk around a little bit more. The lockers say you leave your stuff for 24 hours but they didn't say that once your take the key out you can only retrieve your stuff once. So you really don't have the 24 hours freedom they are advertising. I thought about going and complain about this misleading notice and suddenly I received a splash of feces from the sky. Some big bird dropped some extra weight it didn't need. Now I had to go, change my clothing and pay again for another 24 hours of "24 hour locker service".

Catching up

I finally can catch up with the time on this blog. I spent a whole week in Copenhagen and I am already seeing that my dollars, euros and krones are draining away. I am still amazed to see so many people riding bikes to work, to bars, to supermarkets not just for exercising. I mean. I am talking about over 50% of people using bikes instead of driving cars to commute. Well, distances are a lot shorter than in the US and the roads safer than in Peru and the cities have special trails for the bikes. Even intercity roads. I met a couple of guys from Finland who rode from Stockholm (Sweden) to Copenhagen (Denmark) in seven days (630km, 391 miles) taking several breaks of course but they told me they could have made it on 3 days.
I enjoyed the man-made beach in Almagor. 2006 is its first year opening. It is weird not to see palm trees or little bars along the beach but I heard something that they want to keep it like it. Who knows if the situation will be the same as the years come. The sand is not real sand, it is gravel so it gives even a bigger feeling of an artificial beach. The water is cold and nice and to add to the artificial status, you can see some windmills no too far from the shore. These huge slow-motion fans looked like monsters that are about to become alife and walk around the waters. I did go to Ishog a more natural beach and then to Helsingor were a massive castle (Kromborg) lies by the tip of Denmark from where you can see Sweden (city of Helsinborg to be precise).
One of the attractions in Copenhagen is to check the "Little Mermaid", a sculpture from 1913 that, many say, gives an idea or the sensation she is thinking about jumping.
I hung out with the rest of travellers the rest of the days and walked along strips of restaurants and Crystiania and did some BBQ to save money. Crystiania is a small neighbohood in Copenagen where several type of drugs can be found but I thought it has been adjusted a little bit to the tourists. It is still has its own character though but police did their rounds since consuming drugs in Copenaghen remains illegal. I friend told me he might be able to hook me up with a job but things didn't work out so I decided to leave town before I keep spending the money in one place. To finish this entry I also enjoyed watching a Triathlon event which was won by a French athlete. Pierre Dorez. I am not familiar with this sport at all but he swam 1,5km (0,93miles), rode the bike for 40km (24,85 miles) and then run 10K(6,2 miles) all in one hour 54 minutes. His first 5K run he made it on 15 minutes after swimming and biking!!!. As Martin Lawrence would say: "That's krazy".