Mammut Snow Hotel Kemi

Sadly we left Perra's for the unkown. we travelled all day, by bus to the tiny village of Murek, train to Lulea near the east coast of Sweden, another bus to the Finish border and by foot across the border. The journey was fairly uneventful, saw some moose, read the War of the Worlds (and contemplated the destruction of Leatherhead by martians) and avoided scratching my now many mossie bites. The ...

... and what should greet me on the other side? A massive Ikea! I walked a ways up the Swedish side of the river and found another crossing at the "Green Zone" golf course - a golf course that crosses the international border! I had wanted to try and get a round in at this semi-famous course, but due to time constraints it just wasn't possible. and after walking around the course for only a few minutes I'm kinda glad I didn't play - mosquitos everywhere ...

... is a member of the United Church of God. Beverly and I plan to visit them in the town of Gaile, Norway which is situated between Oslo and Bergen. Also Elsa's sisters Cherry Bell, Silver Bell, Anita and brother Nehemiah have or are moving to Norway. Elsa will be getting married this summer in Norway. Her husband-to-be will be emigrating from Thailand in February. In the morning we made coffee and snacked and talked and talked. Klo Gay had to go to work at the carpet ...

... we take a bus to Haparanda, then there are some complicated maneuvers to get from there to Tornio and on to Kemi, Finland. So we got off the train at Lulea and walked about 250 yards to the bus station. As we are slowly getting our documents out, Bruce panics as he discovers that he doesn't have his passport. Great. He goes through his things a few times....still not there. So, he runs back to the train station to get back on the train and see ...

... of Burma want their own independent state. The repressive Burmese will not let them have it. The Karen are stubbornly adamant about establishing their own state and this clash of wills has led to a war that has killed about 50,000 people a year. I'm surprised that so few people know about this war. War refugees have often spilled over into refugee camps over the border in Thailand Some of the Karen refugees adopted various Christian faiths. A group of ...

we made a quick stop in the drizzle at the border between the finnish town of Torneo and the Swedish town of Haparanda, where we were welcomed, first in finnish to Torneo/Haparanda, then in swedish to Haparanda/Torneo ;) nothing like the border between norway and russia that i experienced a year ago, you could hardly tell you were even crossing - it looks a lot more like a huge construction site, as they are ...

... them except that they have relatives who had also emigrated and live in North Carolina. We are not certain about who exactly will meet us at the airport or how we will get from the airport to Margaret Doh's home. When we step off the plane the air is damp and cool, a big contrast from Helsinki where it was sunny and warm. It is not difficult to identify Klo Gay and a friend. The friend is Meung Aye who has a car and who will drive us to ...

... contact as possible. Yesterday he spent the day working on his dacha in the country and the talk is about the intense heat here in Estonia which is so unusual. Normally the temperature in the summer barely passes the 75 degree mark and yesterday it was almost 90 degrees. We all walk together to the bus station where we also see Imbi. She is taking a bus also at 8 am towards Viru where she is working today. Last night I called another interested person in Tallinn by ...

The day started early with a 6.30am rise to catch the train (yes thats right i was up at that time on a Saturday morning, i even made porridge!). Once finally on the train at 7.45am we walked the length of the train about 5 times looking for our seats...all we could find were sleeping berths! We eventually found the food carriage (which looked like a little American diner) and settled in for the journey. We arrived in Kemi just an hour and a half later at 9.15am. We didn't have to be ...

A curly-haired Australian guy stayed in my room at the hostel this week. He had been hitchhiking around Sweden like me, and he'd also been having a tough time of it. He'd accepted one ride that dropped him off on a small side road. Here, some cars passed him but none stopped. It took him two miserable days and FORTY-EIGHT kilometers of walking before he could get himself somewhere that he could take a bus. In Umeå, I hung out Tuesday night with the gang of crazy girls who'd ...