travel Archives - Page 6 of 32

Tännäskröket

February 24, 2016 by popnea

Our weeks of fun is over and it’s time to head back to Stockholm to catch our flight home to Los Angeles.

Tännäskröket is conveniently located on the way so we stopped to get some skiing in.

Turned out this mountain is tiny and the conditions were not that epic so it didn’t take us long to give up. Worth a try though!

Ok reindeers are cool and all, but it’s starting to get a little tiresome when they insist in hanging out on the road!

Yeah, side of the road is cool!

There was a few places I felt like we could’ve stopped for lunch, but I felt Sibylla would be the most authentic Swedish experience. I grew up with it, before American fast food chains started to pop up all over the country.

Tunnbrödstulle; hot dog, mashed potatoes, lettuce and shrimp salad wrapped in bread. Good stuff!

Surströmming

February 23, 2016 by popnea

Started the day as per usual, with some skiing.

Ended the day as per usual in Veronica and Erik’s apartment.

Surströmming is a delicacy in Sweden, it’s fermented canned fish and is ranked one of the stinkiest foods in the world by the people who knows. I have never had it and nor have I had a desire to try it.
Asher really wanted to try it though so we bought a can.

We got a lucky as it turned out a friend really likes it and could show the best practices.

I didn’t have the guts to try it but it actually didn’t smell half as bad as I thought it would.

I was better off with vegetarian sushi wrapped in soy paper.

Björnrike

February 22, 2016 by popnea

When you work at a ski shop, you are always in the need for another pair of skis!

I surprised my old boss by going for breakfast at his bakery. It took him a minute to recognize me but then he wouldn’t let me go and asked me to come back and work.

Skied all day with Johan in Björnrike today.

Vemdalen

February 20, 2016 by popnea

Can’t go to Funäsdalen for a few weeks and not go visit Vemdalen, where it all started, kind of.

I have not been here in 10 years and a lot of things has changed. This was once a big parking lot, now it’s a full on village with hotels and restaurants!

Hovdegubben got a statue on top of Hovde, as he should!

Catching up with old friends, trying to convince them to shave.

Since there’s really no easy way to purchase alcohol from a store in Vemdalen, we brought Johan some beers as a thanks for letting us stay at his place!

Since it’s so cold out, we’ve got to start with hot chocolate & rum.

Here, they substitute the skateboard to the “kicks” in the winter.

Had dinner with my old boss and he reminded me that I was his boss once as well. It’s complicated.

Röros market

February 18, 2016 by popnea

Oh good, it was only -17c when we woke up this morning, it’s starting to warm up!

We did a day to Røros in Norway today, it’s only a couple of hours away, on this awesome Scandinavian road.

Røros is pretty tiny, but really beautiful and they have an historic farmers market that spans over a few weeks in the winter.

You can buy all sorts of sausages and animal skin and hand made stuff!

We stayed a few hours, looked at people ate a bunch and froze our asses off before heading back to Funäs.
Crossing the border between Norway and Sweden is pretty hassle free, you barley notice it.

Stopped by Tänndalen on the way back for a few turns. Can’t go a day without skiing!

Last day with the fam

February 18, 2016 by popnea

Got a few more hours together with the family and trying to make the most of it.

Apparently if you ride the lift with my brother, you get candy! Kids never want to ride with me.

Back to the cafe for some afternoon baking!

Muskox

February 16, 2016 by popnea

There’s a muskox center in Tännäs, just outside Funäsdalen so we booked a tour to go see them.

The guide went through a bunch of facts first that no one really wanted to listen to.

There’s Norway somewhere over there!

Around 35 wild ox used to hang on this mountain in the 70’s and 80’s before it got popular for tourist and local punks to take the snowcats and chase them around. If I got it right, those shenanigans are now illegal and they’re trying to re-establish the muskox in the area. There’s now 7 wild muskox in the area and The Muskox Center has 6 not so wild ox, every now and then they get babies and release animals out in the wild, which is pretty cool!

Saw some wild deer on the way home. This place is popping with wild animals!

Family is here!

February 15, 2016 by popnea

Ok, so yesterday is nothing I am proud of. I stayed out way to late for my age and got maybe about 2 hours of sleep before my brother, niece and nephew arrived.

I sucked it up for an hour or so and skied with them, but quickly realized I did way better curled up on the couch with crappy daytime tv and a pizza.

Felt like a million bucks today though so we spent the day at Ramundberget.

Headed straight to the double black diamond, cause that’s how you teach a 9 year old how to ski. He did great for two turns and then slid down the rest.

Went again and he owned it the second time!

Tänndalen

February 13, 2016 by popnea

Started the day with a couple of hours in the bakery. This bakery is actually pretty chill. I was used to start in the wee hours just past midnight, but here you can show up to work after 6am!

So the first day when we skied Funasfjallet, I was hating on this lazy lift operator that was listening to music through his headphones and seemed totally uninterested in helping us with the t-bar. I was bitching about the lazy youths to Asher all the way up in the lift.
The next day I saw him at after ski at the cafe and it turns out he was actually really nice, haha!
He showed us around the third mountain today, Tänndalen. It’s always so much more fun to ski with a local that knows the mountain.