Norway's Top 20

Well, after much deliberation I have found the Top 20 pictures from our trip to Norway last weekend! That's right, I said twenty. It took me a long time to cut it down to that many, too... the scenery was simply too stunning and I want to share it all with you. The word stunning actually doesn't do justice to what we saw in Norway, but there really aren't even words to describe how truly mind blowing God's creation can be sometimes. I can't even wrap my head around it.  All I can say is that I highly recommend taking a trip through the fjords of Norway if the opportunity ever arises during your lifetime. You won't regret it, I promise.

I wanted this post to be purely a picture post since there are so many, but I realized there are a few extra things from our trip that couldn't be captured with pictures. So before we get to all the beauty, here are a few more of those wonderful life lessons we learned while in Norway....

1. Norwegian subtitles for Harry Potter change not only words, but names too... I'm not quite sure why exactly, but for some odd reason the subtitles referred to George as "Frank"? Which makes me wonder if the Norwegian version of the Harry Potter books had Fred and Frank Weasley... And if so, why? Does the name George not exist in the Norwegian language? I want to know!! It was very strange to say the least. However, despite the weird name-changing subtitles, I still saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1) before anyone in the United States could because we went to the midnight premiere Thursday in Narvik. Pretty cool, right? I thought so.
2. Don't get a parking ticket with a rental vehicle while visiting a foreign country... Yeah, I'm sure this might seem like common sense but it's kind of one of those things you don't really think about until it actually happens. You know? Unfortunately, it did happen to us while we were eating lunch on Friday. We didn't really think much about it at the time other than it was expensive and annoying... but now we can't seem to find a way to actually pay the darn thing! The guy at the gas station in Narvik gave us the impression that we could just go to the bank when we got back to Sweden and pay it like we would pay any other bill. Awesome, that sounds easy! Not. After spending hours downtown asking five different banks, Ryan found out that the guy at the gas station didn't know what he was talking about after all. So now we're kind of screwed. We checked the website listed on the back of the ticket, hoping it would just let us put in some credit card info on the site and we'd be done with it. Wrong again. I sent an email to the email address listed on the back of the ticket three days ago as well explaining the situation but I haven't heard back. Most of my free time this week, I'm sure, will be spent trying to deal with this so that a notice doesn't get sent back to Hertz saying we haven't paid. Because if that happens, we'll be in trouble... we'll have to pay the original ticket, a fee for not paying on time and a fee to Hertz for having to take care of it for us. What a mess! Did I mention that the entire ticket is in Norwegian? Yeah, what a mess...
3. Don't let the boys do the grocery shopping alone... otherwise you might end up with over 3 pounds of bacon, 8 pounds of ground beef, and 36 eggs for only five people to consume in only two and a half days. Oh, and they'll forget the taco seasoning too! Men, I tell ya...
4. The Toyota Prius may very well have the least comfortable seats of any car I've ever rode in... pretty self-explanatory. 

Well, now that I got all that whining out of the way.... 

Ladies and Gentlemen.... may I present to you.... 

Our trip to the Lofoten Islands... 

The sun rise lighting up the snow-covered trees during our train ride Thursday morning to Narvik.

Narvik, Norway. Although this isn't one of the most beautiful scenes we saw during our trip, it reminded me so much of Duluth. The old houses and the hilly streets made me feel right at home.

A view from outside our cabin at Sandsletta Camping...

The view from our deck...

Hahahahaha this is Brett dancing and singing to the Willow Smith song "Whip My Hair". Watch the music video for it on YouTube... it'll make more sense to you then.

Driving through the Lofoten Islands...

My favorite picture of Ryan and I from that weekend..

A picture of Tyler taking a picture...

Norwegian farmland on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean...

Giant morca tracks... we decided it was too big to be just a moose and it was definitely a moose crossed with an orca.

One of the best sunsets I've ever seen... The water was so still that when I looked at these pictures on my camera and flipped it upside down, I could barely tell. That's how clear the reflection in the water was.

So we through some rocks in the water so you could tell the difference between the reflection and the real thing...

Amazing..

This is one of 10,012 paintings of scenes from the Lofoten Islands done by a man named Stig in Narvik who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for "The Most Paintings Done in a Year". The back of our painting even has an official certificate. It was a little expensive, but I guess that's the price you pay for a little piece of history...

The moose Brett spotted while driving on our way home Sunday. Good find, Brett!

The End! 

I hope all of you back in the states had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend... I was definitely feeling homesick this week missing out on all the good food. (Even though my waistline wasn't... haha) I'm thinking I'll have to make up for it by eating twice as much when Christmas finally comes around...

T-minus 23 days until the Bogarts return to the states! Whoo hoo!

Peace, Love, and Pumpkin Pie!

-The Bogarts

Abisko's Top 5

Well, as promised, I am here to elaborate a bit for you all about our weekend in Abisko, Sweden! Today we are going to try a new concept... My Top 5 Favorite Things About Our Trip....

1.)  Dog sledding, duh!  
        
This aspect of our weekend in Abisko, Sweden takes the number one slot because it was all-around such a mind-blowing and fantastic experience. Actually, I would rank it as the coolest thing I've done since arriving in Sweden. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime sort of experience! The best part about it was that we got to be totally involved in the entire process, too. We put the harnesses on the dogs, hooked them up to the sled, drove our own individual sled (without practice, might I add), and got the dogs safely back into the cages when we were finished. How cool is that?! To be clear, although it was beyond fun and exciting, it was also a lot of work. When you think about dog sledding, you probably imagine what I did: all you have to do is ride on the sled while the dogs do all the work pulling you and all you have to do is try your darnedest not to fall off... wrong.  While it does require extreme balance, it can also be quite the workout when your dogs aren't feeling up to par that day.  Let's just say that was the understatement of the year as far as my team was concerned. I'm pretty sure the only time my dogs felt like running was a) around tricky corners and b) when I had already fallen off the sled. Which happened a lot... but at least I got the award for "Best Fall of the Day" for my sweet Superman moves. It definitely made up for my bruised and nearly shattered knee cap.

2.)  Our beautiful natural surroundings. 

          

One of the benefits to spending the weekend near a national park is that you are surrounded by so much natural beauty. The beauty we see here on a daily basis can be so numbing at times. I almost forget that although back home we do have a lot of trees and snow, but we most definitely do not have mountains. On Sunday before we took the train back to Lulea, we took a hike down a path that the hostel owner suggested and ended up finding a nearly-frozen river. The outer edges near the banks and even parts in the middle had well over a foot of ice formed, but in the middle the river rapids were still surging strong. Actually, the ice was so thick that you could walk to the very spot where it ended and look over into the crystal-clear flowing water and see exactly how much ice you were standing on. It was exhilarating and yet terrifying. It took Ryan a while to coax me into going out there because I was convinced that the ice would break and I would be carried down the river and freeze to death. Thankfully, he assured me that "Even if you did fall in, you wouldn't be carried too far because just up ahead the open area is much smaller, you'd get hung up on that for sure!" It was almost comforting knowing that I was too wide to drown and freeze... While we were out on the ice Ryan even got down and drank some of the fresh, freezing water. I was too scared, of course, but apparently it tasted delicious...

3.)  Being in Abisko while the Northern Lights were out and the best they've been in years...

Now you may or may not have noticed that I didn't mention anything about actually seeing this fantastic show of the Northern Lights. That's because we didn't. The first night we were there, we stayed up until almost 11 pm waiting and checking to see if the Lights would show themselves because you have a much better chance of seeing them when you are so far north. We decided at that point to just hit the sack because we had a busy day of dog sledding the next morning that we didn't want to be tired for.  After all, we had the next night too! Well, sure enough, the Lights decided to show themselves about half an hour after we decided to be lame and go to sleep. Just our luck, right? Even the guys who own the hostel and have lived in the area most of their life commented on the fact that even they just had to go out to see them because they were so bright... Heartbreaking, isn't it? The fact that we just got a tiny peak of them the next night is even more disheartening... we waited up until well past midnight, but it was just too cloudy. To console ourselves, we decided that it was much more memorable to have missed the "best show of the Northern Lights in many years" because that will be something we'd never forget. Over the years we would remember seeing them, but our memory of them would naturally distort and warp what we really saw... but this way we'll always remember missing what could have been our only chance to see the Lights so clearly. Yeah, I know that's lame... but it helps me sleep better at night, so just let me think what I want!

This was the only semi-decent picture we captured of the Northern Lights that second night...

4.)  The traditional wood-burning, naked Swedish sauna.

In case you just skimmed over my number four pick for our trip to Abisko... yes, I did say naked sauna.  We knew before going on this trip that one of the main draws was the large, traditional Swedish wood-burning sauna that they had there. What we didn't know is that, apparently, they think if you wear a swimsuit inside you are bringing in germs? I don't know. Don't ask me. I don't understand why sitting naked is less "germy" than sitting in a clean swimsuit... And without going into too much detail, let's just say that both Shannon and I became very well acquainted with some girls from another university in Sweden during our bonding time in the sauna. Unfortunately, they had found out the hard way the previous night that the sauna required you to be nude... the old guy who helped the brothers run the hostel taught them how to use it... hahahaha. Really, it's okay to laugh. I know I sure did. Seriously, how traumatized would you be if a guy (who is old enough to be your grandpa) was in the changing room with you and unexpectedly announced "Okay, now we get naked!" (which I imagine to be even more hilarious in a Swedish accent) and just dropped his drawers? Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving and all, I'm going to go ahead and say that I am thankful it didn't happen to me. I might have cried.

Here is a picture of the changing room. Yes, we used antlers to hang our clothes on... 

5.)  Discovering the wonderful world of transportation by train.

The trip to Abisko was the first trip we took by train here in Sweden. It was amazing, let me tell you. Although it wasn't nearly as fast as taking an airplane, it sure was more relaxing and much cheaper. You don't have to deal with going through security, showing up early, and there's so much more freedom to move around. Plus, I felt like I was on the Polar Express? Please tell me that you've read that book... it's one of my favorite Christmas books ever!  Anyways, the point is that rushing past all of the pine trees dusted with snow and drinking hot chocolate made me smile imagining that I was on my way to go see Santa. Only if I really was going to go see Santa, I would've asked for something wayyy sweeter than a reindeer bell... 

Well, that's thatt! My Top 5 Favorite Things About Abisko, Sweden... Up next, we will have another addition of My Top 5 regarding our trip to Norway this past weekend. Although, that one might take a little more time to narrow down... you can't even imagine how many stunning pictures I managed to capture in two short days...

Until next time friends...

Peace, Love, and Swedish Saunas!

-The Bogarts

Sweden's Best Dog Sledding Moments

Riddle me this, Batman... where did the past three days go?! I feel like we've no more than gotten home from  our fun-filled weekend in Abisko National Park and we're already packing up for another trip! Oh wait, that's really what's happening.

It sure has been a whirlwind of a half week, let me tell you! We got back to Lulea Sunday night after a five hour train ride from Abisko, set our bags down, and passed out from sheer exhaustion. I know, I thought the dogs were supposed to do all of the work too!! Monday was filled with unpacking, classes, and cleaning. Tuesday was the day for laundry-because saying we had PILES of it doesn't even begin to describe our seemingly self-reproducing mass quantites of dirty clothes. But today has been the busiest day of all. Ryan and I woke up, took the bus downtown to buy last-minute tickets to Narvik, Norway. Then, we shoved some Max's down our throats for an extremely quick lunch downtown just in time to catch the bus back to campus. And then it was three hours of fuels & technology lecture, cooking dinner, doing the dishes, finishing up the laundry, and starting to pack for our 5:40 a.m. train departure tomorrow. Phew! I'm getting more tired talking about it all...

Anyway, moral of the story today kids... is that I have absolutely NO time to put together a quality post about last weekend before we leave for another trip. So, to tide you over until Monday, I have put together a small compilation of "Sweden's Best Dog Sledding Moments" for you to enjoy. I know it's not nearly as thrilling as reading one of my ever-so-entertaining play-by-plays of this weekend events, but it will just have to do until I have enough time to devote to a proper post. After all, I want to give an accurate description of just how truly mind-blowingly fun dog sledding and hiking really can be.

So, as promised, here are some cute dogs! Oh, and some pretty sweet action shots and wipe-outs too...

Brett rounding a difficult corner

That he didn't quite make...

Shannon's dogs taking her over the rocks instead
of the smooth ice. That happened to us a lot...

Me headed into a tough corner...

Me doing the "Superman" off my sled.
Or, in other words, knee meets rock.
I got the award for Best Spill of the Day from this bad boy...

Our guide struggling a bit..

Ryan rounding the same corner like a
professional. "No big deal"

Redeeming myself by actually staying up 
around a corner. Haha

Just checking out the scenery...

Taking a break and playing with the dogs

This puppy wanted to come home with me...
The feeling was definitely mutual

Awwww husky kisses!

The whole group

Well... da da da dat's all folks! (Say it like Porky the Pig... it's better that way)

Happy Hump Day! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Peace, Love, and Siberian Huskies!

-The Bogarts

Cheesy Dog Sledding Jokes

We're baaaaack from Abisko National Park! It was an amazing trip and I can't wait to share all the dirty details with you all. However, I'm still waiting to get some of the pictures together from our dog sledding experience. So until I can gather all of those together tomorrow from my friends... here are a few cheesy and slightly horrible dog sledding jokes to tide you over! Enjoy!


Q: What do sled dogs say before telling you a joke?
A: "This one will sleigh you!"




Q: Why did the hunter name his sled dog Frost?
A: Because Frost bites!




Q: Where should you leave your dog team and sled?
A: At the barking lot!




Sorry, I told you they were a bit cheesy. 


Happy Monday Everyone!

Weekend Winter Wonderland

After getting a pretty solid snowfall Friday night here in Lulea, Ryan and I decided to take a walk Saturday to the Dollar Store and explore some of the beautiful scenery around our campus. I was even kind enough to snap some photos so all of you could enjoy it as well..

Although the snow was stunning and the weather couldn't have been more calm and perfect for a walk, the best part of the day by far was finding a fake Christmas tree and decorations for it at the Dollar Store. And we got the tree and all the decorations we wanted for it for under $20! How awesome is that?!

I took this picture of Ryan to make it look like we found out tree the old fashioned way by chopping it down in the forest. Looks pretty legit, right?

I just couldn't very well have our tree sitting around UN-decorated for a couple weeks just because it was "too early" to have a decorated Christmas tree up! So on Sunday Ryan and I decorated our first Christmas tree together... we even listened to Bing Crosby songs while decorating too. Yes, I realize it was only the first weekend in November. But I figure since we'll have to take it down before Christmas officially comes that we could set it up early in order to fully get our enjoyment out of it.

Even though it doesn't have lights, I think our little tree brightens up and warms up our entire living room. There's just something about a Christmas tree that does that... don't you think?








That was our weekend here in Sweden... Playing in the new snow and decorating our first Christmas tree together. It was perfect. We even downloaded the movie "A Muppet Christmas Carol" to watch this week. I wanted to watch it this weekend, but Ryan had to remind me that there are only so many Christmas movies... and that if I watch them all now I'll have none to watch in December. I figure he's probably right. So we're trying to space out my intense holiday cheer in hopes that it lasts us the 6 more weeks until we make it back to Minnesota...

Happy Monday everyone!

-The Bogarts