DrPeppar is actually named Peter Parnes, and is currently enjoying life!
Quickly checked how one travels to Manihiki and apparently it would take me between 35 and 45 hours to get there from Luleå and the airfare would be 45,000SEK ($5625). The living on Manihiki is really cheap though, 225SEK ($28) for me, Johanna and Tovah with all meals included in one the two basic "rent a room" places on the island. No hot water and almost no electricity but probably as much swimming as one might want :-)
Our last day in the mountains we spent fishing and just being lazy in the sun. We went to my favorite fire place just below "the hat" a few kilometers from the cabin. We fished for about 1 hour but the weather was too good and all the fishes were sleeping. Lunch was grilled sausage and Tom Yam soup with noddles. Hot hot hot, both the food and the weather. We got back to the cabin around 16.40 and started packing and cleaning the place. I had the cabin for another day but me and Jalle are going to a party today (saturday) in Bölebommen where we have to be at 16.00. That made it a bit tight to pack, clean the cabin, take a 5 hour drive, change for the party and get down to Bölebommen before 16.00.
In Kiruna I got the munchies for a pizza and we stopped next to OBS. The first pizzeria closed at 20.00 and the other couldn't made any pizzas due to the chef had hurt his hand. I ended up with a souvas kebab. Very boring and very overpriced. The place was Bar E-10 in Kiruna and I cannot recommend the place to anybody. Grade: -2 (i.e. minus 2)!!
Got home around 00:15. Some quick unpacking of the food, rescuing some plants and then trying to cool down the bedroom so I could sleep. The house was WARM.
This was the last day on our mountain trip and it was very fun indeed. I enjoy the company of Jalle although I missed Johanna and Tovah up there. This was the first time I had been to the mountains without Johanna for 13 years.
Today we went for a long walk up to lake Gatterjávri. We had great weather and tons of wonderful views. I love the mountains. We ate lunch at the lake. Fish soup with hard bread and my sweat chocolate bread for dessert. We visited two mines during the day, one up at the lake and one just above Riksgränsen. The latter was an asbestos mine which was active around 1907 (I think it was). It is 30 meters deep, pitch black and filled with water. Cool! We got back around 19:30 and for dinner we had devils eggs, sliced potatoes baked in the oven and a tomato salad. To this we drank some wine. Dessert was melon.
A very nice day.
Today me and Jalle decided to take it easy, a resting day. So far we have only been sitting in front of our computers, surfing, installing programs, looking at our digital photos, and talking. I have also been chatting with Johanna and had a rather interesting conversation with Tovah on the phone.
The weather is great. It is really warm and just some clouds. A perfect summer day. I am glad to be inside though as I have burned myself in the sun on the back of my head. I got a new haircut last week and got burned under the short hair on the back of the head. Not too bad but still nice to be inside today.
Soon we are going to eat lunch/dinner which today will be a combination of left overs.
Day 2 and 3 has now passed on our mountain trip. Yesterday we went investigating some old train tunnels no longer in use, which meant climbing over fences and ignoring signs to stay the hell out of there :-) It was fun, very fun. It was over by "Spionkoppen" at the train station Sösterbäck in Norway. Dinner was palt with reindeer chafe in cream sauce. Yummy.
On day 3 we took a drive to Abisko and took the chair lift up to 900 meters and walked from there to a close by top of 1191 meters. It had a very nice view of Abisko and the mountains around it. We had planned to eat a hot lunch up there but we had to abandon that idea as the chair lift stopped running at 15:30 and we had spent to much time on the mountain top. Instead we headed back to the apartment and made dinner. Potatoes with a yummy Peter meat sauce.
The weather was really great both days. Perhaps a bit too hot for hiking but still very nice.
Me and Jalle have now had our first real mountain day. We walked up to "Trollsjön" and took a gazillion photographs. Very nice indeed. It wasn't so warm but we didn't get any rain, anyhow. The forecast for the next two days is sunny, sunny, and perhaps sunny.
It is so relaxing to be in the mountains. Ahh...........
In about 45 minutes Jalle will arrive for our trip to the mountains. I spent all day yesterday baking and packing and I really hope Jalle will enjoy all the food we are going to cook up there. I have half the kitchen with me :-)
I hope we get good weather up there, but here in Luleå the weather is rather bad with rain and fog.
It feels strange going on this trip with Jalle as it is the first time ever that I take a pleasure trip with somebody else than Johanna and I must admit that I would rather do it with Johanna if I had a choice (sorry Jalle :-). But a guy only trip can be fun as well and it is part of my living on my own self learning process. I had to do all the packing on my own, which is something Johanna has always done with me standing by and being all stressed up. Yes, I always get stressed up when traveling somewhere, even though I have travelled quite a bit in my life. A couple of years ago I stopped getting stressed during the actual trip (at airports etc.) but I still get stressed up at home before leaving. I slept rather bad this night and it currently feels like it is in the middle of the night (i.e. I am tired :-).
I bought 3 different melons, bananas, kiwis and tons of other delicious things to eat. Here is the 7 dinners we have available to choose from during the the week:
Sausage stroganof with couscous
Chili con Carne with rice
Onion soup and pancakes
Palt with reindeer chafe ("renskav")
Schweizer with bulgar wheat
Devils eggs with potatoes
Chicken in cocoanut milk with rice
Now I am going to pack all the cold and frozen items.
Today I have a busy day in front of me. I have to plan the trip to the mountains, pack (== find everything ;-), bike down to Kvantum and shop and bake a brunch bread. I also cannot forget to cover the new heating pipe holes in the wall that the workers left behind. They are going to cover them later, but why would they do it now when they can do it later, right? I have to water all the plants and of course get the presents shipped to Johanna and Tovah.
Håkan called this morning by the way, while I was asleep so I didn't get to talk with him. BUT just the fact that he called warms my heart :-) He is checking up on me to see how I feel and I like that!
Unfortunately, the SUN seems to have taken vacation, but that might be as well as I am going to be busy all day.
