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The morning started with a walk through the snow-covered streets of the good town of Kiruna. The GPS made us go through some debatable definition of « streets », but that was a pleasant stroll to the station. What a sight, that one platform on the edge of half a dozen tracks, all under the snow. Most of them are used by freight trains transporting the iron extracted from the colossal mines which I forgot to mention yesterday. « Colossal » is not an overstatement: those are truly gigantic, reaching a good 100 m in height!

The train made its way around the mines and the lake and took us South, which is gonna be my general direction for the next two months (which is quite crazy to think about). It was a quiet ride under the sun and amazing blue sky, where I caught up with late blog entries while Alex slept and prepared his Stockholm holiday. Indeed, I will abandon him tomorrow for Finland, while he has two more days in Sweden.

Our airbnb in Luleå is very far North from the city center, but we still decided to get off at the central station, first so I can finally get my Sweden keychain (which is pretty fucking cool), and then to have a walk through the city. It was cloudy again so it might not have been really worth, but at least we got to see the completely frozen river mouth, and drank a coffee in a cosy café.

We tried (and failed) to shortcut through a graveyard. Here we naturally started to debate about spirituality and faith. Just as I was about to shittalk about religion, Alex suddenly, out of nowhere, lost grip and fell trying to grab me. I had no time to react at all, as half a second later, I was loosing foothold too and we both fell together at the same time. Thanks to our bags and layers, no harm done, and the whole situation was hilarious. I wish this was filmed. The scene from afar must have been the funniest shit anyone saw today, with us both disappearing in a flash behind the half-meter of snow along the path. However, that kind of coincidence, taken with more dramatic circumstances, would easily lead some people into the arms of religion, and the fear that without them, to live is to die a sinner and end up in some kind of eternal visit to the dentist (or any other form of Hell).

Back on our feet we finished the hour of walk to the insanely comfortable Airbnb, went for grocery, Alex cooked us some nice dinner, and we played cards. A much more emptier day than the two in Kiruna for sure, but good times had by all.