Sweden day 3

This is on 26th march, day 58:
And here is a far better view of my yellow house hostel:

We went down to the train station to check out the timetable for trains to abisko and check if it had free internet. Nope, it didn't and there was a timetable outside stating that there is a train to abisko at 3+ the next day. Next, we went up to the tourist station to do up a plan for the day: We would go for the mine tour and check our the Lussovara ski slope nearby. And btw, this is how people in kiruna carried their shopping back:

And here is a super thick snow pic:

The stairs were all covered in snow. We couldn't even see steps!!

Look at my facebook for more pics! We signed up for a tour to the mine on that afternoon and went off to have lunch. None of the dog sled tours fitted our plans and some of them were not operating ald. Anyway, we went off for lunch at a turkish pizza shop. The vegetarisk pizza here was just 60SEK, but the complimentary stuff was just bread (tasted good) and cucumber (or some other vege tt tasted like it).

and here is a video of the mine tour.

It was the world's largest underground mine. They brought us down into the mountain and showed us their history, product and tools. We took a little trip on the mine roads. The tour ended with a refreshment break, where I managed to chope ~5 packets of chocolate milk powder :) And if you want magnetite pellets from the mine, don't hesitate to ask me! I took lots of it!

We were dropped off at the tourist info center after the mine tour. Azri booked an expensive place at Abisko for the next day's night. I decided to sleep and survive outside that night! Our plan was to go to the ice-hotel in the morning and abisko at evening. We then walked around Kiruna to explore the place. We visited the bus station, townhall and played with snow! We then went back to our hostel, thanks to Azri's good sense of direction :)

Azri then wanted to go to the ski slope that we saw earlier. So, we took some supplies and started walking after a quick meal. It was a long walk to the slope, which looked deceivingly near to us on our first day there. After having several discussions about which way to go in, we finally found a sign saying Luossavaara (name of the ski slope). We still had to walk for 20 mins to the slope and the section after the sign had no street lights. Our eyes got accustomed, of course, but my camera didn't. Azri's camera did well! So, we used his, since flash isn't good enough to take sceneries. Once we were at the ski slope, i rushed in and started to climb the first part of it. Azri soon followed me. Once we got to a part with a hut nearby, we each grabbed a stick to guide us up the slope. There was no one around. We inched our way up the slope slowly, as our feet sank into the snow with each step, giving us support. I used to stick to poke the floor infront of me so that i wouldn't step on deep snow. Azri reached the top first. The last part was steep and difficult for me! I was perspiring a little once i reached the top.

Above is one of the better pics taken from halfway to the top. So, you can imagine how the top will feel like! We walked around, explored the chairlift place and made our way back to the bottom. I wanted to slide on my butt but the slope was too gradual for that :( It would have been okay with a board or sth to sit on! hahah, We made it back at 11pm to ask the angsty owner if he managed to find a replacement for us for the last night. nope, he didn't. So, we went back to our bunks to spend another peaceful night.