Logbook from Åre: Stockholm – Åre
This Swedish winter, JJ and I planned for a ski vacation in Åre, one of the most popular ski resorts in Sweden. I skied first time during the Christmas holiday in Åre last year and was on ski about 3 hours. JJ is a very positive person, he has a dream that we will go ski together from the top of Åre one day ^^.
We booked the trip in January, shortly after we came back from Åre, two return train tickets and a cabin on Åre Björnen were paid. We had quite large space for ourselves as the cabin was for 6 persons, one of the rooms was not used at all.
It’s one of the most memorable and extreme trip for me because of JJ and the weather, respectively.
2 Mar 2013, train from Stockholm C 07.59 – Åre 15.08, tåg 82, vagn 5, plats 52
Leaving Stockholm
Happy travelers!
When passing Ockelbo
The forecast said it’s gonna be a storm, at Hudiksvall.
Ånge station, it was sunny.
Snowed and windy, perhaps the forecast was right! @Östersund Centralstation.
Arrived in Åre
An adventure just began after we’d arrived in Åre. We found that JJ lost his lift card, which led to a change of our traveling plan to the cabin. JJ went to buy some food for next day and called taxi but the answer was there wouldn’t be any taxi for an hour! We didn’t know what was waiting for us when we spent an hour to figure out how to get to the cabin.
We walked from Åre station to Kabinbanan station, found a taxi and an answer that there was a bus accident which blocked the traffic up to and down from Åre Björnen. It started to get cold, we went inside and a girl said, “we are closing in 1 minute”. Now cold and hungry!!! Good we had homemade Swedish meatballs which we planned to sell if we stuck in the storm and others needed food, eiei!!!
Keep walking
Perhaps there is hope at another end of the tunnel
No. Our commerce didn’t work out but it saved us from starving in the coldness 😛 Then, the bus came but before we arrived at Björnbacken, the storm was already there but it’s just the beginning. It got stronger and stronger, the forecast said it’d be 30m/s wind speed and had a warning level 2 (of 3). The visibility was really bad, I couldn’t see people’s footprints who just 5 meters in front of me. Soon, it was hardly any walking trails left either.
At the last turn from the road to the cabin (which at that time, we didn’t know where it was), we couldn’t even see our cabin, in fact, it just lied next to the big house in front of us. It seemed all houses and lights had disappeared in the storm. Cold, dark, windy and snowy. Strange enough, I thought it was fun.
Now, we’re standing in front of the front door to our cabin, JJ’s gone to find a key, which we were told hints where it’s hidden. He came back and said, “I couldn’t find the key”. And I was like, WHAT!!! In the end, we found it, it was where it’s told, but the hints didn’t say that it’s gonna be a feet under snow.
Now I felt safe and warm, we liked the cabin, it was homey and I started to observe the storm outside.
Arrived safely at the cabin
Shoes also needed special care 🙂
Good night!
P.S. Thanks JJ for pictures on the train ❤
