Kiruna & Abisko cont.

Sorry... now, after a long pause, I am back and I would like to continue right where I left off.

So, being in Kiruna and Abisko was quite amazing. Getting there, on the other hand... not so much. It took 20 hours to get there, and 23+ hours to get back. Despite the long trip, I found ways to entertain myself. Aside from trying to sleep, I spent lots of time learning some language basics in Russian, Italian, Slovenian, Japanese, and French. Overall, it was a good time and I learned a lot. I'd like to share one really funny French tongue twister I learned. Below you'll find three different transcriptions for each line of the tongue twister.

The top line is a pseudo rhythmical transcription:
(| = barline, Q = quarter note, O = eighth note, o = sixteenth note).
The second line is the French language original.
The third line is the English translation.

O | O O O O o o O Q |
Combien sont ces six saucissons ci?
How much are these six sausages here?

O | O o o O O O O Q |
Ces six saucissons ci sont six sous.
These six sausages are six 'sous'

o o | O o o O O O O Q |
Si ces six saucissons ci sont six sous.
If these six sausages here are six 'sous'

O | O o o O O O O Q |
Ces six saucissons ci sont très chers.
These six sausages here are very expensive.

Hopefully that made some sense. The funniest part is that these lines fit into bars of music, but I'm sad that it looks so terrible here and that I couldn't find a better way to transcribe it.

Here's a picture of the sandwiches I kept making throughout the trip to tide me over.














And, an example page from my multi-language linguistic study notebook.














Moving on, we snowmobiled out 11 km into the wilderness to try to see some Northern Lights in Kiruna and we sort of saw some, but it was cloudy so we couldn't see them well. I guess I was lucky to see any at all though.

As for the Ice Hotel... this has been a place I knew about and wanted to visit for just over five years, so it was nice to finally be able to go. I should've realized how cold it was going to be though. I think they they to keep the whole Ice Hotel under -5 C at all times. Pretty cold if you ask me. Beautiful though. Here's one more picture from there before I take my leave.