Storyline: Scandinavia
Wed, Jun 11
Shortly after we left Stockholm we were already north of 60°. Boden (around 66°), (“a drab little place”, the train attendant told us), is a former military town located in northern Sweden, some 80 kilometres south of the arctic circle and about 220km latitudinal north of Iqaluit, Canada. It is also about 40km from the Baltic Sea and about 400km from Narvik, across the border in Norway.
The town of Boden started as a railway junction between the Northern Line (1894) and the Ore Line. The Swedish tax register mentions Boden village with 7 homes in 1539. It became a city in 1919. The town experienced growth after the Boden Fortress was constructed in the 20th century, to defend Sweden from possible Russian attack.
According to the Swedish Lapland website, Boden’s train station is where Lenin changed trains from Stockholm on his way to Haparanda, Sweden, where he crossed the border into Finland. Then he went home and started the revolution. The site says that because of that Boden didn’t welcome foreign visitors until 1990. I am more inclined to think that this is because Boden was and still is a military stronghold. But perhaps staging the army there was because Russia was considered the most dangerous threat. “Boden is growing fast”, Carina, the hotel manager of our hotel, tells us. “There was a big army in the past, then there was peace and the army shrank, but now it is war again and the army is expanding.”
Aside from the army, in 2022 Stegra, a Swedish company, began construction of a new steel mill that will use hydrogen technology, cutting emissions as much as 95%. We saw some of the workers at dinner time in the hotel. And some in the pizzeria at lunch.
We won’t have time to visit much of Boden, since it is just an overnight stop for us on our route to Narvik, Norway. Still, I had a few things in mind.
Day eight of our travel. The night train from Stockholn pulled into Boden train station pretty much on time. It was before 11AM and we had tons of time before the check-in. I had booked a hotel across from the train station. We could have continued the same day all the way to Narvik, but I thought a short stop after a long night train might be a good idea (After 13h to Boden there were another 7+ hours to Narvik). In this case though, as you’ll see below, it wasn’t. I was told months ago by the SJ customer service when buying our tickets that due to planned work on the rail line, the next morning would be the last weekday to cross the border by train. Not everything happens to plans here. “You are in the north”, Carina would say the next morning.
We walked across the road to drop our luggage at the hotel. It was still before noon. We’d walk around the city until check-in time. It was nice and sunny. No rain in the forecast. Carina locked it in the luggage room and off we went to explore the small town. We barely reached the lake, just below the hotel when the rain blasted over us. We ran up the street towards the hotel, but it was chucking down hard. There was a pizzeria (Pizzeria Tre Kronor) on our way to the hotel. Perhaps it is a good time for lunch. We ordered just in time. A big group of workers arrived shortly after. Boy, one should have seen the sizes of their orders. One would have been enough for 3 meals for us to share. But they were young and doing physical work.
The rain stopped for a while and we decided to go back and grab our raincoats. But by the time we reached the hotel it poured again. “I was thinking of you” Carina told us when we appeared. Had coffee/tea and cookies at the hotel waiting for the rain to stop, donned our jackets and off we went to see the town. It could be small but it looked well equipped with everything one needs. Shopping malls, sporting goods, men’s clothing, furniture, and all kinds of other stores, many grocery, restaurants, pizzerias, cafés. In one of their sporting goods stores I found a pair of comfortable running shoes (the old ones began hurting my bunions and I’d eventually part with them in Oslo). We checked the grocery store close to the hotel and decided that we’d buy some sandwiches next morning for our 7-hour train ride, which we did early the next morning before breakfast.
Didn’t expect dinner, but when in our room there was a note saying, dinner is included. And so, we tried it. A Swedish dinner, Carina would say. This was our first included dinner and we liked it. Not a lot of variety, but plenty of. And every little bit helped our budget, inadequate to the restaurant prices. There was a mix of potatoes (small cubes), ham and corn I believe. Could have been peas too. It was really good and it would be our staple for the times and places we had our own kitchen. We found it, or a variety of it, in the Norwegian grocery stores. Easy mix for our morning eggs and veggies breakfast. Since at home we cook from scratch, I have no idea if there is something similar in the frozen food section here.
Walking on the trails by the lake we thought that this would be a great place for hiking and camping in the wilderness, if only we were younger. At the time of the day and the year there were no mosquitoes. Although I am sure there would be plenty of them in the forest. We found it beautiful; despite the very little time we had and even less we saw.
Greenery, gardens full of flowers, beautiful blue skies speckled with clouds, lakes and pathways around them. Very quiet and peaceful. Carina told us she was born in Stockholm but moved here at the age of four. She didn’t like Stockholm. People there are very calculating, she says. The’d look at you and think – what is my profit if I become your friend… But isn’t this in every big city. At least in the western world. And perhaps by now in the eastern too.
We, of course, were just visitors, and people were nice to us in Stockholm, in Boden and all the way through Norway. Boden was the only place we’d overnight in Swedish Lapland. We loved it as much as we loved Stockholm. A taste of the biggest Scandinavian city, a small country town and later, the heavily industrialized Malmö are all we saw of Sweden, aside from the lovely scenery seen from train and bus windows. That leaves us with the desire to revisit. Did you buy lottery tickets Alex? (too busy fixing our deck – A.)
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