Darkness imprisoning me?

Source: http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/umea.html

Nope.

Around winter (which starts around October:), people tend to associate the northernmost with a cold and miserable darkness. Is that so? Today is the solstice, the longest night for the Northern Hemisphere. We will have four hours and 18 minutes of sunlight. But if you also want to see the sun itself, you will have to look behind the trees to the horizon, if the snow clouds permit.

In my case, darkness brings silence and peace. As long as the snow cover is on the ground, there is no need to look up to see something glowing. Well, ok maybe you may want to look up sometimes to see the mystic beauty of the northern lights, aka Aurora Borealis.

For those who are not as tolerant, or as loving, as me against darkness, the University offers the room Aurora, where you could rest in some white and really light space. Even if you wouldn’t need it, try it. It’s fun to sit with other people in white dresses and not speak at all.

Remember, light becomes stronger in the dark...

It’s Snow Time!

Well, a little late but finally it arrived. Without snow Umeå would not really be Umeå. The look, the sound, and even the smell get radically altered. Bleakness of dark and rainy November is knocked out by the feel-good-Christmas-movie like atmosphere. Other than this mood change, you also get to have a new variety of activities, such as; dogsledging, snowmobiling, and of course skiing.

If you check www.visitumea.se, you will find related info on the nearby dogsledging and snowmobiling activities. When it comes to skiing, you will find out that Umeå has indeed a stronger cross-country culture with respect to the Alpine enthusiasm. It has been the hometown of many world-class Nordic skiers and there are tens of kilometers of well-prepared tracks around the town. Yet this does not mean that the Alpine excitement is missing. There are some seven ski slopes around the region, one of them being in the city! It’s just so cool to drop by your neighborhood’s ski slope after class. I am loving it!

Here is a little map that I had pinned for the seven slopes: http://www.tourismology.org/umea_ski_slopes.htm

And here is the live webcam to our very own ski slope run by UHSK – Umeå Holmsund Ski Club: http://brantbergskameran.net.umea.se/view/index.shtml. Ok, it’s not that big, actually just 250m long, but it’s better than nothing, and if you are a freestyler, you get all the jumps, moguls, rails etc.

So see you down the hill!

Christmas Market at Gammlia

Thousands visit the Christmas Market at Gammlia, where also the finest museums and cultural attractions of Umeå are located, during the first weekend of December. This year it was held the last weekend. As the tourism master students, we were to do some field assignment in order to investigate the economic impact of this event.

Having prepared the survey, five of us were there on Saturday at 12:00. I was surprised to come across a crowd despite the cold and icy rain. It’s a really popular event. Last year, there were 32,000 visitors. And Umeå has a population of 113,000.

The Survey Team: Mari-Liis (Estonia), Jieru (China), Germain (France), Gireesh (Canada)

Besides the activities like concerts, poetry reading, kids games, horsecart riding and so on; there were some 70 exhibitors who were selling a wide range of products such as handmade souvenirs, Sami handicrafts, clothes, and delicious homemade food. After finishing my survey job, I had my chance to become the visitor myself, and ended day with the purchase of a tasty piece of smoked salmon.

It’s good that our efforts will not only enable us to pass our course but also provide us the opportunity to share our findings with the event organizer, Västerbottens Museum. By the way, the museum, besides organizing such events, consists of many other facilities as well, one of them being my favorite spot in Umeå, the Swedish Ski Museum. I will provide you some photos, videos and insights about my temple in the next entry.

Here are some photos (excuse the bad quality) that I took during the Christmas Market...