29th of August, 2022.
Hitchhiking in Sweden.
I walk all the way to the “main road”. I decide to keep walking instead of just standing somewhere. A thin rain comes for some minutes, only to “make the floor wet”, as we say in Brazil, so after waiting a little bit, I carry on.
I car stops soon. Marius is a Russian guy, leaving in Germany, but coming here, in this Northern region of Sweden, to hunt meteorites. What? Yeah! Cool, right? Apparently, this area is the best one to find them. He has this huge equipment, kind of a really big circle, inside the car, going all around, so I have to go under it to actually sit (laugh), and he uses it to carry the pieces when he finds them. The biggest one he found recently weighted about 40 Kg! Wow! When I ask him what does he do with them, he said you can either keep it, as a collector, or you can sell to collectors, or you can sell to jewelry companies, because they will extract the metal from inside to make their pieces.
Marius drop me off at the exit to Kitkiöjärvi, about 20 Km from where he picked me up. from where I start walking again.
After less than a kilometre, a white pick-up stops. I recognize the young man from when he came to Susann’s shop once, in Muodoslompo. He bought two ice creams that time. Ha! Jon is going to Junosuando, a small town not so far from the E45, road which I need to take to go all the way down Sweden. He is a very nice guy, and we talk a lot about Sweden. It is when I start to learn a bit more about how Sweden is far way to be the “paradise” we Brazilians (and so many nations in the world) believe.
Up here in the North of Sweden, they have many metal mines, mostly iron and copper. Actually, Sweden has more than 90% of the whole metal range in Europe, being the number one country when it comes to extract it, of course. Now, the craziest thing I have ever heard, and would have never imagined would come from Sweden, is that a whole town has been moved because of the mines. What? Exactly! This town called Kiruna, up here in the North, it has been moved away from its original spot so it does not collapse into the mines. The population got new houses and land in a nearby area, the most traditional houses were moved as a whole but the newer buildings were demolished. Apparently, it was not the first time this happen and, most likely, it will not be the last.
Because the place where Jon drops me off is an actual town, I decide to stand by the road.
Soon enough, a young man stops. Juan is going up North, to a mine where he works as an electrician, but he can drop me off at the E45. Yay! He has this old car which is filled with things of his two babies. And he drives quite a long distance every day to go to work. It is with Juan that I see the snus which is not packed in small sachets for the first time. You just grab a small quantity of the tobacco moisture and put that black yucky thing under your lips. Ill! Disgusting! Why people would do that?
Anyway, I am now in the E45. It is a highway but a small one, and the cars have to slow down here at the junction. There isn’t much space for them to park, it is true, but I know people will be fine with that.
Soon enough Sara parks her car, and the trailer in which she is pulling her aquabike, and tells me she is going even further than Gällivare, which is written on my sign. Yay!
Sara is with her young son, only five years old, and she is Sami. She asks me if I have met many Sami people and I tell her that no, she is the first one. Although I have heard a lot about them.
We drive all the way to the small village of Porjus, where she shows me the dam, which it has been releasing tons of water, instead of produce energy with it. The huge amount of water flowing away through the creek it actually looks beautiful and sound beautifully powerful, but it is a huge waste. Why are they doing that? Nobody knows. They say that, due the exceptional amount of rain for this time of the year, their reservoir was getting over capacity. Many people say it is bullshit and just an excuse for a shortage of energy on the next winter on purpose. Why? Nobody knows.
Before leaving, Sara gives me some orange. The place where she drops me off is actually so tiny, I mean, the road looks like a small village street but it is actually the E45. Funny. I decide to walk though, and warm myself up
Some minutes later, Byörn stop his car. He is a 60 years old man, coming back home after working in the mines for 7 days followed. Now he will have 7 days of rest followed. That is how things in the mines work here in Sweden. Crazy, no?
Byörn drives the excavator. He is very happy to have some company and he likes to talk about life. Shortly we are at the exit to Kvikkjokk but he offers me to have some coffee in the gas station nearby and later on he drives me back here. But on the way there, he makes me a proposition: if I am not entirely sure about going to Kvikkjokk, I can keep going further South with him, until his home, and I can spend the night in a cabin he has on his property. I just have to think about it.
It is really hard for me to make a decision though, you know that. After a lot of talking, Byörn actually offers me another proposition: he says he will drive me all the way to Kvikkjokk just because he can. This has to do with an accident he had 11 years ago, following down the stairs to his basement, and getting a huge brain trauma. After surgery and 4 days in coma, he woke up to a new life, a life where he does whatever he wants just because he can.
The way to Kvikkjokk is stunning! I mean, the many lakes on the way, when there is no wind, offer this mirror illusion, where you see everything in double, trees and sky, and it is gorgeous! I do regret not having taken any photograph. But I totally recommend you to take this way and see for yourself. And take some pictures!
We arrive already quite late. By the time I leave the car is already after 10 p.m.! It is quite dark already. The long days are getting shorter.
I decide to camp in the parking lot and not in the forest. At least I can see clearly here. And I am sure nobody will come around here now. Well, I was wrong about that, but they were only tourists, coming from the pension nearby.
After a good night of sleep, I will decide what to do.
10 Years Around the World 