Northern Hemi Season Trip Report thingy - Sälen, Sweden

Took a break from the horrible job of packing up our stuff to purchase our season passes - SO EXCITED!!!!

Set us back just under $1200 for both.

Finally got the chance to read this!!!!!

I feel as though I have been there already!!!!! Lookin forward to the rest, cords!!!!! 

* And to all of the money experts here, cords is correct about the interest yeild on an ordinary savings account!!!!! Ya would’ve gotten bugger all!!!!!

The BEST way to increase ya wealth, is to pay off ya debt!!!!! That will save more interest than you can make anywhere else!!!!!

Oh yeah, and Poker Machines are the devil!!!!!

Really interesting read cords!  Make sure to enter it into a TR contest.

I thought your name would be Cordelia or something haha!

ahahahahahaha - classic!........Well Margaret is nearly of the same era as Cordelia, I suppose!

Cords is a nickname derived from the surname I had for the first 29 years of my life! e.g my maiden name

So ya full name used to be Margaret Cordelias?????

hahaha nah not quite….but ‘cord’ is the first 4 letters!

Cordarella ????

ps Made this a sticky so it does not get lost

nah, a lot closer to the nick-name for newly groomed snow perfection!

We made it to Sweden!

Took 37 hours from when mum dropped us at the train to go to the airport to when we rocked up at Fred’s family home in Sweden. 13 hours from Hong Kong to Zurich was a killer! I got 3-4 hours of disturbed sleep in that whole time. We got our snowboard bags (17 or 18kg each) taken the whole way for free, and without being part of our assigned limit. so good! Also had my carry on luggage weighed for the first time ever, when we checked in, in Sydney.

Slept 14 hours last night and loved every second of it! 6pm-8am with only a brief loo stop at 4am. I cannae remember when I last slept that long but it was glorious as I was so spaced out and exhausted. Its cold, about 1 degree and alternating between snow and sleet. Was quite a lot of snow on the ground on the train down from stockholm, until about an hour from here and then it petered out.

Customs and passport control non-existent when we arrived in Stockholm. Got our bags and walked straight out of the airport - so weird!

Now to organise my residency card, buy a car and a computer, get myself a personal number (like social security - they really should have these in oz, they are so good and save so much time!), get a bank card, a sim card, blah blah blah boring jobs etc etc!
Fred is currently on hold waiting to talk to the immigration department. He rang this morning and waited for 30mins and then the phone battery died and it cut out on him. So devo! He’s now on his second attempt. Can’t call directly to the office in the city we want to make the appointment for, have to ring the national number - sooooo stupid!

Looks like we’ll be heading up to Sälen early next week. Tuesday if we can get everything done before then.

Massive trip !!!

I think if I was SE customs, you would of been hauling your ass over the coals before entry…...... just for shits and giggles

BUMP…......... cords, I am sure you can spare 5 mins to give us a little update! PLEASE!!

yeah cords, you can start this and leave us hanging…

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of updates.

Had no internet while we waited for our simcard for the dongle to arrive, and no mobile phone either. Everything arrived in the post today, so we’re back in business.

Was sad when I checked my email for the first time since friday to read that my Gran passed away on saturday arvo. Sad I can’t be at home today with my family for the funeral service. She was 101 (died exactly one month short of 102) and the best gran that anyone could ever hope to have…Sorry for that little downer.

Have ridden here 4 days now and 2 of them have been bluebird, which is a bit unexpected and fun! We’ve also worked 1.5 days. Its been snowing fairly regularly too, but frustratingly only a few cm here and a few cm there. It has been well below zero the whole time….averaging around -8 and often around -12 to -14. It was minus 14 and bluebird, and simply breathtakingly beautiful today. I rode by myself cos Freddy was at home with a head cold. I thought I might get a bit bored riding by myself and knowing no one, but rode for around 3.5hrs and had a great time.

Now that we’re connected, I’ll upload some photos and update this properly in the next couple of days as I get back into the swing of things! My swedish residency card also arrived today in the post, so I won’t be riding tomorrow I don’t think, as we’re driving the hundred odd kms to the town of Mora (its the nearest dot on the map on the first page), so I can go to the tax office and get myself a personal number (sort of like social security numbers in the USA, I think), which everyone needs to do anything in this country (like get a bank account for example). The tax office doesn’t open 10am, so it makes it hard to get there, get all our business done (we have to go to the bank & do a few other things afterwards) and get back in time before the lifts close at 3 (and its pitch black dark at 4!).

Will update more tomorrow hopefully!

W

Can’t wait to see some pics/footage. 33`C here in Melb today. Hot weather is so depressing lol..

Sorry to hear about your gran cords - but what a great innings!!! 101! X

Thanks for the update cords.

Sorry about your Gran saw a pic on FB. Mate I wouldn’t of put her a day over 80 !!!
I hope you spent lots of time listening to her, man, what she has seen in a hundred years

Looking forward to your next instalment.