Jokkmokks Market 2012

Jokkmokks Market 2012 (2nd - 5th February)

We had been wanting to visit Maria's brother, Erik, in Jokkmokk for a long time and what couldn't be a better timing than combine it with Jokkmokk's yearly and famous market?

Jokkmokks market is a winter market held the first week in February in the little town of Jokkmokk in northern Sweden, just on the other side of the artic polar circle (66° 33′ 44″ N).
The market celebrated its 400 years jubilee in 2005 and is considered Sweden's most interesting market by many. The market is held by the indigenous Samii people from Norway, Sweden and Finland selling their beautiful and hand made art work, accompanied by a horde of opportunistic merchants hoping to make a dime on various products (everything from chocolate donuts to Crocodile Dundee leather hats imported from Australia). The Samii people put a lot of pride in creating their traditional and modern art work as its has a strong foothold in the Samii culture and there are even schools to attend at young age if you want to become a famous Samii artist one day.

The merchandise you can buy is not of the cheapest sort, but then again you know it's high quality and unique. Sometimes you wonder whether the seller expect that someone will buy it or if it is a "show off", a token of his skills. The most expensive knife I saw was yours for 18.000 SEK (~3.000$).


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Maria and I had been discussing for some time how to transport our self up there. It's not exactly the center of the world, and air tickets comes at a high price, and even then you need to transport yourself by bus and train to Jokkmokk. We figured out the most time we squeeze out over the long weekend was to fly to Stockholm from Copenhagen after work on Wednesday and jump on the night train to Murjek where Erik would pick us up. This way we would arrive mid-day Thursday and have three full days in Jokkmokk before taking the night train back again on Sunday. Well, at least that was the plan.

Its somehow quite cozy to be on an overnight train ride. That "chunk chunk - chunk chunk" rail sound as we are passing by small townships lit up by a few lamp posts to be replaced by the never ending Swedish forest. Our wagon is accompanied by a Swedish lady in a Norwegian knitted sweater and her American husband, a member of the Nevada Falconry -1995- by his sweater to tell. There's not too much to do on a train other than solving Solitaire on your computer (which is fun for like 15 minutes) and I find the tiredness welcome.

I wake up in the early morning, 4 am, freezing my balls off. What the hell? The window is all white and icy on the inside and the temperature must be close to 0 C in the wagon. I need to make a piss and find my way to the toilet. There are snow in the corridor. Brrr. I remember the forecast, warning about extremely cold weather rolling in from Siberia.

Back in the wagon I wrap myself in the thin blanket and put some music on the earphones as the falconry guy has been snoring all night. I remind myself that overnight train is not that fun. I hope I will see some northern lights in Jokkmokk.

On the overnight train to Murjek

Out the window as the sun fights its way above the tree tops

Thursday 2nd

The next morning we finally arrive Boden at 10 AM and switch to another train taking us up to Murjek where we are picked up. Finally there! The temperature is -22 C / -7.6 F and as we are used to the "Southern" temperatures we find it extremely cold - if only we knew what we had coming.

Erik borrow us proper clothing and boots as we hit the town. The cold feels like a thousand needles where skin is exposed. The EVEREST gloves I bought in Copenhagen before the trip is as warm as using no gloves and I soon have serious problem keeping my fingers warm. Erik knows about an old samii lady making tovede-mittens (english: fulling?). And boy it works! The wool gloves are night and day compared to the modern textiles of my previous gloves. We finish our little tour with a delicious souvas-kebab (souvas = specially smoked and salted reindeer meat, quality varies a lot). According to Erik this is best souvas meat around. It's cold to eat kebab in -22 and by the time we make it home I have froze damaged the tip of my nose making it all red and funny. Maria thinks I look like one of Santa's reindeer.

Ice guitar

Maria getting old?

In the afternoon Erik offers smoked brown bear and reindeer meat accompanied by a cold beer or two. At night we visit the large bear tents set up on the town square. I'm thrilled to be here. It's everything I could wish for and more, and a welcoming break after a long period of stress and lack of proper winter.

The temperatures are said to be sinking even further...

Friday 3rd

We wake up to an incredible and beautiful morning. It's hard to describe other than the sky is a wide range of pastel colors glowed up by the sharp but faint light of the low morning sun. The white landscape seems to be frozen in time. Trees heavy with snow, without the slightest movement. Smoke from the chimneys seems to hang in the air just above the houses. The busy life of Copenhagen is a light year away.

It's close to -40 C / -40 F outside and we wrap up in five layers of clothing before we are off to the market. Personally I have two long johns, one sweatpants, one ski pant, two woolen shirts, one fleece sweater, one thick woolen sweater, one buff, one scarf, one thick hat, mittens and a wind proof jacket. It's like being the Michelin man.

To keep my camera battery warm I need to keep the battery inside my mittens and quickly put it in my camera when I use it, otherwise it will empty in a matter of minutes.

The breath freezes and covers you face and clothing

I try to keep my frost burned nose inside the scarf with the boring effect that my breath freezes instantly. My face is all white and my beard freezes into my scarf. When the breath finds the way to my eyelids they are iced together in an instant. Even with the thick layers of clothes it only takes a little while before we have to make it inside to regain the warm. Luckily Erik's office is between his house and the market and it serves as a pit stop / warming shelter on the 1 km. walk several times. If the cold gets into you in these temperatures, and it always finds the weakest spot; that tiny glitch between your mitten and jacket - it is really hard to shake it off without seeking shelter. The snow is squeaking with a high pitch "squeak" as we walk with fast steps between our destinations.

The beer tents

I would have bought the bear, but it turned out to be hard to bring as hand luggage on the flight.

Renrajden (reindeer raid)
Renrajden is a popular happening every day. It's sort of a honoring of the past and ways of life and transport methods in the old days, when they moved between winter grazing and summer grazing fields. Samiis dress up in their finest clothing and walk their finest reindeer through the market with a sledge. Today they use snow scooters, cargo boats and helicopters.

The reindeer race

One of the highlights every day is the reindeer race. Everyone is allowed to participate and a popular event for the many foreign tourists who competes with each other and celebrities, like the president of the samii people.

The competitors are laying on a sledge connected to a reindeer, introduces with their own name and personality. After a quick introduction, in the format "hold on and don't do that" the reindeer are storming down the circle.

There are no brakes and it takes 7-8 people to jump on the ropes attached to the sledge as it crosses the goal line to stop the reindeer. It's a funny sight.

In the finals a dutch guy meets the samii president, but looses. I'm not sure whether they are winning on luck, reindeer or skills.

beer freezes inside the beer tent

Back home Erik makes a fantastic dinner of beaver (self hunted) stew. I've never tasted beaver before, but it turns out be great and tender meat. We have a bit of issues with dish machine and it turns out that the water in the pipes has frozen.

In the evening we attack Erik's liquor cabinet and he learns us the art of preparing and smoking cigars (which turns out to be a intricate but enjoyable thing). We eventually find our way to the beer tent in town where we have a funny experience.

As mentioned, -40 C is cold, and the beer tent feels nice and warm. Off with the hat and mittens, but as we drink our beer it freezes to ice! Must have been -15/-20 C in there. Normally that would have been really cold.

Maria enjoys a proper cigar and some proper whiskey

 Saturday 4th

Saturday is the last day on the market and I really need to make up my mind about buying some souvenirs back home. It's hard to choose from all the incredible articles on display, but I end up buying a beautiful framed photography and some everyday kitchen articles nicely carved out in decorated reindeer horn. Maria finds a beautiful bag made out of reindeer and beaver skin.

Made out of reindeer horn bleached in the sun until white and later decorated, I bought some of these.

Approximately 60.000 visit Jokkmokk Market during the one week happening.

Well back home after a long day in the cold we fire up Erik's sauna (which I think every house up here comes with - at least if you have a little self respect) and enjoy some cold beers. After we have consumed Erik's incredible home made 400g reindeer burger (of course self hunted too) we are off to a concert in the old cinema building of modern samii music by local artists. Luckily Erik has already bought tickets as it's full house. The concert is pure magic.

After the concert everyone is too tired to visit the beer tent a third night and we spend the evening drinking some glasses of better Scotch and relax

Sunday 5th

As we drive through town on Sunday it seems like the whole market has vanished overnight. All the thickly dressed people, donuts sellers next to reindeer horn booths, bon fires in the street and sign posts whispering of exclusive articles and exotic food around the corner, are all gone. A few trucks are left loading up their cargo, other than that it's pretty much a ghost town.

We are off to see the samii museum, a perfect day to do, and it and it turns out to be a worthwhile and interesting visit.

The extreme cold has been causing problems on the railway the latest days and we are unsure whether we can leave on Sunday. Maria is on the phone half the day to stay updated on the confusing news from SJ (Swedish Railway). Finally we receive news that the train from Murjek to Boden is cancelled because of the cold. SJ doesn't find it responsible to transport hundreds of people in temperatures below -35 C if there should be a problem on the way. We are looking on other options and find some descent air tickets from Luleå-Stockholm-Copenhagen on Monday night. We hope the train will be rolling again by then and book the tickets with the risk there is. I call my work and explain the situation, and to my relief it's okay to work out of office.

Monday 6th

When Monday comes we are still not sure whether the train is rolling again. The information from SJ is horrible and we are constantly reminded that "they have not yet made a decision, they are having a meeting about it right now" after we make it through the twenty minutes phone queue.

Latest "intelligence" says that the train is not leaving and SJ will instead provide a van taking us down directly to Luleå. We pack our things and Erik drives us to Murjek one hour away. Arriving Murjek we don't find a van, but a huge bus, all for our self, and it only goes to Boden. The bus driver does not know of any van and we are getting worried that we will miss our flight in Luleå in a few hours. We jump on the bus not really knowing how to solve this, but at least it's driving the right way, though slowly. The bus driver have his sympathies with our situation and find it unnecessary to drive a big bus for two people. He arranges a private car pick up in the middle of nowhere and we are rushed to Boden by a guy reminding me of Cleveland Brown in Family guy. On the way we have explained the situation to SJ and they have give green light for us to get a 100$ taxi ride from Boden to Luleå airport. Puh - we made it!

Thanks to Erik for the incredible experience, the excellent food and drink. Hopefully we will be back soon.

Links:
http://www.jokkmokksmarknad.se