Reindeer - a yummy lunch

Being the end of August, Kiruna is actually getting quite cold now, so we popped into a little cafe for lunch, in a big Sami tepee with a proper fire and everything, and everyone had reindeer Sami sandwhiches and tea, which was perfect for warming us up and for deciding what was next on the road trip! We also got to visit the handicraft shop where the Sami people make things to sell, like carving knives and tools and reindeer related products.

Reindeer!

So the whole purpose of the trip was becasue I really wanted to see some reindeer. They are really popular in Sweden, they eat a lot of reindeer meat, with everything, and use their fur for lots of things. The Sami people keep and herd reindeer for a living and then use their antlers for tools, their fur for keeping warm and their meat for food. They can sometimes been seen from the roads in Kiruna, but I hadn't been lucky enough to see them. The Sami place had 18 of it's own reindeer that it kept, and you could go into their pen and take photos of them! It made me so very happy! They really are interesting animals, they all had their horns, which are quite furry and they were quite used to humans which made for some great photo oppourtunities!

Sami Park

With all 9 of us loaded into the two massive cars we had, off we went! On our trip we visited the SamPark up in Juggasvari. The Sami people are the local people of Scandinavia who move about making houses out of natural rescources and herd reindeer. So we learnt all about theiri houses and how they look after the reindeer and lasso them. So of course we got a go, and practiced for about an hour, making fools of ourselves trying to lasso the reindeer. So we moved on to a better target, Tom, being silly and acting like a reindeer!