Hagia Sophia

Aya Sophia - St Sophia - whatever you want to call it is 1,500 years of Christian and Muslim history in an incredibly grand building right on the edge of Asia and Europe. More recently used in Argo and Skyfall I think I must've gotten my fascination with it as a kid in From Russia With Love, I don't remember exactly where and when but I've wanted to see it for years and today was the day.

Ice Hotel

Despite having "stay in" on the LIFE LIST I can quite happily live with "see" the Ice Hotel.

It is a unique and impressive complex that would be an experience to stay in however after an hour of viewing all the masterful artwork and carvings I happily returned to my cosy room in Kiruna with a soft bed, heating, TV and en-Suite as opposed to my nose sticking out of a sleeping bag in minus five on a hard bed with a share bathroom across an outside open area.

As well as the hotel rooms there is an Ice Church, Exhibition hall and Ice Bar. Also OH+S dictates they must have a fire alarm system!

So not really a tick on the list for this but worth an entry for getting there and for the photos.

The Northern Lights - night two

Pretty much the same as the first night except I had dinner (reindeer again) with a Japanese couple at the bottom of the mountain and when we got on the chairlift at eight the lightshow had already begun. I walked straight out onto the mountain once I got up top and laid in the snow for an hour and a half watching an even more impressive display. Oh and the temperature was a bit warmer with a wind chill factor of only minus 25.

The Northern Lights

THE PLANNING
When I got back from Asia last year I decided the aurora would be my next travel goal. After discussing it with Scott he randomly sent me a youtube link of Abisko piquing my interest and then I caught up with Mal on Facebook after many years hence Sweden was decided upon. My time off work, holidays, arrival in Sweden, everything was based around the new moon this week making sure there would be no moon to obscure the display along with March having enough nighttime hours without the winter weather and this year having high solar activity.

THE GUIDE
Definitely worth a mention, Anna is half Swede and half Thai, truly the most exquisite woman I have ever seen without exaggeration......a good sign for a night of beauty.

GETTING THERE
Abisko is a bit over an hour drive from Kiruna where I am staying and as the sun was setting we drove (Anna and myself, a German couple and two English girls) through snow laden mountainous terrain alongside a frozen lake, the kind of thing I've only seen on TV, Wow!
When we got geared up at the cable car it was an exhilarating, freezing twenty minute ride up to the sky station where I had a pleasant, posh three course dinner including roast reindeer and caviar washed down with a full bodied spanish red with the German couple.

THE GEAR
As well as my many layers they gave us boots and humongous overalls at the bottom cable car station and after putting it all on, taking it all off for dinner and putting it all on again to go outside I barely had the energy to walk but I would've died without it.

THE WAITING
So as I had wanted to do since I arrived in Sweden I staggered out onto the mountain and just fell back in the snow about nine. I layed there for two hours becoming more and more despondent staring at the horizon to the north as thin cloud slowly rolled in. There was a sharp breeze blowing over the mountain and despite cupping my head with three hoods I couldn't feel My face after half an hour and my feet after an hour. My hands went from numb to bearable each time I took the gloves off and back on again to check the time on my phone. There were small glares and light movement behind the clouds that were barely visible and teased. We had to start heading down about eleven thirty and at ten past eleven hope was fading. I moved closer to an English couple with a pro camera on a tripod who were taking two minute exposure photos that showed the green aurora where the faint light was, the camera could see it but not our human eyes. He packed up his camera as the battery gave out in the cold.

CONTACT
Just as he put the camera away I yelled "up there!" To our left it began. Faintly becoming brighter until there was definite curtains and arcs moving into the sky above us. We watched for half an hour as it danced and excited until it became fainter again and cheekily went past our eleven thirty deadline. Lining up for the cable car it became intense again and for the twenty minute ride down it waved and flirted wildly above and behind me in the silence as I floated down the mountain. To cement the image into my brain forever I saw three shooting stars fly through the lightshow and I swear I saw my widely smiling face reflected in the array. It flirted with us in the car on the drive back too, I have seen the aurora borealis!

PHOTOS
I just wanted to see them but if I could get a snap of me with the lights it would be a bonus. There are enough pro shots in google images if I want to see photos. I pulled my camera out at one point which felt like a block of ice, I swear it literally said "fuck you buddy I just ate the battery now take me home!" I think I may have snapped one or two before it died, hard to tell it was very cantankerous and I didn't want to waste time looking at it instead of the sky. We are currently separated, I will remove the memory card and be returning home without it. I gave my email to the English couple and the German couple who will send me whatever images they caught on the night and I will post some when I get them.
It's worth mentioning that the human eye does not see the colour often in the aurora, that spectrum mostly only shows up on camera for whatever scientific reason, I saw mostly white but I did see a couple of green tinges.

ADDED 07/04/13 - four more photos of the night courtesy of Thomas Steurer.

Arrival

32 hours in the airline system without sleep and another 10 on top of that being awake - finally sleep in Stockholm.

However not before the first 2 checks off the LIFE LIST -
1. A new continent - steppped foot in Europe (technically in the photo I'm standing on a lake)
2. See snow. That's right I just saw snow for the first time and couldn't stop playing in it like an excited kid.

Today after some glorious sleep I left the house at 7:30am in minus 8 degrees to check out some touristy stuff, it's now Heineken time at 4pm and 1 degree.

It Is Beyond Everything

I’m not going to cross it off the list yet as it’s not technically finished but filming has finished for - IT IS BEYOND EVERYTHING.

A script I wrote last year and have spent the last month directing with the help of some amazing people that have entered my life. Namely Bob Starkenburg (guru, editing and sound) Vincent Lee (camera) Daniel Punton (lighting and general all round whiz) as well as Jasyl Zonoobi (Assistant Director and clapper) Dana Kenworthy (lighting) and Steven Laurent, Matt Butcher and Matthew Grego (actors).

It has been an exhilarating, steep learning curve having no real idea of what being a director actually involves – jumping in the deep end (or actually being thrown in) and entirely grateful for the unexpected privilege as well as being totally caught off guard with the opportunity to cross off the LIFE LIST – “Make a movie”!

Bob and Vincent will be editing over the next couple of months while I am crossing off some European LIFE LIST goals making the completion date somewhere in the middle of this year.

Also in the last month I have been displayed in an art gallery as part of Meredith Schofield’s exhibition “Compassion Fatigue” and crossed off the LIFE LIST “Be a subject for an art project” 

I also did a brief green screen appearance in another short film and learnt – an actor I am not.