Northern Europe: Arctic Circle train from Abisko to Narvik

The only activity we booked successfully in Abisko with the guesthouse was a tour to Narvik and we planned to commute to Tromso from there instead of returning to Abisko. The booking was successful but the day before the trip we were told that it would be cancelled due to weather condition. According to the guesthouse staff, there would be road closure due to heavy wind so we were refunded. We were, however, told by the staff that commuting by train should not be an issue. This time, we learned and pre-booked our train tickets (SEK 280) on the Swedish train app. So Arctic Circle train happened. 

The Arctic Circle Train is the scenic railway that runs through Swedish Lapland to the Narvik fjord in Norway. This legendary night train departs from Stockholm and crosses Sweden to Kiruna, a town in the heart of Lapland, famous for its iron ore mine, the largest in the world. From Kiruna, the Arctic Circle train goes to Abisko. We would've got on this part of the Arctic Circle train if we managed to get a ticket in Kiruna. Anyways, we were onboard from Abisko to Narvik, a port town in Norway. It felt like looking at black and white water colour paintings from the train. 

The train ride was only about 1 hour 30 minutes, and sis went and got us coffee from the cafeteria. Train ride, breathtaking sceneries and coffee - great things in life.

We arrived in Narvik around 12:35pm. Our initial plan was to spend a couple of hours in Narvik before taking a later bus which would bring us to Tromsø before 8pm. It was a Sunday on our travel day and most of the shops in Norway were closed. We figured we may have enough time to get to the Narvik Cable Car, there are lockers to store bags in the train station but from memory it needed coins which was one of the reason we didn't leave it before decided not to linger in Narvik. 

It was super windy on the day of our travel and we didn't want to risk of bus cancellation so we decided to just take the next available bus at 1:10pm to Tromsø. This round of bus commute takes more than 4 hours and the bus was almost full, so not the most comfortable travel. We paid for tickets on the bus to the driver, NOK 976. It is said that it is cheaper if you pre-buy a ticket. Another rookie mistake of not having enough snacks, we shared a last muesli bar till reaching Tromsø at 5:30pm. 

On arriving in Tromsø, we found out that buses within the city does not take payment by credit card in the bus itself. We were cashless, the driver was willing to wait for us to download the Troms Billett to pay for the ticket but our sim card is in sis's phone which was flat. It would take us to long to navigate around this so we got off the bus to avoid holding it up. We walked to the nearest bright shop, dropped our bags and started our activities of swapping sim card, downloading the app, setting up payment and buying bus tickets. Information on bus tickets and fares are here. Another thing to note is that, buses in Tromsø would only stop if you flagged it down, else they don't. 

 

Side note: Where should I go for a long weekend...