A Canadian in Sweden

I do not recommend travelling to see the Jokkmokk marknad (market) if you happen to be a card-carrying member of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

I have never seen so many dead animals all in one place (if you disregard the steak counter at your local supermarket). Piles of reindeer skins here, a table full of fox tails there, a bunch of marten furs hanging off a trader's tent pole. It was awesome. There were even seal skins, though sadly there were no baby seal skins (definite market opportunity here for Canada's East Coast seal hunters/clubbers).

It was like a throwback to a time when furs were a reality of surviving above the Arctic Circle. The best thing was that this was not some made-for-tourists type of event. The Jokkmokk Market has been happening continuously for over 400 years on the first weekend in February, and although the town of Jokkmokk sees an influx of some 30 000 people for market weekend, the majority are expat Sami people making the pilgrimmage back home (on a side note, it appears that the Sami do very well for themselves when they strike out on their own in the southern world. A whole section of the parking lot was reserved for Porsches). Jokkmokk is just too remote to really attract huge numbers of tourists. Perhaps that is a good thing, because PETA metrosexuals would go collectively apoplectic if they experienced this market en masse. There would be protests by city-dwelling "animal lovers" throwing paint on furs and all that other nonsense. The thing you quickly come to understand (if you aren't a PETA nutjob) is that reindeer are still a very real and integral part of the Sami lifestyle and economy. By extension, so are reindeer furs and hides and meat. At the home we stayed at (Terese Pirak and her sambo & 2 kids Siri and Johan - more on that later) they keep reindeer in their backyard - and they live in a very nice bungalow on the edge of town.

I had reserved a room through the Jokkmokk tourist bureau. The town of Jokkmokk has a normal population of 5900, so an influx of 30 000 people cannot possibly be accommodated by the 1 hotel in town. So people clear out their spare bedrooms and rent them out during Market weekend. When I wrote the tourist bureau, they gave me the name and address of our host, Terese Pirak. We arrived in town early Saturday afternoon and then walked around the market for 4 or 5 hours. I figured I would be able to spot the street Terese lives on, but I didn't see it all day. So that evening we were sitting in one of the three restaurants in town, and I figured I would have to ask someone who looks local for directions. So I lean over to the next table (where the dude is wearing reindeer skin chaps and boots) and give him the piece of paper with Terese's address on it, and ask him if he knows where it is. Dude looks at the piece of paper, looks at me, and goes to get his wife. His wife arrives and announces "You will be staying with us." (she spoke much better English than he did).

This is a bit awkward. I appreciate the hospitality, but I have already paid for the room at Terese's place. So I thank her for her offer and just ask again if she could tell us where Terese lives.

"No, you don't understand" She answers. "I am Terese."

Yeah, that was pretty weird. In a town of 5900, with 30 000 visitors, the chances of that happening are around 1/36000 or about 0.003%. Weirder - later that evening as we walked around town, we saw a poster for the Jokkmokk film festival. On it was a head shot of Terese. She is the star in some art film that was shot in Jokkmokk called The Dinner.

So what cool stuff did we buy? Well, I got two reindeer skins, a great Sami belt knife and some gifts. Isabelle got a fox skin, a marten skin, and a reindeer skin. She knows a lot more about skins than I do. Our reindeer skins are currently gracing my car seats, because they're toasty warm. I have to say, I am amazed at how toasty they really are. There was an icebar near the Jokkmokk museum - an outdoor bar made of ice, with ice stools and ice everything. Ice stools don't sound so comfy, I admit. However, each stool had a single layer of reindeer skin on the seat and let me tell you, that 0.5 cm of fur between your cheeks and the ice keeps you butt toasty warm. The Sami use reindeer skin for sleeping on outside, and they are clearly superior to any Thermarest I have tried. They will make a wicked cool accessory for the Canadian Ski Marathon...

Jokkmokk market: two enthusiastic thumbs up. Unless you are a PETA nutjob.