TRIP TO KIRUNA

Just got back from Kiruna and it was amazing! Kiruna is a city in the northernmost part of Sweden above the arctic circle (for those of you who were wondering). It is so damned cold, i wore every piece of clothing i had. Turns out you can wear 4 pairs of thermal socks at the same time if you are willing to spend half and hour trying to squeeze your feet into your shoes! And boy, was i glad for every pair!

From Kiruna I did two trips, one was to the Ice Hotel and then I did a 2 day dog sledge tour. I've got heaps of photos below!

First of all though, i thought i'd just chuck in a few of Kiruna city, they have these amazing snow sculptures!






























Kiruna sure had some interesting signs...What the????

The Ice Hotel
Ok, this place was just so amazing, I don't even know where to begin. The Ice Hotel gets rebuilt every year and it is completely made of ice(walls, chairs, beds, drinking glasses - everything!). They have ice bedrooms, an ice dining room, an ice bar and an ice church. There is just so many great photos but i've tried to pull out a few of the best.

Ok, this first one is of Ally (Canadian) and I in the entrance hall of the ice hotel.



















They even make chandeliers of ice!














Now for the bedrooms....

This first one is a chair in one of the bedrooms. They cover all the chairs and beds with reindeer fur so you don't literally freeze your butt off! The next 2 are bedrooms that people can rent for the night.

This next one is of me outside the Ice Church where people can get married....hmmm, not my idea of a dream wedding, but each to their own!

And of course...The Absolute Ice Bar! This is of Javier (Peruvian), Ben
(French), Steve (Aussie) and I.We sneaked behind the bar for this
one...couldn't resist! They charge a hefty $25 here for a shot of vodka, so it's
a rather quiet bar!

Roughing it...oh dear god!

The 2 day dog sledge tour was unbelievable! It was like nothing I have ever done before, however, it was definitely much more ‘outdoorsy’ than what I am used to!

Here's some pics of the sledging in action. We all took turns driving the sledges and snow mobiles, it was so much fun!


























After freezing our butts off on the sledge ride we arrived in this incredibly isolated place by a river where we stayed over night.

Here is the little village area where we stayed. It was this tiny little group of hutts. Each hutt was like a different room. One was the kitchen, one the sleeping place, one the meat house(yuk!)and one the sauna.













This is the river next to our mini-village. This really gives you an idea of how isolated it was! We got to ice skate on the parts where the ice was thick. I have to admit though, i was so paranoid, i kept thinking that i could hear the ice breaking under me.












We had to do everything for ourselves, including chopping your own firewood and making your own fires. Turns out that I am not so bad with an axe!










We even had to collect our own water from a hole in the the river











Seeing reindeer was a big thrill for me! Unfortunately, it turns out that the people up in the arctic think that reindeer can replace all 5 food groups. They tried to feed it to me both days and i truly battled. I promised myself i would have some but i just couldn't. Kept thinking of Rudolf!











Besides, they didn't exactly make reindeer seem very appealing to eat. Picture this.....About 5 meters to the left of the kitchen were live reindeer, to the right was a reindeer hide stretched out to dry. Then just outside the door to the kitchen were reindeer feet with the leg bones sticking out, still with some blood on them. Then you walk inside the kitchen, sit on reindeer furs and have a reindeer head mounted to the wall above the table. Then this big bowl of reindeer meat gets slapped down in front of you...it was a little much for me!

But overall, it was awesome. We got to go ice skating, cross country skiing, play ice hockey and go ice fishing. We went for walks where the snow came up to my waist.
The boys jumped off trees into the snow and we had the biggest snow fights. It was really great!