Mini Euro Trip #7 - My Birthday in Sweden!

I know that with every blog, I must start at the beginning of the trip, but this holiday was just so amazing that I just want to blurt out everything all at once! I know that this is going to be an absolutely massive post, and for once not because of the photos, but rather due to the descriptions of our experiences because quite honestly, I do not think photos will accurately portray the detail and wonder we experienced!

Day 1

So, our tale begins on Saturday February 22. This day was a mixture of emotions for me as it not only marked the start of (what was then assumed to be) an amazing holiday, but it was also the 6^th anniversary of my dad’s passing. Of course, I felt so guilty leaving on a holiday when I felt I should be mourning, but at the end of the day, I know my dad would be looking down on me, super proud of all my achievements, especially having achieved my dream of living/working in Germany. So I pulled myself out of my pity party, and we made our way to the airport, from where we winged our way to Stockholm (via Zürich). However, before we had even taken off, the holiday started on awkward footing when both Michael and I set the beepers off going through security. Normal this means a small pat down, a scan of the shoes etc. But no. The lady frisking me went for the full body RUB down, she grabbed everything through my clothing that she could – meaning my bra – and pulled it away from my body to feel underneath. So I had fingers under my underwire, inside the elastic band of my leggings, and she even went searching through my hair! And if that wasn’t bad enough, I then had to surrender my shoes for an extra scan through the machines! I was appalled! But she eventually came to the conclusion that I was safe and we were allowed to continue on to our plane.

We landed in Stockholm at 2pm (after a horrible second flight with misbehaving children & ignorant parents) and caught the Arlanda Express into the centre of town. Once we had located our hotel and dropped off our luggage, we then walked into the city centre while we still had some day light. Our route took us down through the Queen’s street, through the old town, past the Royal Palace and out towards the area of Södermalm. We wandered around, particularly making our way through a part of Södermalm affectionately known as SoFo – the Swedish version of Soho. A very trendy bohemian-esque area complete with the typical wide streets of the US. And for us, seeing wide streets was an unusual sight after 7 months in Europe. SoFo was full of vintage clothing shops and unusual restaurants. We looked and looked until we found a restaurant that was available, affordable and appetising. This happened to be a little restaurant called Mosaik. It turned out to be a brand new restaurant with an opening deal of two courses for a very low price. Michael and I happily tucked into both entrees of Haloumi and Calamari, and mains of Lamb Souvlaki and Linguini Marinara. The food was soooooo delicious, especially considering the menu felt like it had very undecided origins or no strict theme. It was somewhere between Greek and Italian. At the end of the meal, we both somewhat rolled out of the restaurant and made our way towards the river front to a special gallery.

Interesting street art installation

 

 

Fotografiska is an art gallery dedicated to photography, in a brightly lit building along the Stockholm waterfront. There are many traveling photography exhibits that are displayed here. We were lucky enough to catch 6 separate exhibitions all in the one building. The photos were well displayed and we easily spent over 2 hours just engaged with the imagery. In particular, we were in awe of the very first photographer – Elliott Erwitt. A very skilled black and white photographer, who in his own words ‘Barks at Dogs’. He clearly had a talent for taking photos of children and animals, and Michael and I stood giggling at several of his more uncanny shots. However, what we felt was lacking was titles, so we decided to have a caption competition as we went. Michael won. My favourite image though would have to be one of a person, walking two dogs. However at first glance, you see two people and one dog. It is taken from an angle looking from the person’s knees down, with a small dog to their left. To their right, what at first glance looks like a second pair of human legs, in fact turns out to be a set of paws and legs so big, you cannot see the rest of the dog. It is so clever – I absolutely loved this image.

Photo by Elliott Erwitt

We made our way through the gallery looking at each exhibit, some provoking strong responses, others only feeling worthy of a passing glance. One thought provoking piece was a display of 8 photos, portraits of blind people. These were large displays in a dark room, accompanied by voice overs from each of the blind models. This really made you stop and think about the lives and complications these people deal with every day. Another exhibition was portraits of fathers and their daughters as they prepared for an American Purity Ball. I found that this had a strong effect on me, but in the wrong way. I was sickened by some of the photos as they looked more like wedding images than family portraits, and some even were borderline pregnancy protection poses. I think the effect was heightened by more voice overs, this time from the fathers and daughters explaining why the Purity Ball and pledge was so important to them. I found some of the girls and fathers speaking about the joy and the love they shared, which sounded lovely. Then we heard of how God was the only person in control of a young girls’ purity and so forth, and I wanted to grab these girls and shake some sense into them! It did slightly bother me listening to their stories and was pleased when I got to head back down to the gallery shop!

So afterwards, we made our way back towards our hotel, a 2 point something km walk. We were exhausted but we had had a lovely afternoon/evening and we were both very excited about the next day in Stockholm.

Day 2

Waking relatively early in the morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast at a coffee shop before making our way to the centre of town to a meeting point for a Free Tour of Stockholm. It was here that, in the centre of a large collection of people, we found the tour guide Chloé. A beautiful young French lady living and studying for the past 3 years in Stockholm. However, the poor girl got more than she bargained for, with the tour group growing and growing even after the tour had started. By the end of the tour, Chloé’s strong voice was starting to struggle as she had been projecting her history knowledge to more than 50 tourists on the busy streets of Stockholm for nearly 2 hours! But that aside, Chloé’s knowledge was fantastic. We learnt many interesting facts as we made our way through parts of the Old Town, past the location of the Nobel Prize awards ceremony, through the ritzy, most expensive area and finishing in front of the Royal Palace. 

Some of the highlights were:

• Walking down the Queen’s street and learning the history of Queen Christina, and how she was such a hairy baby that she was mistaken to be a boy at birth. These rumours never left poor Christina, to the point that 300 years after her death, her body was exhumed and checked – so that the rumours could be put to rest once and for all! Poor Queen!
• Of course the topic of Ikea came up! We were given some interesting back history on this famous Swedish export company – particularly how the furniture is named. Apparently all the names are actual real names in Sweden (places, cities etc). Well, everything except for the floor coverings and rugs. They are named after Danish locations – because the Swedish people believe they are above the Danish! Subtle yet so snooty!
• Standing in Norrmalmstorg square and learning that it was the location for the creation of the word ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. In 1973 a robbery took place at Kreditbank in the square, and following the siege that took place for several days, when surrendering, 4 hostages stood in front of the robbers, begging for the police to be lenient. One of the hostages even remained in contact with one robber, and attended his wedding years later as a bridesmaid.
• We also made a stop outside a small gym. This was seemingly insignificant until we were told the story of the current living Swedish princess, and how her husband was once her personal trainer, and worked in that gym. Said PT did have to attend prince school for 5 years before the King accepted the situation…. 
• Arriving at the Royal Palace, we were shown a photo of the original palace that once stood but unfortunately burned to the ground in 1697. It was here that we learned about the architect responsible for the construction of the new palace. He had been renovating the original castle (only 3 rooms) but had great ideas for a new castle. By some strange coincidence, the palace caught fire (originating in the Architect’s bedroom), and 3 days later the Architect turned to the King and said that he would be more than willing to create a new palace – he already had his designs drawn up!

  

  Our tour group - try to spot us!

When the tour wrapped up, we made our way on foot to another island area, one which was inhabited by several grand museums. Our first stop was the Vasa Museum. This was a museum dedicated to a boat. Of course, even though this ranks as one of the most important tourist ‘to dos’, we though surely an hour maximum would be needed. How wrong we were. From our very first step inside the triple entrance doors, our mouths just hung open. Inside this enormous purpose built building is the Vasa warship. The Vasa was built for King Gustav in 1626/7 making its maiden voyage on August 10, 1628. However, in a Titantic-like twist of fate, the Vasa was blown sideways by a gust of wind, having travelled not 1500m out of port. As part of its send off, it has every single gunport open for the celebratory salute, and thus, as the ship tipped sideways, the water came gushing in, taking the vessel to its water grave within minutes.
 

In a sense, it is believed that while the ships premature demise was a horrible occurrence, the location of the accident was a saving grace for many reasons. As the ship had only just left port, nearly all crew and visitors were still above deck when she sank, and lifeboats were able to save almost everyone instantly. It is believed to this day that only 30 lives (out of 150 Passengers) were lost that day. The other positive that came from this horrible situation was that 333 years later, in 1961 the entire wreckage of the Vasa was able to be lifted from the seabed and refloated. It then came to be fully restored and placed on display inside its very own purpose built museum. As it currently stands, it is still made of 95% original wood.

But it wasn’t just the ship on display. The museum was built across 5 floors, which snaked around the ship, giving a vast amount of information about the building, purpose, sinking, inquisition, the salvage and restoration of the mighty ship, and also giving several different vantage points from which to view the ship. They also had several skeletons - the actual remains they recovered from the ship along with possessions they believe belonged to the bodies. They have been able to create profiles and sculptures of the victims based on their remains and belongings. So clearly, as you see, an hour was nowhere near enough in which to take it everything. In the end I think we managed to get out of there after 2 and a bit hours. And it was only because we desperately wanted to see other museums before the 5pm deadline that we left!

(I must add that the Vasa museum also had a very cool system when you walked in which invited you to connect your mobile to their free wifi which then let you access their audio guide for free, and you just used your own phone and headphones to take the tour!)

A quick hop skip and jump down the road (grabbing a Swedish kebab for lunch on the way) we found the ABBA museum. Now, while I wanted to see the Vasa museum, this had been more Michael’s choice. Now it was my turn. Thankfully Michael (despite initial hesitations) happily accompanied me through the museum. To be fair, afterwards, even he had to admit that while he does not like Abba or their music, he found the museum to be well organised, and very interesting. We got our tickets and audio guide thingies and moved downstairs to start the tour. From the very first room, you were blasted by loud ABBA music, information about the fab four and loud colourful displays. The audio guide was fantastic, and was in fact narrated by the band members, which in itself was special as their dislike of being together is quite well publicised these days. The four all spoke fondly of their days together and recounted several special memories including their times at the Eurovision song contest, including their first attempt in 1973 (which didn’t even make it to the official Eurovision contest) with Ring Ring. It was funny to hear the members discussing trivial things about the night of the performance, including the efforts to cover up Agnetha’s bulging baby belly, being about 8 months pregnant at the time!  

 

 

However what was amazing was to be able to see the original costumes worn by the group when they did finally win the Eurovison title in 1974 with Waterloo. It was a wonderful tour with so much memorabilia and some fantastic opportunities to participate yourself. I got to go into a recording booth and pretend to be Agnetha and Frida, belting out my own version of Mamma Mia. There were more opportunities including a large stage projection experience but I was too scared to give them a go. Let’s face it, I love my Michael dearly but there are certain experiences where having your good girlfriends by your side makes for a lot more fun. Carlie, Roz, Rae – you were sadly missed this day! Towards the end of the tour, the audio guide got a little sad as the group discussed the fading of their passion and the decision to end the band and their marriages. However it was well done and I can honestly say I loved the experience of walking through the lives of the famous ABBA.

Making our way out (I actually made it out of the gift shop without buying anything!) we checked our watches. With one hour to go till closing, we made a quick dash to the Nordiska Museet – a museum dedicated to Nordic Swedish history. It was interesting but certainly did not appeal to either of us the way Vasa or Abba had. We managed to move through the 4 storeys of displays in record time, stopping only when something caught our eyes – like a gorgeous hand carved rocking horse that visitors were invited to ride (as if I was going to say no to that!) and a food display that illustrated how table settings have changed over the centuries including a stuffed swan that would be used over and over to house a cooked bird as decoration!
 

Leaving the museum as it closed its doors at 5pm, we made our way (or I should say hobbled) to the closest underground station. My feet were killing me, I mean absolutely dying, from a whole day of walking. I was begging Michael to hail a taxi to get us back to the hotel they were that bad! But we did find the train station and it got us pretty close to our hotel. Once home, I was able to relax for an hour and change my shoes to my big fluffy comfy snow boots before we headed back out into the old town area in search of dinner. Michael had done his research and found a couple of restaurants that intrigued him, so we looked for these in particular.

The main one Michael really wanted to go to was unfortunately closed, but just around the corner, we found his second choice – The Flying Elk, and we were very happy to step inside (away from the horrible howling wind) and unwind inside the designer pub. Dinner was a lovely event meeting a wonderful waiter who spoke beautiful Canadian English and was keen to serve us and treat us as special guests. He really enjoyed getting to know us and bringing us his favourite beers. I think he appreciated having Michael to understand what he was talking about (because I clearly had no clue!). But we did enjoy our entrée of Truffle Parmesan Popcorn, which came straight from one of those classic circus popcorn machines! Michael then had an ‘Iron Lady’ Hamburger, and I had a fillet of beef that was melt in your mouth, with a delicious gravy, tiny fries and a béarnaise sauce. Needless to say, neither of us needed dessert, but that didn’t stop our lovely waiter from bringing over a little nip of a special dessert beer he had. Michael happily stuck to his pale ale, but I happily lapped up this dark beer, as it tasted like an iced coffee with a hint of caramel and chocolate. It was amazing!

But rolling home, we slid into bed and slept soundly, prepared to get up early the next morning for the start of the next big adventure!

Day 3

MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!

No, I wasn’t excited at all! We woke up and checked out of our hotel quickly this morning, before making our way to the train station, grabbing a quick breakfast at Starbucks, then off we went to the airport. I must admit that the first half of my birthday was actually quite boring as we had to go through the whole boarding plane process (thankfully no pat down this time!) and we didn’t actually land in Kiruna until 1pm. But from here I promise the fun starts!

We got off our plane in Kiruna and walked across the tarmac (snow covered of course) to the terminal where, just inside the doors, stood a small desk manned by a young lady in a silver fur hooded poncho. A sign said “Guests of IceHotel check in here”. Michael and I stopped, looked at each other, grinned, then stepped towards the lady! This was for us such an exciting moment, to know we were finally getting to live one of our dreams – to stay at the Ice Hotel! I am serious when I say this was one of my bucket list items! Once we had collected our bags, we made our way to the Ice Hotel transfer bus waiting outside, and before long, we were on our way. 15 minutes drive down the road and we could feel the bus slowing down… and suddenly out the window we could see this amazing shimmering, blue-glowing building. It was just magical! But of course, we couldn’t just run straight down and lick the walls.

We disembarked the bus and loaded our luggage onto a car. We then headed off with our lovely poncho lady. She led us around the areas in front of the Ice Hotel pointing out important places and things, including the check in for the warm accommodation, the chapel, the meeting point for all tours and activities etc. Then we were allowed to make our way into the glowing building! All the photos in the world will not do this building justice. It truly is something I think must be seen to be believed. The snow and ice have been artistically and architecturally arranged to create something utterly beautiful! Sadly we didn’t get much time to admire it at that point, as we were shown the night entrance straight away, and then led through said night entrance to the dressing rooms/cold accommodation check in building. Our luggage was waiting there for us and we were able to check in, and access our lockers. Making some quick costume adjustments and shoving our big suitcases into our lockers, we then ran out to the meeting point as I had a very special appointment!

As part of my birthday celebrations, Michael had arranged for me to take part in an Ice Sculpture class. This was with one of the two chief Ice Hotel sculpture artists Alessandro - or Alex. He and his partner are responsible for most of the main hotel, but in particular the famous ice chandeliers and also the stunning unicorn sculpture at the end of the grand hallway (pics further down).

The artist within me was so happy to be released again! She’s been dormant for quite some time and almost believed to be non-existent these days. But from the moment that Alessandro put the chisel in my hand, it was like she came alive again. I had truly forgotten how much I love sculpture! Now I’m not professing to be amazing – far from it, but I certainly enjoyed the feeling of chipping away at the ice with a purpose, having that vision in my head of what I wanted to create and working away at it for 2+ hours. Michael very kindly came along and stood patiently with the camera so I would have some more permanent memories of this experience. Funnily enough though, half way through, he felt the need to go and change his socks and get warmer clothes. I was so focused on my sculpture I didn’t even notice the cold creeping in. It wasn’t until I stopped and stood back to admire mine and the other participants’ work that I finally realised the temperature had dropped! But at the end of the class, I proudly stood next to my ‘Mickey Mouse’ sculpture! I then watched with terror as Alessandro took a giant saw and chopped my sculpture off its support plinth to be moved outside to its display position.


Please enjoy the series of photos that depict my sculpture's evolution!

However, as we made our way outside to see Mickey placed in his home, there was a sudden whooshing sound behind me, and I turned to see Michael lying on his back! The ground outside the sculpture room was so icy and he had completely lost his footing! Finally a travelling clutz moment that wasn’t me! But seriously, he was fine! He was laughing, and really proud of his ability to keep his camera held aloft as he fell!

After my class, we made our way into the cold accommodation check in building where we both warmed up with a hot drink. It was at this point that I finally felt the cold and pain in my hands. It has been more than 10 years since I’ve worked with a chisel, and working with one while wearing snow gloves makes for a terrible grip! My hands had completely seized up! But I couldn’t dwell on the pain for long as we had to attend a special presentation. Making our way into the entrance hall of the Ice Hotel itself, we met Michael, another silver fur hood poncho character who was to give us all a special talk called “How to survive at -5”. This really was an important induction as without it, I would not have known what I was in for that night. Michael gave us some great information about what to wear, how to get to bed, and what to expect. This all turned out to be imperative later on! But even better was witnessing a wedding party having their photos taken in the main hall. The bride looked stunning.... until I saw her white snow boots under her dress!

Once the talk was over, we got ourselves changed and made our way to a special birthday dinner at the Ice Hotel Restaurant. Of course we took the option of a 4 course Ice Menu! This meant trying several new flavours including moose, reindeer, lingonberries, ptarmigan & sea buckthorn. And 3 out of the 4 plates included part of the meal being served on ice or in ice bowls. It was amazing food and amazing presentation! Then Michael told the waitress it was my birthday, so of course my dessert came out from the kitchen with a candle and singing waitresses! So embarrassing! But the night wasn’t over!

Our meals:
Sashimi of Fröhja salmon, lime salted river perch and lightly cured Arctic char, served with wasabi creaam, fennel and cranberries.

Smoked topside of moose and cured fillet of reindeer, served with lingonberry emulsion, spiced blueberries and vanilla pickled Kiruna shiitake mushrooms.

Baked breast of ptarmigan and leg of ptarmigan confit. Served with orange and port wine gravy and a variation of onions.

Chocolate ganache topped with sea buckthorn powder. Served with sea buckthorn meringues, sorbet and curd. 

We made our way back down to the Ice Hotel Bar – a special additional room in the hotel that is completely made of ice. The seating, the walls, the bar and even the glasses are made of ice! About the only things not made of ice were the bottles of liquor and the cash register! So of course we ordered a cocktail each and settled down in an ice nook to enjoy our drinks and toast my birthday! One thing we noticed at a later point was that the drinks list was named after the art suites in the hotel. I drank an ‘It’s Alive’ and a ‘Narcissus’, while Michael enjoyed 2 Frozty Flowers. The best part of the bar however was the ginormous fish sculpted in the middle of the room, bending around the bar. There was also a story on the wall of this fish and how he came to be a part of the Ice Bar. The Ice Hotel is recreated every October/November with new art rooms, new bar, new chapel, and all the designs are so unique. It was truly spectacular to experience something that will only be seen by a few thousand people. In just over a month it will completely melt and a new hotel will be built at the end of the year, with completely different art and structure. We may never see another Ice Hotel but we can say that we feel honoured to have been a part of this one!

But that aside, I know everyone is interested to know – how did we ‘survive at -5’! Well, it was a process, that’s for sure. We had to first of all return to the cold accommodation check in building where our luggage lockers were. We changed into just one layer of thermals plus a pair of socks, a beanie and gloves. It was about at this moment I was thankful for my weight loss last year as walking around it just thermal underwear in a public hotel can make one quite self conscious…

But collecting our sleeping bags from the main desk, we made our way into the hotel. We did wear thick snow boots in I will add, we didn’t just run through snow in socks. Arriving in room 328, an ice room, we got ourselves ready for bed. The bed itself was a large block of ice with an ice bed head and foot. On the ice was a mattress which was covered in animal pelts and a pillow each. We placed our sleeping bags on top, sat down and took off the boots, leaving them beside the bed and then quickly snuggled down inside the bag. This sounds easier than it was, as my photos should illustrate. I eventually got myself zipped up and drew the drawstring closed. This was how we slept, with only a tiny hole in the bag for air. Any bigger hole and we would have let too much cold air in. We could not even have our pillow inside the bag with us as we were warned that overnight as you moved, moisture on the pillow would freeze, and you would get a nasty shock as you moved your head!

So now I present to you - Getting into a sleeping bag on an ice bed at minus 5 degrees!

Step 1: Do a ridiculous bedside pose to show off your snazzy thermals, beanie and gloves. Completely appropriate bedtime attire!

Step 2: Remove snow boots. Place directly beside the bed.

Step 3: Spread out the inner lining bag.

Step 4: Attempt to wriggle into said inner lining. 

Keep wriggling...

Step 5: Take lining wrapped body and wriggle it into the sleeping bag itself.

Step 6: Attempt to do up the zipper with gloved hands.

Step 7: Keep doing up the zip while trying to get your arms inside the bag...

Step 8: With the zip completely done, and the velcro flap closed, pull on the drawstring to close the last bit of opening to ensure night long warmth (and claustrophobia?).

Step 9: Pose for photos to prove you made it into your sleeping bag! Now try to get some sleep!

Day 4

So that was how we spent the night. It was… a unique experience! Neither Michael nor I slept fantastically for various reasons, but not because we were cold surprisingly. While I don’t think I would do it again, I am so glad I have done it once. It was fantastic to try. But when a hotel staff member entered our room at 7:45 the next morning to wake us with hot lingonberry juice, I was already wide awake, waiting for the moment when I could get out of my sleeping bag. The juice however was amazing, and warmed up our entire bodies!



The one thing that somewhat bothered me was the public nature of the bathrooms when you stayed in the cold accommodation. A giant bathroom for each gender with about 8 showers, a sauna and 2 sinks. I felt very self-conscious trying to get myself ready that morning. A very quick but piping hot shower before hurriedly putting on clothes, then I took my time at the tiny make up station doing my hair etc. Michael and I then met up and went to breakfast. This was a fantastic buffet breakfast in the same location as the restaurant as the night before. We filled ourselves up with a mixture of yummy breakfast goods but I was so happy because I got baked beans. I have never been a huge fan of them, but suddenly, as an Aussie who hasn’t seen them in 7 months, I got very excited and happily scooped them onto my plate along with scrambled eggs, meatballs and bacon! We then headed outside and had some fun, including playing on a mini sledge for a bit!

Now I must admit that this holiday was not entirely for my Birthday enjoyment. Today, February 25^th marked another special event, as it was officially 10 years since Michael had asked me to be his girlfriend. I know we celebrate our wedding anniversary as our main day, but we couldn’t let such an auspicious event go past without something. 10 years is a long time to be together! So today was to be the day we did some special Ice Hotel activities together. Starting with a tour of the Ice Hotel in full. We were given some background information about the history and creation of the hotel, then we got to see some of the more special areas of the hotel, including all the specially designed art suites (that the cocktails were named after). These things cost a bucket just to spend the night in but they are amazing to see. It was worth paying for the expensive but not as expensive plain ice room costs for the experience, because all guests get to view the special rooms during the day anyway! Michael and I did have our favourites (pictures included) and we really enjoyed the tour!

 Inside the Chapel

 This room was called 'Pole Dancing'. My personal favourite!

'Mind the Gap'

'Before the Big Bang'

'It's Alive' - this was one of the cocktails I enjoyed. And I think Michael's favourite room because of the cool 'crazy scientist' light display.









'Narcissus' - another cocktail room. 

'Iced Origami'

'Up There'

'Frozty Flower' - Michael's cocktail choice.

Forest - the white one that is howling.

Our next big adventure was a husky sled tour!We met our musher Kenzo at the meeting point, before he led us around behind the hotel to the Torne River (where they harvest all their ice from). Sitting there was a large sled, and 14 beautiful husky dogs. We were paired with another couple and had to sit single file on the sled, tallest at the back, shortest at the front. For the first time in my life, being short meant I won the lottery! I think I had the best view and was able to have the camera going the whole time. Kenzo was hilarious, telling us about the life of mushing and all about his dogs. He also told us about the white husky at the back of the pack, closest to the sled. His name was Forest. Of course at this point Kenzo yelled ‘Run Forest, Run!’ to which we all laughed, and Forest turned his head while running and gave Kenzo a look that could only be translated as ‘You’re an idiot!’. It was brilliant! He also had us laughing with quips about how he loves his job – he spends all his time looking at asses! Trust me, it sounded much funnier with his Danish accent! However what must be remarked upon was the incredible noise of the dogs, waiting for their chance to run, howling into the wind. And then, at that moment of take off, the world fell silent. The dogs clearly just love to run and as soon as they were granted their wish, they stopped barking and howling as if someone hit the mute button. It was incredible.

But the ride took us out across the frozen Torne River, for about half an hour. We came to a stop on a little island where there was a hut. Inside the hut was a roaring fire, and fresh coffee. I couldn’t have cared less. When the dogs stopped running, they all sat down on the snow to cool down, some even ate the snow to cool their tongues. I lay right down beside them and started getting puppy cuddles! Especially from Forest! He was beautiful! It is terribly hard being away from my baby Mei, but getting to cuddle 14 huskies certainly helped. They were amazing! So calm and so happy to be approached by strangers. I could have played in the snow with them for hours. But I did eventually go inside for coffee and a cinnamon bun!

Forest giving Kenzo 'the look'. 

Asking Kenzo about his job while warming by the fire, I threw in a question about how they name the dogs. I was interested as it was clear that they owned about 100 dogs in his company. Apparently his boss names all the dogs and uses the alphabet as each litter comes about. He will name a dog using an A name, then a B name, then a C name and so forth. Apparently the best names come when they get to the letter X, with dogs in the pack known as Xtravaganza and XL. And yes, there is also a dog called Gump, to complement Forest!

running into the wind on the return journey - COLD!

Following coffee, we jumped back on the sled and made our way back to the hotel, but our ride was not complete without a race against the other sled. Our dogs were very stubborn and almost didn’t want to over take the other team, but eventually, about 500m away from the hotel, we managed to overtake and our dogs took off! It was a shame to slow them down really as it was wicked fun when the dogs ran flat out!

Our fun was not over yet though. We said our goodbyes to Kenzo, Forest and the team, then went to check into our Warm Accommodation. Yes, that’s right, only one night on an ice bed. It is actually how the Ice Hotel recommends visitors spend their visit. One night on ice, and one or more nights in a warm chalet. After checking in we grabbed a spot of lunch – a reindeer wrap and a beer. Then we happily warmed up in our chalet for a few hours before making our way back down to the meeting point for one last tour. A northern lights tour!

This tour was Michael’s special treat. We were first fitted for helmets before making our way around the building to choose our Snow Mobile. Michael and I both took turns driving the snow mobile and I must admit, being able to open up the throttle and fly along on a snow mobile on a frozen lake at night is quite a feeling! But Michael definitely did do the majority of the driving as I quite enjoyed holding on, tipping my head back and looking at the stars. I was however thankful for the visor on my helmet as on more than one occasion, hitting a bump, our helmets crashed together, and I know that without the visor, it would have been my nose taking the impact!

so cold I had my buff covering my face!

We drove for about 2 hours on the snow mobiles before arriving at a little cabin. At this stage we had seen nothing but dark sky, some clouds and one or two stars. As we parked our vehicles, we looked up and noticed that the clouds had dissipated and the sky was now full of stars. But still no northern lights. We were all shepherded up to the cabin where we sat around a roaring fire and were served a delicious three course meal: A cheese wrap, reindeer stew and blueberry cake. As we were finishing off our stew, our guide poked his head out of the cabin door and suddenly called “They’re coming out!” With that, nearly everyone jumped and ran out the cabin. At this stage the only light in the sky you could see was this tiny green line near the horizon. But one of the people on our tour took a long exposure picture with his tripod camera and we were all able to see the lights! We headed back inside to enjoy a cup of tea and blueberry cake, but I had only drunk half my tea when our guide yelled again. This time it really was worth heading out for. The green lights were shimmering across the entire sky and were beautiful to observe. Tripod friend happily let Michael take turns using their tripod and Michael was able to get some amazing long exposure photos.

We probably witnessed all of about 20 minutes of green glow, before it stopped. We realised that we had indeed been very lucky to have glimpsed even that, so the last 25 minutes snowmobile ride back to the hotel was a very satisfied one.

Day 5

The following morning was where everything came unravelled. We had had the most amazing holiday of our lives. We had seen some of the most incredible sights, learned some fantastic history, been driven by huskies, and even seen the northern lights! We were still pinching ourselves to remind ourselves that this was real, and that we had in fact experienced all of this. Heading to the airport to make our return trip to Munich, we realised that things were going to be tight as our first plane from Kiruna to Stockholm was running late. When we arrived in Stockholm airport, we grabbed our luggage and sprinted between terminals. However we were too late. Our names were being called over the loudspeaker, our plane was at final boarding call, and we hadn’t even checked in our luggage yet.

One last photo at the hotel

Swiss Air pretty much shrugged their shoulders and said ‘oh well’. We were lucky enough to find a lovely lady who helped us first contact the Swiss Air people, who suggested we take a new flight that would cost us 1800€. Of course we told Swiss Air where to stick their flight. The lady however found us new flights that would successfully get us home that same day still for only 400€, and even helped us try to find a better price! We just had to fly via Copenhagen. So we booked the flights, moved into the next hall to check in and deliver our luggage…. Only to find out there was a bomb threat in progress and we had to take our luggage to a different hall to be checked in! Of course you can imagine that I went from anger, to tears, to almost laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation! I had had enough! And I hadn’t eaten since 9am. It was now 5:20pm. Thankfully we got through security and were able to grab a sandwich each before boarding the first of two flights that got us to Munich just after 10pm.

So as I am sure you can all appreciate, not the best end to our holiday… but as we think back on our time away, if we ignore the disastrous events of Wednesday, we both agree that this was our best holiday ever. Packed full of amazing unique experiences and it has given us some of the best memories too. We can’t wait to one day have photos from this trip hanging up in our home because we know that we will look at them and just smile as we remember the brilliant moments and memories!