March 14 - 16 _ Ice Hotel

Friday, March 14^th

Jon came home from work around 4pm. After a quick dinner of pizza we finished packing our backpacks. One bag was for extra warm clothes and the other was for snacks and things to keep us busy during the 15 hour train ride, one way!

Around 5:25pm we left the apartment to head for the Uppsala train station. Promptly at 5:59pm we were off for Kiruna! The train we rode in had many different cars. There was even a dining car. The section we were in sat about 10 people and opened and closed by motion sensors. It was the only train car that had this feature. We really liked it because the noise was drastically reduce by the doors and there were not any kids crying or running around in our area.

When we finally decided to sleep, it was nice a lot of people had gotten off. Our seats were in a booth with a table between the 2 sets of seats on either side. Though we slept relatively well, next time we will reconsider an overnight train. We did have an option of paying more to get seats in a sleeping car. However, there are risks involved to these as well as a lot of families like to use these. Our chances of hearing a crying baby would have been greatly increased.

Nothing exciting happened on the train as we were riding mostly at night in the dark.

Saturday, March 15^th

We awoke at 6:20am to people boarding the train. Most people were packed for a day/weekend of skiing. Using the WC (bathroom) we brushed our teeth and rinsed our faces – then we were ready for the day!

For breakfast, we ate turkey & ham sandwiches that we had packed. Around 10:15am we were pulling into the Kiruna train station. The landscape was barren with tall, thick, snow covered e vergreen trees. Some trees though, were covered in ice. The train station we pulled up to in Kiruna was a single 2-story red brick building. The front of the station we found our bus waiting to transport us to the Ice Hotel. We were the only people on the bus! The bus itself reminded us of the buses in the Bahamas – both by the structure of the bus and the not knowing if/where the bus was going.

The city of Kiruna appeared to be built on a hill (whether that was just the parimeter or not – we are unsure). On the way to the Ice Hotel, we saw a ranch where they had reindeer! Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a picture of them quick enough. The drive to the hotel was about 20 minutes east of Kiruna.

When we arrived at the Ice Hotel it was about 11:15am. The Ice Hotel is located in Jukkasjarvi, 200km north of the Artic Circle in Sweden. We had to walk past the warm building rooms (they looked like cabins – most of them), down a small hill towards the entrance of the Ice Hotel. There is a building right next to the Ice Hotel called the “warm building”. Here we tried to check in – but we were told that the previous guests had not checked out yet so we could grab lunch and come back around noon.

We went to the Ice Hotel Resturant for lunch where they offered a smorgasbord type lunch. This was our first smorgasbord together! They had everything from at least 4 types of herring, numerous fish dishes, roast beef, reindeer dishes, cabbage salad, peeled potatoes, and fish soup. Jon really enjoyed the fish and we both enjoyed the reindeer. We later found out that one dish that we really liked was reindeer stew. To finish off lunch, we had a wildberry (maybe cloudberries?) crisp with vanilla cream on top as well as a cup of coffee.

After such a filling lunch, we returned to the hotel to check in. There, they \gave us an electronic card to the Ice Hotel doors because the doors close to the public at 6pm. They also gave us a key to a large locker with ample room for all of our belongings. To make sure we stayed warm we were given snow suits, hats, and gloves. They also recommended we attend an English tour of the hotel at 3pm at this time they would also go over how to sleep well in the Ice Hotel.

We decided we would get changed into our snow suits, even though we were plenty warm in our clothing (the weather seemed to be very similar to Wisconsin – maybe a little warmer – but nothing drastically different). Once in our suits we were REALLY warm – so we rushed outside to walk around the Hotel to see what all was there. We first walked in the Ice Hotel to check out our room. The room we booked was a plain hotel room with a bed on a wooden frame over blocks of ice. There was a thin mattress on top as well as reindeer skins. After seeing our room, we decided to check out the art & design suits in the other half of the hotel. Some of the rooms were really amazing! I apologize, but there are a lot of pictures of them posted. Jon’s favorite was the room with the Dragon – mine was probably the one with all the circles. While walking around the ice hotel, we saw the Saab Ice Car – Jon posed next to ice rims! The next stop was to the Ice Bar where we walked through an entry way that in the first section had sounds of eerie wind sounds – the next section had wolves running through the glass walls – then we were in the main area of the Ice Bar. There were benches made of ice with reindeer skin covering the ice. There were also tables made of ice! All alcoholic drinks were served out of ice glasses. The back wall of the Ice Bar was very beautiful with a lot of art etched into the ice – we took a picture when it was dark outside so that the colors would show up better. We walked out of the Ice Hotel and to the adjacent building the Ice Church. The church was much different than we had expected it to be. We didn’t feel that we could really enjoy it because it smelled really bad – we overheard a couple later discussing this and the man told his wife that it probably smelled because of mold growing on the reindeer hide sitting on the ice….gross!!!!!!!! But, the church had very nice drawings on the ceiling as well as ice sculptures in the front of the church.

After this, we walked to the back of the Ice Hotel towards the lake that provides all the ice for the hotel and the bar (as well as the ice bars in other areas). In the back area, we sat down in the snow together to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Then, we were back to the Ice Hotel entrance for our tour and guide to how to sleep well in the Ice Hotel. For the tour of the hotel we looked in several art/design suites (even though we had already seen them all!). Then, while we were in one of the larger rooms – the guide gave us the following tips to sleep better:

1. Do not sleep in anything that has moisture in it
2. Try to wear only long underwear and/or a long sleeved t-shirt – if we were afraid we would be too cold then we should put a fleece sweatshirt in the bottom of our sleeping bag
3. The hotel would provide us with zero degree sleeping bags as well as a sheet to put inside the sleeping bag.
4. The guide said to make sure we do not breathe into the sleeping bag – rather we should breathe into the sheet if we need to. (i.e. we should use the sheet to cover our face if it gets cold not the sleeping bag)
5. Don’t go to the sauna or take a shower before going to bed as this will take off the fat cells on your skin and make you colder.

After this, we walked over to the west part of the grounds where the ice production is located. This time of the year they are harvesting the ice from the lake. To do this they use a saw and tractor to cut and pull chunks of ice out of the lake. After the pull the ice out of the lake, they bring it to this building where they use it to shape into cubes for other Ice Hotels/Ice Bars/Client Ice Requests. It was crazy to think that the ice glasses that they use in almost every part of the world comes from this lake and that the glasses are purely lake water (the water is so clean that they don’t need to even purify it before the public consumes it)!

Then since we were in our snow suits – we had a mini snowball fight! : )

We ran into a group of 3 people that we had seen in Uppsala waiting for the train. They were speaking English which is why we remembered them. We found out that they are all from Canada studying in Uppsala for the semester. It was nice to run into people who speak English and are kind of our age. Maybe we will run into them again!

We walked through the gift shop and marveled at all the gorgeous glass pieces they had. Jon purchased a shot glass for his collection. (Jumping ahead a bit….Sunday we ended up purchasing a back-packers 45L bag. It should be very nice to have when we travel between the different locations because our 2 bookbags are not large enough to hold everything. Surprisingly, the price at the Ice Hotel for this bag was much cheaper than we could find at Wal-Mart or Target before we left!)

After this, we decided to go back to the warm part of the Ice Hotel and warm up a bit before we walked to dinner. In the warm section, we had some hot ligonberry juice – yummy!!! Then, we decided we were warm enough to start walking to the Homestead Restaurant (15 – 20 min walk east of the Hotel). While we were walking to the restaurant we noticed that most of the cars we saw parked had spike/stud type things in the tires to help maintain traction. Also, we saw a church that is the oldest church in the town. Since we were a little early for dinner, we walked behind the restaurant to sit by the ice covered lake. Jon made a spectacular snow angel!!

For dinner, we had to reserve a table at a restaurant. When making the reservation, they give us 3 hours for dinner! Since everything on the main menu consisted of either fish or beef dishes with mushrooms – I got a reindeer salad with ligonberries, cheese, rye bread croutons, and onion. Jon got reindeer stew which had the meat in a broth type soup with carrots and onions and a side of potatoes. Both dishes were really good.

After dinner, we walked back to the Ice Hotel via the lake. Though it was very romantic, I was worried that an animal would “attack” us – or that we would fall through the ice (our feet kept falling deeper and deeper into the snow). Thankfully, we did reach land without any problems. We sat by the lake again for a little bit looking for the Northern Lights. However, we were told that it wasn’t a good night to see them because it was too cloudy outside.

Around 9:30pm we decided to get a double sleeping bag and brush our teeth and head to bed. We both slept extremely well – probably one of the best nights of sleep we have gotten since being in Sweden! At several times during the night, we woke up because we were too hot even though it was -5C inside our room.

Sunday, March 16th

Around 7:45am we were awoken with hot ligonberry juice. We both wish we could get woken up this way everyday!

We did not use the sauna in the morning as the men and women sauna are separated (also, because everyone uses the sauna in their birthday suits….). For breakfast we headed back to the Ice Hotel Restaurant where they served a smorgasbord style breakfast! They had cold meats (& reindeer), cheese, 6 types of yogurt, bran, herring, mini hot dogs, scrambled eggs, 8 min & 5 min eggs, bacon, SWEDISH MEATBALLS, a variety of fruit, vegetables, and breads.

After breakfast we needed to unload our locker and repack everything into our backpacks so that we could check out before we went on our dog sled ride.  Upon checking out, Jon and I were presented with a Diploma for having survied a night in the Ice Hotel!  On the diploma it says that the indoor temperature was -5C and the outdoor temperature was -9C (or, 23 indoors and 15 outdoors ... it sounds colder in celcius!)

For the dog sled, we were paired up with another couple – they were on their late honeymoon (they got married in January). They were really nice the guy lives about 60km from Uppsala and his wife moved from Iceland. The dogsled ride was exhilarating, amazing, breath-taking, and truly something that we will never forget. At first I felt bad for the dogs having to pull us around – but I came to understand that the dogs really enjoy it. As soon as the guide let them start – the dogs took off! They don’t even stop when they have to use the bathroom (though, we wished they could have to stop the smell). The dogs even grab some snow while they are running. The dogs took us through the forests full of evergreen trees. It was neat to see animal tracks running all around us. However, we did not see any wildlife besides birds…I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. For the first half of the dogsled ride, Jon & I rode in the front. It was nice because we had such a great view of the landscape. After about 45 min. we stopped for a fika (coffee break). The guide told us we could pet the dogs if we wanted to. All of the dogs were very friendly! We were surprised how much they enjoyed being petted and wanted our attention. For the fika we had coffee out of a wooden cup as well as a cake that was toped with similar to a sponge cake with sugar/cinnamon/almond topping. We enjoyed our fika sitting on logs covered with reindeer skin near a fire. The aroma, the feel, the scenery all attributed to the magnificent time we had. After the fika, we got back on the dogsled, this time we let the other couple ride in the front (The guide wanted us to sit with the heaviest in the back and lightest in the front – but we wanted to be with our spouses….). We are really glad that we were able to go on the dogsled ride – it made our trip even more special.

Once we got back to the hotel we were FREEZING! So, we went to the warm part and warmed up with some hot ligonberry juice. After we could feel our toes again, we got changed out of our Ice Hotel snow suits and back into our normal clothes. We waited around for a little bit – then said our goodbye’s to the Ice Hotel…One last time. Then, we took our taxi to the train station in Kiruna.

The train station in Kiruna was small on the inside – it only had a waiting room. There was a sign for a kafe – however, it was just a small room with a couple tables and chairs. Since we didn’t get an opportunity to eat lunch (good thing we had a big breakfast) we walked around the train station in search of someplace where we could grab a quick lunch before our train arrived. Not finding anything, we went back inside the train station and snacked on some crackers, chips, and popcorn.

2:11pm we were headed toward Uppsala! On the train, we were seated in a similar type section as the previous train we had been on, except this had seating for 3 people on the bench not just 2. A nice lady and her daughter, Lisaetter and Sophie, sat next to us. We spoke with Lisaetter the whole way to our transfer train in Boyden (3 hours from Kiruna). Lisaetter and Sophie were on their way to Gotenberg for the Ice Skating championships. During the ride, Lisaetter wanted to know about the U.S. and where we live. She found it hard to believe that some people don’t have health insurance – she wondered what people did when they couldn’t afford medical treatment that they needed. It was sad to explain to her that sometimes if people can’t afford treatment their families might fundraise to try to get enough money – but more often than not only the rich who can afford such treatment/operations will get it. Surprisingly, the income tax that Swedes pay is very similar to what we do in the U.S. She wondered where the tax money went then if the Swedes can provide health care and government paid time off after children. I told her that most of it probably has been going to wars lately, unfortunately. While speaking with her, it put a lot of things that we see as normal/everyday things into a different light – making me question why we don’t have a system that treats people more fairly. Also, I was constantly thinking about what I was going to say in English – making sure not to use too large of words (though I’m sure she would have known the meaning of them) as well as to make sure my grammar was correct.

Lisaetter and her husband have visited the Florida several times because it is warm there she said. She mentioned that when they were in the grocery store she was shocked by the size of milk in the U.S. She had never seen such a large amount of milk packaged before. In the Swedish grocery stores, they sell ½ gallon sized milk in a cardboard box type package. The milk here only lasts about a week, whereas at home it would last 1.5 – 2 weeks. She also commented that she was confused why there weren’t always walkways for pedestrians. I told her that most people in the U.S. drive everywhere they need to go. Then she said that makes sense because the highways had so many lanes she couldn’t believe it!

Sophie had just taken a test in school where she had to have a conversation with her teacher in English. She is 12 years and spoke English better than I can/could speak French during high school! She was cute, when she didn’t know a word in English she would giggle and cover her face and say momma! Then after a little help from her mom she would continue to tell us something. The school that Sophie goes to is focused around the outdoors. She spends most of her class time outside. They do activities like skiing, ice skating, etc.

The next train we got on, Sophie and Lisaetter got on too! We ate dinner with them in the dining car. During dinner Lisaetter asked us who we thought would win the election democrat/republicans? We were both very impressed that she was well informed of the presidential race and the candidates. She told us that it is very important to know who is going to take leadership of powerful countries and that whoever wins the presidential race will greatly influence life internationally that it will not just affect the U.S. We were humbled and enlightened by this comment. Both Jon and I felt that we are arrogant to not know about the politics of other countries. Yet, there are plenty of Americans who do not care about who is going to be the next president – or care enough to vote. Same on us as a country was the first thing that came to my mind. Living over here has definitely opened our eyes to the “World”. Being in the U.S. I think we are so secluded from the rest of the powerful countries of the world we often get caught up in only U.S. issues and fail to notice what happens elsewhere. When we go home, I think we will view our life, our country and what we value much differently.

Luckily, on the way home, everyone got off the train, so we were left just Jon & I in our seats so we each sprawled out across 3 seats and fell right to sleep. At 7am we pulled into Uppsala. We walked home and Jon got ready for work!

We really enjoyed the Ice Hotel and Dog sledding. This trip was something that we will always remember. I believe there is an Ice Hotel in Canada….a little closer to home….we recommend if you ever get a chance – the Ice Hotel and dog sledding will not let you down!