Author: Yellow Duckie
•23:19
I have been to countries where the temperature drops below freezing point. However, I could never imagine how cold it can be at the temperature of minus (-) 25ºC. It’s unimaginable. Just the day before I was soaking calmly in the temperature of plus 25 ºC and some of my friends thinks that I am beyond my sanity when I told them of my vacation plan to the Northern part of Sweden during the coldest month of the year, February. My motivation: The Northern Light (Norrsken) or also known as the Aurora Borealis.

Arrival at the Kiruna Airport

I was all prepared (so I thought): A set of thermal, a layer of cashmere and in additional to that, another layer of fleece before putting on my thick skiing jacket and 3 layers for my bottom. It didn’t take more than 5 minutes at the outdoor to realize that I needed more warm clothing to shield me from the wrath of the wicked snow queen. I literally hard ice formed around my eyes and inside my nostrils.

The view from the plane as it descent was simply breathe taking. It looks as though God accidentally pour a bucket of white sand all over creating ripple like patterns on the ground amongst the pine tree.

Still overwhelmed by the beauty of the landscape of the North from the sky, I find myself surrounded by a group of British travelers (given the fact that now there is a direct flight from London to Kiruna, British are the only travelers I bump into) on my way to the world famous work of architecture of the Nordic, the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi (“järvi” means lake in swedish).
Inside the Ice Chapel

Built by the ice freezes from the Torne River, this piece of “art” is simply stunning. Each block of ice indicates the cleanliness of the river and you definitely feel safe to just lick any part of the hotel (of course, not the ground you are trampling on). The design of each year is different and this year, instead of an arch roof, they did a flat one. This is the 19th design (the 19th year).


It’s hard to imagine how one could get comfortable sleeping in the temperature of -5 degree but I supposed it’s an experience. There are art suites where artist from all over the world are invited to decorate it with their own theme and be sweep off by their creativity.


I believe that if my fingers and toes didn’t start to hurt and threatened to leave me any time soon, I would have enjoyed my visit more.


Night View of the Ice Hotel
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1 comments:

On February 16, 2009 at 2:30:00 AM GMT+3 , Anonymous said...

Good blog.
Portugal