9

 

Ah, the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, 200 km North of the Arctic Circle. Half the fun is getting there! But not really, getting there was the worse, in fact we barely made it. Trains were cancelled we bussed back in forth for a while, tried to catch a different train from a station where passenger trains no longer stop, before heading back to where we started to catch another bus. We missed our transfer, waited four hours in a very, very, extremely cold train station in Luleå, and had to take a cab from Kiruna to the Ice Hotel - luckily the nice people at SJ (the Swedish train company) paid for our cab! When we finally arrived we didn't have a lot of time to spend there but we did enjoy the time we had. Since we couldn't afford any fancy tours while we were there anyways, we spent our evening roaming through the open rooms (and roaming accidentally into occupied rooms), drinking out of ice glasses in the ice bar (pictured) and trying to spot the Northern Lights in minus 30 degree weather. It's not something I'll do again, it wasn't the most peaceful sleep in my life, but it was definitely worth seeing.

Aside from the special Swedish traditions we experienced on a very special New Years Eve in Bjurholm, this is the first of many great memories from 2011, but definitely not the last! 

This countdown to Christmas is fun and such a nice way to relive my happy memories from the last year!