Lapland

Friday-  Hung around all day before our train at 10PM.  We thankfully had a sleeping cabin so we stayed up for a few hours then were able to get some descent sleep until we had to switch trains at about 10AM.  We then took a 3 hour train from Boden to Kiruna.

Met my new bestfriend

Saturday-  We arrived to Kiruna at about 2pm and it was snowing pretty hard.  The town of Kiruna was pretty ugly because it has a huge iron mine right in the middle of it but the outside of the town was amazing with all the mountains and forest.  Our first night we had a 5 person cabin.  We checked in at the camp named Camp Alta and got ready for some dog sledding.  The temperature was probably about 20F but the people that worked there said a couple weeks prior it was -40C which is also -40F for about a week. Some people were late so we got to play with the husky puppies which was so much fun.  When we finally got the whole group together a group of 4 of us sat on the dogsled and we cruised through the forest.  The dogs were freaking out before they were able to run.  I think all 30 of dogs between the 2 sleds were howling to start running but once they were running they went completely silent.  They took us to a tent in the forest and we were given soup and a sandwich and hoped to see the northern lights.  The sky was clear but we couldn't see much at first then a little streak in the sky appeared but then disappeared in about 5 minutes.  We left the tent and during the ride a very faint greenish blue line appeared again but wasn't anything special.  The dogs pulled us about 20km.  I was getting a little disappointed until we got back to the camp and I looked up and saw a huge green line and asked the guide "is that what we're looking for?"

dog sledding

Staying warm outside the tent

The line didn't move much at first but started to get larger and larger until it took up a large portion of the sky.  The lights then started to change colors to orange and purple and kind of danced around the sky.  I had always thought that the aurora borealis was like a lighted cloud and didn't really move but I learned quickly that they are quite active.  It was amazing and completed one of the goals I had when I came to Sweden.  The pictures don't capture the color very well or the magnitude of the lights but they give a pretty good idea of what they looked like. The next night was cloudy so thankfully we got a great show Saturday night.   

start of the aurora borealis

starting to expand

amazing

Sunday-  Sunday was our snowmobiling day. Franzi and I shared a snowmobile as you had to pay extra to drive your own.  It also wasn't cold at all so we were very lucky with that. We went on a lake then through a narrow trail onto another lake which is where the Ice Hotel was.  I thought the Ice Hotel was in the middle of no where but there was a little town surrounding it.  It is a major attraction to the area and basically runs the economy in that town.  We learned that the Ice Hotel is actually made of man made snow and it changes every year as it melts every year.  It takes 6-8 weeks to open and opens around Christmas and closes in April when it melts which takes about 2 months.  Artists apply to make one of the 20 luxurious rooms.  There are also 40 other "snow rooms" as well as an ice bar and a church where about 100 weddings occur each year.  The temperature is kept around-5 to -10 Celsius so that melting doesn't occur on the inside.  

Me inside the ice hotel lobby

reindeer fir is on the bed for warmth

car bed

Jesse snowmobiling

dinner with the crew minus jesse

We then snowmobiled back and then Jesse and I cross-country skied around the lake which was 9km so about 6 miles.  I had never cross-country skied before but I picked it up pretty fast skiing considering I downhill skied about 50 days a year growing up.  We made it around the lake before dark and then made dinner and ate it in our little cabin.  We had to change to 2 three person cabins the second night.  After dinner we made a fire down by the lake and went to bed pretty early.  

x-country skiing

Monday-  Took the train at about 1pm to 4pm then switched trains in Boden again.  We got on the train at 5pm and got off at 5am in Uppsala. That was also a sleeper cabin so we were able to get some good sleep.  Walked home and then went back to bed as the travel was pretty tiring.