Go straight to the pictures

Icehotel 2010 was great.  This year I met people from Australia, England, Idaho, Ireland, Namibia, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and many others places I can’t remember.  I did take pictures of the rooms, but they didn’t do them justice.  And, unfortunately, the Icehotel modified their site so you can't see all the rooms from previous years.  But you can see a slide show of  past rooms here.  To see more pictures that I and others took, go here. Mobile blog, here.


Day one:  I arrived in Kiruna on February 28th.  I had originally chosen to snowmobile in from the airport, but that got switched since I was the only one who wanted to do it.  (Icehotel policy is a minimum of two people for a tour to start.)  So I did the bus transfer.  Before I got on the shuttle, I tried to get a picture of dog sled parking.  But no one elected to do the dog sled transfer either so none were there.


 After the 15 minute ride to the Icehotel, I checked in, dumped my bag in my room and headed off to the ABSOLUT ICEBAR JUKKASJÄRVI.  A few things to note, there are three reception desks at the Icehotel:  One for those checking into warm accommodations, one for those checking into cold accommodations, and one in the Icehotel.  I stayed in a warm accommodation the first night.  My room was pretty much the same as the room I had last year.


On my way to the Icebar, I did the tourist thing and took a few pictures.  While taking a few, one of the bartenders from last year, Frederick, recognized me.  So of course, I had to go into the Icebar.  I was going to have a few but Frederick informed me that Sweden has zero tolerance on drunk driving.  This includes snowmobiles.  Good to know since I was going on the Snowmobile Northern Light tour a few hours later. (They have many snowmobile tours.  You can see an overview here.)   I left the Icebar and headed up to the Icehotel lounge for a reindeer sandwich (I love these) and a hot glass of Lingonberry juice (non-alcoholic).  Later, off the Northern Light tour.


The Snowmobile Northern Light tour was what they switched me to in place of the snowmobile airport transfer.  They also gave it to me at the same price of the transfer which was a great deal because it cost more.  The tour started at 7 PM.  At that time it was dark and the temperature was -15ºC (5ºF) not including wind chill (which is much worst when you’re on a snowmobile).  We got helmets and after a brief introduction to snowmobiles, we drove off.  As it turned out, there were an odd number of people so I got my own.  Normally that costs extra so the switch worked big time in my favor.  Speeding across the frozen river, up and down hills, through a tunnel and the forest was fun.  I did manage to get a few pictures.  Sometime later we stopped for dinner (sandwich, moose goulash, cake, etc.) at a wilderness camp.  Dinner was gooood.  Afterwards we drove back to the Icehotel.  We got there around 11 PM.  Surprisingly, instead of going to the Icebar, I went back to my room and went to sleep.  


Day two:  I slept in a bit late.  Once up, I packed my bag, walked over to reception and checked out of my warm accommodation.  Then I walked about 100 yards to check in at reception for a cold accommodation.  That night I would be sleeping in an Art Suite.  There are three types of cold accommodations to choose from:


*  Snow room – A simple room with only a bed.  The only difference between snow rooms is the size of the bed.  Beds can sleep 1-4 people.


*  Ice room – Ice rooms have a bed and ice furniture (2 ice chairs and an ice table).  All ice rooms are the same.


*  Art suite – Art suites are designed by different artists.  No two art suites are the same.  


During check in to cold accommodations, you are given a key to your locker or changing room.  The lockers and changing rooms are where you store your luggage.  You don’t want to have your luggage in a cold accommodation because it will freeze.  People staying in snow or ice rooms get lockers.  People staying in art suites get changing rooms.  


After checking into my art suite I walked over to the Icehotel restaurant for lunch.  (Yes, they have hot food.)  It was a buffet lunch which included salmon prepared 5 different ways, reindeer, potatoes, roast beef, lamb, and a lot of other stuff I can’t remember.  It was excellent.  


I finished lunch and went back to the Icehotel to look at my art suite, other art suites, and to take a few pictures.  My main purpose was to see if I wanted to change rooms.  Unless you’re reserving the Deluxe Art Suite, you can’t choose your suite when making reservations.  Depending when you made the reservation, the rooms probably don’t exist yet.  If they do exist, pictures probably haven’t been taken yet so you have no idea what your choices are.  However, if they have vacancies, you can switch rooms.  I looked at all the art suites, saw a couple that I liked better than my suite, went to the reception desk, checked availability and switched rooms.  My original suite was 303 “Spooning”.  I switched to suite 313 “Melted Geometry”.  Once my room was switched, I did some tourist type stuff (shopping), then off the Icebar.  


The Absolut Icebar is the place where tourists come to during, and occasionally after, their tour.  Guests usually show up after finishing an activity, or just to kill time until they head off to dinner or to bed.  (My explanation of the difference between guests and tourists: Guests are actually staying at the Icehotel.  Tourists come in a bus, take the tour (of which there are many), then leave on the bus.)  It’s open from 1:00 – 1:00.  Drinks are served in glasses made of ice, except for the hot drinks.  They’re served in plastic cups.  All alcoholic beverages are made with some variety of Absolut (hence the name of the bar), and I think they have them all:

                    Vodka                    Apeach                    Citron    
                    Pears                    Ruby Red                  Peppar
                    Raspberri               Kurant                      Mango
                    Vanilia                   Mandrin    

They also have non-alcoholic stuff for kids.  


I stayed in the bar for a while.  I watched several groups of tourists come and go.  Took pictures with, for, of, a lot of people.  (I’ll probably be on Facebook pages of a lot of people I don’t know.)  I ended up going to dinner with a nice Swedish couple.  They were the reason I was late to the webcam.  


The webcam went well.  I found out later a large number of you saw me even though I was late.  Thanks.  I also found out some never got my emails or texts.  Sorry, my bad.  A little mistake I made when setting up the filters.  Things went much better Wednesday.  Thanks to those who watched that one too.  After the webcam, I went back to the Icebar for a bit.  Then I retired to my art suite.  


They have a lecture to prepare people for sleeping in the Icehotel.  It’s optional but I think it’s a good thing for people to attend.  “How to sleep well in -5˚C.”  When it’s time to go to bed, you leave your clothes in your locker or changing room and just wear your thermals.  You should also leave your boots and borrow another pair from the front desk when you pick up your sleeping bag.  (That way you’ll have a warm pair of boots to wear the next day.)  So I made my trek from the warm building to the cold building, put my bag on my bed and after a few adjustments, went to sleep.  The bags are quite warm.  They recommend you also wear a hat but I couldn’t do it because it was too warm.  I wore socks but also ended up taking them off because they were also too warm.  


Day three:  At 7:30 AM I was awakened by one of the hotel guides bringing hot Lingonberry juice.  (They don’t throw you out of your room until 8:30 AM.  They need to get the room ready for tours which usually start around 10:00 AM.)  It wasn’t really a problem to sleep in the Icehotel.  Getting up in the morning was tough.  The sleeping bag was nice and toasty and I really didn’t want to leave it.  I laid there for about 15 minutes before I got up and made the trek back over to the warm building.  As with last year, I got a diploma for surviving a night in the Icehotel.  I opted not to go to the free breakfast buffet after getting dressed.  That morning’s activity was dog sledding, which was about to start relatively soon.  


Dog sledding, my mellow activity.  I sit in the sled and take pictures while the dogs and their handler do all the work.  I was much better taking pictures from a moving dog sled than I was last year.  It was still fun though.  Just before we start, the dogs are barking and generally going crazy.  As soon as they start running, they’re quiet, they’re happy, life is good.  We stop at another camp, more snacks and drinks.  Then back to the hotel.  


I returned to my room in the warm accommodation after dog sledding.  I decided to get a little rest before my next event:  The Northern Light tour by horseback.  The tour started with a 40 minute ride to the stable.  The horses were Icelandic.  I took a few pictures but not as many as I wanted.  That’s because I haven’t mastered the fine art of taking a picture while riding a horse.  (Something to learn in the future.)  I thought we would just be riding through the forests and hills at night followed by a big meal.  We actually got assigned horses which we brushed, saddled and bridled.  (My horse was named “Sprækur”)  Then we rode them through the forests and hills in the cold, dark night.  It wasn’t pitch black.  You could see the stars and you knew if the person in front of you ducked, it was probably due to a low branch and you should duck too.  Though I would have totally missed the moose if my horse hadn’t pointed it out to me.  After the ride, we had a huge meal of wraps, moose stew, bread, cake, and lingonberry juice.  We got to relax a little bit before being taken back to the Icehotel.  Of course, I went to the Icebar for a couple before going to bed.  


Day four:  This was the day I got to play tourist.  I slept in until lunch.  I had a nice lunch at the Icehotel restaurant.  I walked around the resort and took a few pictures.  (Here’s a map of the resort.)  I went shopping and bought the obligatory Icehotel souvenirs.  I went back to the Icehotel and took more pictures just in case I missed something.  (Of course, I did miss something.)  Later I went to the Icehotel lounge for dinner.  There I met another bartender who remembered me from last year, Angelica.  I stayed in the Icehotel lounge for a while.  But of course I could not end my last night in the Icehotel without going to the Icebar.

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