LAPPLAND

The group.

Inside Kiruna Church.

Kiruna Church. This building is considered to be one of Sweden's most beautiful buildings in all it's history.

Heading NORTH.

Last weekend, I went with 8 others to Kiruna, Lappland, Sweden, located North of the Arctic Circle! It was a truly amazing trip. We saw the northern lights, went snowmobiling, visited a couple of old viking churches, went dogsledding, and saw the Ice hotel. Needless to say, it was a trip packed with exciting adventures, and I loved every minute!

Since blogspot only allows me to put up 5 pictures per post, I decided to make multiple posts from each "excursion" so that you could see more of what we did. This one has some pictures from Kiruna, our "base" town during the trip. ENJOY!

Northern Lights

Wow.

I still can't believe it.

Reindeer meat, potatoes, and lingonberry sauce. It doesn't look very good, but it was tasty!

Trying to get warm after being in the -25 C cold.

We looked ridiculous. But we were warm! Or at least as warm as we could be :)

On Wednesday night, we went on a Northern Lights snowmobiling tour. We met the guides at 6:00, and quickly put on what seemed like 50 lbs. of clothing...overalls, hats, gloves, glove liners, masks, goggles, you name it. If it was designed to keep a person warm, we had it. 

We loaded into a couple of vans and headed out away from the town to the "home base" of the tour group where all of the snowmobiles are kept. As we headed out, we watched the temperature drop...and drop...and drop. By the time we arrived at the "station" it was around -25 degrees Celsius. So pretty chilly. 

We were given some quick instructions on how to operate a snowmobile, and then we set off. There were two people per machine, and I drove first. We went through various landscapes including wooded areas with narrow paths, and wide open spaces. At one point, we stopped in the middle of a huge open area, and everyone turned off their engines. Everything was pitch black except for the sky. It was filled with brilliantly shining stars. Really, they were absolutely FILLING the sky. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. We could see a few planets and some constellations. We were in a living planetarium. Gorgeous.

After trying to comprehend the beauty of what we had just seen, we got back on our snow mobiles and continued on our way. After about 7 more Km, we came to hut in the woods where we would eat dinner. Our guide made a fire, and we tried to warm up a bit. For dinner, we had reindeer meat and potatoes with lingonberry sauce. For dessert we had cloud berries. It was delicious. I never thought I would feel that way about eating rudolf, but it was really good :)

Soon afterwards, our guide told us to quickly go outside. As we stepped out of the cabin, we looked through the trees, and there they were: the northern lights. It was INCREDIBLE. The were bright green and were slowly moving in a swivel-y fashion. The guide soon discovered that I had a digital SLR, and we quickly set up a hand-made tripod to attempt to capture a few shots. As you can see, we were successful! 

Later, our guide told us it was one of the clearest nights of the year. Unbelievable. I still can't comprehend that I saw the NORTHERN LIGHTS with my own eyes. Oh man. Amazing. :)

Doglsedding

Off we go!

Preparation...

Pro.

The eyes! The BLUE BLUE eyes!

One of my many new friends :)

On Friday we went on a dogsledding tour! It was so much fun. We were picked up from our hostel around 10:00am, and then were taken to the kennels where all of the dogs are kept. There, we were able to get bundled up (again:) and help the guides get the dogs ready for the ride. By the time they were all hooked up they were going crazy with excitement. It was really pretty funny to watch them jumping up and down and barking like crazy! 

Soon, we were off. We had two sleds with 10 dogs pulling each one. My sled held three people plus the driver. I was in the middle spot, so i got a pretty good view. 

We went up and down hills, through open spaces and wooded areas, and down some pretty major bumps before we stopped at a tepee for fika. There we were able to "get to know" some of the dogs and just relax a bit. We found out during the break that we had actually signed up for a "combination tour" so we snowmobiled back. Fortunately, everyone in our group was really laid back about it, and we had a great time!

ICEHOTEL

400 year old Viking church in Jukkasjärvi

The Ice Church.

 

One of the best rooms...in my opinion :)

 

Ice Bar.

ICEHOTEL

On Saturday we took a 30 minute bus ride to Jukkasjärvi to see the ICEHOTEL. Wow. It was pretty crazy. Every December, a new hotel is built. It takes approximately 2 months to construct, and then in April, it takes about 2 months to melt. The ice is taken from the Torne River, which runs behind the hotel, and is considered to be one of the purest rivers in all of Europe. Its gentle flow and purity give the ice a crystal blue appearance with little to no bubbles. The ice is truly beautiful. Never thought I would say that about ice! 

Every season, a couple hundred artists submit their room deign ideas to the ICEHOTEL, and about 35 or so are chosen to construct their rooms in the hotel. Its pretty cool because there is a lot of variety. Also, the chapel is a new creation every year. This year it had the theme of "woods". Surprisingly enough, it is a popular place to get married! Bah! -5 C is a liiiiittle cold for me, thanks. :)

We also visited a church in Jukkasjärvi dating back to the Vikings 400 years ago. It is the oldest church in Lapland, and has some pretty neat history behind it as well.