Sweden day 4: Ice Hotel and the long snowy walk

This is on 27th march, day 59:

Azri and I woke up early in the morning to finish our breakfast and catch the 10 am bus to the Ice-Hotel. We had booked the hostel for 3 nights. but we cancelled the following night since we were planning to stay at Abisko. We met this Singaporean girl, Calista at the corridor the day before and she told us where to take the bus. It was great to find a singaporean so far away from any signs of singaporean civilisation! We had a long talk till early morning the night before! So, we woke up kinda tired and all that and eventually ended up running like retarded sled dogs to the bus station to catch the bus!

It was kinda dissappointing since the first stop was the kiruna train station which was nearer to our hostel. The driver waited for a long time in order for a tour group to board the bus. Anyway, we got a fantastic view of kiruna and the surrounding place during the bus journey:

and lo and behold! We finally arrived at the Ice-Hotel!!

Here's first went to get our entrance tics from the shop at the entrance. Then, we went into the rooms and stuff to take pics.

I didn't want to have pics of rooms after rooms. So, I took a video to show the beauty of the place:

After walking for some time, we got tired and rested at the ice-bar for a while. After that, we went to a supermarket to get sth to eat for lunch. It seemed near on the map but it was super far away! Some locals along the way told us to go on. We enjoyed our meal at 3 different places: at the entrance of the store at first (With the warmth), and then in front of a barking dog. It was barking continuously at us for about 5 minutes!! hahaha!

and then at a busstop, where we rested for a while. We then continued to the sami museum and stuff at the end of the road. The Sami are the indigenous people of northern europe.

I was glad to enter into the warmth of the Sami tent. It was about -10 degrees outside throughout our stay there! A warm shelter once in a while is much appreciated! We then went over to see the outside of the famous Jukkasjarvi church. We decided to return to the ice-hotel from behind after that. That means via lake Torne, the very lake from which the ice-hotel was made! But wait! you'll have to check out the playground nearby:

and now for a video of snowy wilderness. Just imagine being lost in such a place!

This was the part of the lake that they were digging at that time. I read that the ice is of a superb quality!

and then, we got back to the ice-hotel to have fun with the sledges and to visit the church.

And then, there weren't any other place to visit. So, we decided to go off to the bus stop to wait for the return bus to Kiruna.

We were supposed to go down to Abisko that day to try to see the northern lights. But, we found out that we missed the trains to that place for that day. So, we decided to go back to our hostel and ask the grumpy owner if we can have back our rooms for that night :P Azri had to pay for another set of linens and yes, he got even grumpier :P anyway, we plotted a route on our map and set off towards snowy forests for that night, with a bit of hope to catch the northern lights. We walked on till we found this:

and then, we walked on for about an hour. It was dark, foresty, although there was some kind of a path ahead of us. There was a faint ski-track by the side but that disappeared as we got into the foresty parts. So, these parts were not very good for photo taking. But there are a few things worth writing about. Firstly, it was so cold that Azri and I started wearing heatpacks. We came across few campers. I didn't really see them cos it was too dark, but Azri said he saw them. I could hear sounds though. And.. we heard some wolves howling in the distance :D super exciting!! And there was this time when we heard snow mobiles!! We knew we weren't supposed to be there, walking on foot. So, we decided to hide. But where to hide??!! In the snow of course!! We ran out of the track, into the wilderness and thick snow, upto our knees and just ducked into the snow!! The snowmobiles passed by, but on a track at a distance. We then got up and continued our way back to the hostel.

I somehow wanted to sleep outside for that night. So, I stopped when we were passing by the giant telescope-like structure. There was a bench beside it. I decided to stop there while Azri went back to the hostel to sleep in warm comfort :D I tried to lay out my sleeping bag, but the bench was too narrow. I tried to just lay there and sleep but it was snowing and the snow started getting heavier. The snow on my was melting and making my jacket wet. I was starting to feel cold despite my heatpacks. So, I concluded that sleeping outside was a crazy idea and decided to go back. I found this campsite place that was open on the way back and decided to drop in to warm myself.

I should have stayed there for about half an hour. I was very glad that no one chased me out! And then.. I got chased by a couple of dogs along the way back to my hostel. haha, but yeah.. I eventually reached my hostel and found calista and gang looking over the photos of their trip to a neighbouring Nowegian city. I was too tired to join them, but I had too, since Azri was bathing at that time. He had the keys to the room. We then met and went to sleep :D Home sweet home!