Linkopi @ Linköping

the town area was pretty cool. they had snow and ice sculptures everywhere! imagine putting an ice sculpture in the middle of orchard road. it'll turn into water in no time! we finally got to shower and rest after supper and to prepare ourselves for day 2.

Day 2 - 3: into the wilderness we go!

the snow at kiruna is very different from the snow we get at linkoping. the snow in kiruna were like glitters and forms fluffy piles instead of a solid block of snow. and they cannot be used to make snowballs at all! but every snow flake was clear and defined. i miss the kiruna snow already. the main highlight of our trip was the tour we booked from http://www.taubeactivity.com/Nothern.htm . a cab picked us up at 9am and off into the wild we went. it was literally the middle of nowhere since we were all surrounded by snow mountains and snow covered trees. when we arrived, we went into this little cabin in small groups to put on our cold clothes: jumpsuits and winter boots. and we didn't take them off till day 3! the boots were really good 'coz the sole's very thick then you won't get cold from standing in the snow and the pants were good too. the only problem was that the boots were cold when we put our already cold feet in so it resulted in even colder feet which made us all miserable.

the first thing that was on the itenary were dog sleds and snow mobiles to take us to the "campsite". we had to guide the dogs to the sleds from the little boxes they call home. the dogs were really excited to be out of the boxes and were making a hell lot of noise and peeing and pooping everywhere! and it was really really smelly! bb got to lead a doggy and it's a good thing it was really obedient and easy to lead. Henrik, the mastermind behind taube activities, said that these dogs are programmed to pull sleds by nature and would be really excited to do so. and true to his words, once the dogs were tied to the sleds, they started yelping and jumping around, ready to dash. the yellow patches on the snow are....dog pee! haha. smelly dog pee. but the dogs were really pitiful, them being so tiny and having to pull big fat humans like us. it's something i'll never do again after this trip but dog sleds are very common in lapland. after a 10km ride switching between snow mobiles and dog sleds(which bb drove and i sat), we finally reached the place we would stay in for the night.

the campsite was made up of wooden huts. one was the main kitchen, one's a bbq house, another was a sauna and a couple of huts for people to stay in. since we had the biggest group there, we got to stay in the really special lappish hut, along with these 2 really fun german guys we met at yellow house!

but before we get to rest, we had to chop firewood to keep ourselves warm for the night. it's no easy job really but was a good way to warm ourselves up after being frozen on the ride in.

at first we thought that henrik was only joking with us when we were told to make firewood. we thought it was just for the sake of experience and they would give us proper firewood after we've had our fun. but no!! that was all the firewood we got for the night! thank god we didn't slack off and played in the snow instead. after all the chopping and sawing, it was already 3pm and we finally got our late late lunch in the bbq house. it's a little hut with a fire pit in the middle and a huge chimney to draw the smoke away. there was a roaring fire when we went in and we were so excited to come in from the cold 'coz fire meant warmth! but it didn't really work. haha. we were still cold somehow. lunch was curry seasoned chicken breasts that we had to bbq for ourselves with grills and rice and tomato sauce. it was delicious! maybe 'coz we were really cold and hungry. haha. here's bb grilling chicken for me:

by the time we were done with lunch, the skies had already turned dark and we finally moved our stuff into the hut and settled down. the boys began to try lighting the fire place. there was this "instruction manual" given on the table but they concluded that it was generally unhelpful. so in the end, they used toilet paper, old phone books and a couple of matches and managed to get the fire going. that's the hut that we stayed in and the interior of it. there's even a kitchen in that little hut! the entire hut is built out of wood and stone. there are 2 "bedrooms" with one 3 layer bunk bed each and another bed on the other side. there was a "living room" with a table and 2 benches. it was fun to be chatting by candle light around the fireplace. it's like living in the past. we sat around till dinner time trying to gain back the feeling in our toes and chatting with Martin and Daniel, our new found german friends who also study in Linkoping! a couple of guys staying in another cabin also came to check out the hut and we just sat around and talked until we realized that dinner was ready.

dinner was reindeer stew. reindeer meat is very common in lapland where the reindeers are. according to the reindeer keeper, Stek, all the reindeers in sweden are owned by people. meaning there are no wild reindeers around. he also said that reindeer meat could be found in the supermarkets and i checked it out yesterday..it's true! it was about 250kr for a rather huge chunk! reindeer meat is very very low in fat and high in nutrition content by the way. it is also good for keeping the body warm which is why the Sami eat is 'coz saying warm is difficult in the very very cold lapland. the reindeer stew tasted pretty good but the smell was a little too overwhelming for me. it had the muttonish stench. but the stew was really very good in keeping the body warm. everyone started shedding their jackets and scarves and everything a little while into the meal. there are also various stuffed game and a huge bear skin in the kitchen. the 2 guys who worked there even joked that the bear's Henrik's wife. haha.

before i forget, the water in our water bottles were pretty much completely frozen from sitting out in the cold for almost the whole day. that's how cold the weather is. it's hard to explain the coldness when we are from a tropical country. but the temperature difference was a good 50 degC! by now, you should be wondering what we did when nature called, since it's unlikely that there's a sewage system in the wild complete with flushing system, etc. well, there is a toilet for girls, where it was basically a bottomless pit but at least it's in a nice and warm house so you don't have to expose yourself to the cold. for the boys, there was a very special 'P' zone. not parking zone, but pee zone, where they just peed into the snow. what better way to complete the prehistoric experience! back to the happenings of the day. after dinner, we walked down to the torne river in hope to see the northern lights but it was simply too cloudy and we gave up to return to the warmth of our hut. we sat around summore, while teckie and robin pit against each other in english chess and pearline dashing in and out of the hut to see if the sky cleared up. when we were sure that the lights weren't gonna show up, we went to sleep in the cushy sleeping bags on reindeer fur.

i woke up the next day to bb making coffee and tea. we all slept surprisingly well 'coz the sleeping bag was so cosy. it was difficult trying to get out of bed and leaving the warmth of the sleeping bags. but fear not! i had my toe heating pads that my mummy so kindly bought for me.

haha..they're really good! i had warm and normal feeling toes the whole day!

back to breakfast, we had some spiced bread, butter, cheese and marmalade. we also had the falukorv and sausages left over from the previous day's breakfast which were well frozen and preserved in the cold. it's quite funny really, how the ice box is used to keep stuff warm instead of keeping them cold.

after breakfast, we made our way out to have some fun. lucky for us, it was only about -10 degC that day so we could enjoy ourselves more instead of desperately trying to keep ourselves warm.

Stek was with a couple of people in the reindeer pens, teaching them how to lasso a reindeer. The reindeer were quite scary looking with their very very long antlers and they were quite big, kind of like a small pony.

later in the day, bb and me both got to help stek pull a reindeer each from the pens to the kitchen area. i was lucky to get the one without horns and it was very cooperative. bb got the fiercest reindeer of the lot which refused to move. the reindeers are really really strong. even Stek had to cling on to a tree to pull them along.

we went down to the torne river to try some ice fishing and just frolick around in the snow after watching the reindeers. everyone virtually became a little kid, jumping around and rolling around in the snow.

we didn't get any fish probably 'coz the hole was too shallow. but i finally got to make snow angels! and bb became a snow angel addict! haha. it's good exercise. the frozen torne river was really beautiful, being surrounded by trees and mountains. if only i had skates with me! i'd love to skate around on the perfectly clear and smooth ice! but just like in the fairy tales, the ice really does crack and our dear friend Daniel learnt it the hard way. He was at another fishing hole trying to get some fish when he fell in and none of us knew until we went back for lunch! poor thing was really shocked and drenched.

after having our fun on the river for almost 2 hours, we went back to the kitchen for a yummy lunch of smoked reindeer in cream sauce on pasta.

if you ever had the chance to try reindeer, try it! it's really good and doesn't taste like anything else.

there was a little slope next to the sauna and we had alot of fun sliding down the slope on little plastic sleds after lunch.

it was really really fun! we have videos of each of us sliding down the slope, laughing and shrieking like little kids. haha. imagine watching them 10 years down the road and laughing at ourselves.

well, good things have to come to an end somehow and we left the place at about 4pm after taking a couple of group photos. that's us in front of our lappish hut with Daniel and Martin behind Pearline and Juanito, a mexican guy next to bb.

that's us with the reindeer keeper, Stek. check out his boots! they're made of reindeer fur! in fact, so are his pants!

we left the campsite the same way we came in. by dog sleds and snow mobiles. this time, i got to drive a snow mobile and a dog sled! the snow mobile is really easy and great fun while the dog sled was tough 'coz the dogs are so strong and also 'coz the dogs were tired after the way in and just stopped any time they wanted to pee and poop. a dog from teckie and pearline's sled even broke it's harness and tried to run away. and a dog from our sled got one foot stuck in the chains. thank god it didn't break its leg or something.

we finally got out of the boots and jumpsuits, claimed our stuff and Henrik drove us back to civilisation. By this time, my camera had died due to the cold and photos will be updated once i get them from the rest. anyhow, here's a photo of Henrik. bb think he looks like a mafia boss. haha.

i think he looks a little bit like santa claus. but he's a nice man anyways.

it was Chinese New Year's Eve that night. after we got to the apartment and put our stuff down, we set off to the supermarket to buy our reunion dinner. haha. this is part of the reason of this trip. so that we can have a reunion dinner of some sort and spend new year together.

we had tomyum soup with chicken thighs and mushroom and lettuce, onion omelette and mushroom omelette, baked honey glazed chicken thighs, and 9 cakes of 'egg noodles', also known as maggie mee! and ice cream and cocktail for dessert. what a reunion dinner! haha. but it's the company that mattered. we had our dinner and chatted while keeping a look out for northern lights which eventually didn't appear 'coz it was too cloudy again. everyone finally got to shower and went to bed after a tiring day.

day 4-5: Ice Hotel!

i was awakened by the sounds of dogs howling and yelping. there was a bunch of them being herded into their boxes downstairs. probably getting ready for another tour.

after a strange reunion dinner, we made ourselves a good breakfast of toast, french toast, more falukorv and blueberry tea.

after breakfast, we set off for ice hotel. we had to walk to the bus station which was about 15 minutes away. it was once again a very cold -20 degC day. =( the bus station was a very cute, 70s kind of building. the houses in Kiruna are very interesting and different from the ones over here in the south. i really like the house in the middle photo. it looks like a house out of some tacky cowboy movie. haha. and the 3 houses that look like traffic lights too.

we got to ice hotel after a half hour bus ride, on which i called my family to wish everyone Happy Chinese New Year. it was great to hear my mum, dad and grandma sounding so happy!

Ice Hotel is actually a kind of resort place, with alot of cabins by the Torne river. Torne river is 600km long btw. Every year in winter, they will build a giant igloo with the Torne river ice, which is the Ice Hotel. I've read about this ice hotel since i was in my secondary school days and have always dreamt of visiting it. It was really magnificent and it really is a giant igloo. They opened the suites and rooms for visiting everyday and i took like 100 photos at the hotel. the 2 photos at the bottom of the collage are the entrances of the Ice Cathedral and the Ice Hotel respectively.

As you enter the ice hotel, this is what greets you:

Really amazing right? I havent edited this photo at all. This is really how the place looks. It's entirely made out of snow and ice. it's even more amazing to be there in person. here's a close up shot of the ice chandelier that hangs in the main hall: it's really made out of ice. not crystal. and it's really beautiful.

i'm sure many of you have already heard of Absolute Ice Bar. it's in the same igloo but in a different wing from the one in the rooms and suites. it's lounge chairs and tables are carved out of ice and cushioned with reindeer skin.

Obviously they only serve vodka there and there are no fewer than 9 flavours. there's even a pepper flavoured vodka that i'm sure aren't in the Singaporean stores.

we spent some time looking into every suite in the ice hotel. each suite is designed by a different artist from over the world and all had different themes. they were all very nice and looked like giant ice sculptures. the photos are simply too many to put into the blog! we had fun lying on the ice bedsand being silly. and guess what? each room even had a light switch. it's really quite amazing.

The Torne river ice is really clean and clear. It's like glass, only really really cold glass. I would bring a piece back with me if i could. haha.

there's bb looking out onto the frozen river.

the really clear skies tempted us to stay for one more night in hope of seeing the northern lights but we couldn't cancel our train tickets in the end so home we went. the train ride home seemed much shorter than the one there 'coz we all stretched out on 3 seats and slept for most of the way.

We eventually got back to stockholm at 12noon and parted with teckie and pearline. Bb and me then wandered around stockholm till 7pm when we catched the train back to Linkoping. But stockholm shall be for another post.

Tack so mycket to Pearline for organising this wonderful trip! You should consider opening a tour agency in future! See you soon yah?

Okies! time for me to do something more constructive after spending a good 5 hours on this post. Hope you all enjoyed the photos! I will upload them onto some website soon enough. Happy Chinese New Year again! =))

luv, jL

* more photos have been uploaded to here!