Day 2 of our Sweden Adventure!

Day 2 Tuesday April 7th, 2015: When you stay in the Icehotel overnight, you literally only stay for the night and get out by 10am the next morning because they let people come in and tour the rooms. You can stay more than one night but you have to turn in your sleeping bag every morning so it's not left on the bed and then get it back the following night. Because they want to make sure you're up and out by this time, they send someone in between 7:30am and 8am to wake you and give you some hot ligonberry juice (it is delicious! It's one of their berries that grow there). But you see we were nowhere in sight when this juice arrived (they probably thought we were wimps who couldn’t handle it) because we had our own wakeup call at 7am...I had to pee. I HAD TO PEE REALLY BAD. And it didn't help that I had to untie the knot without my gloves, so my hands were cold then unzip the sleeping bag, wiggle out, get my shoes on, and walk to the dressing room. Oh AND as I was walking out someone stopped me and asked if I'd snap a picture for her, so being the nice person I was I did. Only she wanted several. And I. Had. To. Pee. Finally after she was finished she said "I can take some for you if you'd like"…my reply "no thanks, I have to pee REALLY bad". She apologized and felt extremely bad for asking. I finally relieved myself and swore that I'd never drink water before bed again. It gets me every time! But their water is so unique that I had to have a glass. Their water flows from the Torne River that is located directly behind the Icehotel which is also where they get all the ice to build with. You can literally go down to the river, when it's not frozen, with a cup and scoop up some water and drink it right there. It's amazing! Anyways, I sit down in front of the fire to warm up a bit and Chance meets up with me (I didn't even wait for him…I had to go). We decided we'd go book our excursions for the next two days then go have breakfast, get ready, go back to our ice room, take pictures and grab our sleeping bag.

Except upon returning to our room we found our sleeping bag had already been picked up and the extra pair of socks I had on the night before (but had taken off because I got snow on them) were missing. We still got our pictures though. We also went through most of the other rooms and it's astounding what the artists can do with snow and ice.



When you first enter the Icehotel this is what you seen.

This is looking back at the front door.

 

Come on, you know you were wondering if we did...but only Chance has evidence against him!

I mean come on, most people can barely make a decently proportioned snowman. The secret to how the snow was not melting fast is it's not really snow. It's what they call snice (snow and ice mixed). They put the snow through this blower machine which mixes it with water and compresses it, making it hold its shape longer and not melt as fast, then blows it out onto the frames they have set up to give the Icehotel its structure. They change the design and structure every year, so no two years will you go and see the exact same thing.
Our first excursion was getting a look into a mushers life by going on a dog sled ride (we had the choice to drive one ourselves or just ride…we decided to just ride and really enjoy it), having lunch, going to the kennel, then back to the resort. It was a four hour excursion which took up the first half of the day. We lucked out because we were the only ones on this excursion. Our musher/guide picked us up at the resort with the huskies ready. Walking to them, we learned that they aren't huskies like our husky, a pure bred Siberian husky. These are Alaskan huskies, mixed breed dogs, but they are referred to as huskies because of their ability to pull a sled. Some main features a husky has are long legs and as funny as it sounds a long tongue because it helps cool them off. At first I thought this was going to be a romantic ride where maybe me and chance would cuddle up in a sleigh and just enjoy the ride but that thought was quickly gone after the ride began. Not that it wasn't fun, I just really didn't know what to expect so I planned something super romantic. I blame this on movies because they set you up for failure in a real life experience. First off, the sled was just a long piece of wood that you straddle, thankfully having some padding on it with a reindeer skin on top. Second (warning to all those who sit in the front..ahem ME), how do you think huskies potty when pulling a sled for an hour? Yeahhhh. They do that while running too. Nothing flung up on me or anything, well snow did once (yes, it was SNOW), but sometimes I thought it might. Plus it made it stink pretty much the whole time because I could bet that every dog pooped at least once during the ride. That's 11 dogs folks. Past that though, the ride was super peaceful and mind blowing.

 

These dogs were trained to pull hundreds of pounds. Not forcefully either. These dogs were eager to pull us. They couldn't wait. Matter of fact when we stopped for a small break to stretch our legs, the musher thought he had the breaks on good but as we walked toward the sled to get back on, the dogs got super excited and took off! LOL! You should've seen us chasing that sled. Of course the musher got close enough and told them to stop and they did. They listened to the musher without him even yelling. He just spoke in a normal tone and they heard him. The lead dogs, the main ones needing to hear him, are at least 20 feet away. When my kids are just 3 feet away, I still have to raise my voice for them to hear me. Selective hearing they have. Back to the ride. To get to the cabin for lunch you had to go through some wooded area. Let's just say after the bumps and hills we went over, I just knew I was going to step off that sled an inch shorter. No.shocks.what.so.ever. It actually kind of gave me a headache. However, it was still a blast! So we get in the cabin where it's nice and warm. There's no running water or electricity in this cabin so guess what? No bathroom. Just an outhouse and pee tree. No, really. There's a specific tree designated as "the pee tree". Thankfully I hadn't had any water so I was good. There was a SUPER small kitchen (I can't even believe it's considered a kitchen) with a gas burner and a bucket for the sink. They had several big jugs full of river water for drinking or washing purposes. And they heated everything on the wood stove that also heats the cabin. Energy efficient to the extreme. However, this "kitchen" didn't hinder the guides ability to fix a scrumptious lunch. Yes the same GUY who was the musher, fixed our lunch. He brought everything with him in a backpack, except for the main dish...moose! We had a 2 course meal with chips and pretzel sticks as a starter. And these chips were amazing. They looked like plain ruffles chips but they had some kind of seasoning on them. We also had river water and some delicious strawberry Kool-Aid type juice to drink. For the appetizer we had mushroom soup with bread. Now, neither me nor Chance like mushrooms but after being in the cold for an hour with wind smacking you in the face...anything that could warm you up was delicious. Granted it was probably like an MRE powdered packaged soup that you just add water and heat (totally kidding..well I really don't know if it was or wasn't), it really was delicious and he put some spice on top to give it that kick. Talking about it makes me want some now. And the bread...oh.my.goodness. It's not like our square pieces. This looked more like a small pizza crust, but cooked and not tough. Oh man, it was so good. We dipped the bread in the soup and were on cloud 9! Hoping the entree would be half as good as the appetizer, we were served chopped up MOOSE and vegetables with a side of mashed potatoes. The guide told us he was going to give us more meat and fewer potatoes because usually he gives more potatoes and they never get eaten and people always ask for seconds of the meat. Our verdict: it was good. Really good. But not spectacular. To me, it tasted like beef jerky. I liked mixing the meat with my potatoes. When I told him that he kind of looked at me weird and I responded with "it must be an American thing" but if you know me you know I do NOT mix my foods. I need a plate that separates each food and I only eat one food at a time. I guess that was just my cover up on how to tell him it was good just not spectacular. After eating and watching him wash dishes (he washed pans, plates and all in his little "sink" carefully, EXCEPT our cups. I watched him dip them in the soapy water then in the rinsing water and put them up to dry. He didn't actually take a wash cloth to the sides where our lips touched. Immediately I'm thinking “I hope the person who drunk out of these before us doesn't have any diseases or sickness”. I'll just tell myself he was symbolizing a dish washer. Yeah. Dish washers don't use wash clothes either...) we checked out one of the other cabins that you can stay in on an overnight husky excursion in search or the auroras. It was nice but we didn't book that because we had already paid for our rooms at the resort. We then headed off to the kennel. No sooner than the sled started moving Chance got a bad charley horse in his leg, but he just kept his leg stuck straight out and we kept on riding. We get to the kennel and there's over 100 dogs...talk about loud. I don’t know if I believe the musher when he says it's quite at night. But then again, I guess they're usually pretty tired after a long day’s work. See, a bunch of mushers move there from all over Europe every winter to do these excursions and stay at this kennel. Our musher was from Estonia. And actually 3 of the dogs pulling our sled were his. Anyways, again these dogs are super smart. After they were unharnessed they each knew exactly where to go for their kennel...there's a lot of kennels. Usually 2 dogs per kennel, so around 50. After the dogs were put up, the guide showed us around the kennel a little then drove us back to the resort. Surprisingly the roads weren't bad. Of course, these countries are equipped for that kind of weather. We get back around 3pm and hadn't booked any excursions for that night (earlier that morning when we booked our excursions, we originally rented a car –mini cooper to be exact- that belongs to the IceHotel to drive up to Abisko Sky Station. This is the place that I talked about in the very beginning that is the best place to see the Northern Lights. Except we found out after we got back from the dog sledding that they had already closed the Sky Station for the season just a few days prior) so we decided to check in our warm room and then join in on a free tour of the Icehotel (you have to pay if you don't actually stay at the Icehotel) that was in English at 4pm.

This is where we learned about the snice, the Icebar, the church (also made of snow and ice; detached from everything else; and used for weddings and baptisms, no services), and how they build it every year. But the weirdest thing...as we were standing outside the Icebar listening to our guide, we looked up and there was a huge gaping hole in the roof. It had begun melting and collapsing (a huge piece fell in while we were standing beside it).

Later that night when you could really see the hole.

We had noticed that they had 2 x 4’s propped up against the doors that morning so no one could get in, but didn't know why. Plus remember we had just been in there the night before, technically early that morning. But again, it was the very end of the season so this was expected. Oh and remember the night before when we were walking around and I didn't want to lose my life to the dark? Come to find out the church is what was there. Well I didn't know that! So after the tour and going back in the last few rooms we hadn't seen yet, we had already decided we were going to take naps. We're on vacation, no kids...yes, we are getting an uninterrupted nap. Ha, I didn't even sleep but maybe 30 minutes. I was still on a high from the dog sledding excursion.

But of course, Chance dozed right off like always. We get up around 8pm and had dinner reservations at 9pm...late, I know but it was either at 6pm, meaning no naps, or 9pm because the 7:30pm slot was booked. Usually when you're alone and have dinner reservations with your spouse, you try to doll yourself up...yeah, not here. Don't bother packing those super cute dresses with heels because they'll just take up room in your luggage. Remember the fleece pants and sweater I was in the night before? I pretty much wore that under my snow suit the entire time we were there. Sexy right? It was too cold to worry about wearing anything else. We get to the restaurant, look at the menu and agree were going to have to step out of our comfort zone. For an appetizer we got scallops...disgusting. Neither of us liked them. For our main course we got a reindeer steak with a potato cake (potatoes in the shape of a piece of cake) and some kind of dried up fruit crumble (neither of us ate it because it was more of a garnish). Absolutely amazing!

Never did I think Rudolph would taste so good! For dessert I got fried vanilla mousse with cloudberries (another wild berry that grows there) and a dollop of orange sherbet ice cream.

Holy moly! Best dessert ever! And Chance got a raspberry ice cream with panna cotta.

His was delicious too!! Ironically, I was getting super hot because I had the fleece on plus my snow suit pants still on and they, of course, have the furnace set to super hot so after dessert we had to high tail it out of there. For once I was excited to get outside! It was about 10pm when we left, we get outside and the sky is pretty clear so we decided to go behind the Icehotel by the river and sit and hope the auroras come out. It had been super cloudy (and apparently rainy, but we slept through that) just an hour before and the level was only a 3 (on a scale to 9) to see them that night but we were hopeful. Remember when I said its dark here? Really, really dark? You've never seen so many stars in your life.

It was so dark, we couldn't even adjust to the brightness of the flash and hold our eyes open!

This is behind the IceHotel where we sat and waited for the auroras. Down by the tee-pee to be exact. The tee-pee is where the moved the "IceBar" since the original one collasped.

The walk way to the IceHotel. The gift shop is on the left.

We weren't the only hopeful ones either; another family came right after us and then two others. The first family that came just so happened to be from Maryland so we talked for at least an hour with them before they went in because of the cold. And if you're wondering, almost every one that we came in contact with, not just the workers but even the visitors spoke English. You know, that should make Americans feel horrible. We say things like "if you don't speak English you don't belong here!" Or "there shouldn't be a press 2 option" when making phone calls, "we're American, they need to learn English!"...I know because I USED to be one of those people. We've made it so hard on others that they've had to learn our language to visit the land of the free and we expect them to know ours when we go elsewhere. What's right in that? If living in another country has done one thing for me, it's opened my eyes to have compassion for other ethnicities. Because here, we're the outsiders. But the Italians (well most) or other places we've visited don’t treat Americans the way Americans treat others. They try to communicate with us in our language, not huffing and puffing that we can't speak their language. Stepping off my soapbox...we waited until midnight out in the cold and then decided we'd head back to the room and wait for a call if they appeared. See, if you stay at the Icehotel you can be put on a call list so that when the auroras appear, instead of standing outside waiting all night in the cold because they can appear generally from 10pm-2am, they give you a call and you run outside. Unfortunately, that night we didn't get a call.