it took the train 23hrs to get to Kiruna from Gothenburg. The opportunity to see Sweden from South to North couldn't be missed! And there was I maintaining a pose comfortable enought to stare out the window for N hrs. The little houses scattered in the snow clad world, spilling out warm and cosy Christmas lightings are not very unlike those in the fairy tales. The flora varied along de way. Pine takes over at a certain latitude, and then at another, it is no longer common and tree are only 3-4m tall. The tree line does exist!
Polar night happens in week 50-52 in Kiruna. Since we arrived in week one, the sun is still very shy and wouldn't climb too high above the horizon. Here we had sun rise at 11am. We couldnt see the sun for more than 1hr but the snow reflects any light they get and the city was bright for around 4-5hrs a day.
As a material engineer, it's quite impossible for me to miss the underground tour in the mine. It costs 140kr and we were driven down to the mine by bus. Modern and traditional mining methods were introduced. And the original look of the now highly deformed Kiirunavaara (Kiruna mountain) is remembered in the black and white pictures.
It is hard to find a tourist in Kiruna who does not also go to Jukkasjärvi, a village on the Torne River bank, 30 minutes bus ride away. The Ice Hotel is a huge tourists magnet. As the name suggests, the whole hotel is made of crystal clear ice and "snice", which is a mixture of "snow" and "ice".
Located right at the bank of Torne River, all raw materials of the hotel are borrowed from the river. When summer arrives, everything melts and returned to the river. Every year, artists from all over the world come here to construct the rooms in October. When we were there, it was nearly at the end of construction. But we somehow still got half price tickets at 117kr. Ice furnitures and beds are layered with reindeer skin for the visitors' comfort. Many are decorated with lights.
There is also an Icebar in the hotel where glasses are also made of ice. They serves alcohol and non-alcohol drinks. I had a juice made from Lingonberry, a kind of berry which only exists in the north of Sweden. There are also snowmobile and dog sleds where one can ride on the frozen Torne River and travel to Kiruna Airport from there.
My camera went kaput just after coming out of the Ice Hotel. All pictures took along the frozen Torne River wasn't stored in the memory card. And after that, the camera just refused to function anymore... Still wondering if it is due to the low temperature. It would be a shame if I'm going to loose it now and forever >.<
Anyway, more pictures in flickr. and part II will come as soon as my travelmate pass me the photos in his camera. Be prepared for a story consists of snow hiking, glacier, reindeer meat and aurora borealis!!! ^^
p/s: snow in Kiruna are really hexagonal flakes! with all the dendrites growing in different characteristics, every single flake is unique! it's unbelievably beautiful when they dances with the rythm of the wind ^^
p/s 2: if you dont have a good pair of boots, it doesnt matter how many layers of socks you wear. your toes just freeze and cant move until they get warm again. but you can still walk ^^
p/s 3: sauna + cold water shower + rolling in the snow then go back to sauna again then cold water shower again then rolling in de snow again and go back to sauna again and do it again and again and again... drained all my strength... but i was as fresh as ever waking up the 2nd day, weird...
p/s 4: blah!!! there are so many things to talk about I dunno how to put them all in texts. and everything havnt really sinks in yet. it's de same feeling like how i gave up on writing a detailed travellogue after de indochina trip ^^ but it'll be a long time before i can share this one with you face to face, so bear with it~ bear with it~ ^^
2 comments:
Nice to be in the city of cool cold colosseum. envy envy >.<
hehe, the town is only a steping board. the really amazing places are all outside in the wild ^^ but yeah, wot a nice steping board!
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