Snowy Frosty Experience - Kiruna

Ice Ice Baby…yeah!! I had an amazing vacation two months back in December to Kiruna, located up north in Sweden. This snowy land is situated in Lapland and is sparsely populated. Kiruna boasts iron ore mine that is the world’s biggest mine and town's primary economic resource.

26th Dec 2009…. This morning was not a usual morning as I got up at once by the sound of my alarm without snoozing it further. My loving husband, Nikhil and I got ready and we took a bus to reach airport. I was alarmed to see almost empty city airport as we reached two hours before our domestic flight departing time. Besides, only couples of flights were scheduled on that freezing cold day. I spent my time by watching the sights from huge windows and later surfing the information guide screen, getting the glimpse of the city. Nikhil spent his time by playing his favorite time pass game, Sudoku in one of Swedish magazines.

Our plane landed on a beautiful snowy landscape which I have always admired by beholding and day dreaming my desktop wallpapers. It was a beautiful start though I was freezing with cold and a bit nervous as the temp touched -30 degrees by that time. We hired a taxi and reached our hotel. Our hotel ‘Scandic’ was absolutely wonderful and warm inside. Our stay in the hotel was comfortable and my favorite part was definitely breakfast - I truly relish it.

Next Morning, we went to Ice Hotel located in Jukkasjärvi, 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. It was extremely beautiful. I was amazed to see the incredible snow sculptures and architectures by renowned creative artists. It was really cool to see the artwork of suits and ice bar. Both of us started posing and capturing number of photos with our individual cameras though it was becoming difficult to click with gloves in hand. I had a small digital one with me and Nikhil was enjoying new SLR camera which we bought just a day before our trip. Our guide gave a small tour and provided brief and interesting introduction about the hotel. I remember few… some people choose this place to offer a proposal to their girlfriends; some marry in the ice church…. interesting!!

Another excursion which we experienced was snow mobil. It was such a fun ride which will always be treasured as my adventurous memories of lifetime. All dressed up in our warm clothes and helmet we started our 3 hrs tour of snow mobile. We drove all over frozen river and crossed snow forests. Experiencing snowmobile in -35 degrees was a once in a lifetime experience. And guess what ….on the midway, one of my gloves fell off!! huhuhuh!!! I tried to scream at my highest pitch of volume sitting at the backseat. I shouted ‘hey stop! stop! my glove fell off’ but my volume couldn’t cross my helmet borders. It was so cold; I was wearing 3 gloves one on top of the other. After few minutes my hand with 2 gloves was all numb and I was unable to move it. After a while, we stopped to take a break and Nikhil told me a way to cover it between his back and my front. I somehow managed to cover it and we continued our journey. It was better afterwards. Alas! I was alleviated from cold.

All in all, I loved my trip and suggest it to all. For anyone going to Sweden, Kiruna is worth a visit!!

1 comments:

I so wanna see that SLR camera

 

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