I remember looking out of the train wondering, "Have I entered Narnia?" My friends and I got to the land of Narnia through a train from Lund to Stockholm and transferred to a sleeper train from Stockholm to Kiruna. We took close to 23 hours and finally made it.
Kiruna became pretty famous because of it's world famous Ice Hotel. And I have learnt that Kiruna also houses the world's biggest Iron mine.
On my first day in Kiruna, we wanted to visit the Ice Hotel. And guess what? We have arrived a little too early as the Ice Hotel was still in construction. Lucky us! Because we were allowed in free of charge even though the construction was still taking place. To me, this is way cooler than going in to a fully constructed Ice Hotel. What are the chances of seeing someone still constructing the Ice Hotel? Basically, what I see the designers do most of the time is to scrape the ice to the shape that they like. And surprisingly, the Ice Hotel was actually pretty small. I don't think I would want the experience of sleeping in the hotel, it does not look that comfy though its pretty.
Besides the Ice Hotel, the two other main highlights are Snowmobiling and Dog Sledding. We booked our trip with Tomas and he was super friendly and helpful to us in our stay here. He is pretty entertaining and often tells us stories of his life and introduces us to the different parts of Kiruna while he was driving us. His packages are really friendly for students, so here's the link if you want to know more!
He drove us from our place to his where we would begin snowmobiling. Coincidentally, Tomas told us that a group of students from Singapore would also be joining us! Another "what are the chances?" moment.
Snowmobiling was so fun even though I had to wear humongous and unflattering suits and boots so that I would be protected from the cold. You would not believe it! As someone who has never driven and has no license, I must have lived my "yolo" moment by speeding at more then 100km/h. Tomas told us that he like to speed and since we were all following after him, we didnt have a choice. But it was so fun! I would do it all over again anytime!
We stop by a little hut to have our lunch and this is where we tried reindeer meat and eating the way locals would eat. Our lunch tasted really good! And hot food when its really cold is so comforting.
We also tried our hands on drilling into the ice for water! Its pretty cool but tiring!
The next day, we set out to go for dog sledding. It seems like my dreams are fulfilled one after another. This fully confirms that I am in Narnia! The mixed breed huskies are such a beauty and the scenes of the landscape was so breath-taking. It felt so much like a dream. I am so thankful I have photos to prove that I was actually there.
We were at the beginning of the winter season and the dogs were not used to staying quiet when they were not running. We heard from the trainers that these huskies have too much energy and they bark all the time because they want to run. Halfway through the dog sledding, we rested in a hut and a fire was set. We gathered around to have some tea and cake. We also got to play with the huskies.
When we got back, we explored the other areas of Kiruna and found a church. Its really unique. We also tried Swedish Sandwich cake and quiche for our tea time break! It is so good!
I think the magic of Kiruna lies in the fact that I spent just sufficient time in Kiruna to want to go back for more. While I think I would be too bored in Kiruna if I were to stay there for long, I would'nt mind going back for a vacation once more!
So till then, goodbye Kiruna! It was nice meeting you.
0 comments:
Post a Comment