Fulfilling Swedish Stereotypes

Hey everyone!

I'm a little late to this week's post, but only as I've been away this weekend. On Saturday morning I left for northern Sweden with a few friends from my office, and we spent two nights in a small town called Kiruna, which is way up there near Finland's border. I was mostly hoping we would get to see the northern lights, but we had other fun winter activities planned so it was bound to be a good time anyway. 

And, it was! We stayed in a great little cabin, there was snow on snow on snow in every direction, and overall it was extremely picturesque. Saturday night, we went for a ride in a horse drawn sleigh (seriously) through nearby woods. That night, we saw the start of the lights, but they never got much beyond a faint green glow. But the ride itself was a lot of fun, and the forest was beautiful.

Sunday, we took a cab to the nearby Ice Hotel, which is what it sounds like. The whole building is made of ice, including ice sculptures, an ice bar, ice furniture, etc. The only non-ice thing as far as I saw was the reindeer pelts on the beds, which supposedly keep you very warm, should you actually stay there. I'm skeptical. That night, we borrowed kick-sleds from our camp and went for a walk/sled around the area our cabin was. I took many falls but it was a lot of fun. On our way back out of the cabin that night to hit the sauna, we were lucky to catch the lights in full swing. It was literally indescribable. I won't even try. 

Photographing them is not easy, but this was the best one I got! Me with my cabin-mates.

That was enough for me to die happy, but this morning before we left, we went dog-sledding, which was one of the most fun things ever. First of all, the dogs are SO happy and SO excited to get the chance to lug you through the snow, and they get all worked up and start howling, and won't stop until they're running, and it was adorable. We took a long ride through the wilderness of northern Sweden, which is mostly a crap-ton of snow, with evergreen forests and sloping hills in the background. We took a break with a sit around a fire in a genuine Sami teepee, and had hot drinks and learned about the culture and history of dog-sledding. At this point we got to go out and pet the dogs, or as in my case, roll around in the snow with them and get dog saliva all over your face. 

I'm too excited about this weekend to remember much about what I actually do during the week here, but I'm pretty sure work is still going great! This trip cost me a nice chunk of my monthly stipend, but it was definitely worth it!