HOLIDAY IN NORWAY AND SWEDEN 2014

Hi all

I wanted to share some of my photos with you from our holiday to Norway and Sweden in February 2014.Our main reason to visit Scandinavia was northern lights known as aurora borealis.

We travelled 350km above the arctic circle. Our journey started in Tromso (Norway) where we stayed for 3 nights. We were lucky to see Nothern lights just once and it was near Tromso!It was great experience and must see once in your lifetime. It was amazing to see ,when lights started dancing on the sky!!

After 3 nights in Tromso we travelled to Abisko National Park in Nothern Sweden- as they say – one of the best places in the world to see Nothern lights. I have planned all journey just to be able to go to Abisko sky station.Unfortunately the night when we stayed there was very windy and Sky station was closed..;( Sky Station is a magical area with the”hole”in the sky and its a big possibility to see aurora borealis in there. I’ve been watching live camera for weeks before our journey and I have to say northern lights were visible most of the time..We haven’t seen them that night down in the village but Im sure if we went up to sky station we would see them!!That’s our luck I guess..?

Next step was Ice Hotel. What a great place to visit!! Ice hotel is located in the small village Jukkasjarvi in Sweden 200km north of the arctic circle with 1100 residents and 1000 dogs;) Its the world’s first and largest hotel built of snow and ice.

ICEHOTEL covers 5,500 square meters and is constructed from 1,000 tonnes of Torne River ice and 30,000 tons of “snice”, a mixture of snow and ice that strengthens the structure. Around 100 people are involved in the construction of ICEHOTEL, half of which are artists especially invited to design particular areas of the hotel. The construction is a year-round process. Between March and April, 5,000 tons of ice is harvested from the Torne River and kept in cold storage during spring and summer. Construction takes place in November and December and the entire ICEHOTEL is then open between December and mid-April, when everything begins to slowly melt and return to the Torne River.

Its a beautiful place to be, just magical!! Hotel is a piece of art especially art rooms. And no its not that cold to sleep on the ice bed;) Its a great experience to have a drink from an ice glass too;) We stayed there for 3 nights, 2 nights in a warm accommodation and one night in the ice room. There is a lot of activities to do around Ice Hotel. We did a husky trip it was great fun, dogs are so friendly and so happy to run!It was very foggy that day and it made it look so magical. Going nowhere in the fog..;)

Ice hotel is melting right now;) Im looking forward to see new designs next year.

I love everything about Scandinavia, I will definitely be back to the Arctic to see more Nothern lights in the future!!