Nonsensical Nothings

icehotel!

off we go to the ice hotel!
a short break for photography. the snow was up to my knees!

gasp! where are my legs?
sparkly snow

huskies in ice outside the ice hotel

the outside of the icebar

the entrance to the reception, ice rooms and icebar

an ice toilet everyone took photos with

we played with some sleds while waiting for the english tour to start

lounging on a cool chair at the reception

the ice is so smooth and cool to touch. it doesn't melt at all.
the tourguide told us how the ice hotel started and how it's built from ice they collect in like march (can't really remember which month) when the river has a thick layer of ice. then they store the ice in large freezer buildings and they start building the hotel in november. then they let it melt in dunno-which-month and they rebuild it each year. here she is showing us a block of ice. the top part which is white is at the surface of the river and is the softest part. there are bubbles beneath it. the bottom part is clear - that's how you tell which side is up.


then she brought us to the ice church. couples from all over the world get married there. the bride can wear a normal wedding dress and freeze for like 20 minutes during the ceremony. it's much cheaper for swedish people to get married there than foreigners.

so pretty. the ice pews are covered with reindeer skin. artists drill holes in the ice, fill them with snow, let them freeze, then add another block of ice on top, etc to make those designs in the pillars.

the handprint there is where the priest stands. i don't know what the handprint is for though. a snowflake is sculpted on the ceiling.

a corridor of ice sculptures. the ice is so clear coz it freezes at the right speed. i'm not sure if she meant speed of freezing or speed of water flowing..

corridor leading to the rooms. the tour ended and we were allowed to explore the rooms. there are art suites which are designed by artists from around the world, and design suites which are done by the icehotel art & design group. this group also selects the artists from many applicants each year to do the art suites. when choosing designs they are only told whether the artist has worked at the ice hotel before, the names and races of the artists are not told. then half of the selected artists will be old and half will be new. and some of the artists have never worked with ice or snow before.

we visited all the design suites but didn't have time to see all the art suites. here are some design suites:
arabic

japan. cool japanese table.

recycle. rabbit!

sticks

sapmi

chess. so cool right!

some art suites we saw:
the banished dragon. even cooler! the dragon goes around the whole room and ends with its tail next to the head, although you can't see it here. done by irish artists.

northern light. not much. done by germans.

leaf by niggle. it's the title of a short story written by tolkien. i thought this room was cool too. there are leaves and bamboo all around. done by chinese.

city movers. strange. by a swede.

the forest suite. this was pretty. done by an american.

dream's room. by bulgarian artists.

the source. you can't see it, but it's supposed to be like a chariot pulled by horses coming out of the sea. by a swede.

a random sculpture of a car

we separated into 2 groups so here are nice photos the other group took of rooms which we didn't get to see. =(
coming out
crystallization
hoffman the square
yin/yang
operation blade. at first i thought it was a whale's ribcage or something.
we had to leave by 2pm so we quickly went to the icebar

"drink absolut ice tundra and you'll be as strong as a bear"

absolut icebar jukkasjarvi, absolut ice tundra, and absolut wolf paw. i shared the ice tundra with naz and leah, and it was the nicest of the three. :P

menu for you to see

chilling at the icebar

our pretty pretty drinks. kah wei came later with the other group. i asked him to get a green drink and the bartender made one specially for him!

whee! the ice hotel was so freaking cool! it was the highlight of my trip. whoopdeedoo! for more info, click here. :D

and eelynn says i must thank her and naz for making me go on this trip, so thank you! haha :P

posted by Cherie @ 8:10 pm