Grocery Shopping in Stockholm, Sweden

Before we moved to Stockholm I tried to find out what grocery shopping would look like in Stockholm.  That might seem strange but as I've said before I don't like change so the closer it is to what I'm used to the better I would feel about moving.  I found a blog that did a post about grocery shopping and it was very helpful to read that grocery stores in Stockholm weren't that different from the United States.

When I walked into this grocery store I did notice it was a little bit different than ones back home :).  The sign says: Hi! My name is Rudolf and I come from the North Pole!  I will park here in a few weeks and sell good bread from Polfärskt at a really good price!  Until we meet again!

We used to go grocery shopping once every two weeks when we lived in Olathe.  Since we only went to the store twice a month it helped cut down on buying things we didn't need; we saw less stuff and therefore bought less stuff.  I would usually make a quick run to the store for milk and fresh produce on the off weeks of going to Walmart but it was never more than just a couple of things.  I quickly realized that my once every two week grocery shopping trips wouldn't be possible in Stockholm.  For one the food here expires much faster than it does back home and for two, the main reason, we have to carry it all home!  They also don't sell food in as big of packages here since you do have to carry it home. They know you will come back more often rather than load yourself down too much before you make it back to your apartment.  A couple of examples, milk is sold in liters instead of gallons and toilet paper is sold in packages of 6 instead of buying 24 at a time.

Mjölk (milk), yoghurt (yogurt), fil (soured milk), grädde (cream), keso (cottage cheese)

The two main grocery stores are ICA and Coop.  They have different sizes of ICAs (pronounced eek-uh) and Coops (pronounced like a chicken coop not co-op) throughout the city.  There is a really large ICA Maxi by us that is similar to a Super Target where they have food as well as household items, clothing, etc.  I've mentioned before when I was on the hunt for a cookie sheet that most grocery stores just carry groceries.  They don't have many cooking utensils in the grocery store so the ICA Maxi is very unique and you can tell from the name that it is a big store.  We go there every other week to shop or if we get a package in the mail.  Our regular mail gets delivered through a slot on our apartment door but packages go to the closest post office agent. We either get a text or a slip of paper in the mail telling us our package is ready for pick up.  The text or letter gives you a number and then you have to give that number to the post office along with an ID to pick up the package.  Before we had our Swedish IDs we had to take our passports to pick up a package.  And of course to pick up a package you have to take a number when you get to the post office and wait until your number is called.

Öst anyone?  Swedes love their cheese!  I'm scared to try most of it.  One of our first shopping mistakes was during our first week in Stockholm we bought some Havarti cheese and it smelled so bad Jake took it to the dumpster outside of our hotel because just throwing it away in our apartment wouldn't have made the smell go away.  My favorite cheese now is Gouda and Jake likes Västerbotten.

There is a small Coop Nära (Nära means close in Swedish) by our apartment that we go to on our way home if we need just a few things.  It has a pretty good selection but the line is typically long when you check out and the store is so small it can feel really crowded so I don't typically do my weekly grocery shopping there.

I try to do my big grocery shopping trip on Sunday so Jake can help me carry it all home.  We either go to ICA Maxi or if we are out on Sunday we stop by one of the bigger grocery stores that they typically have at the metro stops.

One of the nice things about living in a big city and using the public transportation is that they put things you need where most people visit aka metro stops, which makes sense.  I haven't been to every metro stop but I'm going to guess that there is a grocery store at all of them.  The bigger the stop, the more grocery stores and the bigger the grocery stores are at that stop.  I usually buy my groceries on the way home after working out because that metro stop is big so it has a couple of stores to choose from.  Of course I have found my favorite store so I usually always go to that one but sometimes some stores carry different things so I have to go to a couple on my way home.

When you walk in the grocery store one of the things you will notice first is your choice of carts and baskets.  Most of the grocery stores just have small baskets that you carry or medium sized ones that roll.  Only the big grocery stores have actual rolling carts like what most people typically use in the states.  It took me a minute to realize why most stores don't have bigger carts.  Any guesses?  You have to carry home what you buy so typically if you can't carry it around in a basket on your arm you aren't going to make it home.  I usually use one of the medium sized baskets with wheels to give my arms a break while I'm shopping since and I also like to put my backpack in it to give my back a rest as well.

Some of the bigger grocery stores have moving platforms to connect the floors because they have two levels and you can't take the stairs with a rolling basket or cart.

Once you are inside the grocery store it doesn't look much different than what you are used to in the States.  It is clean, well organized and the food comes in boxes or packages and it isn't lying on the floor like what we saw in Beijing.  Of course there are different brands and the words on the boxes are in Swedish so it takes you a little while to figure out what you need but it isn't impossible.  At the beginning I thought grocery shopping would be a piece of cake because you can either see the product itself or a picture of the product so even if you don't know Swedish it shouldn't be a problem.  That is kind of true.  Most of the time we can figure out what we are buying by looking at the picture but we have purchased a couple of things only to realize later that it wasn't what we thought it was.  One time when we went to buy milk they were out of the kind we usually get so we bought what we thought was another kind but it turns out it was sour milk.  And then there was our first day in Stockholm when I almost started crying because we couldn't figure out what was butter versus margarine.  Butter is smör in Swedish and there are still lots of choices after you figure that part out.

Our favorite butter to use on toast is butter with sea salt, smör med havssalt.  It is so good!

They do have less prepackaged food here.  You won't find tons of boxes of premade meals you just pop in the oven or make in a pan.  They still have crackers, chips and cookies but not as many as we do in the US.  They have canned fish but I have yet to find canned chicken.  I used to use shredded chicken a lot in recipes because it was easier than cooking the chicken first and then adding it to something that would bake in the oven.  I asked for a crockpot for Christmas so I could easily shred my own chicken for recipes.  My parents ordered me one from Amazon UK because I can't find crockpots over here.  They must be next to the cookie sheets :).

They do have a few frozen pizzas and other meals.  And of course they have frozen Swedish meatballs :).

I am a Honey Nut Cheerios girl.  I have that every day for breakfast, unless it is the weekend and then I like Fruit Loops with marshmallows :).  Apparently I'm still 10.  I knew that I would need to find something similar over here and thankfully I did.  I found Honey Cheerios and I usually buy them at a store called ÖoB because they are pretty cheap there (about $3 a box, instead of $4.60 at a regular grocery store).  Jake usually eats musli which has a mixture of dried fruits, nuts and oats.  At one of the stores you can make your own muslimix.  Granola bars aren't very popular here and I've never seen Pop-tarts.  A typical Swedish breakfast includes musli mixed with yogurt, cheese, bread,sliced meat and of course strong coffee.

I usually go to ÖoB for some of my staples like cereal, flour, sugar, crackers, spices, pasta sauce and they also have cleaning supplies and paper goods for better prices than the regular grocery stores.  ÖoB doesn't have fresh produce or meat but they have canned and boxed goods.  They also have household supplies as well as shampoo, conditioner, body wash and other things you would normally find at a Walmart.

Here are a few personal care items you would find at a big grocery store.  There are a few brands from home like Kleenex and Dove.  The deodorant they have here is mostly the roll on kind.  I have only seen sticks of deodorant once or twice.

I thought it was funny how many insoles they had at the ICA Maxi.  I ended up buying a pair of wool ones to put in my Hunter rain boots to give me a little extra warmth.  They also have covers you can put over your shoes made out of rubber that have spikes in the soles to help you not slip during the winter and it keeps your shoes dry.  I'm guessing you could find things like this in the northern part of the US but I've never seen anything like this in Kansas.

You can also find LOTS of coffee choices and Mexican food.  For a city that doesn't have a good Mexican restaurant, at least not that we've found, they sure have a big selection at the store!

I haven't tried anything that comes in one of these tubes but they are filled with cheese and then usually something else like salmon, shrimp, bacon, caviar, etc.

The meat section looks like what you would expect except for the prices.  Meat is expensive here!  A pound of hamburger meat is between $7.50 and $10.  There is a store here called Lidl which is similar to Aldi and they have better prices for their meat.  Whenever we need meat I always go to Lidl.  Their beef and chicken are both really good and the chicken is even the same brand you would get at a regular grocery store.  We have also noticed that the raw meat smells better here than in the US.

The produce section is very similar to what I'm used to.  It was hard at the beginning because I would see something like bananas that were 29 kr/kg and I would have to convert two things before I could compare prices.  I would have to figure out how much 29 kr is in dollars, $4.54, and then convert kilograms to pounds.  So bananas would be about $2.00 a pound.  Eventually I stopped converting things and decided if it was on the list and in the budget than I would buy it.  

We used to do a monthly budget when we lived in Olathe and then we would get lazy and slack for a couple of months but once we moved we knew we would need to start one again for a couple of reasons.  The main reason was that we went from two incomes to one and we wanted to travel.  We wanted to make sure we didn't waste money on little things that we didn't need so we could use that money to travel while we had the opportunity.  We made our budget in dollars and then converted it to kronor so that I would know about how many crowns I could spend each week on groceries.

I think it is funny that herbs come in pots instead of bundled up portions like back home.  So far I've bought koriander, cilantro, twice. The first time we cut off only what we needed thinking the rest would stay fresh and it died within a few days. The second time I cut off all the cilantro and froze what I didn't use and nothing regrew so apparently I need some tips on what to do with herbs that come in pots.

I liked this sign in the produce section that told you which month was the best time to purchase the produce.  The bins around this sign held the produce that was best during that month.

If you want to use a self checkout machine then you will need to print off a price label for your produce.  There aren't many stores with self checkouts that I've seen but there is one store I go to regularly that has one and sometimes when I'm just buying one or two things it is faster to do the self checkout.  It took me a while to get up enough courage to use this machine because I was worried I'd start using it and someone would come up behind me and I wouldn't be able to figure it out and then they would be watching.  But I have successfully done it several times now so I should be good to go.  My advice . . . look at how the fruit or vegetable is spelled in Swedish so that when you look it up on the machine you at least know what to search for :).  After it finishes weighing the produce it prints off a label to put on the bag so you can scan it at the register.  You don't need a label if you are going through a regular checkout.

They do have international food aisles at most of the grocery stores.  The bigger the store of course the bigger the selection.  I will never forget when we were looking at the international foods and Jake couldn't figure out why things like peanut butter and boxes of macaroni would be next to things you would use to make Chinese food.  We aren't in Kansas anymore!  

Apparently Americans eat ice cream toppings, marshmallows, jello, pancakes, icing and candy.  No wonder we are all fat!  I typically don't buy too many things from this section but I have purchased a couple of pancake mixes and brownie mixes.  Over Christmas I brought back some brownie mixes because they are $7.50 here and less than $2.00 at home so I haven't bought any of those for a while.

Cool American chips anyone?  The taste is close to Cool Ranch Doritos but not exactly the same.  They also have Pringles but those actually do taste the same.

The baking aisle is similar to what you will find at home except they don't really have chocolate chips or other flavors of baking chips.  They have bars of chocolate you can chop into smaller pieces but it was a while before I actually found chocolate chips.  Maybe they keep the chocolate chips by the cookie sheets :).  The other interesting thing in the baking aisle was vanilla.  We use vanilla extract for chocolate chip cookies and ice cream back home all the time so we used to buy a big bottle of vanilla at Costco.  The bottles they have here would last for maybe two batches of cookies and one batch of ice cream.  They are so small and expensive, of course.  Thankfully one of Jake's friends that came over in November brought us a Costco bottle of vanilla so we don't have to worry about running out for a while :).

A small thing of vanilla, top right hand picture, is about $3.60 and it has about 3 tablespoons of liquid.  A 5 oz bag of chocolate chips is $2.66.  We have used the pizza dough mix and it is okay.  Next time we make homemade pizza we might try an actual recipe instead of a mix.  They don't have refrigerated dough (cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, pie crusts, etc) like you would find back home.

They have some cans of soup but not the selection you would find at a Walmart.  They have several soup and sauce mixes where you add milk or water to powder to make soup or a sauce.  I've tried a few of those and they work okay.  They also don't have cans of chicken broth or beef broth.  They have hard cubes you can dissolve in water instead.  

Almost every grocery store has a candy section.  Swedes love their candy.  They really like the licorice flavor especially when paired with salt.  Apparently Swedes get a bag of mixed candy once a week.  We've only gotten candy once and it was okay.  I'm not a huge candy person.  I prefer chocolate. They have some chocolate in the bins too but I like to find a good quality bar of chocolate and stick with that.

When we were in Stockholm last summer visiting I noticed they had handheld scanners in some of the grocery stores.  I was very intrigued.  I haven't ever tried one because I think you have to set up an account first which I am hoping to do before we move back home.  I've seen enough people use them that I think you grab one of these when you first walk into the store and then as you shop you scan the item before it goes into your basket or your reusable shopping bag.  Lots of people load their reusable bags as they shop because as soon as they are done they pay, return their handheld scanner and then leave. (Swedes are very trusting.  I'm assuming they check bags randomly so people aren't tempted to put things in they don't scan but I'm not sure how much they check.)   My goal before we leave is to see if I can get signed up and try one of these.  I always wanted to be a cashier, which is another reason why I like going through the self checkout, and now I could scan my own things as I shop and not have to bag my groceries while people are waiting for me to finish!  Sign me up!

One thing I did learn from reading the grocery shopping post before we moved was that you need to bring your own bags or else you will have to pay for bags.  The bags are $0.30 to $0.75 which isn't bad but it adds up if you buy bags every time you go to the store.  You also have to bag your own groceries.  That is stressful!  There is a divider on the belt so you basically have the time it takes for all of your things to make it to the end of the belt plus the person after you but then person after that should be in your spot so you can't just dilly dally.  When I go shopping with Jake I always start bagging while the cashier rings up our things and then Jake pays and helps me finish bagging.  I am also a lot more thoughtful about putting the groceries on the belt.  Since I am bagging I put the heavier and bulkier things on first so they can be evenly divided between the bags we brought and placed on the bottom of each bag.  Then the lightweight and smaller things go on last so they can be on the top of the bag.  When I shopped back home I would always put all the cold food together so they could keep each other cool but now I have to think about that plus weight distribution.  I can't have one bag full of cans and other full of lightweight things.  We usually take four bags with us to do our weekly grocery shopping and we don't usually have to buy any extra bags.  I do make sure I put things that could possibly leak in our slick reusable bags instead of the one made out of fabric.  That has saved us a few times already :).

Most people pay with a debit or credit card when they go to the store.  Debit cards and credit cards over here have a chip in them where you put the end of your card in the machine and leave it there while it reads the chip and then you enter a pin.  We saw that while we were here this summer so before we moved we tried to find a card with a chip and a pin but they don't have those in the states yet.  We could either get one with a chip and a signature or one that you have to swipe and then enter a pin.  We decided to get both. Typically we use the one where you swipe and enter a pin because that takes up a lot less time than signing and then we don't stand out as much which I always appreciate.

Hope you learned a few things about grocery shopping in Stockholm!

Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden

One of the main reasons we went up north was to stay at the Ice Hotel.  We had both heard about it before and thought it would be a really neat experience.  We only booked the trip about a week ahead of time so we were a little worried we wouldn't be able to get a room at the Ice Hotel but they had one available and we were pumped.  You can tour the hotel for for $50 a person or you can stay there . . . for even more.  We decided to stay for one night to get the full experience and I am so glad we did.

After we got back from dog sledding we had a nice lunch at a cafe in Kiruna and then we took a bus to Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. We arrived at the Ice Hotel around 3:30 pm. We wanted to get there before the 4:00 pm tour because it was the last tour of the day and thankfully it was in English. They give two Swedish tours and two English tours each day. Guests that are staying at the hotel get to take the tour for "free" but if you aren't staying there you have to pay.

I was SO excited to see the hotel.  

We checked in and got a quick tour of the warm building before heading to the hotel tour at 4:00.  On the quick tour they showed us the lockers where we could put our luggage (because keeping it in your hotel room which is 23­­°F isn't the best idea), the men's and women's locker rooms, changing rooms and the charging lockers.

The area where the lockers were located (bottom left picture) seemed to always be a stressful place.  There was never enough room and people were trying to get into lockers and others were in the way.  It wasn't too bad since we were only staying for one night but again I was thankful we didn't have big rolling suitcases like everyone else because it would have been a hassle.  The locker rooms were nice and big.  There were two bathrooms in the locker room but there were other bathrooms in the hall and down another hall.  The locker rooms had 8 showers and a sauna.  The interesting thing about changing and showering in Sweden, or Europe for that matter, is no one seems to care about being naked, except for maybe me :).  The showers had individual stalls but there was just etched glass in between each shower so you could definitely see others showering while you showered.  Thankfully I showered when the bathroom was mostly empty.  They had changing rooms where you could change clothes since you didn't do this in your room but you could also change in the locker rooms.  If you were staying in one of the Art Suites, the fancier rooms that I'll talk about a little later, then you got your own 1 meter by 2 meter room to put your luggage and change.  They had charging lockers where you could plug in your phone and lock it while it charged so it was safe but they were always full.  We charged our behind the desk overnight since we couldn't charge them in our room.  They had a tag system to mark our phones and everything was very organized.  You could tell they put some thought into how to handle guests needs since the hotel isn't your typical hotel.

Our tour of the Ice Hotel was pretty quick but it was good.  I think I would have been a little disappointed in the tour had I paid $50 to see it.  This is the 24th Ice Hotel.  It melts every year, obviously, so they have to make a new one each year which means the layout changes.  The biggest one they've ever built had over 90 rooms but the one for this year had 64 rooms.  They build the Ice hotel out of blocks of ice from the Torne River which runs right by the hotel.  They cut the ice in blocks, about 1 meter thick x 1 meter wide x 2 meters long, from the river around March every year because it thick enough by then.  Then they put the blocks in a big freezer to keep it frozen until they build the hotel around November of that same year.  So the ice from the hotel we stayed in this year is from last March.  They also use a snow machine to make a mixture called "snice" which is snow and ice mixed together.  They have forms that they use when they build they hotel.  They put the forms in and then add the blocks of ice and snice and let it sit for about 3 days until it gets really solid and then they remove the forms.  In the past few years they also used wood in the walls of the main hall to help support it but this was the first year they didn't do that.  They add support pillars in the main hall the about every 10 feet since it is so wide and those are made of blocks of ice.  As the main hall ceiling settles they add more support pillars in between the existing ones.  They start building the ice bar and one corridor of the hotel and when it is finished the first guests can stay.  They continue to add more corridors in the weeks that follow until the hotel is complete.  The first phase is open in December and entire hotel is usually complete by January.

After the quick talk about the history of the Ice Hotel they let us walk around and visit the rooms.  Since the hotel is open to the public for tours from 10 am to 6 pm your room isn't really yours during those hours.  Anyone can walk in to any room during those 8 hours.  In fact the rooms don't even  have doors. They just have curtains so you can't stop anyone from just popping in.  At 6 pm they close the main entrance to the Ice Hotel and after that guests have to use the night entrance which is through the warm building on the right of the hotel.  I was worried about our hallway since it was leaning and the temperature was above freezing that day.  Jake didn't believe me when I said it was leaning but after he took the pictures he agreed.  We were the first corridor on the left side of the main hall so it had probably just settled more than the others since it has been up longer, at least that is what I told myself.

They hotel did have to have fire extinguishers and smoke detectors but they don't have sprinklers in the hotel.  The lights in the hotel are LED lights since they produce pretty little heat compared to other bulbs.

They have different types of rooms in the Ice Hotel. The most basic room is the Snow Room. It has four walls and a bed. The rooms are pretty small but you aren't in the room much so it doesn't really matter. The next room up is the Ice Room. It is a little bit bigger than the snow room and it has furniture, two chairs and a table, made out of ice of course. Then they have Northern Light Suites which has a bed, no furniture, but they project lights on the ceiling to make it look like Northern Lights. When we first read about this we thought it seemed pretty lame. After visiting, it still isn't that awesome. The room does have a cool curved half wall going around two sides of the room to hide the lights that they project onto the ceiling but the lights seem really cheesy.

Then they have the Art Suites. There were 24 Art Suites. Different artists are brought in to design the suite so each suite has a different theme. Most of them were really cool. There were a few that I didn't care for but overall they were really neat. The rooms were bigger and you got your own luggage and changing room inside the warm building that you could use as well. The last two rooms were Deluxe Suites. There was one regular deluxe suite and one sponsored by Mini Cooper which gave you the added luxury of driving your own Mini Cooper around Jukkasjärvi while you stayed in that suite. I have no idea what those rooms look like because they are only for the eyes of the guests who paid to stay there. They had actual doors on the rooms where as the rest of the rooms just had a curtain. Another perk of the deluxe suites was your own bathroom and sauna, obviously through a door in your room which lead to an adjoining building since there wasn't any plumbing in the actual Ice Hotel.

We stayed in an Ice Room.  The snow rooms were booked so we got to enjoy two chairs and a table in our room :).  Our room was a handicap room so the door was a little wider and the room was a little bit bigger.  It felt less claustrophobic than the snow rooms but I'm sure one of those would have been just fine too.  We did ask about an Art Suite when we got there to see if there was one available but there wasn't and that was for the best anyway since you spend so little time awake in your room anyway.  The high during the day when we stayed at the Ice Hotel was 43°F . . . not what you want to have happen when you are sleeping in something made of only ice and snow.  We were told that when it melts each year it does it slowly and the ceiling opens up first since they are thinner than the walls so it shouldn't just come crashing down on us.  Awesome.  I was already a little nervous to spend the night under ice and snow and the unusually high temps for the day didn't help.  

Of the four nights on our trip the only one where we were supposed to sleep in the same bed was at the Ice Hotel.  We were in different bunks on the night train, we were supposed to sleep in a ski room in Riksgränsen which had bunk beds but then we were upgraded to a hotel room with one bed, and then our night at Camp Ripan had two beds.  We thought that it was funny that the one night we were supposed to share a bed we would be in different sleeping bags and it would be literally freezing!

They have an Ice Bar which is open to the public.  The drinks were ridiculously expensive.  It was $22 for one drink and the amount of liquid you actually get was maybe 5 oz.  Jake had one drink and that was it. The glasses are cube of ice with a cylinder cut out to hold the liquid.  Since it was above freezing the day we were there the glass was melting while Jake was drinking out of it and it was really slippery.  The above average temperatures also caused some melting and dripping to happen in the Ice Bar.  They had two buckets on the floor catching the dripping water.  Not really what you want to see.  You could say I was even more nervous after seeing that.

After a quick drink at the Ice Bar we walked around the outside of the Ice Hotel for a little while before heading to dinner.  They have an Ice Church where you can get married.  There was a wedding the day we were there.  We saw the bride and groom taking pictures in the hotel and we were touring their Art Suite when the groom walked in and said that is where they would be spending the night.  That was a bit awkward.  I am glad we didn't spend our wedding night at the Ice Hotel :). 

They have an ice sculpting class you can take which we didn't do but we saw some of the sculptures while we were walking around. They also had kick sleds that you could use. When we stayed at Camp Ripan we saw that they had kick sleds but we didn't have time to use them. Jake thought they were kind of gimmicky but while we were walking around Jukkasjärvi we noticed that people used them to go to the store. It is basically a sled with a chair on the front so you can push someone or it could be a great place to put your groceries. We saw several people using kick sleds on the main street as they headed to the store or to dinner. One person would be sitting and someone else would be kicking on the back of the sled. We tried using it together and it was fun but I had a hard time pushing Jake on it. Since the snow on the ground melted and then refroze it was really icy and slick around the hotel so I couldn't get enough traction to push him. But we each took one on a little ride around the outside of the hotel before dinner.

They also had two igloos.  The top picture was taken behind the hotel on the frozen river that they take the ice out of to make the hotel.  We saw teams of dog sleds lined up behind the hotel as they were getting ready for some tours.  The dog sled tours through the Ice Hotel were very expensive and if you wanted they would pick you up from the airport and take you to the Ice Hotel on a dog sled.

We went to dinner at the Homestead restaurant which is affiliated with the Ice Hotel. The restaurant was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. There were three dinner choices: fish, meat or vegetarian. I had the meat and Jake had the fish. When our waitress came to our table she greeted us in Swedish. We have gotten to the point where we understand enough Swedish to not give the deer in the headlights look when we hear it but we don't always know enough (or I might be scared to death) to answer back in Swedish so we just answer in English. Our waitress asked if we understood Swedish or if we would rather speak in English. We told her we knew enough to get by but then asked her if she wouldn't mind speaking in Swedish and we would try ordering in Swedish. It was scary and I felt silly but it was our 6 month anniversary in Sweden and you have to start somewhere. It was fun ordering in Swedish and she did a good job making us feel comfortable speaking it. My dinner was really good and Jake said his was okay. We also had dessert after dinner. Jake's dessert was better than mine so it is a good thing we share :).

After dinner we tried to get a glimpse of the Northern Lights. They had an Aurora balcony at the Ice Hotel where you could view the Northern Lights. We felt like this night would have been our best chance to see them because we were away from any big city lights and the sky was clear but unfortunately the strength of the Northern Lights that night were the lowest of the whole trip so we weren't able to see anything.

We headed back inside around 11:00 pm to get ready for bed. It was funny seeing the looks on all of the faces as people headed to their rooms. You were supposed to sleep in just one layer of long underwear, socks and a hat if you felt like you needed it and of course a sleeping bag. Since your belongings were kept in lockers and you had to change in the locker rooms which meant you saw lots of people in their long underwear. You weren't supposed to bring anything to your room at night because it would freeze overnight.  So we saw lots of people in long underwear and boots that the hotel provided while they walked to their rooms carrying sleeping bags.  I was nervous about sleeping for several reasons: being too cold to sleep, not getting much sleep, having to pee in the middle of the night, the hotel melting and collapsing on us and hearing dripping sounds or other noises since we couldn't use Jake's phone to play white noise like we do every night. Thankfully the night went better than I thought it would.

Once we picked up our sleeping bags and our sleeping bag liners we headed to our room.  They told us to drape the sleeping bag over our shoulders to keep us warm while we walked to the room.  Once we got to the room we got in our sleeping bags as fast as we could.  Our bed frame was made out of ice but we actually had a small foam mattress to sleep on and reindeer skin on top of that to keep us warm.  The reindeer skin didn't smell very good but once I got in the sleeping bag I didn't notice it.  The main problem I had before we fell asleep was that I was hot.  Not kidding.  Laying in a room made of ice and I was starting to sweat.  I couldn't just throw my leg outside the sleeping bag and drift off :).  I took my socks off and unzipped the bag just a little bit and then fell asleep.  I did have to figure out how to somewhat cover my face with the sleeping back sheet so my nose wouldn't be so cold.  I was worried I would be cold but I've actually been colder camping out at Tuttle Creek in Manhattan, KS during football season than I was at the Ice Hotel.

It was the quietest nights sleep I've ever had.  It turns out that walls made out of snow that are around 4 feet thick are pretty insulating and quiet!  Also, since there isn't any running water, heating or air conditioning running it is very quiet.  I woke up a couple of times in the night but I was able to fall back asleep.  I did have to pee in the middle of the night but there was no way I was getting up.  I think it was more a mental thing of knowing I didn't really want to get out of bed couldn't go so then I felt like I needed too.  

They wake you up in the morning between 7:30-8:00 with hot lingonberry juice.  After sipping on that I headed back to the warm building to grab our camera to take a few pictures of our sleeping bags on our bed.  That was a cold walk since I was just in my long underwear and I left my sleeping bag on the bed for the picture!

On my way to the warm building I saw that they were adding another support pillar in the main hallway.  Nothing makes you feel more secure about sleeping in a melting hotel than seeing them put up supports after you're done spending the night.

Staying in the Ice Hotel was something we will never forget.  Was it expensive?  Yes.  Would I recommend it?  Definitely.  It was unlike anything we have ever done.  Touring the hotel isn't the same as staying there.  Since the hotel isn't your typical hotel you interact with the other guests more than you would in a regular hotel.  You can't just go to your room and hangout like you normally do so you are forced to see and talk to other guests which I thought was neat.  They had an area in the warm building where you could hang out and talk, play on your phones, read or do whatever you wanted and not be sitting in your cold room.

Before we flew home on Tuesday, February 25th we decided to see some reindeer. They had a Sami Siida Visitor Center where you could learn about the Sami people and meet some reindeer. The reindeer were really excited that Jake brought them some food. I feed them a little bit too but as soon as the food was gone they were no longer interested in us.

We took a bus to the airport at 11:45 am and once we got to the airport we found out our flight was delayed by 30 minutes and by the time we actually left we were over an hour and a half late. The flight was only an hour and a half compared to the 18 hour train ride which I was very thankful for. The airport was so small that they made everyone on the delayed flight leave the secured terminal area to make room for another flight that was now leaving before us.  Both flights couldn't fit in the secured gate area at the same time which meant we had to go through security twice but we made it home safely.

After we got home Jake thought it would be fun to divide up our things and weigh how much each of us brought since we carried it all on our backs. For whatever reason I agreed. Did I really think mine would weigh less than his?  He brought 13.2 pounds of stuff and I brought 20.4 pounds. We also weighed how much stuff we brought that we didn't end up using. I also won in that category at 4 pounds versus his 0.6 pounds :).

We had a great time and I can't believe how many different things we were able to experience in one trip.  I am so thankful I have such an adventurous husband to encourage me to go on a trip like this! 

Kiruna, Sweden: Camp Ripan and Dog Sledding

We arrived in Kiruna, Sweden around 3:30 pm on Sunday, February 23rd.  We didn't have any set plans other than walk around Kiruna, eat dinner and hang out.  Our bodies were pretty tired from skiing so I was thankful for a relaxing day.  We took a free shuttle from the train station to the main bus station.  Kiruna a small town which means they have a few buses that run throughout the day but they only run every couple of hours.  So our transportation from the bus station to our hotel . . . our feet.  I was a little stressed out thinking we would have to walk a really long ways in the cold after skiing but it actually wasn't that bad.  The temperature was a little below freezing and I decided to wear my outside pants, aka ski pants, over my regular pants since I knew we would be walking to our hotel and I was not cold at all.  I actually got pretty hot while we were walking around.

First, we headed to see the Kiruna church since it was still light out.  It was a beautiful church and all of the snow just made it even more beautiful.

There was so much snow!  There was a park next to the church that had paths where people had walked through the snow.  If you stayed on the path the snow was packed down enough that you would be fine but every once in a while you would step and your foot would go down several inches.  This was one of the times I told Jake how thankful I was that we packed in backpacks.

Jake decided to have a little fun on the path. (I tried making the videos bigger but I can't figure it out. If you click on the YouTube icon on the bottom right hand corner of the video you can watch it on the YouTube page which is much better.)

We stayed at a place called Camp Ripan.  They had cute little chalets, or cabins, instead of a big hotel and it was on the edge of the city.  On our way there we saw a school so we stopped to play on the playground for a minute.  We walked passed the school the next day and kids were out having recess playing on the mounds of snow.  This part of Sweden doesn't have their sport break until the next week.

Having a little fun on the playground.  Sorry if you get dizzy watching this but try to notice the houses, snow and mountain in the background.

I was really excited to stay at Camp Ripan.  Thankfully I booked this hotel or else I would have been a little worried by the name and the sign for Kiruna camping that we might be staying in a tent :).  We knew this hotel would have separate beds but it was still strange to see once we got there.  The room was really cozy and warm.  We hung out for a few minutes before heading to dinner.  We walked to Arctic Thai for dinner.  It got really good reviews and it did not disappoint.  There are lots of Thai restaurants in Stockholm, and I guess other parts of Sweden too, because lots of people go to Thailand for vacation and they enjoy the fresh food and want to be able to eat it in Sweden too.

Walking to dinner was fun.  We saw the Northern Lights again but they still weren't as clear as we had hoped they would be.  There were so many cute houses in Kiruna.  It was neat seeing all of the snow piled up on the side of the houses and in the backyards.  Jake was fascinated by how much snow there was since backyards were completely full of snow.  They had poles to mark the edges of things since the snow was so deep.  The shovels they used to clear the snow were different than what I'm used to seeing.  They were more like a scoop you would just push instead of a shovel that you would pick up and toss.

We decided to go to the spa after dinner since we were sore from skiing.  I didn't take any pictures of the inside of the spa but here is one of the outside that we took and two pictures from their website of the inside.

They had a dry sauna and a wet sauna.  We did both.  The dry sauna was so hot!  I didn't like that one very much.  After we were finished we walked out and then Jake made me stand under a bucket while he pulled the string and it dumped ice cold water on me.  Maybe that was the part I really didn't care for :).  We went to the wet sauna next and that one wasn't as hot so it actually felt pretty good.  The infinity pool was heated and it was great.  Then we stepped outside and walked through the snow to get to the hot tub.  The hot tub was great.  We couldn't see any Northern Lights because it was too cloudy but it was still really pretty.

The next morning, Monday, February 24th, was our 6th month anniversary of moving to Sweden.  What a great day to go dog sledding and then spend the night at the Ice Hotel!  We had breakfast at our hotel and then we went dog sledding.  We were both really excited to try dog sledding.  Jake wanted to find a tour where we could drive our own team but the one we found that was reasonable wasn't doing that tour on Monday and the others were way too expensive.  Our guide, Stephanie, picked us up at the hotel at 9:50 am and then we picked up another couple before heading to see the dogs.  We drove about 15 minutes outside of Kiruna to where Stephanie lives with her huskies.  We changed into some awesome jumpsuits, hats and boots before meeting the dogs.  It was a really warm day, about 40°F, and sunny so we weren't cold at all on the sled.

All four of us sat on the sled while our guide stood on the back of the sled.  There were 12 huskies pulling the sled.  There was a long rope that all of the dogs were attached to.  They had a short rope going to their collars and then a longer one that attached to the back of their harness.  I was surprised at how aggressive the dogs were when she was harnessing them up.  Some of the dogs did not like the others walking past them.  At one point two dogs started fighting and our guided was trying to pull them apart and she slipped and fell.  She was able to get them apart but after that I was done petting them while she was still hooking them up.  They were being held in a long carrier.  I'm guessing they had been in there about 45 minutes by the time she loaded them up, picked us up from our hotels and then let them out to put them on the rope.  They were all really excited to start running.  They would try to run but she had a brake set in the snow so the sled wouldn't move until she was ready for it.

Here we are getting ready to go on our dog sled tour.  Another team of dogs go by and towards the end you can see the kennels the dogs were in while they were waiting for us to get there.

Once she released the break and said go they ran!  No more barking or fighting just sprinting.  I sat on the front of the sled which gave me a great view!  We started in an area surrounded by trees but then we ended up being in a more open field.  There were paths from other dog sleds and snow mobiles that the dogs followed.  Our guide did yell out "vänster (left) and höger (right)" to give the dogs directions when there was a fork in the path.  After about fifteen minutes of running she let them take a break.  They all jumped in the snow to cool off.  I noticed while they were running they would turn their heads to the side to try to get a mouth full of snow to cool off and some would run right up next to the snow to cool their bodies off.  There was probably a foot and a half or two feet of snow on the sides of us that wasn't packed down for the trail.

It was so quiet when the dogs were running.  All you could hear was panting.  It was so peaceful.  And then Jake decides to tell me that he read reviews that while the dogs are running they poop.  Awesome.  I am in the front already getting hit with snow every once in a while from their feet and I see 12 butts facing me and they could poop at anytime.  I would like to say they didn't but that would be a lie.  Our guide did stop our sled when one of the dogs right in front of me pooped because that would have definitely not been good, sorry for the tmi :), and when he was finished they started running again.

About halfway through our tour we stopped to have coffee and cookies in a hut on a frozen lake.  The dogs were excited for the break since they were pretty warm after running in warmer temperatures than what they are used to.

Here you can see the dogs are getting excited to run again.  She had Jake stand on the back of the sled to hold down the break so they wouldn't take off without her :).

Headed back home.

During the break we asked her lots of questions about how she started doing tours and questions about the dogs.  She actually came to Kiruna as a tourist about 7 years ago and went on a dog sled tour and loved it so much she stayed.  Now she runs her own dog sled tours.  On our tour she was training one of the lead dogs.  The white lead dog had been a copilot with another experienced lead dog but hadn't ever flown solo so this was his first solo trip.  He did great on the way there but on the way back he got a little confused with right and left.  He fixed it once after she slowed the sled down and repeated the directions but a second time he couldn't figure out that he needed to go right, so we eventually just went left.  I guess most dogs are mature enough to be a lead dog around age 3 and they start getting too old when they are around 10 years old.  Not every dog can be a lead dog.  Some are better at just following the lead.  She has 15 dogs total and seems to really enjoy what she does.

After the tour she took us back to Camp Ripan to get our things and then we rode back with her when she dropped off the other couple so we didn't have to walk as far back into town.  We had lunch at Cafe Safari which was really good and then we walked around the town for a few more minutes before catching the bus to Jukkasjärvi, Sweden where we stayed at the Ice Hotel!  You'll have to come back for that post  . . .

Night Train to Riksgränsen and Alpine Skiing

We had been talking about taking a trip up north to see the Northern Lights, experience some colder weather and to see some actual snow since the winter in Stockholm has been pretty mild.  Jake started planning this trip on his own but then he decided maybe it would be best for us to plan it together to see what we really wanted to do.  We actually booked the trip about a week before we left so we didn't have much time to prepare.

We took a night train from Stockholm to Riksgränsen on Friday, February 21st.  Our train was supposed to leave at 10:40 pm on Friday night by once we got to central station we noticed the train had been delayed until 11:53.  Thankfully we didn't have any plans on Saturday that would be ruined but we were supposed to switch trains in Boden.  We only had 10 minutes to switch trains which was a problem considering our train was an hour and 13 minutes late.  While we were waiting on the train we thought about skipping the night train and just taking a flight.  The train takes 18 hours to get there and the flight is only an hour and a half.  We thought that train would be a fun way to see more of Sweden than we would be able to see from the air. We ultimately decided to just take the train and hope that it would all work out.  While we were waiting for our train I saw two of my students.  One from each school.  Schools in Stockholm had sport break during week 9 (in Sweden they use week numbers which actually makes lots of sense, but for my American friends that is the week of February 24th) which just means they have a week off from school and most of the kids go skiing.  I knew a few kids would be going up on a night train at the same time as we were but I didn't think I would see them.  

When it was time to head to the platform we noticed a family with three sleeping boys, it was almost midnight, and lots of luggage so we decided to ask them if they would like some help.  Jake and I took some of their luggage while the parents woke up their kids and carried the rest of their luggage.  Their youngest son, who was maybe four, had a hard time waking up.  He was standing in front of his dad and fell back asleep.  It was hilarious watching him try to stay standing while sleeping.  We made it to the platform and they were able to load the rest of the luggage without our help.

We reserved a sleeping car since it was a night train and we don't sleep well in chairs :).  We found our cabin and when we walked in it smelled like stinky boys!  It was awful!  The lights were off and there were already three people sleeping.  Awesome.  Jake and I had the two top bunks and the third person that got on in Stockholm had one of the bottom bunks.  We decided to go use the restroom and brush our teeth before we started making our beds so that we didn't have to climb up more than once.  While we were waiting for the bathroom Jake said he thought the top bunks should smell better and I was really hoping he was right.

It ended up smelling much better on our top bunks.  We had a nice shelf to put our backpacks, we made our beds and then tried to get some sleep.  I had a really hard time falling asleep.  When one of the train workers stopped by our cabin to check our tickets the other girl in our cabin asked about making the connection for the other train since we were over an hour late.  He said that we would still make it.  That made me think they were going to go really fast to make up the time so every corner we took I was paranoid that we were going to fly off the tracks.  Over analyze much?  We survived and it was better than we thought it would be when we first walked into our cabin.

The two stinky boys left before we got out of bed so we didn't get to meet them but we hung out with a girl from China who is studying in Stockholm and a man who was moving back north after living in Stockholm for the past 49 years.  

Here is a short video from the train ride.

Jake thought we should try to pack in backpacks since we would be staying in a different place each of our four nights and we didn't know how much snow we might have to roll bags through.  I am an over-packer.  I like to be prepared and we were skiing which meant we would have ski pants, ski gloves, goggles and lots of layers but we did it.  Two backpacks for 5 days and 4 nights.  By the end of the trip I had mentioned several times how thankful I was that we didn't have rolling bags. 

We ate breakfast on our first train.  I had an apple and a cinnamon roll and Jake had a roll with cheese, a yogurt drink and some coffee.  The food choices were lacking a bit and we started to get a little bit worried about what the lunch choices would be.  We thought they choices would be similar to a ferry that we took in the fall that had actual sandwiches but it wasn't looking like that would be the case. 

We were on the first train from 11:53 pm on Friday until 12:00 pm on Saturday.  They held our connecting train in Boden which was great since we originally only had 10 minutes to transfer and our first train was over an hour late.  We were on the second train for about 6 hours so our total time by train was about 18 hours.  We had lunch on the second train.  It wasn't great.  We noticed that most people brought food so we made a mental note to do that next time.  Our lunch was a whole bag of chips, an orange, another cinnamon roll, coffee and some candy. 

Another video from the train.

Here was our route.  We started in Stockholm, switched trains in Boden and got off the train in Riksgränsen, Sweden which is on the border of Sweden and Norway.  We didn't get to Riksgränsen until 6:00 pm so our plan for the night was to hang out at the hotel, eat dinner at 8:00 and then go to bed early so we could ski the next day.  When we checked in we found out we got a room upgrade.  We were supposed to be in a ski room which basically had bunk beds.  So the upgrade to the hotel room sounded great to us.  We went to the ski shop to get fitted for our skis and then headed to dinner.  We had reservations for 8:00 pm but since breakfast and lunch were both less than nutritious we decided to go down early to see if we could get a table and thankfully they were able to seat us.

I had a moose steak with potatoes and Jake had the buffet.  The moose steak had good flavor but it was pretty fatty.  After dinner we walked around outside hoping to see the Northern Lights.  I didn't know much about the Northern Lights before our trip other than what I've seen in pictures.  The lights are on a scale from 0-10 as far as intensity goes but then you also need a clear night and a dark place to go see the lights.  We saw some lights on our walk but they weren't as brilliant as we thought they would be.  It was hard getting away from the lights of the ski resort and I got a little freaked out walking to darker places.

We woke up early the next morning to grab some breakfast and then hit the slopes since we only could ski for half of a day.  The lifts by our hotel only had blue and red runs so we asked if someone could take us to the other lift that had some green runs so we could warm up a little.  I've only been skiing twice and Jake hasn't ever been to a real mountain to ski, only to the little hill in the Kansas City area, so we definitely needed to ease our way into it.  They took us to the other life on a snowmobile!  Jake road in a cart attached to the back and I road behind the guy driving.  It was really fun riding on the snowmobile until we went straight down a hill.  I was terrified but we survived :).

The view from our window our first morning in Riksgränsen.

When we got to the mountain we were the only ones on the slopes for at least 30 minutes.  It was opening weekend for the ski resort but most people were heading home since it was a Sunday so the slopes were pretty empty.  I was confused as to why this was their opening weekend because they have had snow for a while but after talking with someone I realized it has been too dark and too cold to ski that far north.  

We went down three greens and then Jake was ready to move on to bigger and better things.  We headed over to a bigger lift to go down some blues.  I'm used to using chair lifts when I go skiing.  They had platter or button lifts where you put a pole between your legs and it pulls you up mountain.  We did fine on the one to the greens but the bigger lift was a little awkward and we both wiped out trying to get on the lift.  I have a nice bruise to show for it now.

A Platter or Button lift.  I picked the one picture I could find that didn't have a kid as the model :).

We spent the rest of our time going down blues.  For Jake's first time skiing he did awesome.  I on the other hand was a little bit of a mess.  I get so nervous when I ski.  I'm afraid I'm going to blow out a knee or fall off the mountain.  This is my third time skiing and I'm just not sure I really enjoy it.  Part of my problem was that I felt like I was holding Jake back and since it was just us we had to stick together.  He did a great job of waiting for me whenever he would get ahead.  I think if we do go skiing again it would be better to go in a bigger group so he can go try crazy things with other people who aren't terrified and I can go down greens and easy blues :).

We only have a few pictures of us skiing because it was so cold we didn't want to bring our camera and anytime we I wanted a picture Jake would have to take his gloves off.  It was 14°F when we started skiing and 17°F when we finished so it was pretty chilly.  We were plenty warm in our layers but Jake wasn't a fan of stopping to take pictures since we only had a few hours and his hand would get cold.

On our last run Jake wanted to do another blue but I was done for the day so we split up.  I was nervous that one of us would get hurt but I was going down a green that I had already done twice so I thought I would be fine and Jake was going down a blue and there were actually a few people on the blues so he should be okay.  We were going to meet up to take the very last run down to the resort.  I ended up accidentally following him too far and I had take my skis off and climb up a little hill or end up going down another blue with him.  I decided climbing would be best :).

We met up after our solo runs and then headed back to the resort.  The last run was a blue to get to the resort and there were at least two fences up to catch you because the drop off on the side of the mountain was so steep.  You could say I was not a fan.

We returned our equipment, had some lunch and hopped on another train headed to Kiruna, Sweden.