This is the northernmost town of Sweden. Welcome to Kiruna!
It lies above the Arctic circle, which means that there are days in the whole year
where in the summer the sun never sets for weeks!
And in the winter the sun never rises for weeks!
But luckily, we are here in neither of the two extremes.
We're here in the February—March season which means, it's a good time to see
the Northern lights also!
We'll show you around, what all activities you can do here.
And how life goes on in the Arctic!
How is this so transparent?
One of the most unique things that you can do in this town
is to sleep in an Ice Hotel!
You get to sleep in a room like this which is decorated with ice all around.
Literally an ice block here. So you sleep in sleeping bags in the night to stay warm.
And in this hotel, none of the art suites
are exactly the same. Each room has a different theme,
different sculptures inside, different art pieces.
Like this room here has a theme of "Museum". So, it looks sort of like a museum.
I'll show you the other rooms also. Let's check the strawberry room!
That's the bed!
There are even books to...
... books to read!
And a table to sit on.
Okay... and this room is called "Lucid Dream". This is something you might see in a dream.
Stairs that lead into nothing.
And this is our room for tonight!
It's called "Dreaming in a dream" And it's beautiful!
We're gonna sleep here tonight. — Our bed is behind this.
Look at the details on the wall! It's amazing!
Yup!
Fun fact: It's about minus 5 degrees in here, right?
Yeah!
But thanks to our super thick snowsuits, we don't feel cold at all.
Yeah!
Like I could spend all day here.
The ice here in the Ice Hotel is coming from
the Torne river. The "Tornio" or the Torne river.
It's super thin like water. ... from top and then one hand on the chisel.
It's good to work with two hands. Because if you start like this and sculpt,
then you slip... into your arm. Not nice!
This area is the ice sculpting class area where we each get a block
and one and a half hours to sculpt anything we want
from this block of ice. This block of ice comes from the river nearby
which gives it the transparent look that you see.
Normally, ice has a lot of air bubbles in it.
Like the one in your freezer. So, that's not the kind of ice.
This one is coming out straight from the flowing river.
This is actually pretty easy to sculpt.
Almost like butter!
So, I'm planning to draw a face also. That's why I drew the eyes.
You see the nose?
The mouth?
Now I'm trying to carve like this, so the roundness comes.
Let's see!
Look!
This is the nose,
lips, eyes
and this is the crown!
This whole thing is a crown!
I think my sculpture is almost done.
Very good!
Oh yes!
Wonderful!
He is very heavy.
And once our sculpture is made, we keep it there
and replace it with an ice block from here — back on here.
So the next person can do the sculpting.
And the glue here is actually the water
which acts like a mechanism to stick the ice block on the surface.
Kiruna is a very small town in Sweden with a population of 22,000 people.
It was originally founded in the early 1900s as a mining town.
Because currently, there is one of the world's most modern mines —
iron ore mine — which is in Kiruna. But there are a lot of activities that you
can enjoy here. One of them is going around on a snowmobile!
So, now we're going to go on a reindeer tour. Meeting the reindeers here.
And we're getting all warmed up for it. I rented these boots, which are extremely
big and thick. But at least they'll protect us from the snow
and the cold!
We'll be staying outside for around 4—5 hours. So, actually we're not gonna drive the snow mobile
but someone else is gonna drive the snow mobile
and we're gonna sit on the sledge behind.
It really is like a roller coaster!
I feel so cold in the face!
You too?
Is everyone okay?
Yes! Perfect!
Not too bumpy? No!
Nice! That's good!
In just a few weeks, this forest will be filled with reindeers and reindeer tracks!
So, this is the moss.
Which we'll use as reindeer food. — We'll use it to feed the reindeer.
Over there!
They'll really running after the food.
The one with the... the one with the antlers — we'll have to be really careful about
because they may go in my eyes or face.
They're crazy about the food!
Some of you asked about the antlers of course. And why, for example, only here...
What is she doing?
And why some have none and some have big ones?
And that is because losing the antlers and growing new ones
is a part of the natural process.
Surprisingly, the one with antlers are not males
but females. Because the males lose their antlers after mating.
And the females have the antlers to protect their calves.
Now, we're gonna use the reindeers for these sledges.
And traditionally, it's always the reindeers
that are used for sledging. The dog-sledging thing is actually a new thing.
And when we go, we go one reindeer, one person.
So you will be in charge of your own reindeer.
Helmet on!
That noise, that high-pitched call, is a signal for the reindeers to actually go faster.
They stopped!
Oh, he's fast!
He ran very fast at one point. — Yeah?
Okay!
Your turn to race now!
This one?
Go, go, fast!
One thing to definitely do if you like reindeers and are interested in learning more about
the indigenous culture of the region, is going on a tour to experience the traditional
Sami way of life.
Reindeers are an important part of the cultural heritage of the Sami people.
You get to meet, help train, feed, and even raise reindeers.
We also ate traditional reindeer meat served on flatbread with hot Lingonberry juice
at a cozy fireplace in a tent and got to know about Sami storytelling.
...the mountains and the hills. And his fur became the forest and his blood became the river.
You can already hear dogs in the background.
They seem very excited for pulling us on a sledge.
And here we go!
Now, they've stopped shouting. As soon as they were running, they stopped shouting.
Right now, what speed are we going at?
I guess we're going about 17. — 17? Okay.
Now they're all eating the snow!
Yeah, they eat snow because they think it's warm today.
By eating snow they cool down their own bodies.
Unlike the reindeers, you don't actually need to tell these dogs to run, because
they are bred for running. So, they automatically have this instinct
in them that they run and pull the sledge along.
You don't have to constantly be like shouting: Run, run, run!
And dog sledging is a relatively new thing in Sweden.
Traditionally, they've only used reindeers. Dog sledding was more common in Alaska, Canada
and all the other places. But here it is something very new.
For pulling 4 to 5 people you need a pack of around 12 to 14 dogs.
And it depends on the amount of snow that there is and the conditions that there are,
how many dogs that you should actually use. If the snow is thicker, it's harder to pull, so you need
more dogs to pull the people.
That's enough, thank you!
Do you have Lingonberry juice?
We have it.
I like neither tea nor coffee.
You never get tired of it?
No!
That's your rescue with sugar. — Thank you!
So, it's time for our Swedish fika again.
We have some Lingonberry juice here and you have some tea.
And we'll make fire again!
It's so warming. It really warms you in the body from inside.
There's also a nice ice bar here where everything is made of ice.
And you get served drinks in ice glasses!
But don't drink before going on a snowmobile!
Ice tables.
Ice sofas and ice walls!
Ice chandeliers!
This is the ceremony hall. You can actually get married here!
And of course one of the most magical things that you can see in this region are the northern
lights, which we were lucky to encounter on one day of our trip.
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