ICEHOTEL TOUR

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We got up pretty early on the 24th and grabbed some breakfast. Since we were still pretty tired from the epic journey out, we arranged for a late check out and went back to nap!

Once we had left the warm accomodations, we went to the "luggage hut" and put all our belongings into a locker, received the oh-so-fashionable snowsuits you see in the pictures below, and immediately headed into the icehotel. It was astounding. The photos don't entirely capture the experience, but hopefully they will give something of an impression of what it was like. In addition, at the top of the page are a number of video clips that were filmed as we hung out in the Absolut Icebar for 4 1/2 hours before we went to sleep on our Ice bed...

It was a constant -5 degrees centigrade inside the icehotel. Once you were ready to go to bed, you headed for the luggage hut and traded in your snowsuit and clothes for a thermal sleeping bag & sheet. Then, clutching your sleep sack, and dressed only in thermal underwear, you participated in the "icehotel run." Running from the luggage hut, down an external hallway, thru a door into the ice reception, blazing past the icebar, thru the star trek doors, down the main hallway to your hallway, into your room, tug off your boots, jump in your sleep sheet, jump in your sleeping bag, zip the bag up all the way, tuck your sheet-wrapped head into the hood of the bag and pull the zip-string as tight as you could. Leaving only your nose & mouth poking thru.

It was surprisingly warm in the cocoon. Especially if you bundled up correctly. Yes, quite comfortable.

Until the four hours spent drinking in the icebar catch up to you at 12:30am and suddenly you MUST go to the bathroom.

This requires you to do the icehotel run in reverse and results in providing a great deal of amusement to those still hanging out in the bar.

Back in your bed, you can finally go back to sleep. With only the slightly worrisome thought, "if I pass out in sub-zero temperatures, does that affect whether I wake up?" Oh well.

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