For those of you who kept track, I still owe a Sweden blog. Basically, I been rushing my work and lazing on my bum for the past few weeks. So here it is?

This has been one of the most shag trips I have ever made. Basically, we flew in on Thursday and on the same day, we took a 15 hours train ride all the way to Abisko (north of Kiruna). Our main aim was to see the northern lights and also to enjoy some snowy fun.

Stockholm was nice and we actually bumped in NUS exchange students while we were cam whoring there. After awhile, we had lunch at this Swedish eatery and left for Abisko. The train ride was uneventful but also damn bloody shag. Basically sitting on your ass for 15 hours isnt so fun after all. Maybe I should change my end goal from that of being a slacker.

Abisko is a snow wonderland. Everything is iced up and most of the roads are actually compacted ice. My stupid lousy SAF boots basically din have any grip and I was falling all over, thus injuring my food. Luckily, at the hostel, I was able to rent ski boots and walk decently while I was at Abisko. The only down point was that the place where we were staying were supposed to have dog sledding but did not have. That was because their owners went out for some stupid expedition and conveniently did not tell us when we emailed them. Apart from that, Abisko was fun.

On a side note, my hostel also have a traditional mountain spa that is mixed and all nude. Being shy, I din want to go inside the spa. However at night, 2 hot french girls came and I was like so tempted to go. But oh well, I din :P

During the day, we tried cross country ski-ing and basically we kinna sucked at it. If there was any traffic, we would have been deemed as a road hazard and a road hog. It took us about an hour to travel 2 kilometres and when we reached the other station, we just decided to walk back, lugging our skis with us.

At night, we went to Abisko skystation which was supposed to be the best bet to see the Aurora Boralis. To go up, we needed to take a ski lift which took 20 minutes to go up the frigid cold night. By the time we reached up there, I was frozen to bits and had to thaw in front of the fire. Part of the package was an explanation of the northern lights by this swede. It was interesting but I guess the toll of the day played its part and we were trying our very best not to fall asleep. Then, the swede let out a bombshell. Basically that night was pretty poor weather conditions. :(

After the talk, we basically went out the mountain top and try and see the northern lights. It was so bloody cold I almost lay down and died on the slopes. In the end, I wrapped my sleeping blanket around me and was hiding againts the resort to try mitigate the wind chill. After awhile, more people decided to go into the resort.

AND THEN WE SAW IT! Basically, I saw little green clouds appearing in the sky. While it wasnt very spectecular, at least we bloody saw it! Also, on the peak, I met these Singaporean couple who were there for the past 3 days and saw pretty nice lights. Oh well, at least the trip wasnt that wasted after all :)

The next day, we took the train to Kiruna and went inside the famous Ice Hotel for a look. Basically, every year during winter, the hotel would be resculpted and each year will have different designs. The hotel will melt during summer and wait for the next cycle.

And the ice hotel is damn chio can. One night stay is about 700 SGD but its such a novelty. One day when Im rich, I will stay one night in their design apartment. One down side was that I kept on falling inside the ice hotel. Luckily Im heavily padded :P

After the hotel, we realised we were stranded at the ice hotel as there wasnt any public transport on a saturday. it was like OMGKNNBCCB. Luckily, Shu managed to chat up this guy and since it was on the way, he send us to the train station. If not, we would have missed our train and flight and it would have been GG.

In Stockholm, we basically went to the old town, saw the Nobel Musuem and Change of Guard. After that, it was time to go home.

I guess it was a totally new experience for me going to a place which is snowed in. Rather interesting :)