Managed to have an even worse sleep last night than the previous night – got about 4 hours sleep total. However, I managed to get up properly on time today and not fall asleep! Had breakfast in the hotel and took a taxi to the airport to catch our flight up north to Kiruna.
The downtown area seemed very quiet this morning – probably because it is a Saturday and the traffic to the airport was very light so we made it to the airport pretty quickly. Checked in and headed to the gate. The flight was packed and there were a lot of people with carry on luggage. A short hour and a half flight to north of the Arctic Circle. The ground in Kiruna was covered in snow and there is not a lot around. A small terminal where you walk off the plane and to the terminal. Quite a lot of people from our flight though, all crammed around a tiny luggage belt. Met our driver and picked up our luggage and then rode for 45 minutes to our lodge.
We got our rooms and had a briefing about our activities, including the recently announced change to the itinerary, which would result in less time dog-sledding. Had some coffee and pastries for “fika”, which is an afternoon tradition of tea or coffee and pastries. We then were assigned our winter gear, which consisted of an overall winter suit, boots, gloves and a fur hat. Then we headed back to our rooms to relax and take some photos of the sunset and lodge.
Tried on our snow gear and got ready for dinner back in the lodge building. Every night is apparently a three course dinner. Tonight we had a creamed tuna thing wrapped in a crepe type thing for an appetizer and then meatballs (Swedish, of course :)) with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy and then a chocolate mousse, creme anglais type thing for dessert. Was stuffed, especially after having a pretty inactive day!
Hung around after dinner for a bit chatting with some of the group – 12 of us in total – as it was still early and we don’t start snowshoeing tomorrow until 10 am. Updating my blog now before getting to bed – hopefully, I’ll sleep better tonight!