day 04 of our sweden trip - new year's eve. we started it by going to a nearby lake. the lack of daylight is really hard to get used to. there's a little daylight from 09:00 to around 13:00, then it starts to get dark again. the surface of the lake was totally frozen and there were some people ice-skating or walking on the ice in the distance. so we dared to step on the ice too and walked around a little. sonja did some drawings in the snow too. next we tried to find the tourist information in abisko but at first we found some exhibition centre (or whatever it was, we're still not sure) providing us with an exhibition about wild life in north sweden and some multimedia show about the stars and the galaxy. due to that the local people put up some telescopes and people were invited to participate in watching the stars. so we did participate and had a nice view on some stars and the moon. after getting back to our hostel we enjoyed the sauna there. sauna at this hostel means that the old man running this place tells you a certain time when you have to be at the sauna with the maximum of other eight people. so, the group of people go in there and get instructions from the old man. going to the sauna here also doubles as taking a shower (they are very keen on saving warm water here, i don't know why). once you were given water to shower and had taken your seat in the sauna, the old man leaves again and comes back 1.5 hours later. during this time you are free to do as you - and the other people - like in the sauna. in the evening we gathered with lots of people of the hostel at the local helicopter landing place around a fire they lit there. there was also a friend of the people who run the hostel from norway here. he had absolutely delicious salmon with him which he gave away to all the people in the hostel that wanted to taste it. this guy turned out to be quite fun actually so we ended up with him and some other guys in the kitchen of the hostel being a little drunk and having fun. also one of the two sons who run this place together with their father was at the celebration. he will be our guide for tomorrow's dog sledge tour and he's quite fun too.

the night on day 03 in our art-suite was awesome. i slept very good, the girls unfortunately did not that well. inside the room it had 5 degrees below zero, outside less than 30 degrees below zero. our suite had some howling wolves and moon theme, but the wolves resembled cats actually, at least they did to me. after having a really great breakfast we had a look at the rest of the hotel rooms. then we went on to some local sami museum. there we had a delicious reindeer soup and coffee. next to the museum is a very old wooden church. after a final visit to the ice hotel and a visit to the sauna there we went on to abisko to get to our hostel. there we saw the first cat on our trip. ulli won a beer, since i said i pay a beer to the first one who sees a living cat. meow. at least a cat, but no northern lights so far. too bad.

we left stockholm[001-003] quite early in the morning today, heading back again to the airport. our plane then left on time bringing us up northwards to kiruna[013-053]. loads of snow, a nice sun- set in the early afternoon and a really small airport is what we were facing after landing. then we got our car, a ford focus. it was preheated, a thing pretty common here in sweden. you plug your car to some power-outlet and the engine gets warmed up and so does the cabin if you have some heating device in there. pretty weird but at least we didn't have to get on to a totally freezing cold car. additionally the windows are not frozen or covered with ice or snow. so we started driving to kiruna city to get some supplies (as in alcohol from a system-bolagen, a liquor-store with a monopoly on selling alcohol) and a little food. later we had some strange food at some fast-food restaurant[047-050] (as we guessed), namely a cut sausage with mashed potatoes and sauces. pretty weird and not as tasty as we had one in stockholm. after doing some PEBKAC on the tomtom GPS (really totally my fault) and thus having two hours additional driving to the wrong village we finally arrived at the ice-hotel[054-165] in kiruna. a totally awesome place. the hotel offers warm and cold rooms. cold rooms are totally made of snow and ice, with reindeer fur and lights and some ice furniture as chairs and tables. additionally there are carved sculptures and other artworks all around the places. each room also has its own theme. there is also a bar totally made out of snow and ice selling "absolute vodka" exclusively in ice glasses - very environment friendly. i then took a walk outside alone with my camera to take some pictures while the girls were enjoying some hot berry juices they offered at the reception. it had around 32 degrees below zero but it was absolutely great outside. after around 60 minutes outside my camera froze and stopped working properly. focus adjusting, zooming and the battery pack stopped working. additionally my tripod was getting very very hard to adjust the position of the head. so i decided to go in again. very interesting experience - man and machine versus nature, 0:1.

so, first day for us - ulli, sonja, nostromo - in sweden on the hunt for polar lights. first step to get there was taking the train[01-08] where sonja was cutting (some of) her hair[03-06], then the bus[09-11] to the airport[12-16] in vienna and the airport in stockholm[17-24]. at the airport we decided to leave our big luggage pieces at the airport since we have to get back to the airport tomorrow again anyway to get our flight to kiruna. so we locked it away[21-24] at the airport. then we walked around in stockholm[25-52] seeing various buildings and "gamla stan" (old town). we had hot chocolate at a very nice cafe[43-47]. afterwards we went to our couchsurfer-host named per-marten (thanks once more to him for hosting). tomorrow we will get back to the airport and take our plane to kiruna. there we get our car. hopefully.

^C: (the cruxshadows) ayria, posthof

ayria: bad list analog trash six seconds disease blue alice cutting 1000 transmissions the gun song girl on the floor my revenge on the world the cruxshadows: and i believe quicksilver immortal tears solus ariadne sophia foreverlast memorare dragonfly avalanche winter born (this sacrifice) birthday monsters deception marilyn, my bitterness