New Year’s Eve in the Arctic (Icehotel Day 3)
We planned our stay at the Icehotel to include my birthday and New Year’s Eve, so after an awesome birthday dinner, we started the end of 2024 with a fun activity: ice sculpting!
Neither of us have even tried ice sculpting, but I did take wood shop in middle school, so using a chisel isn’t completely foreign to me. The ice sculpting area is located in the back of the newly rebuilt/redesigned Ice Bar:
There was only one ice sculpting session per day, so when not in use, it’s sort of cool to see all of these rectangular ice pedestals displayed with the cool light in the back. But we’re here to start carving them down into potential artistic masterpieces, so off we all went to find an ice block at a suitable height for us:
The instructor gave us some basic instructions and showed us the box of chisels that we should use. As far as I could tell, they were all flat chisels that came in four different sizes. Next, we could use a pen that can write on ice to draw out a sketch of what we’re carving. Neither Nick nor I needed it, so we started chiseling away at our large block of ice.
We only had 90 minutes before the class ended, and I had to carve a lot of ice off the block for my planned piece, so I spent the first 15 minutes furiously carving. I actually got so hot in my outfit, that I needed to take off my hat and scarf because I was sweating. During our carving time, we had fun talking with the people near us and providing words of encouragement to each other:
I learned pretty quickly that I severely over-estimated by carving ability, and that I was in waaaaay over my head. Soon, the 90 minutes was coming to an end, and we needed to spend the last few minutes brushing off the excess ice and polishing our finished sculptures. Nick was proud of his rose:
…and I made this:
In case it wasn’t entirely obvious (and I don’t blame you if it isn’t), my sculpture was supposed to be the Space Needle. I had multiple people compliment me on my diamond or decanter as they walked past me to get their chisel, and I can totally see why they thought that. I had initially wanted to carve the spire of the needle, but since it would be so small, I didn’t think I had the dexterity to make it without having it completely break off. In retrospect, I should have carved a heart or something much, much simpler.
And with that humbling, but fun experience over, we decided to explore the art suites of the year-round Icehotel. I don’t actually know much about the process of creating the suites in this part of the Icehotel, but I feel like the artists had more time because the art seemed more intricate that the seasonal Icehotel that we stayed in. There were some really cool themes in these suites:
The Icehotel Express train suite was really cool because the bed was located within the train car. There was another suite with a shipwreck theme, and there was a button in the control panel that you could press that would sound the ship alarm. But the most memorable suite was this one:
And by memorable, we mean creepy. At dinner the previous evening, we actually talked to a couple who told us that they were staying in this suite, but at that time, we hadn’t seen it, so we didn’t really know the extent of the creepiness. But yeah, I don’t know about waking up in ice and the first thing is seeing all these faces and the ice coffin…
Before leaving Icehotel 365, we wanted to get a drink at the Icebar. We had seen a video about the creation of the new theme of the Icebar, so I asked the bartender if they change it every year, and he told us that they do so every three years. We just happened to arrive shortly after they rebuilt the bar into the ‘In Orbit’ theme, and it was amazing to see the thought and detail they put into it:
They even carved the menu into the ice:
All drinks are served in small glasses made from ice that was carved out of the frozen river. We ordered a couple of non-alcoholic drinks and enjoyed them in the bar:
Besides experiencing the Icehotel, and spending a night in a cool Ice Suite, the other reason we wanted to visit Northern Sweden was to see the Aurora Borealis. We weren’t able to see it when it was visible in Seattle (mainly because we were too busy having fun at Eurovision), so we decided to go somewhere where it could be seen, such as Northern Sweden.
However, the first couple of nights, the skies were too cloudy for them to be seen. The mother and daughter whom we shared the dog sled with told us that they arrived before Christmas, and they hadn’t seen the Aurora Borealis the entire time they were here. Our chef at dinner told us that his family visited him for two weeks, and they also didn’t see anything. At this point, we didn’t hold out much hope to see the Aurora Borealis, but Nick was checking a map with the projected strength and activity of the Aurora Borealis and said that we should be able to see something later in the evening.
As we walked across the street to go to dinner, we looked up in the sky and Nick said ‘look!’ All I saw was some faint gray mist like clouds in the sky, which Nick said was the Aurora Borealis. We took some photos, and what people told us was true—they look much better on camera than in person:
We weren’t dressed to stay out in the 0º weather, so we went to the Icehotel restaurant for our New Year’s Eve dinner, which was a three course meal. It wasn’t as fancy as the Veranda the night before, but we still found the dishes delicious, although at this point, we were a little tired of eating reindeer every night…
During dinner, Nick kept checking the Aurora Borealis map and said that it should be stronger, so we asked the waiter to hold off on dessert as we rushed outside. Nick was right, the colors were more visible and more intense:
When we returned to the restaurant, we saw our server and told him that we were able to see the Aurora Borealis, and proceeded to show him photos. But he responded that he sees them all the time, so to him, it’s not this awe-inspiring experience. It must be odd to work/live in a place that’s a tourist destination to see this awesome natural phenomenon, but to locals, it’s another Wednesday night.
After dinner, we relaxed in our room until just before midnight. The Icehotel provided each guest with a couple of paper lanterns with a note to join them on the river for their New Year’s festivities. According to them, it’s a Swedish tradition to release lit up lanterns to ring in the New Year. As we arrived, we noticed many people on the river, and a bunch of lanterns already floating in the air. But the most amazing thing was the Aurora Borealis serving as a glorious backdrop:
And then some fireworks started shooting up in the air:
Nick was trying to take a video of all of this, but we also lit up our lantern which needed to heat up to float away, and during the filming, our lantern caught fire, so we had to stomp on it to extinguish it. Fortunately, the ground is ice so there was no risk of causing a large fire, and we weren’t the only ones who accidentally set our lantern on fire. We were much more successful with our second lantern (ours is the brightest one on the left side of the image):
A few minutes later, it was midnight—more fireworks were lit, everyone sang Auld Lang Syne, and we all had a lovely time ringing in the New Year. Nick and I appreciated the jovial atmosphere as well as the beauty of the lanterns floating up into the sky next to the fireworks while surrounded by the magnificent waves of color from the Aurora Borealis. It was a truly unforgettable moment:
We would have spent more time there to appreciate everything, but it was really, really cold. My face was freezing and my fingers were numb, even though I was wearing glove liners and heavy gloves. But before we left, Nick was able to take this one last photo, which I think sums up our evening the best:
And with that, our time in the Icehotel was about to come to an end. We had such an awesome time seeing and being in a hotel entirely made of ice, and experiencing new activities that we could only do in the Arctic, that we’ll probably keep telling our friends and family stories of our time there. We definitely recommend coming here once if you can. You don’t need to spend a night in an ice room or ice suite—you don’t even need to stay at the Icehotel, but it’s something truly spectacular to see in-person.
2024 has had its challenges, but this was a beautiful way to celebrate my birthday and the end of the year. Tomorrow, we head back to Stockholm for one more full day before we head back home!