icehotel
This place is way cool. Expensive trip, but so worth it.

outside


inside
our room is down that cave to the left



amazing place, truly and unbelievably surreal. The whole thing melts and slides back into the river every Spring. Still, i can imagine improvements, Gaudi-esque arches and textures, levels, balconies looking into the icebar, gothic nooks, and an ice slide from the sauna to the river ;) Next year.


lounging in one of the sweet suites


There are about 20 suites. Each suite has some special features like ice sculptures, ice windows, or special lighting


This was one of my favorite suite entrances. It was like the fortress of solitude. Most all of the hotel is open during the day to look around - so you only have your room to yourself after 7pm.


This was the bed in one of the favorite suites. You are not aloud to leave without getting your picture inside it.


Anna can type a caption here, i'm sick of typing these damn captions.


but that's ok, cause it's more fun to chill in the ice bar anyway. They serve the drinks in glasses of ice.


and you can make new friends in the icebar too! We met this good-looking fellow and his friend Craig in the sauna before our river "swim". Speaking of which, it was an absolute highlight of the trip. You get a nice healthy sweat going in the riverside sauna, sprint out across the ice through air 180 degrees (F) colder than the sauna, and dive into a whole in the ice. *wow* ! Undescribeable! The water didn't feel cold, but i couldn't breath. My heart may have stopped for a moment. It was like being reborn. Shazam! I was only in for 30 seconds, then it was up the ladder and into the hot tub.


This is Craig. He looked really old in the hot tub because the water and water vapor froze and frosted all over his face and hair. It looked really cool. Here we are sampling various vodka drinks. I wanted to try some Aquavit (some scandinavian type of liquor made from Caraway seed), but all they had was different flavors of Absolut because they sponsor the icebar.... lame! Don't feel too bad for me though, i got to have an aquavit on the flight home - hmmmm aquavit!


ice hotel by night. eerie. beautiful.still.


i stayed up late and no one else was in my dream...