Sleeping in Sweden’s Ice Hotel: A Sub-Zero Dream

 When I entered the Ice Hotel in Sweden the first thing I felt was the silence. And it was not that hush of a snow-white city, but a crystalline hush, or rather an extreme hush, such as existed only in the disappearance of the walls themselves.

 Side note: If you want to have a stress-free start of your trip then you should book meet and greet at Luton. It was as though one was walking into another world, a world cut out of frozen time.

 The Ice Hotel is constructed every winter out of ice blocks cut right out of the Torne River, built in Jukkasjarvi, well north of the Arctic Circle.

 The rooms are painted and decorated by new artists each year, so that no two of the stays can ever be identical. It was not a hotel, it was a hotel and a gallery and a dream-space.

 Frankly speaking, I was afraid to sleep in a room that is maintained at -5degC. I fancied how I should shiver at night, and reckon the hours before sunrise. The staff, however, gave me a thermal sleeping bag and told me: put on light layers of wool, wrap yourself up and you will be fine. And they were right. Snuggled in there I slept quite well. The air was fresh and I could see my breath, and yet I felt wrapped up.

 And the following day they roused us with hot lingonberry juice, a duty which seemed to me to have brought me through one of those strange and wonderful things. Husky sleds were lined up outside, and the northern sky was a stretch of endlessly pale blue, with hints of lights to come that night.

 The thing that impressed me the most had nothing to do with the novelty of it but was the calm. Snow sleepings give you lessons of stillness, of listening, of valuing the comfort where you least think of it. It is not a simple overnight experience, but a tale you carry with you the rest of your life, one that is nearly unbelievable until you experience it.