One Of Many Swedish Obsessions

{ICEHOTEL, Sweden}

I'm infatuated with pretty much all things Swedish.  Their design aesthetic is minimal, clean & contemporary, their personal style has spawned an internationally renowned website, and the country is home to brands such as H&M, Acne, Cheap Monday and Ikea to name a few.  While my list of places to travel is admittedly obscenely long, Stockholm is near the top, and with it now The ICEHOTEL, 145 km north of the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland.  Each year the palatial structure is reconstructed with snow and ice harvested from the nearby Torne River and transformed into an elaborate, yet temporary art installation by artists around the world.  Guests sleep in thermal sleeping bags atop beds dressed with reindeer pelts, and  sip evening cocktails out of ice glassware in the Absolut ICEBAR.  Those two things alone have me itching to go, but optional activities like a Northern Lights tour, reindeer safaris and dog-sledding (which I so want to do) are the icing on the cake (pun?).

 

-images via The ICEHOTEL-