Author Archives: Alexandra

#skrivutmaningapril, 3

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Luften var laddad. Någon röt till och allt svartnade för en sekund. När synen återkom hade jag flygit flera meter bakåt och framför mig hade jag ett par. Helt tysta, endast stirrande in i varandras ögon. Nej, inget par. Ingen respekt var synlig i deras blickar. Det var hat men igenkänning. Vilka var det där? Oavsett så tycktes det inte finnas någon trevlig utväg på situationen framför mig.
Den lite äldre mannen lyfte långsamt handen för att sen överraskat snärta till den mot kvinnans ansikte. Hennes reflexer var bättre. Som om att hon hade sett hans handling redan innan den hänt. Hon grep tag i hans hand, böjde den åt fel håll och luften fylldes än en gång med ett ryt. Den här gången av smärta istället för ilska.
Men det stoppade honom inte från att höja andra handen och slå kvinnan i magen med knuten knytnäve.
Jag slog mig för magen och skrek samtidigt som kvinnan framför mig. Andan gick ur oss båda.
När kvinnan böjde sig dubbelt sträckte hon ut ena benet och fällde mannen och var på honom med händerna runt halsen innan han förstod vad som hänt. Hon klämde till.
Slagsmålet försvann framför mina ögon och ersattes av en svarthet jag aldrig upplevt innan. Jag tvingade upp ögonen och stirrade rätt in i mannens.
“Du har blivit bättre sen vi sist sågs,” sa han till mig medan han kämpade efter luft.
“Min tränare i unga dar var inget vidare,” svarade jag med glimten i ögat och släppte taget om min gamla mästares hals.

#skrivutmaningapril, 2

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”Kom hit då, lilla bubben! Kom då! Ja, kom hit!” Svansen viftade med den uppenbara känslan som strömmade genom hela hans väsen. Bollen var nästan platt i hans mun när han kom springandes. Stolthet över att ha lyckats med uppdraget att hämta den flygande leksaken var också tydlig i hans ansikte. Med snabba men klumpiga skutt var han snart vid min sida.

Luften försvann ur mig när det stora fluffet hoppade upp på mitt bröst och släppte bollen rätt i ansiktet på mig. Slafsigt och blött. Men känslan spred sig till mig som det snabbaste viruset och jag skrattade högt samtidigt som jag höll om min lilla älskling och kastade iväg bollen på nytt.

#skrivutmaningapril, 1

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My writing depends on many things. It should be the other way around, shouldn’t it?

I have 26 000 words in 10 months. That’s not good. I need motivation. I think the inspiration is there. I pretty much know what to write, or at least where I want to go with each new chapter. But so many things come in between.

I think the most important thing (besides people who want to continue to read what I have yet to write), is routine. At least that’s what Stephen King says in his book “On Writing” as well as Litterära Konsulter (who gave me feedback at the Book Fair last September).

So I have accepted a challenge. Workout challenges are fun. Reading challenges are fun. But I have never felt the urge to follow them through. A writing challenge however. Yes, that could be my thing! Not just fun, but with a purpose as well. Writing a little every day to get a routine while at the same time learning to “show, don’t tell” as I have learned it is called in English. To give something form and meaning by showing it rather than telling it. If that makes any sense.

The challenge is provided by Litterära Konsulter through Instagram. We are given 30 words to write something about without writing the actual word or synonyms. Just to describe it, show it. And then let the readers guess the word.

I am actually writing this in Swedish, could be good exercise too. And here comes my first entry in this challenge:

Favorittröjan så här i kalla vintertider låg på golvet i badrummet efter gårdagens långa och uppvärmande dusch. Inför dagens promenad längs sjön i det molnfria och friska senvintervädret var den vinröda stickade det givna valet.

Hon drog den över huvudet. Något var inte som det brukade. Nåt fränt trängde sig in i näsan. Surt. Inbillade hon sig? Nä, usch! När skulle hon lära sig att katterna alltid passade på att kräkas i klädhögar på golvet?

Review of “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury

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Title: Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury
Series: –
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 358
Published: 1953, Ballantine Books
My Grade: 2 out of 5 phoenixes

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television ‘family’. But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people did not live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.

MY REVIEW

I have had this book on my priority to read list for quite some time now but have been postponing reading it until I really felt like it. I got in a classics mode after finishing Ready Player One and thought this might be a good read next since it is coming out as a movie later this year. I tend to move books up on my to-read list when I learn that they are being converted to the screen. However, I am disappointed. Maybe disappointment is the wrong word. Perplexed perhaps as to why this became a classic is more accurate. I strongly like the idea of this dystopian future where books are illegal and firemen start fires instead of putting them out. But it was just too weird for me to understand why it got so big.

One reason why I didn’t like it, might be because I am part of this problem Bradbury describes. And that is one scary thought! And nothing I can’t really help either. In Bradbury’s world it was decided that the free thought was what made everyone depressed and the world a bad place. By reading, everyone was more aware of the world and all the sadness and bad things in it. Why read about things that aren’t real? Why read about things that can lead to depression and suicide? Why read at all when you can surround yourself with screens as walls that contain your “happy family” who tells you how to be and live. How to be controlled. It really reminded me of 1984 by Orwell. This could have been the first stage to that extreme controlled big brother society. Anyway, where I come into this whole scary scenery is that I am controlled by what I read. I do read. I read a lot and I am proud of it. But I read as my leisure time. I don’t watch TV, I much more prefer to read and have the world grow in my head instead of just being an image projected there. I can read on the bus with tons of people around me, sure I have music in my ears, but I can read and understand what I am reading without really thinking about what the meaning of it all is. That is how books nowadays are written. And I guess that can kind of compare to the braindead people in Fahrenheit 451 where they do the easy thing where the least amount of brainpower is needed, something leisurely. Now when I wrote that theory down, it sounds stupid, I might not be the person who discards all books to watch the walls, but many others today sure are.

The real problem with what I just wrote I think comes down to this: It is an old book. It is written in a different way from books are nowadays. I get the feeling that back then, it was as important how it was written as what the text was actually saying. And I just don’t see how that is an entertaining text where you don’t even understand the meaning behind the words. How am I supposed to get a world in my head when nothing makes any sense? When so many paradoxes are used to described the story, when there are more metaphors describing every action? Perhaps if you spent some time analyzing the text every other page or so you might understand and get the deep meanings behind every word. But like I said, I like to read leisurely, so this was clearly not for me. I might be the wrong person to write this review then?

More things that bothered me, the dialogues. Extremely weird and didn’t make any sense at all. Like they randomly took thoughts from their heads while watching the big screens and throwing them at each other where they did not quite fitted. Was it because they were more real than any other dialogue in a book because all the characters usually always says the perfect thing?

 

Last but not least, the ending. I got the feeling from it, but it was just so strange that I had to read it several times to make sure that I wasn’t hallucinating or something while reading it. Super weird.

I have my idea of what a good book is. I know what types of books I like, and even if I feel like being a little cultivated every now and then with something from the row of books behind my favorites, I rarely get this disappointed. Yet, I don’t regret reading it But I did expect more. I have now made myself a personal opinion about another classic. Maybe next time I will go even further back in time and finally read something of Jules Verne?

Fahrenheit 451 gets a 2 out of 5,  it was a book which I didn’t enjoy very much, but I don’t really regret reading it either.

Beach volleyball at its finest

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It’s been a while since I wrote about beach volleyball. I am still playing. More than ever in fact. And by more than ever, I mean three times a week.

I have played since 2007, that’s crazy long, but unfortunately my promising career as a beach volleyball pro ended before it could even start due to university studies (I know many can do both, but I couldn’t and decided that it was more important to get a good degree in a reasonable time and have fun in school while doing it), moving abroad also halted my progress a lot. Even if it happened to be to California, where I still played, but not seriously.

So now when I have been back for a long while, have finished my studies, have a good routine on my life with a nice job and salary (beach volleyball is very very expensive here in Gothenburg), I thought that it was time to put some effort into this sport again. Therefore, since January I am practicing twice a week and play in the series once a week. Which totals up to 5,5h every week. Not too bad for a busy project manager who also tries to write a book.

First of all, I want to send out a huge ‘thank you’ to my beach partner, Alice. She is the most supporting partner one could wish for. She brings out the best in me while playing and we are just so positive towards each other and we are extremely generous with encouragement. She is the perfect partner and a big reason why I find it worth paying 7000 kr per semester for this sport. Since day one we have been synched in game and we are developing together. And I felt that these past three months led up to tonight. When we completely owned every single set we played in the series. Last turn (the past 5 weeks) we got 3 points in total, we were hanging on a thread of being sent to the series below us, but we pulled through and managed to stay around for another five weeks. 3 points, for those of you who don’t know, is really bad. One period is 5 weeks, each week you play 2 games, each of two sets no matter who wins them, and you get 1 point per won set. So 3 points in a whole period is really bad. Today, we walked away with 4 points, we got more points in one night than in the past 5 weeks. And no wonder, we played like gods. Both of our serves were perfect almost every time, countless of esses. We played tight and communicated like never before. And what was best, in addition to the amazing serves, were our transitions (when we get the defense and have to counterpunch. We perfected transitions today! So many amazing saves, incredible sets from both of us and attacks that were beyond this world. I usually have a very good spike and am not very good at shots and placing the ball, but today I skipped the spike and placed all shots and they were all so very well placed. I can’t believe it. It is unbelieavable!

The only thing missing from today’s play was a block from my part. I have managed to do 3 successful ones this spring (that is 3 more than I have ever done in my previous ten years). But that takes practice, and it is hard when the coaches don’t really teach us women to block, with the argument that most women don’t block because we are short. Stupid argument. How am I supposed to learn then?

Nights like this is why it is so worth spending 7000 per semester on this sport.

Review of “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline

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Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Series: –
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 374
Published: 2011, Crown Publishers
My Grade: 4 out of 5 simulations

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

MY REVIEW

During the first chapter or two, I didn’t believe that I would see the charm that everyone 10 year older than me does with this book. Then I realized that it probably wouldn’t have mattered even if it was about the geek-culture of the 90’s. I don’t think I would have recognized as much anyway. Or maybe I would have. But the fact that I was born in the early 90’s didn’t make me understand any less. I have the geek within, even if it is not on such a detailed level and I think that was what made me understand anyway. I know how all of that works, I lived through a decade of incredible technological developments and understand why Halliday (the deceased creator of OASIS) had such an obsession with the 80’s, which was even more extreme than the 90’s. The author is also very good at describing everything, so even if you might not get the exact image in your head while reading, you still clearly see it all in front of you. The part about the book being about geek culture in the 80’s doesn’t take over the main story, even if it is present all the time.

I think of myself as a technology-loving person and of course wonder how this whole virtual reality world works. Like do they talk out loud while talking to people in the game? Wouldn’t that be very annoying for everyone around on that bus for example? Do they have earplugs to snuff out the sounds from the real world? How much do they actually have to move in real life order to move in the OASIS? I wonder if the author had anything to say about the movie that will be out in 11 days.

 

The plot was kind of predictable and took the usual turns where we first meet the main character who falls in love, screws it up while everything else around him turns bad as well just to work everything out and give the book a happy ending and not a surprising one at all.

It was a very good book and the predictabilities doesn’t lower the grade, but the fact that I don’t understand the 80’s does unfortunately. So it gets a 4!

Six months as a project manager

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Today was the first day off my 6-month “trial contract” at WSP. I think it is a common way to go, especially for a newly graduated person. Not sure how it works in the rest of the world, but here in Sweden you get hired during a trial time of 6 months. Not that it is any different from working fulltime normally (I think it even says on my contract that it starts with 6 months trial and then goes on as a normal employment without any new contract needed – maybe I should double check?), but it still feels really good after my first day of knowing that I now am one of everyone else. I am another grown-up with a really fun fulltime job.

I have been very bad at updating this blog about how everything is going, but perhaps that is not super interesting anyway. But an update every now and then could be good. At least fun for myself in the future when I can look back on all of this, that I obviously save on an external harddrive.

The past six months have been really great. It has been challenging on many levels but I am getting used to it all. The whole routine of getting up the same early time every day, getting home the same early time (compared to university and Liseberg), trying to work out and compensate for sitting in front of a computer all day, trying to eat healthy, trying to write on my book and at the same time trying to do all of this and balance with enough sleep every night. It is harder than it sounds to find that balance and I am still not sure that I have. One really good thing about being a project manager is that it will always be challenging, no matter how long I have worked. The challenges will be different, and probably not as dependent on what I do outside of work (like getting enough sleep). Projects are never the same and that is why I really enjoy going to work every day. I feel that I do some good at WSP. I feel that I am appreciated, both from coworkers and bosses. I feel that I have found something that I am somewhat good at!

After only 4 months I took over a project regarding the change of control systems at Volvo and soon thereafter I was given a completely new project that I was part of starting up regarding a revision of all sprinkler systems at Volvo. That’s crazy. Think about it. I became the main project manager after only four months. How crazy is that?! What’s even more crazy is that it was only scary for about a couple of weeks after taking over when nothing was organized very well and I had to do a lot just to make sure that all the right documentation was in the right place and so on. Even if I don’t (well, maybe that is actually didn’t now) know a single thing about systems that control ventilation and such, I still did good. Because a project manager is not a specialist, a project manager is a generalist who is not supposed to be there and help with details, but rather be the spider in the web, the organizer to make sure that the project is going in the right direction. But of course, I learn new things every day that is basically just a big plus for my work.

Then there are also the days where I start thinking about what I am actually doing. How did I get here? I am working a 9-5 job (with flex hours of course), in an open office landscape. I use excel in almost everything I do and without my Outlook calendar I would be like a lost child. How did I end up there? Did I really get a masters degree? Really? Some days I feel like I have faked my way to where I am because I can honestly say that I don’t remember much from my bachelor time at Chalmers (2010-2012, so it has been a while). The knowledge I gathered from my master is more easily accessed. And maybe that is why I constantly hear that I am doing a good job (although I am not sure what is good and bad job)? Because project management is more than just education? I think perhaps I was born with a list and an excel spreadsheet in each hand. The structure and order have always come naturally. To not have things (the right things obviously, not everything) under control has never been an issue for me. And when I think about it that way, I reach the conclusion that I might feel lost but I truly feel that I have found my place and calling. Project management is what I want to do!

Now I am just rambling. Maybe I should have put these word counts into my book instead? Eh, to summarize, I can’t really believe that it already has been 6 months since I started working. It has gone so fast and I can’t wait to see what I will have accomplished in the future. I want to be good at what I do, I want to be a rolemodel for new employees as well as more senior ones. I want to see what kind of cool and big projects I could potentially get in the future. I am so eager to see where all of this is going and I think I have to remind myself that the road there will probably be as interesting as the goal. But now, for the first time, I have a goal, and it feels good. Real good!

I am so glad that it is not “just a job” that I have. I really like what I am doing and I am so greatful that I found this right on my first try.

Review of “Höstsol” by Lars Wilderäng

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Title: Höstsol (~ “Autumn Sun”)
Author: Lars Wilderäng
Series: Höstsol
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 478
Published: 2017, Massolit
My Grade: 4,5 out of 5 suns

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION (translated to English by me)

It is early September and in the archipelago of Stockholm, another submarine hunt is underway, but this time a civilian manages to capture something on camera, something that puts high pressure on the already shaky world situation.

At the staff in Moscow, a colonel takes a crucial decision and a Diplomat at the Russian embassy is everything but what he seems to be. At the same time, an American task force in Iraq makes a discovery that will get dire consequences.

Back home in Sweden, Johanna tries to put all her energy on her practicing squadron instead of on her wrecked relationship. Her ex Jonas starts his new job as crisis preparedness officer in Uppsala while his brother Christian is positioned as a body guard by the eccentric and hard-to-deal-with Minister of Foreign Affairs’ side. Soon it will dawn on them all that the safe reality they for so long had taken for granted, slowly but steady is going to change.

 

MY REVIEW

Before you start reading this review. I want to ask you if you are Russian. If you are, then I can promise you that this book will be very boring and dull and you can stop reading this review now.

Okay, good, now we have lost all the Russians. I wouldn’t want to have it on my conscious to recommend a book that potentially could lay waste to Sweden as we know it. The Russians in this book had a really impressive, and really scary and realistic strategy of taking over our beautiful country. Maybe this book should stay untranslated?

If you are a regular reader of my blog, or just read the blog description here on the right side, you know that I am fairly picky when it comes to choosing the next book. I love to dream myself away in a fantasy or sci-fi world. Why would I want to read something that could happen in the real and kind of “boring” world we live in? I rarely get out of my comfort zone and it takes a lot of time for me to actually pick up a book recomendation from a friend. But every now and then I surprise even myself. But still not entirely out of my comfort zone though. I knew what I was getting myself into this time. Why step out of the comfort zone by three large steps when you can take a single step and read something from one of your favorite authors? I know that Lars Wilderäng is a really good author after reading Stjärnklart. Even if the subject of this one might not interest me as much as sci-fi does, I at least knew that the writing would be good. And I am glad to say that I was correct. I am not disappointed.

The writing style is exactly the same as in Stjärnklart. We get to follow lots of different characters which gives the reader a completely different view on the world he is painting. You get to see everything at once instead of just following one character’s developement and interpretation on situations. In this case that type of writing really works (as it also did in Stjärnklart). Although, it leaves the reader with not just one cliffhanger, but several at the end.

There is one downside of writing like this, and that is that it is really hard to keep track of all the characters. Maybe not after getting to know them later on, but at least in the beginning. It is also hard to remember who did what after a while. And it is especially hard to keep track on characters that don’t recur as much, or maybe just one time.

One thing that I, as an aspiring author, struggle with is the balance between journey and action. Siri Pettersen’s book Odinsbarn (“Children of Odin”) was one of the best books I have ever read and it was full of journey sections. And long ones. But it still made the book amazing. Höstsol is the complete opposite. It is full of action and barely any journey sections at all. And is as amazing. From chapter one you realize that something huge is about to happen and you just continue to read on to find out what and how it will happen. It is impressive that Wilderäng can keep up the quality of the story along with so many things happening all the time. It never gets boring.

The reason why it “only” gets a 4,5 out of 5 is because I have basically no knowledge of any military things or strategies or weapons or anything at all. It was super cool that my grandpa was an army tank driver before he retired, but it stopped there, at the profession being cool. Since I knew nothing about the technicalities of it all, it was hard to understand sometimes. I understood the story, but why the characters did as they did, what everything was and how they reached conclusions and so on, was completely out of reach and understanding for me. What that means though, is that Wilderäng has truly done his in-depth research and made the story so incredibly realistic and scary. The details are definitely needed in this kind of story and he places them exactly where they are needed to make the full picture perfect.

I am impressed, Wilderäng! You were able to make me love a book that I wouldn’t have even looked at, much less bought and gotten signed. Kudos to you!

Skiing in Luossavaara

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Late last night, I came home to a cold Gothenburg. It was -9C and warm compared to what I had left behind. Today it was -10C when I left for work, I barely felt it. The sky was clear and the air crisp and dry. Really nice. Much different when I left work today though. It was only -5C, damp and windy, so I was chilled to my bones, it was horrible!!

On Saturday we woke up to a clear blue sky again and it was below -20C. The ski slope usually is closed if it is colder than -20 or when it is too windy. No wind, but really cold. Their Facebook page had not updated anything about it though so we walked the 800m to the slope from Malin’s apartment. The mountain Luossavaara lies on an old abandoned mine and only had basically two slopes going down. One lift. But it was really good skiing. I haven’t been on skiis in at least 8 years, but it went surprisingly well, at least Malin said it looked good for being 8 years since last time. The snow was perfect, one side of the lift was recently groomed (do you say that?) and no one had been on it. So nice!

My calves didn’t hurt, they were about to after the first try. But for some reason it stopped and never started. What hurt was my nose and cheeks from the extreme cold. But my calves didn’t. Well, they did afterward after being squished so tightly for quite a while. But I didn’t lose my sense of feeling in my feet at all, which I remember doing during each go last time. So that was a success.

We had waffle lunch, went some more and then the lift died so we decided it was time to go back home. Our faces hurt from the cold. But oh my, what a beautiful day!

The end of the day was spent in front of Melodifestivalen (the Swedish Eurovision) with homemade pizza. Haven’t seen it in forever and I feel like that was the right choice. Not impressed. But still a nice evening!

 

On my last day in Kiruna, we went on a walk in another super awesome day. Clear sky again, -26 when we woke up, -24 when we were out. We took a closer look at the church and then walked back. An hour outside was more than enough and our faces hurt again. We watched Hidden Figures before I had to go to the bus and leave for Sweden… I mean Gothenburg.

I am glad that I now know that Malin is having a great time up there and is doing really well. I can only imagine how scary it must be to move out of your parents comfort already as a 16-year old. Brave girl!

 

UPDATE 2018-10-06!

Icehotel in Kiruna

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I am so upset that I can’t post pictures right now. I have so many amazing ones from today, and even from yesterday. I will just have to speed up my project of moving all my pictures from this blog to my archive blog.

It was a while ago now that I traveled. It must have been Rome in April last year. I have been wanting to go to northern Sweden for a long time now and since my cousin Malin moved here to go to the space high school in Kiruna (Rymdgymnasiet), I finally grabbed the opportunity, booked a flight and flew as north as I have ever been.

I took two days “off” work, flew in yesterday and will leave on Sunday.

The snow was there. Tons of snow were everywhere! -14C I think the pilot said. I thought it would be fine, because it is dry cold, but it was cold.

Airport was tiny, bus ride into the city center was cozy and I saw on the way in that the sun was on its way down. I thought that that meant that it would be dark very soon. But I was wrong. The sun was setting from 2pm and all the way until it actually went down at like 5pm perhaps? And it wasn’t even that dark afterward either. The white snow is making everything so light! It is nothing comapred to the grey darkness back home in Sweden…. sorry, back home in Gothenburg. It is hard to see this place as part of Sweden. It is so completely different. It is magical, it is white, it is cold and the air is full of shiny crystals when the sun is shining. I have definitely found some details to the environment in the area of Isidra in my book!

Yesterday we just walked around town, had dinner at Spis, a restaurant where Malin works (she works at the fika part of it, but same owner). Arctic Char was on my plate and it was delicous (Filet of arctic char wrapped in cabbage served with almond potato puré, shellfish sauce, root vegetable chips and roasted wheat).

 

The morning of today was spent at her school. The general director of the Swedish National Space Board was there to talk to the students. Super interesting to hear what they are doing. Then he participated in the class afterward which was astronaut knowledge. We looked at the Terrella they have (basically aurora borealis in a can). Malin was interviewed by SVT and it is now up on SVTplay here. 8:55 into the video, the news did a sequence on her high school. She is the cute astronaut and I am the muppet sitting next to her. Hahah! The video will only be available for another 7 days, but I have it downloaded. The article for it is here.

In the afternoon we took the bus to Jukkasjärvi and the Icehotel. I didn’t really know what to expect. I guess I thought it was a “boring” place, a building made out of ice and snow with basic beds and reindeer pelts to sleep on. I was once again surprised. Most of the rooms are individually designed by anyone who sends in their idea. The bst ones are picked out and later that same person creates the room during two weeks. Even the “basic” rooms were very beautiful with ice crystals on each side of the bed.

So, let me explain how this hotel works. In April each year, 2 ton blocks are removed from Torneälven, the big river up there from a farm they have right next to the place of the hotel. The remove snow from the ice during the whole winter to make the ice perfect. It is then stored in a big warehouse behind the hotel and can be stored for several years so the ice in the current hotel might not necccesarily be from last year, but it is definitely from Torneälv. They ship ice to ice bars in Stockholm for instance that goes under the same name. A few years ago they built a whole hotel down in South Africa for a car commercial that then gave the idea of building Icehotel 365, an icehotel that is open year round, right next to the one they build every year.

The Icehotel this year is called Icehotel 28 because it is the 28th hotel they have built. All of them are different and built up in October. The rooms are carved in November and it opens up for business in the end of November. It is then open until, was it March or April, or maybe even later?

Like I said in the beginning. The pictures are incredible, but only on my phone for now. They will be posted eventually!

 

UPDATE 2018-10-06!