Into the Artic, Kiruna ( 2 Jan 07 - 7 Jan 07) The last trip before returning to Singapore.. Kiruna, up north of Sweden into the artic. Over there the temperature is as low as -25 degree. Don't know how I survived the cold.. haha.. We went to the ice hotel on the first day. Ice hotel.. As the name suggest, the whole hotel is made of ice. There is this absolute ice bar in the hotel where we drink from this ice cup! The next two day we follow this northern light tour which brings us to a base camp where we stay there for one night. During this tour we did not manage to see the northern lights thus, we decided to stay another night (change our train tickets). Lucky we stayed one more night.. If not we will miss the beautiful northern lights! The last day we went to this iron ore mine.. Largest iron ore mine in the world.. The tour just intro us the mine and tell us how the iron ore are mined and processed and bring us into the underground mine tunnel.

Entrance to the ice hotel..

One of the ice hotel bed..

Ice bar.. everything is ice..

Drinking from the ice cup.

A night of fireworks..

First time on a dog sledge!

Having fun on the snow mobile!

Snow.. till my knee level..Trekking in the snow..

Northern lights!! Beautiful..

Kiruna..Kiruna Church..

I like that background.. so "magical" and beautiful..

The place there is so white with snow.. so beautiful.. especially the northern light.. We had a try on the dog sledge, snow mobile, rafting cross the rapids, chopping wood to keep warm, bbq with the firewoods, sauna and then running out to the snow, hiking in the snow forest.. everything is so close to natural.. the feeling is so different, so special.. Such a wonderful experience..

New Year Eve 2006 Happy New Year! Welcome 2007! Me and my friend did not really celebrate the new year eve, we just had dinner togather then went to watch fireworks after dinner. Thoughout the night you can keep hearing the sound of fireworks. When we arrived at Slussen, there are so many people! Fireworks are everywhere.. Police are also there to keep things in control. People just light the fireworks off the street and you have to be on the look out in case one fire into you. haha. Here are some photos.

Italy (20 Dec 06 - 28 Dec 06) Italy.. My last Europe country before my exchange program ends. We first travel to Rome then to Venice, Florence, Pisa, Siena and back to Rome. Seem like this period of time alot of exchange student went to Italy. Meet quite a few of them. So happy to meet friends whom I did not expect to meet. Its like a concluding trip where I met friends which I got to know when I was travelling. One regret is not being able to eat in this resturant in Rome.. Went there the first time we were too early and since we were too hungry we settle for something else.. the second time, it was fully booked! Each of the city in Italy has different thing to see.. For Rome, its more of the ruins.. then Venice, the beautiful water city, has a good sun set view and river side view. Florence has more statue then Pisa has the leaning tower while Siena is just a small town with a square and dumo (church). Rome: Colessum

Trevi Fountain

Spanish square.. connecting a shopping street(people queuing to enter Gucci, LV shop...)

So qiao to meet my friends..

St Peter's Square.. Look at the number of people queuing to enter the St Peter's Basilica Vatican City.. Forbidden grounds.. Visitor are not allow..

Venice.. The water city:

What a beautiful sun set.. too bad its too short..

Pisa:

Siena:

Florence: Soon.. I will be back to Singapore.. The last trip before going back will be to Kiruna. Its up north of Sweden into the artic circle. Hope to see the northern light there! Think it be very beautiful.