IKEA came to us

It's like waking up in an IKEA store. Our beds and room furniture are from IKEA. The kitchen racks, tables, fittings, cupboards and applicances are from IKEA. Our bedding is from IKEA. I'm waiting to appear in their next catalogue.

Woke very early so Mandy could Skype her grade before their home time, which meant that it was 6:30am here! She had a lovely time hearing about lost teeth and new shoes, and the technology worked flawlessly. The children could see Mandy on the huge interactive whiteboard in the classroom, and she could see them on the netbook screen. Thank goodness nobody could see me still in bed just out of sight, or the schools IT usage policy may have had an urgent revision.

Checked out and walked around the frozen bay for a while, before we headed off to the station and boarded our train north. The train was pretty empty for a couple of stations, until we connected with a train from Stockholm and we were inundated by a huge group of young adults complete with packs, mats, skis, stocks, shovels and goodness knows what else. The gear got dumped in aisles and doorways and it got a bit willing for a while, but it settled down when the buffet opened and everybody could get a coffee. We think the group is an outdoor education class going cross-country skiing somewhere far up the Arctic as they were going another two hours north and were seriously kitted out.

Arrived after lunch in Kiruna. It's the northernmost town in Sweden, situated in Lappland and the Arctic Circle. Reminds us very much of a ski resort town. Houses look like boxes, mountains and snow form the backdrop wherever you look, there's a small town square in the centre surrounded by shops, snow piled on the sides of the roads which are covered in stones, and an extreme chill in the wind. We were told that it had often been between -30 and -40 during the Winter, so todays -1 was mild. Booked some things to do tomorrow, did some shopping, and walked around a bit to explore. Listened to ABBA over tea to ensure an authentic experience.

Stayed up until about 11pm, and went for a long walk in the twilight. There was still enough light to read a map. Didn't see the northern lights unfortunately - it wasn't dark enough - but we did see a huge full moon rise. Into bed around 12:30. When I stirred at 2am to see if it was dark enough then, morning light had already broken and it looked like daylight.