The Ice Hotel

The flight from Stockholm to the Kiruna Airport to get to Jukkasjärvi, where the Ice Hotel is, only took a little over an hour and a half, but boy was it a long flight. The plane between the two was tiny! We went so far North, you could practically feel the temperature drop, even on the plane. We're North of the Arctic Circle out here, which means no sunlight at all, but the Northern Lights are going on!

It's at least ten degrees colder here than in Stockholm, and it turns out, ten degrees makes a big difference! It's nine degrees out right now, which is gonna feel real warm once we're in the rooms, which they say are kept at -5! If I don't freeze to death, it's gonna be some sorta miracle, but Eric says he knows how to keep me warm... Picking out everyone's rooms was real fun, though there weren't enough for everyone, so Roman and Kris have to bunk together. Somehow, I don't think they mind! Here are some pictures, and hopefully I'll get to post more later!

The front desk. Pretty chilly looking right from the start!

The lighting's real strange cause it's all artificial!

Ain't the lobby real pretty?

Mine and Eric's Room... Isn't it all Viking-y?

Roman & Kris's Room... Nolan's gonna get jealous of those snowboobs!

Claude's Room... Still makes me laugh...

Jo's, Lucian's, and Lily's room... Cause Jo's the city girl!

Lacey, Jack, and Wes's Room... It looks the warmest!

I thought Pam's room is real pretty.

Bianca and Liam's room seemed like the one with the sturdiest bed. I'm hoping they don't break it.

Nolan and Jenny's room has a tree for Jenny, since she loves them, but I'm hoping he keeps her from licking it.

I don't think Waylon will ever feel too alone in his room.

Pre-Bonding Jitters

I think it's just now hitting me.

After tonight, I'll be Eric's wife.

Not legally, of course, and not in any way that humans really recognize, but to him. That's huge, right? I think I should be nervous or something, but I just can't sit still. I don't remember when time has passed so slowly before. There are hours and hours until the ceremony, and Claude says we need every one of them to get me ready for it, which is ridiculous because Eric will love me no matter what I look like, but you try arguing with the fairy.

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

I think people must be getting pretty annoyed with me. Claude keeps threatening to make me swim laps if I don't sit still, to get out some of my energy, and I just don't know what to do with myself. I feel like I should be doing something, instead of letting all these people do things for me, which still makes me awkward. This should be a bonding time with the women that are on the trip with us, but all I can think of is bonding with Eric later. I love Jenny, Pam, Lacey, Jo, and Kris, and even Bianca is growing on me, but I swear I can't focus on a word any of them are saying. All I can think is that in eight hours or so, I'll be standing in front of Eric promising to spend my life with him, and to love him forever.

I can't wait.

I don't know what forever means for us when he really does have eternity, but I do know that no one else will ever have my heart. It sounds almost silly to say when we haven't even been dating a year, though I guess people marry after less than seven months all the time. After all we've been through together, though, it feels like the time doesn't matter, that I love him with everything I am, and that it could never change.

It's hard for me to think of this as marriage without all the traditional stuff, though. I'm not walking down an aisle, I'm not wearing a white dress, my family (with the exception of Claude) isn't here, most of the people I grew up with won't be here, there won't be any rings... none of that stuff. I can feel how much this means to Eric, though, and it does mean the world to me too. I do kind of wish we were having all that traditional stuff and that my childhood friends and my family could be here too, but that doesn't make this any less meaningful.

I love Eric, and I want to spend my life with him. That matters more than anything else, and after tonight, I'll be his wife.

If only tonight would get here sooner!

Dragged to the Spa

I woke tonight to a text from Claude about how I "need" a trip to the spa before the bonding ceremony tonight. I do want to look my best for it, but the idea of people pampering me, doing things for me, makes me so, so uncomfortable. If Claude's in any way supporting this, though, I know I should indulge him. He's the only family I have here, and I'm sure Jenny, Lacey, Pam, Bianca, Jo, and Kris will enjoy the whole thing a lot, even if I don't like it. Besides, I didn't like the idea of Claude getting impatient and just poofing into my room where Eric's naked.

I'm near crawling out of my skin, I'm so excited for tonight. Claude says that means I need some exfoliating or something, but I'm just excited. I've got my dress and shoes and all that down here at the spa with me so I can get dressed without Eric seeing me. Even though it's not a wedding, Eric sees it as more significant than one, so I want to follow some of the traditions. Him not seeing me in my dress before the ceremony is one, I hope. I'm not sure what he'll be up to today, but I hope he, Brier, Liam, Waylon, Jack, Lucian, and Roman don't get into too much trouble. They're watching Weston and Lily, after all.

The bonding ceremony's gonna be late tonight, probably around when 9pm would be back in Shreveport, but that's 4 in the morning here! We'll have just around 5 hours before dawn, which is nice, and it shouldn't take longer than that. The location we got is perfect, but we had to wait until it'd be closed to the public and could be set up for the bonding, which means it'll be a little late. Not that I mind! It just means lots of coffee today. Claude says the spa is supposed to be relaxing. We'll see about that.

He's gonna start yelling if I don't hurry up and get to whatever room he's dragging to, but I'll write again in a bit!

Arriving in Sweden

Last night, we arrived in Sweden. The plane ride seemed to take forever, which wasn't unexpected, just... long. It wasn't so bad, though. I watched Aladdin with Lily, talked with Waylon, made sure Kristen got the nuts out of her nose, and enjoyed a little time with Lacey, Jack, Wes, and Roman. I got to talk to Tara on the phone, too. It turns out she and Maya are moving back to Bon Temps, which is great, except that it's because Serge broke it off with her. When I find that vampire, I'm sure gonna give him a piece of my mind, abandoning Tara like that.

I finally got up the courage to tell her that Eric and I are having our bonding ceremony. I know he thinks of it as a marriage, and with something so significant, it would've been great to have my oldest friend with me, but with vampires and bonds being the sensitive subject as they are with Tara, it's just better this way. She congratulated me, which means a lot, and Lafayette gave us his blessing a while back. I guess all I've gotta worry about now is telling Jason.

"Hey Jason! Guess what? I got vampire-married in Sweden!"

Yeah, that'll go well.

I guess I'll worry about it when the time comes. Maybe get him drunk first. Either way, I'm real excited. When we landed, it was so freezing! I could hardly believe it! I just barely avoided cussing about the weather, and thankfully Eric got me into the car before I could freeze to death or something. he really wasn't kidding about that! All the humans seemed pretty shocked by the cold, except maybe Liam, but I'm pretty sure Bianca gave him a concussion having all that sex with him in the airplane bathroom. Pam seemed excited, though pretty tired still. I hope they get that stuff worked out soon.

Brier joined us back at the hotel, he'd run off to shift or something, I didn't ask the details, and we met Claude there too. I gave Jenny the room key for her and Brier, since she seems like the more responsible one, even if she eats plants, and Lily took that time to tell Lucian that Nando told her what sex is. I think they'll be having a talk soon.

Everyone went their separate ways, and I did something a little naughty with Eric. We mighta done it in the elevator. I'm still shocked, but... he was so excited... I guess I got caught up in it. Anyway, he said he'd take care of the security footage. I hope he does.

Today when I woke up after a very exciting night, it was already dark again. Sweden only has something like six hours of sunlight right now. Eric's in heaven! He went out to make snow boobs or something with Nolan, so I explored the hotel, got something to eat, and wrote in my journal. I took some pictures of the hotel since it's so beautiful, and I want to put them in here to remember it perfectly. We're staying at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, and it's just... magnificent. I'll show you!

That's part of our suite. Isn't it fantastic? All the glass is light-proof!

The hotel really is right on the water, just like Eric said. Isn't it stunning at night?

This is our room. I'm completely in love with it, really. Eric liked the throw pillows, but they ended up on the floor.

Another view of the hotel at night. I really do love how it looks all lit up.

Eric says the water doesn't freeze in the winter cause it's moving and there's so much of it, so there are still boats going!

This was the main lobby of the hotel. It was so warm and welcoming!

This is the hotel's bar, I think. They also serve some food there, though. It's real cozy, and where I'm writing this!

This is the hotel's main restaurant. The glass gives such a lovely view of the snow outside!

This is a quieter, more private and romantic restaurant. I love the couch thing. I wanna talk Eric into taking me here.

That's really all I've got for now, because I've gotta find Eric and tear him away from his snow boobs. Honestly, after a thousand or so years, you'd think the fascination would wear off...

Claude said they have the country's best spa here. I told him I hate that sorta thing, but he's insisting on dragging me. Maybe before the bonding ceremony, and just for something small. I guess a steam room doesn't sound so bad in this cold weather.

Anyway, I think I need to leave this nice, warm, cozy room and face the snow to find my vampire! I think I'll take Hundr, see how he likes the snow. Maybe it'll be fun after all!

Things to do Before Sweden - Update