Visit Kiruna during December

At the darkest day of the year my plane from Stockholm touched down at Kiruna airport. It was all shades of white outside and I had arrived to winter wonderland approximately 1000 kilometers North of the grey and rainy Stockholm.

Why Kiruna?

My primary purpose of this trip was to find snow to practice skiing before Vasaloppet which takes place in just two months. I will be away most of the time until then so I won’t be able to train so much this year. And Kiruna had a flight with good connections to ski tracks and I had never been there before. And I don’t regret my decision to go. The place is awesome!

The city of Kiruna

The city of Kiruna is built above a mine. Due to heavy construction underneath, the whole place is facing a risk of falling so at the moment the first project worldwide with moving a city is taking place. Kiruna is quite spread out and with 1 square kilometer for each individual in the county of Lappland there is a lot of space to move to. During my two days here I completely fell in love with the place. Maybe because of the snow, the fairytale like church, the proximity to mountains, the uniqueness or because it is not like any other place I been to? Anyhow I really like this small place. Have you been here?

The first day it was snowing and they had not removed it so quite handy to use a kick which I saw many people did so it is not a rumor that people in the north use kicks for transportation.

One of the oldest street food places in Sweden is to be found in Kiruna. It looked awesome but I was not trying it out since I didn’t felt for that kind of food.

The city center was beautifully decorated with Christmas lights. It was not a beautiful place but with the snow it looked cozy. There are a lot, and I mean a lot of Thai people here in Kiruna and I also saw Thai food aim every corner.

The wooden church of Kiruna dating back to the beginning of 1900 which was a gift from LKAB. This church was recognized with a design prize as the most beautiful building in Sweden in 2012 and it was adorable. They will though move it as a part of the big city move.

Kiruna is also famous for its space research so of course one monument to recognize that is to be found in the city.

And of course you can visit the famous mine LKAB. Keep in mind if you go there to reserve tickets since they are popular. I didn’t go there but would love to. I have never been to any mine (mostly because I am afraid of being under ground). Have you been there?

For being a small city there are plenty things to do. I went here for skiing so the ski tracks I tried I will of course present in another blog post. But I really, really liked this place and hope to get back. Soon. Have you been to Kiruna? What did you think?

/ Pernilla that love to see Northern Sweden