Amusing Bouches: Abisko, Sweden, 3rd March 2014

Having failed to see the Northern Lights at the Icehotel we were pinning all our hopes on Abisko. I'd chosen to spend one night in Abisko because my research had suggested that it was one of the most likely places in the area that you would see the Lights (something to do with mountains and microclimates). But of course there was still no guarantee. Aware that clear skies were a necessity to give us any chance of seeing the elusive Lights I’d been repeatedly checking what the weather was doing there for about 24 hours, and it looked as if there was a chance... So it was that on the way to Abisko it practically felt like you were driving out of the darkness and by the time we got there the skies were blue and clear and we could enjoy the last throws of the setting sun.

Setting sun from our hotel room

Apart from the prospect of good weather, the other attraction of Abisko is the chance to go up to the top of a mountain (in theory giving an even better view of the lights). Most people had dinner at the hotel and then went up on the chairlift after dinner. I'd decided to upgrade and go for a four course dinner at the Aurora Sky Station (which was on the mountain) because if I didn't manage to see the lights then I hoped it would still be a special experience. There should have been about a 15 minute walk from the hotel to the bottom of the chairlift that takes you up to the Sky Station, but courtesy of my Dad's dodgy knee we were able to hitch a lift with a guide and the other walking wounded. We arrived, and got togged up ready for the chairlift which was generally a pleasant ride.

Once inside the Sky Station we untogged before tucking in to a glass of meadowsweet and sparkling wine (I particularly liked the meadowsweet flavouring). In an effort to do anything that would help me feel the cold less I decided to have the matching wines with my meal. If you're not at all interested in food and can't understand why anyone would ever want to take photographs of food then please skip the next bit to find out whether or not we did manage to see the Lights.

The starter was sourdough toast, chive cream and roe (served with a Riesling).

Sourdough toast, chive cream, roe

Next came cauliflower soup with truffle oil. The dishes had been warmed by placing them next to the fire.

Cauliflower soup with truffle oil

The main course was Elk with a red wine jus and Arctic berries, and a lovely rioja. I really enjoyed the elk, it was pretty similar to venison. By the way if anyone can give me a simple guide to what the difference is between reindeer, moose and elk I'd be very grateful.

Elk, red wine jus, Arctic berries

Dessert was meadowsweet pannacotta with berry coulis. Now bearing in mind that this food had all been prepared without the use of any electricity I have to say I was really impressed, and by this point I was a quite full and a little drunk.

Meadowsweet pannacotta, berry coulis

When we had finished eating a guide gave a bit of a talk about the science and history of the Lights then we all got dressed up again to go outside with the hopes of seeing the real thing.

The skies were clear, there was a new moon, more stars than I think I'd ever seen before, but still no Lights. At one point I saw a dim glow in the distance that I tried to convince myself must be the Lights. But after an hour of essentially just staring up at the sky the effects of the alcohol were starting to wear off and I was getting cold so we decided to pop back inside the Sky Station to warm up a bit.

Almost as soon as we'd got inside a few people came in and told others that they should go and have a look outside. And so back out we went, and there in the sky there were flickers of white light across the sky. The most bizarre thing was that to the naked eye they really were a white light, but the photographs I managed to take show the green up much more than we saw:

After about an hour they started to fade away and we decided to head back down on the chairlift. As we were descending they came back. I tried taking one photo whilst on the chair lift (which was difficult because I didn't want to lose the camera down the mountain and you need everything to be completely still to set a long exposure time). Giving up on taking any more photos it was actually lovely to be able to just sit back and enjoy the show.

Photo from the chairlift

We got a lift back to the hotel again and knowing we had a long day of travelling the next day I tried to sleep, I'm not sure if it was the wine or the fact that I was still buzzing from seeing the Lights but I honestly can't say I managed much sleep at all.

The next morning we had a few hours to kill before we were picked up to go back to the airport. I had a bit of an explore around the hotel whilst Dad found a nice spot to read and admire the view (although the hotel was a little bit like a posh youth hostel there were some really nice areas to sit and chill).