January 10, 2014:
The day started out early with us departing the hotel at 5am for the airport.  Our flight was to Oslo and from there, after a short layover, headed to Alta.  When we first arrived I was shocked at how it was dark out at 1:45pm.  Alta has short days in the winter and long ones in the summer.
After leaving the airport, we came to the hotel that we would be staying at tomorrow night to have lunch.  The meal served was salmon and it was the freshest salmon I've had in my life.  After lunch, we arrived to the Sorrisniva Ice Hotel.  I can truly say it was one of the coolest things I'd seen in my life.  All sculptures were precise in detail and were truly remarkable.
Most of the evening was very relaxed.  Our group spent a majority of the night here enjoying great food (elk stew, salmon), conversation, and drinks from hot tea, coffee, beer and glogg.  Later on that night we went for a hike along the Alta river bed.  It was surreal to see ourselves surrounded by the mountains being lit up by the moonlight.  We soon climbed into our bedroom after bundling up.  We grabbed a warm sleeping bag and pillow fro inside and hurried to our beds covered with caribou pelts and surrounded by complete ice.  This was our first full night sleep in awhile and sleeping was great amidst the cold.