Packing is always a challenge, but for Nobel Week? Its many events line up under three different dress
codes:
- “casual”
- business suit/cocktail dress, and
- white tie/ballgown (three different events require these).
Frank can get away with a couple of suits and two pairs of
black shoes–it’s easy to rent the white-tie-and-tails in Stockholm.
I’m bringing a few more options for all this dress-up. We’ll each need
a grown-up black coat, plus mittens, boots, mufflers, longjohns, etc.
for sub-zero Sweden.
But then, in the early morning of December 14 (after the
late-late-night party with Jumping Frogs), we’ve been invited to visit
the Arctic Circle for a week that requires layers and layers more
clothing! Forget the wimpy lightweight Capilene longjohns, so usefully invisible under a suit. Bring on some expedition-weight fleece,
and never mind the bulges! The dress code is stuff for hiking or riding
in dogsleds–for hanging out in the midnight anti-Sun and chasing
auroras!
Now this is starting to add up to way too much luggage….
And then, we schlep it all to the Ice Hotel?
Guests sleep in a room made of ice, on top of a bed made of ice
(sleeping bags and padding in between you and the ice), surrounded by
sculptures made of ice…. The door and the toilet are not made of ice,
because the room has neither. It also has no space for luggage, which
gets stored all night in a locker somewhere. That’s too bad,
because I might want some ballgowns round about 2 a.m., to pile up on top
of my sleeping bag to keep warm…