I continued my awesome travels to the Arctic Circle, otherwise known as Lapland. Let me give you an idea of how far north I was, the city I live is about a three and a half hour drive away from Helsinki, about the most southern point in Finland. We were thirteen hours more north of here. The town right on the edge of the Arctic Circle is Rovaniemi, it took us four hours to get to our middle-of-nowhere cabin from there.
Our first stop was an ice castle! It’s exactly what you think it is. There’s an ice bar, ice restaurant, ice chapel and an ice hotel that you can even stay in. It’s a pretty Nordic place to see.
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| The ice restaurant |
Rovaniemi is the home of Santa! I’m serious, Santa lives here and I met him. I don’t have a picture because (other than Finland always being expensive J) the pictures were twenty five euros which is roughly thirty five dollars. We decided against it. Without the proof, I promise he exists. He’s the nicest Santa and speaks almost every language. He spoke Bavarian German with Christoph! Bavarian German it seems, and I’m only saying this for comparison terms not to insult the Bavarians, is like Montanans talking to somebody from Georgia. Santa could speak that German. You go, Mr. Claus. After that we walked around the multiple souvenir shops and saw some reindeer. We hoped back on the bus for another four hours more north.
We finally arrive at our destination: Vasatokka. We get settled into our fabulous cabin which Ian and I shared with eight Germans which is probably the best set up we could have had due to an insane amount of obnoxious French. We sauna-ed and went to bed. The next morning was supposed to be full of “igloo” building, ice fishing and theory to survival. Ian and I skipped all of it. J We needed sleep. Those “igloos” are forts that I built when I five, haha! But we got to go snowshoeing that afternoon! That night we sauna-ed again and jumped into “The Black Hole.” The Black Hole is a hole in the ice of a lake that we can run and jump into after we sauna. Every night consisted of sauna-ing and jumping into the frozen lake. Basically, the entire trip was one big outdoor adventure and sitting in a bus. The next day we got to go cross country skiing which I enjoyed because it’s running for winter conditions.
THE REINDEER FARM! Reindeer farms are usually ran by people named Sami people, comparable to the Native Americans in North America. We got to feed the reindeer, go on a sleigh ride and observe what they like to do. They’re pretty interesting creatures. Later we learned more about the Sami people; a lady played a drum made out of reindeer leather and sang while we drank coffee. That night was, obviously, more sauna and more frozen lake. Oh! We got to see those magical northern lights which was incredible and would be the absolute only reason I could live that far north. They dance in the sky. J
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| The Sami Women |
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| Not my picture, but fabulous northern lights |
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| Taking our reindeer sleigh ride |
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| Taking the plunge! |
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| Arctic Ocean beach in Norway |
The next day was the real Arctic adventure! Imagine this, we were already four hours into the Arctic Circle and we drove another four hours more north after I felt we couldn’t go more north without hitting the ice cap called the North Pole. But we did! And this is called Norway. We were on the fabulous beaches of the Arctic Ocean! There really are nice, frozen sandy beaches. The ocean isn’t frozen so there are waves hitting the shore. There’s a “ghetto sauna” as we like to call it because there was no dressing room… we changed outside. That was probably half the fun, haha! But we survived and sauna-ed and made the, which seems like an eternity, trek from the sauna to the beach. I have proof of that! And really, the worst part is running from the sauna to the ocean and back. I felt like I couldn’t run fast enough out of the water. Something not many people have done though.
The next day we left Vasatokka and went to Saariselkka which is about an hour south. That was the sled dog safari! Those dogs are incredible. There’s so much energy in those Siberian Huskies! Ian and I got to drive the sled for about 20 minutes each while the other rode in the sled. That may have been my favorite excursion. There were a lot of offerings for downhill skiing, snowmobiling, ice karting, and other outdoor adventures but Ian and I decided they’re probably better in wonderful Montana. J We do have some of the best downhill skiing in the country so Finland’s “mountains” just can’t compare. Overall: Lapland was such a unique and tremendous trip.
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| Ian steering the dog sled |
We learned some fun things about Germany though. You can buy dog meat in the grocery store and apparently that’s normal in all of Europe. Whoda thunk?! Also, if somebody in Germany buys a snowmobile they’re only allowed to ride it in specified areas. Montana: 1, Germany: 0.
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