Lapland Trip by the ESN with Timetravels. PART 1

Yihaaa! How are you my colleagues? Today I'm quite inspired and I will try to explain my self the best I can and I will talk about the LAPLAND TRIP organized by the ESN.

The Lapland trip is one of the most famous trips organized by the ESN here in Latvia, and I guess in the nearby countries as well. Why is the most famous? Easy, because is the one of the most amazing trips I ever did. Really. And you will ask, why?: I travelled a lot in the past but those trips are incomparable with an Erasmus trip, and is even more difficult to compare if the trip is to Lapland. To travel with a lot of Erasmus people, from different countries is simply amazing, is not only about discovering the place and enjoying the landscapes, it's about sharing, it's about complicity and about knowing better each other. An experience that for sure will fullfill yourself of good energies and will make your Erasmus experience pretty much better.

I will tell you how was the Lapland trip from the beginning, step by step, so it would be easier for you to decide next year if you want to join the trip or not.

First of all a litlle introduction about the prices and about what is included: The base price rounds the 380€ more or less (is not exactly) and includes, the transport to Lapland, the visit to some places (as the Santaclaus village in Rovaniemi and the Ice Castle), and the accomodation in a nice and cozy wood cottage with all the stuff you need (even with sauna). If you want to do more activities, of course you will have to pay an extra charge for each of them, the price will change depending how funny the activities are x). Personally, I paid around 600€ for the trip with the activities, which is quite a lot, but I don't regret, because I really enjoyed it.

DAY 1

So... the trip to Lapland started on Sunday, quite early for me. We met at 8:30 in the University of Latvia Faculty of Economics and Management; in the Old Town. We were divided in two buses because we were almost 100 people. So we took this bus, and in this bus we were aproximately 4 hours till we arrive to Tallin (of course we did some stops in the way). I recomend you to take with you some pillow for all trip, because is too long and you will need it more than once. The bus left us in Tallin just in the harbor so we were waiting there 2 hours and at 16:00 we took finally the ferry. The trip in the ferry lasted 2 hours (it's posible to sleep in the floor if you feel very tired). We arrive to Helsinki at 19:00 and we took directly another bus, which would take us to our final destination: Saariselkä.

The trip from Helsinki to Lapland was very long, we were almost 13 hours in the bus, of course making several stops during the way. In the morning they also stopped in a supermarket so we could buy something for breakfast.

DAY 2

The first real stop was at 10:00. We stopped in a village to see the Kemi Snow Castle (I guess the name of the village was Kemi). The temperature was rather low, around -18 degrees. So you really need to have all the necessary warm clothes prepared in the bus just in case. The place was very nice, it was kind of hotel made completely with ice. They had the entrance, a bar made with ice (you could seat in ice chairs and drink in ice tables), an ice labyrinth, an ice library, an ice church's chapel and lots of ice rooms. The ice rooms had different sizes, some of them were for children, some for adults, some more luxurious, etc...

One little detail that surprised me there was the presence of many fire extinguishers distributed around all the ice hotel. What the hell? How can an ice building burn? Anyway... it was wierd and funny. The place has also amazing views and when we were there we could see a huge part of the sea covered completely by snow, very beautifull!

We left the place after two hours more or less, to start our way to Rovaniemi, the Santa Claus Village! At 14:00 more or less we arrived there and we had again two hours free to see the place in the way we wanted. Rovaniemi is a nice place and very typical, it's almost an obligatory stop if you are around the area. To give you an idea about how is the place: Is a little village made up of souvenirs shops, restaurants, reindeers activities, huskies activities, the Santa Claus office, and souvenirs shops again. As you can see, is a very touristic and commercial place.

So... we saw the huskies, we saw the reindeers, we took a look inside the souvenirs shops... and then my boyfriend and I decided to wait in the queue to see Santa Claus. This history is a bit sad because we were a bit "silly", because we only wanted to see Santa Claus and this was possible just going to the opposite side of the building (the Santa Claus room is open and you just need to look out a bit to see him, don't wait all the queue just for that as we did, please x) ). So after 30 minuts waiting, we saw Santa Claus, we said "Hello, nice to meet you" and we smiled for the photography. We didn't stay more than 3 minuts in the Santa Claus room... then we went with one of the Santa Claus elfs (who was just a very short woman), and she told us that we could buy the photo just for the fantastic price of 30 €! Oh Oh Oh! Happy Christimas! (Said Santa Claus from inside of the room). Terrified at such high prices, we said NO THANK YOU! and we run away. Today I know from where Santa Claus collect all the money to buy thousends of presents for the children.

This was our last stop, so from there, we went directly to our last and definitive stop: Saariselkä. We arrived at 19:00 and we met the Timetravel guides, who would join and help us the rest of the trip. They distributed us in different cottages following the list (because we chose before start the trip with whom we wanted to sleep).

The cottages were beautiful and perfect. The capacity of each cabin was for 7 people but some of them were for more (10/11 the maximum). Our cottage was spacious and comfortable. It had two double individual bedrooms, and one attic room for three people. The cottage was very rustic, all made with wood. And the best part was... we had our own sauna. We were wishing to use it to throw ourselves into the snow later.

Few minuts later the guides came to our cottage to explain us how everything worked and to explain how would be the next days: the meeting point for the activities, etc... This is the perfect moment if you want to apply for some activity that you didn't apply before. This will be possible always they have some free vacancy. For example: I applied for the "Tour in the Artic Ocean" because I didn't do it when I booked the trip and I realized later that all my friends were going.

The first night was our moment of glory. We were all very tired... and is normal. It was the longest trip by bus I ever did! For all those who now are a bit scared of the "long trip".... yeah, is too long, yeah, you will break your neck trying to sleep in the bus... but really, it worth! it really worth! Look the positive things, you will live a nice adventure with all your colleagues and you will be able to see all Finland through the windows, from the bottom to the top!

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