Lapland Trip by the ESN with Timetravels. PART 3.

Hello friends! So here you have the third and last part of our trip to Lapland. In the last post I told you what we did in our third an fourth day in Lapland, here I will continue with the fifth day when we did one of the best excursions that Timetravel offers.

DAY 5. Thursday

On Thursday we wake up really early, at 7:00 in the morning we had to take a bus to start our amazing tour through the Laponia lands. We started our way to the north of Lapland, and in the way, we did several stops in different places to take pictures of the amazing landscapes. In the north of laponia the plain lands covered of pines disappear giving way to more mountainous areas. In the way, we stopped in a beautiful place located between mountains and next to a big lake to take some pictures, the landscape was amazing and the weather was amazing too. Blue and beautiful sky and sun, something that we didn't except at the beginning keeping in mind that we were going to the top of the world. We also made a stop in a river which was running on an ice channel, it was amazing to see how everything was totally freeze unless the water.

Later we stopped in a supermarket where our guide suggested us to taste a special meet very typical in Lapland. I think that it was hots ribs or something like that... and we ate it as the Lapland tradition say, outside feeling the cold. We bought also a a recommendation from our guide a cold drink (I don't remember the name) that we will drink later in the Sauna; it's also a typical habit in Lapland to drink that while you are ennjoying your sauna time.

Finally we arrived to the border between Lapland and Norway and we crossed it. In all the way we could see from the bus how the landscape was changing and we could see also lots of reindeers running free in the nature.

At 14:00 o clock more or less we arrived to our final detination: a small village with 200 habitants called Bugoynes. The village was beautiful, lots of small colorful houses distributed over the snowy landscape. It was clear that it was a fishing village, but is really amazing to see how the people can live and survive in such high latitudes, were before going, you couldn't have imagined people living.

Once in Bugoynes, we went to a restaurant to taste a typical Norwegian fish soup. When we were sitting in our places, a very peculiar man who seemed to have come out of a novel, started telling us histories and curiosities about the life in Bugoynes. He was really excited telling the story and we all went deep into it, without talking, just listening.

The people in Bugoynes is like a big family, they are only 200 people so they all know each other very good. Being a big family has advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes they have some discussions about how to solve some problems, but finally they always find some solution together. As I said before, Bugoynes is a fishing village, the practicaly survive basing its economy in the fishing and farming of the red king crab. He told us histories about how good they felt when they had to go out fishing with marine storms and they arrived home safe and sound. He also talked about how important is to be all together when you are such a small comunity as them, to keep the village on time and take care of it so it doesn't disappear with the passage of years. He said us that one of the most important traditions in Bugoynes was brought by the Finish people, and this tradition was the Sauna. In Bugoynes the sauna is the hearth of the house, the family doesn't have its discussions in the table as other european families, they prefer to discuss being nacked inside the sauna, because in this way, they have no barriers between them, no walls; the man said that this is the best way to find a pacific solution to their problems.

After all the speech, which was very interesting, we ate the delicious hot fish soup with a coup of coffee. Few minuts later we went to the sauna place to start our immersion activity in the Artic Ocean. First we changed our clothes and then we went into the sauna, we where like 20 people or more in the sauna, it was a bit oppresive all the people sweating there. To make the time better we started drinking our cold drinks that we bought previously. When we were really hot, this was the perfect moment to start our run to the water, which was quite far keepind in mind that we were with -7 degrees more or less, and with the swim clothes x). So we went running very very fast to the water and we went in to the sea just for some seconds (there were some crazy and brave people who stayed more, but not me x) )

It was very shocking, you could feel like knifes going inside your skin. Then we ran very fast to go back in to the sauna (some people ran, because I couldn't, I was so frozen that I could not even run. We did this 3 times more or less (the most braves) because of course, you weren't obligated to do it, some people can be a bit dizzy because the change between the heat of the sauna and the cold water is really hard. But you know, swimming in the Artic Ocean is something really nice, you can tell everyone that you were swimming in the Artic Ocean, IN THE ARTIC OCEAN! and you can take pictures for the instagram and show how nice you are to everyone :D

When we finished our bathing time, we started our way back in the bus to Saariselkä. We did also some stops during the way... we could see very hard Northern lights from the bus, so we also stopped to see and enjoy them. It was very beautiful, it was sad because we didn't have to much time to see them because we had to go back to our village. We had a nice party in an ice bar waiting for us.

We arrived to Saariselkä at 21:00 and at 22:00 we had to be prepared to go to the party, a bus took us to the place. It was also very nice to be there, a free air party in an ice bar in Lapland, something unique, really. Then they throw fireworks for us... and the mix of everything, made this moment something very special.

We drank and dance till we could, because we were very tired of our exhausting day. The day after we had a hard way back to Helsinki.

DAY 6. Friday

On Friday we had rather free time all the morning, our bus will depart at 17:00. So we could wake up not very early and rest. Anyway, we woke up around 10:00 because we had to clean our cottages before leaving them. The guides will come to check if everyting was in order. We left the cottage at 11:30 and we took the bus, which took us to the center of the village. We could leave all our stuff in the bus to enjoy better our last day in Saariselkä.

We went to a chinese restaurant because it was the cheapest place we found, the rest of the places were quite expensive and Muossi Grilli was closed :( So we went there and we had lunch all together, because outside was a bit cold.

After that I decided to go to a snow track which is two kilometers from the village to use the sledges. To go up to the top of the mountain you had to buy a ticket for the chairlift that costs 7€ one trip, but if you say that you are travelling with Timetravels you have a discount and I think that is only 3/4 €. With the chairlift you have to go up the mountain with your sledge; my boyfriend and I we forgot to close the safety protection of the chair, it was a scary moment because the chair was ten meters high x). Once in the top, you have to find the sledges way and just throw you down. I have to recognize that I was a bit scared, it was very sharp and the sledge was going too fast, I fall like 10 times during my way down. But it was alsoa lot of adrenaline and I really enjoyed it. If you go to Saariselkä, you should try it, because really, it was one of the funniest activities I ever did.

This was my last activity in Saariselkä, at 17:00 we took the bus and we wouldn't stop till arrive to Helsinki (I mean, we did stops in the way, but not real stops).

DAY 7. Sathurday.

We arrived to Helsinki the day after, around 9:00 o clock. The best part of our way back is that we could sleep better than in the way to go, because we were more tired. Then everything was the same, we took the ferry to Helsinki (two hours) and at 16:00 pm more or less we took the final bus from Tallin to Riga. We arrived here around 20:00 with a strange feeling, a bit sad because our incredible trip had finished, but also happy because we had lived a incredible experience all together :D

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