Trip to Lapland

And here it is, the famous trip you've all been waiting for has taken place. As promised, I will tell you all about it.

We took the bus on Sunday 11th February at 9 pm in the direction of Vasatokka, a centre for young people where we will stay. The road to Lapland is long, very long and it is not easy to sleep in the bus... It is at this point that we become aware of the extent Finland is a big country.

On Monday, on the road to Vasatokka, we first stopped at Kemi Snow Castle, after having done our shopping for the week, because there was no other supermarket in the area for our accommodation. The Kemi Snow Castle is, as you will have no doubt guessed, a snow castle. It had been constructed for the first time in 1996 as a present for all the children in the world, and since then, it has been reconstructeed every year with a different architecture based on a theme. This year's theme is fantastic beasts.

Although it is reconstructed every year, it always contains a restaurant, a chapel and a hotel. The castle is frequently visited but is no less impressive for all that, especially the Royal suites of the hotel that make you want to have a good nap! The castle is situated in reality at the border of the Gulf of Botnia and, when it freezes, we could have walked over it, as you can see in the photo below. After this visit, we left in the direction of Rovaniemi, a city where the Village of Father Christmas is. The village is quaint and the amount of snow indicates to us that we have well and truly arrived in Lapland.

Furthermore, there is a needle which indicates the place where the polar circle is situated. Alas, the waiting line for Father Christmas being so long, I decided not to go to say hi to him. After having spent two hours there, we went along the road to finally arrive at Vasatokka around 8pm. Some slept in dormitories, while others like myself, had chosen to pay a bit extra (20 euros) and to stay in a little chalet. It was for the little chalets for eight people, completely furnished. I did not know the other people with whom I was staying that well, but straight away a really great atmosphere set in between us and we had already planned to see each other again on other occasions. The first thing that we did upon arriving at our chalet was to light a fire and to eat marshmallows. We then prepared to eat before to relax in the sauna, to finally profit from a well-deserved rest.

The second day of our trip was set aside for a visit to a reindeer farm. The first piece of advice that was given to us before arriving was to not ask the Samis how many reindeer they owned, as asking this question would be like asking how much they had in the bank, which would be insensitive and badly received. For information, all the reindeer that you can notice in Finland belonged to someone, even if they seem wild.

Over there, we could feed the reindeer ourselves to then do a little sleigh tour pulled by a reindeer. After the walk, we could practice catching a pretend-reindeer with a lasso, something which I discovered I had no talent for. Then, we all came to a cabin, around a fire to have tea or coffee with biscuits that the Samis had prepared for us, during which time they told us their story. It was really interesting to learn that nowadays the young Samis try to preserve their culture and language and are very proud of it.

After this great encounter with this little-known people, we went to see a museum that was dedicated to them, as well as to Lapland in general. Once this cultural visit was over, we arrived back in Vasaktokka. In the evening, I went on a small hike as an activity in the forest, equipped with snow shoes. We left in a group into the woods with the mission of finding objects to light a fire. Walking like this in a forest covered in snow overnight is quite magical, but on the other hand I cna assure you that walking in the fresh now with snowshoes is not easy at all - we were in knee-deep. During this walk, I learned to recognise the prints of a rabbit, a fox and a deer in the snow, you can, furthermore, see some of these traces in the photos at the bottom of my post. Then, we lit a fire and cooked sausages to finish the activity.

The third day was one of the best for me! We went to Norway. We left at 8am and although Vasatokka was far North in Finland, it took us four hours to arrive there. During these four hours, we could see magnificent landscapes, we could see reindeer crossing the road, as well as mooses and some even noticed a magnificent ginger fox on the white snow. It was very frustrating for me that it was not possible to stop to take photos...

On the way to Norway, we passed by the Taiga to the Toundra. The Taiga are conifer tree forests, while the Toundra is made up more of little shrubs and is more rocky. I could tell you the difference between the two is very impressive. On our journey, we also crossed the village that was the furthest north of the European Union. Our destination in Norway was a little fishing village: Bugoynes. This little village is in fact primarily inhabited by the Finnish. But before going there, we made a stop at a beach nearby, in order to take photos and moreover to go to the sauna and then swim in the Arctic Ocean!

For me, it was certainly of the most memorable moments of the trip. Although the outside temperature was pleasant, the temperature of the water was much less so. However, the sensation of going from the sauna to the iced water is really great. After this little adventure, we went to a little restaurant in the Bugoynes village to eat traditional fish soup, which was, without lying, truly delectable. After having taken some photos of the village, we left for Finland.

I didn't have any activity planned for the fourth day, so myself and the people in my chalet, who were in the same position as me, made the most of getting some rest and discovering the area of Vasatokka. vasatokka is an area that is really isolated from everything, and is situated at the edge of a huge lake, so huge that it is advised not to walk above it as you can with the other lakes. So we went for a short walk in the woods, around the centre, as well as going sledging. In the evening, a barbecue was planned, to which we were all invited for a short evening. Given that it was our last eveing, everyone looked at the sky in the hope of seeing the Aurora Borealis, but alas, the clouds were 100%, so we couldn't see it, although we could make them out behind the shining clouds.

The next day, we left Vasatokka at 9. 30 am to start heading home. On the way, we stopped at Saariselka to go dog-sledging. Arriving near the huskies, who were so excited to be able to run that we were advised to wait for them to run before we could stroke them and take pictures with them.

After Norway, I think this was my favourite activity. We were paired for the sledging, one sat and the other drove, then we switched roles. The beauty of the landscape during the pathway and the speed of the huskies, especially on the way down, made the experience truly exceptional, and what's more is we were lucky to have the huskies who were very strong and eager to run as fast as possible. After this magnificent experience, we ate soup in a village restaurant and then, having three hours before heading back on the route home, myself and two friends decided to aller au spa, and relax in the hope of spending a good night in the bus (which was not necessarily the case).

We got back to Helsinki Saturday morning at 11 am. It was time to say goodbye to everyone, and, for my part, to mentally prepare myself to write up my work that I had to give in the same day at 8 pm.

In any case, it's a trip that I will not forget soon thanks to all the beautiful things that I saw and all the wonderful encounters I had.

Thank you to everyone who made it possible!

Kisses,

Perrine

Photo gallery