Having fun in the Arctic Circle

Woah, this post came by a lot later than I thought I would. Keeping this blog is getting harder as time passes by... Or am I just getting lazy? Meh.

So, about Lapland. What can I say? It is just the absolute best trip that I've had so far. Seriously. Here are the main reasons why.

The weather
Yeah I know, it sounds pretty random but trust me, the climate influences your mood so much. Fortunately, it was basically perfect during the whole time I was there: blue skies with perfect temperature. Cold, but not freeze your balls-off cold (like -35/40°C), but pleasantly cold like -10°Cish. When it's super sunny and warm, you're just happy and want to do everything.

The people
I was placed in the biggest cottage, the one made for 14 people. To be honest, I was kinda fearful if I was gonna get along with the other people in the cottage, I only knew a few people there. But, lo and behold, I got along with everyone so well. I developed new friendships and had a fantastic time. Everyone was just so friendly and happy. I have nothing but good memories from all of the people I've met, not only the ones in my cottage, but the whole group in general. And that's super rare.

The activities
Everything was super well organized and I really loved my guide. He was just so cool: had a great sense of humour, forthcoming and knowledgeable about everything. He was just awesome.

As for the activities, I'll just write them in order of preference, leading from awesome to legendary.

3. Snowshoeing in the night and sledding down the highest hill for toboggans in all of Europe, it being 1,2km high. It took quite a while to walk up that hill, but it was pretty worth it. I actually did the whole thing twice (well, almost: I crashed into a net and injured my ankle pretty bad the second time. I didn't want to end up in the hospital and the end was near anyway). We had some sort of relay-race with snowshoes and it was really fun. Cuz, you know, falling in the snow and having your snowshoes unbuckled is so much fun (it didn't happen to me cuz I'm Canadian). We did it at night and we went up the hill with them. We had really nice views of the town up top and it was so calming. When we were on top of the hill, we had to sled down. In the middle of the night. After that we moved to a hut and barbecued some sausages.

Personally, I found the sledding a bit stupid because it's ridiculously dangerous. I went sledding on that same hill during the day and, I kid you not, the kids had hardcore helmets and goggles. Pretty useful when you're going über fast (don't know how many km/h, just super fast), so fast that you can't see anything.
So, doing it a night is ridiculously dangerous. The guide said so himself that if we thought we were going to crash into someone, we should just jump off the sled because we can actually break our bones with the speed and our mass. Still, I had a great time, even if I came back with one injured ankle. Nice little souvenir.


2. Husky Safari

Woah that was amazing. I've gone dog sledding before, but it didn't compare to this at all. I had a partner and we were completely alone to control the dogs. I was a bit scared and doubtful of myself at first, but it ended so well. I had a pretty rocky start. Really, the road wasn't smooth at all and I was jumping up and down behind the sled. I even came really close to flying off of it, but after a while, I got the hang of it. It was just so much fun. Imagine you're there alone with the dogs, riding a sled surrounded by untouched nature under the blue sky... So therapeutic, so calming, so blissful.
The minor difficulty I had was stopping the dogs: they were so strong and eager to run and my weight alone couldn't stop 6 adult huskies completely. But it's okay, they were still really good dogs.
After that we went inside a hut and a trainer talked about the dogs and how sledding works while we sipped on hot berry juice by the fire.
After that we went to go play with some dogs and I hugged and petted a whole bunch of them. Ahhh it was so great!



1. Norway
Norway seriously made this trip even more epic than it already was. We had a few hours on bus to go to Norway, something like 3 or 4. You kinda knew when you passed the border from Finland to Norway due to the scenery. Finland was manly comprised of snow and trees, which were still quite nice. But Norway was filled with mountains and just epic scenery. You know when you're just so accustomed to a really nice landscape and after a while you get used to it? Well you don't with Norway. It just kept getting more and more epic and the guide put "World" genre music (?). Already the landscape was beautiful, the guide just had to kick it up a notch and play music that evoked emotion. So the combination? World music+ Epic scenery= Pure Happiness+ Emotional Dalena.
Seriously, I felt so happy and overwhelmed by Norway's beauty I wanted to cry. I'm not much of a tree-hugger but I must say that nature is so underrated. I'm probably saying this because I've just been to one the most beautiful countries in the world. Everything looked like it should be on a postcard. Everywhere I looked on bus, I just felt like I was living in a fantasy world. The pictures I've taken don't do it justice.

Here's just a glimpse of my ride on the bus:

Ok, enough about nature, what did I do exactly in Norway? I went to the sauna and swim in the Arctic Ocean. I know, I lied about not doing it again, but it was really something. It was so fun that I did it 3 times. It took place in this village, Bugøynes and it was great. The people there were so hospitable and charming. We had the opportunity to take a few pictures and it was nice. And then we had to head back to the cottage. That day was so epic. You, yes you, the one reading my blog, have go visit Norway if you haven't done so already. I don't care if you're flat-out broke. Get a job, save some money and fly to this magical place ASAP.

Finally, because I'm really tired (urgh, why do I do this to myself? Writing super long posts before going to sleep) and want say more thing in less words, I'm giving you other cool accomplishments I did during this trip in point-form:

• Saw the Northern Lights, but only briefly. It was pretty cloudy so the lights were pretty pale. Still, it was pretty cool.
• Ate some reindeer. Yes, Rudolph was good.
• Went to sauna and went outside to lay in the snow. It was actually quite nice, not as cold as you think it would be. (*gasps* am I turning Finn? :O)
• Went to a cottage for the first time in my life. I never had the opportunity or the means to get/ go to a cottage and it was real nice.
• Sat in a sled pulled by a reindeer.
• Learnt about the Sami people.

That's it for now. I probably did more but I probably forgot about them. They're probably not that important anyways. 

So, until next time- and I hope I get to write some stuff before I get back to Canada.

Kippis

PS: I'm travelling a lot in May. Going to so many places!! You jelly now?

PPS: And these destinations are pretty- for lack of a better word- exotic. I'll try to write about each of them as it goes. But until then, I'm keeping them secret to create some suspense!