Blogs from Luosto, Lapland, Finland, Europe

During the night, we finally had snow so we woke up to about an inch of fresh snow on the ground outside. The trees were also coated in a dusting. The morning was about minus 3 and we had no activities booked so we decided to have an easy morning lazing in our room, repacking our bags and enjoying the views through the ceiling. Around midday, we walked into the village and went for a walk around the lake – about 2kms in length. The scenery was really pretty with the snow on the fir trees just like on Christmas cards. Shelley even lay down and made a snow angel. After our walk, we went to the Bistro at the Luostotunturi Hotel for lunch. The afternoon was spent relaxing in our igloo, watching the sun go ... read more

It gets light very late in the arctic so we had a lazy morning in bed and went down to breakfast about 9:30am. Breakfast is buffet style and there is a section of cereals, breads and toasts with jam, some sort of unidentifiably porridge type mush, baby sausages and what looked like scrambled egg but tasted like baked custard… There were also croissants and several cheeses, cured meats, tomato, smoked salmon and cucumber to choose from. Following breakfast, we collected our clothes (ski jumpsuits and boots) and went back to the igloo to try them on for size. We didn’t think we needed them today so we put our own thermals and clothes on and went for a walk into the village. It is only a few hundred metres down the road and there is another ... read more

Today was all about sledding; getting dragged around by dogs and deers. What a day! We started out at the husky kennels, where the local guide Saara gave us driving instructions for the husky sleighs before we went to meet the dogs. All the dogs were harnessed to the sleighs, excited and ready to go. With about twenty sleighs, and six dogs each, that's a lot of canines, all howling and barking and raring to go! We were assigned our sleighs, two to a sleigh, and met our dog teams. One of us was the designated driver, the other along for the ride and we switched in the middle. Pretty soon we were off! The dogs took off like rockets, racing after the guides on their snowmobiles or the sleigh ahead. We really picked up some ... read more

We got up very early this morning and got on Bus #2. The driver told me 'Kaakse' and raised two fingers. So obviously I said we can't start at two, what is 'One' in Finnish? It's 'Uukse', by the way. By the end of the day I got to three. So, one two three, uukse kaakse kolme! Between my Finnish lessons the driver took us to Kemi, on the Gulf of Bothnia. There we boarded the Good Ship Sampo, a Finnish icebreaker. Sampo was built in 1960 and kept the Finnish shipping lanes opened for many years, until the cargo ships got too big for her. But instead of retiring her they turned her into a cruise ship. She is the only ice breaker in the world used for tourism! We boarded the Sampo and wandered ... read more

Geo: 67.1571, 26.9157It was probably the most uncomfortable ride so far as we were sat at the back of the sleigh which got more of the bumps. We had expected it to be pulled by a reindeer, but as I have eaten most of them we had to make do with a snowmobile. This took 6 of us up to the top of the highest hill where we went into yet another log cabin for coffee and had a talk about Amethysts and how they are mined locally. So lots of lovely rocks to look at. Then it was down the mine we went and armed with a small hammer we searched for amethysts. Everytime I found an interesting looking rock our guide looked at it with his torch and told me it was worthless quartz. ... read more