Tuesday February 20
Our bus left Jyvaskyla at 1:45am on Tuesday morning. Since the ride to Vasatokka Youth Centre is so long, the travel company decided to split the journey up by having two stops along the way. All in all, the trip took fifteen hours, but I think it would only be about ten to eleven hours if we didn't stop at all.
Our first stop was the Kemi Ice Castle. It was pretty cool, and way bigger than I expected. Inside, there's a full restaurant and even a snow hotel. The inside of the castle is really intricate, with lots of snow sculptures and carvings all across the walls. Kemi also offers outdoor hotel rooms, that have glass ceilings and walls, so people can watch the Northern Lights.
Our second stop was the famous Santa Clause Village in Rovaniemi. We were all pretty excited for this stop, because we all really wanted to meet Santa! Rovaniemi is also an official crossing of the Arctic Circle, which was pretty cool. I have never been so far north before, and we still had over three hours to travel before we got Vasatokka Youth Centre, which is near to the city of Inari, Finland.
When we finally arrived to Vasatokka Youth Centre, we dropped our bags in the cabin and headed straight to dinner. As part of the trip, we were able to sign up for a half-board, which includes breakfasts and dinners. I think it was definitely a good idea to book the half-board, since none of us really felt like cooking or bringing a lot of food with us.
After dinner, we came back to the cabin to set up and unpack, and then fell right to sleep. The cabin is really cute, and there are eight of us staying here. It's one big room, with a loft upstairs for five people, a room for two downstairs and a pull-out couch. There's also a little kitchenette, and a fireplace.
Wednesday February 21
After a good (but short) night’s sleep, we woke up for our first full day in Lapland. We had breakfast from 7-8, and then left for our activities – learning about the Sami culture, and visiting a reindeer farm. “Sami” is the name for the indigenous people that traditionally lived in the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. We started our day by visiting a museum, called Siida, where we learned about the Sami culture, and a bit about the history of Finland in general. Throughout the history, many different Sami cultures and communities developed in many different regions across northern Scandinavia and Russia. Today, there are still a lot of Sami people living the traditional lifestyle in Lapland.
One of the most traditional Sami lifestyles is reindeer herding. Reindeers, to a certain degree, represented status and wealth and from what I can tell, they still have this symbolism for many Sami farmers. When we visited the reindeer farm, we learned a lot about how reindeer herding works. We also got to feed the reindeers and go on a sleigh ride.
I thought the method of ‘herding’ of the Samis was very interesting. Rather than having a farm where many animals are kept, the reindeers are all free, and mostly wild. In order to tell which reindeer belongs to which reindeer herder each reindeer has a special pattern cut into their ears. When a herder needs a reindeer for something (for example food, transportation or fur) then they can easily tell which reindeer is theirs. But, if they take a reindeer that doesn’t have their special pattern, then it is considered stealing. I thought this philosophy is really cool, and is a very different style of ‘farming’ than I have ever heard of.The reindeers that we met at the farm are only there for the tourist season in the winter, and then are released back into the wild for the summer months. When I was asking one of the guides about the regulations of reindeer farming, she told me that the land is split up by area (about 100 square km) and each area is governed by a reindeer association. Within the association, there are many different Sami herders and most of the time, associations are distinguished by fences. That way the reindeers can’t roam too far away. The guide also told me that there are no reindeers that are fully “wild,” but that all of them are owned by someone.
Meeting the reindeers was so incredible. All of us were like little kids, finally getting to meet Santa’s reindeers. At first, we were allowed to feed them, and afterwards we went on a sleigh ride. The reindeers were pretty relaxed, and used to people and we could feed them right out of our hands. However, we couldn’t pet them, since they don’t like being touched. Their fur also has some sort of waterproof oil which can be messed up their fur gets touched. I’m not sure what I imagined the farm would be like, but I definitely didn’t think that we would be so close to the animals. I guess I thought it would be more like a zoo, where the animals are on the other side of a fence.
The sleigh ride was definitely the best part of the experience! These sleighs were tied one behind the other, with a reindeer in between and each sleigh cold fit two people. Kayla and I shared a sleigh. The whole ride was hilarious, because our reindeer was wanting to go way faster than the ones in front of us. He kept walking all the way up to the sleigh in front of us, where our friends Max and Barbara were. He would poke his head onto one side and then the other, so our sled was moving all over the place. But I think he got some good selfies with Max.
Overall, the whole day was pretty spectacular. But it got even better!
Later that night, we all decided to go “Aurora hunting.” I haven’t seen the Northern Lights before, and so we were all really excited to see if we could see them. There is a tiny lake right near Vasatokka, about 10 minutes away from our cabin. At about 10pm or so, we headed out to the lake to see if we could catch sight of the lights. And we DID!! The sky was so clear, and we had a really good view. It wasn’t super bright, but they were definitely there! One of my friends, Franziska, figured out a good setting for her camera, so she got some incredible pictures of the lights. And she took a ton of photos of us too! Getting to see the lights was really the icing on the cake of a magical day.
We went to bed exhausted, but even more excited to head off on more adventures in the morning. Thanks for reading!! :)
