Thursday February 22
Today we went on a day trip to NORWAY! We had to get up super early for breakfast, because the bus was leaving at 8:00am. It took about three and a half hours to get all the way to Bugoynes, which is really far north. Along the way we stopped at Nuorgam, which is the northern-most point of the European Union. Bugoynes is technically further north, but Norway isn’t part of the EU. The trip overall was really interesting. I’ve never been so far north, and it was cool to see such a different landscape. It’s all big rocks covered in ice and snow, contrasted with the really blue colours of the Arctic Ocean.
Bugoynes is actually a really interesting village, because it was mostly settled by Finns during the 18th century. A lot of Finnish people immigrated to the northern areas of Norway to take advantage of the fish a seafood industries. Today, there are only about 250 people living there, and most of them still
speak Finnish – it is even referred to as Pikku-Suomi, which means ‘Little Finland’.
The big event of the day was to swim in the Arctic Ocean. There is a little company that sets up a sauna on the water. When we heard about it, we thought it would be kind of like the Ultimate Sauna Experience from earlier in January, in the sense that it would be a more permanent thing. But it turned out that it was more of a trailer that was temporarily set up, which made us all a little more worried about how cold the water would be! To be fair, the water was really, really cold but it was still warmer than the air temperature so I think the problem was more when we got out and had to run back into the sauna.
After our swim in the ocean, we had some time to take pictures of the landscape, before we headed into the village of Bugoynes for lunch. We went to this little bistro in the middle of town, that was run by a guy who had moved to Bugoynes to be a teacher. He had only meant to stay for one year, but fell in love with the village and has been there ever since. Before having lunch, we learned a lot about the fishing industry in Bugoynes, including their King Crab export business. I guess the King Crabs were introduced to the environment a few decades ago, but since they weren’t native to the area, they started to eat everything and take over the waters. So, the fishermen in the area started to hunt the crabs, and eventually started a business selling them. Today, the King Crabs are sent all over the world to different restaurants. We saw one in a tank at the restaurant, and it was gigantic! It was probably at least two feet long.
Once we finished with lunch, we did a little tour of the village, and then headed back onto the bus. After one more stop at the top of the hill, to take pictures of Bugoynes from above, we were on our way home. It was another exhausting day, but one of the most memorable so far.
We ended up going out again to see the Northern Lights, and they were even better than yesterday. Kayla and I dressed in so many layers we could hardly move (including two winter jackets each), but we were much warmer, and stayed out way longer.
Friday February 23
Today was not so busy, which was a good thing since we were all still pretty exhausted! In the morning, we all went cross-country skiing, which was really fun. The only problem was that it was really cold (below -30), so I didn’t really feel like staying out for too long.
After lunch, we decided to get bundled up again, and Kayla, Barbara, Max and I went for a walk around the lake near Vasatokka. Even though it was really cold, the sun was out and there weren’t any clouds in the sky so it was a really beautiful afternoon. We found a field full of fresh powdery snow, and played around in it for a while. Afterward, the rest of our friends went out again to build quinzhees, but Kayla and I decided to stay home and watch the Canada-Germany hockey game.
Later in the evening, we had a nighttime snowshoe hike, and scavenger hunt. We had to use a GPS to find wood, a knife and a stick of magnesium so that we could make a fire. And after that, we had a barbecue on the fire. Even though it was cold, it wasn’t too bad, since we were moving around pretty much the whole time. None of us thought to bring our cameras with us, but we really should have. The Northern Lights were just insane – the whole sky was covered in green and pink lights, and we could really see them moving around. It seemed almost unreal, and it made for a really cool night.
Saturday February 24
We left Vasatokka this morning at 8:30, and headed to the town of Saariselka, which is about an hour and a half drive from Inari. It was our last event of the trip- the husky safari. We spent a little bit of time in the village before we went to the husky farm for our sleigh rides.
I thought it was really interesting that huskies were not traditionally used in Lapland for any type of work or transportation. Rather, it is a trend that has come to Finland from other countries. The sleigh ride was a lot more fun than I expected. We shared each sled in partners, and took turns ‘driving it.’ One person would stand on the back to control the speed of the sleigh, while the other person got to sit in front of them. The dogs all seemed really friendly and happy to be out running. The best part of the whole activity though, was probably getting to meet three six-week-old puppies! I guess that the puppies need to be introduced to people at an early age so that they get used to being around us. Lucky for all of us, we got to hold them and pet them for a while. SO cute!
After the husky ride, we went for a lunch buffet at one of the restaurants in town, and then started our long, long bus ride home to Jyvaskyla. It was definitely not as exciting of a ride as on the way there. We got home around 3:30am on Sunday morning, and I have never felt happier to see my own bed.
But I didn’t get to sleep for too long. After only about twelve hours at home, Kayla, Franziska and I were on a bus to Helsinki, to start our eight-day trip to Copenhagen, Oslo and Bergen. Stay tuned for more posts and pictures to come! As always, thanks for reading :)
