What a day! We thought the day would be mostly all travel, but it turned out to be so much more.
We had to get up at O'dark 30 in order to drive 4 hours from the Lakeland region to the Helsinki Airport in order to fly to Lapland. It was -19°C so which made it difficult to keep the Mr. Toad car from frosting and fogging up during the drive. The sky put on a good sunrise show of colors (little did we know that this would be foreshadowing of what was to come later in the day.
Some sunrise colors along the drive.
The frosty birch trees being lit up by the morning sun's rays.
Once at the airport, Sarah and I divided and conquered. I went inside with the bags and got boarding passes while she returned the rental car. Unfortunately, the Finnair folks we're not happy with the size of our carry-on backpacks. Rules are important in Finnish culture. We had to prove that we could fit them into the holder, which we did. However, My backpack did not want to come out easily. So, we proceeded to do some rearranging of stuff (including putting on more clothes) and then we were eventually good to go - except that I was sweating my biscuits off.
Wearing lots of extra clothes to reduce the size of my carry on - this was hot!
De-icing the plane before take-off.
Finnish Lapland from the air
Made it to Ivalo airport
The car rental was not super smooth, but we got it all sorted out.
Our 1st drive in Lapland - looks different than the other parts of Finland we have seen so far.
Our next mission was to find Fallon and then see about sledding. In the past 1.5 years, I have been able to find Fallon in VietNam and the Republic of Georgia, so why not add Finland to that list? This time, I found Fallon in the grocery store in Saariselka, Finland - this makes me smile ear to ear.
I had read about the longest sledding hill in Europe and it is in Saariselka. I also read that you can pick up some serious speed, so helmets were in order. We just needed to figure out where it was and how to get sleds.
The ski area was all out of sleds, so we rented some budget sleds at the mini-mart in town. You can pay for the ski lift, you can drive up to the top, or you can hike up under the ski lift. This was a no-brainer - hiking under the chairlift it was.
Some people you can find anywhere in the world. I found Fallon in the supermarket in Lapland Finland.
Driving to the ski area.
Hiking up under the chairlift - it seemed like no one else though this was a good option.
The cafe at the top of the ski area.
It was super windy and cold - I'm not sure if this is even Fallon 🤣
The cafe at the top of the ski mountain was a welcome respite from the brutal wind. It also was a great place to get some yummy snackies. Since we ended up getting 3 different options, we all rated which ones were out favorite.
Check out the snow pack on top of the roof.
We were just going to get one dessert, but why get one when you can get three?
Bundling up to brave the elements and try our hand at sledding.
After putting on tons of layers, we decided it was time to brave the elements and test our sledding skills. It was just a struggle to walk from the cafe to the spot where the sledding trail began. The next challenge was to wrestle the sled to the ground long enough to sit in it before it flew away again. Finally, I was ready to rock the sledding hill.
It was so fun!!! There were fast straight sections, bermy flowy sections and it lasted for so long. I was at the bottom in a hot minute. I waited at the fire pit for Sarah and Fallon who opted to go down on foot rather than sled. They might have a stronger sense of self-preservation than I do.
This picture says so much - you can barely see Fallon's eyes and my sled is flying away.
Twilight hour in Lapland.
The view of the village of Saariselka
After playing with sleds and battling the wind, we decided it was time to check into our lodging at Arctic Sky. It is a place to stay that is well off the beaten path, sort of buried in snow in the Arctic wilderness. It is owned and was built by a Finnish couple.
Arriving at Arctic Sky Lapland - our lodging for our stay in Lapland.
Our room is perfect. It even comes with socks!
Outside of the "dorm"
What came next totally rocked my world! I looked at my aurora app and it said there was a 100% chance of seeing the Northern lights. So, we hopped in the car and looked for some open spaces without any manmade lights. It did not take much time at all before we were ecstatic about seeing the breath-taking auroras. The wind was still whipping which made us get cold really quickly so we would jump back in the car to warm up. It was so freaking beautiful.
Basically, dinner was pushed back because of aurora hunting. We just popped inside of the grocery store to grab some quick food for dinner when our tummies were really growling. When we got back to Fallon's lodging, there were only 15 minutes left for the women's sauna. Clearly, dinner was postponed again while we quickly stripped off our clothes and jumped in the sauna. Ahhhh, that hit the spot. Sarah and I got our best night sleep so far.
