Journey to the Land of Forever Winter pt 1

Lappland is the far northern region of Scandinavia known for its frigid climate, the Aurora Borealis (northern lights), and as the home of the Saami people, an indigenous population with a shamanistic, pagan culture that relies heavily on reindeer herding.  We travelled to Saariselka, a small town in the center of Finnish Lapland 250 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle that is covered in snow for all but two months of the year.  We began our journey with a five hour bus ride from Vaxjo to Stockholm and then boarded a cruise ship that sails between Stockholm and Helsinki.

Our travel path from Vaxjo to Saariselka

The cruise takes seventeen hours, but is a popular choice because it is cheap and, much more importantly, you can buy alcohol duty free on it (earning it the nickname "The Booze Cruise").  Even though the price really isn't significantly better than in Sweden or Finland, the Nords jump on any opportunity to save money on alcohol.  In addition to the duty free shops there were plenty of overpriced restaurants, bars, clubs, a casino, and a Finnish guy with an accordion, beret, and that stereotypical striped French turtle neck who was trying to sing French songs (to the displeasure of my fellow French travellers).  We sailed overnight and arrived in Helsinki at 10:00 the next morning.

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital of Finland and a beautiful city with a short yet interesting history.  It has a unique blend of Swedish and Russian culture and architecture as both countries have controlled it in different periods of history (it was actually founded as a Swedish settlement).  I loved the city so much that I'm going to write a full blog post on it later; for now, I'll just leave a few photos...

The Baltic Sea frozen solid

The Orthodox Church

Statue of Alexander II

The Lutheran Church

The Harbor

A lovely day for a nice walk on the frozen sea...

The Gulf of Finland from our ship

The Santa Claus Village

The bus ride out of Helsinki took another 17 hours before we arrived in Saariselka.  Everything slowly became a purer shade of white the further north we went; non-evergreen trees appeared as stationary white clouds floating above the ground as their branches were frozen solid.  We made frequent stops at gas stations that could be called the Finnish equivalent of WaWa: they had a restaurant, a grocery store, WiFi, just about any kind of food you could possibly want on the road, and staff on duty 24 hours a day.  

As I got off the bus on one of our more northern stops, I became acutely aware of a booger protruding out of my right nostril.  I unashamedly went digging for gold but, to my surprise, came out with nothing.  After several more fruitless attempts I realized that this phantom booger was, in fact, nostril hair that had frozen after only several breaths.  Man, we had arrived.  Ok, not really, we still had about six hours left of northward driving before we arrived in Saariselka.

Before we made it to Saariselka, though, we stopped at the Santa Claus village, a tourist trap that lies right on the Arctic Circle in southern Lappland.   Did you know that Santa Claus lives in Finland? I sure as hell didn't and remained suspicious of this Finnish impostor, but everybody else went into a Santa fueled frenzy (complemented by sleep deprivation).  Every year, the village receives thousands of letters from kids too young to know that Santa actually lives at the North Pole.  If want to spread this deceit and enjoy lying to little kids, you can buy post cards which the villagers will then send to your niece or nephew on Christmas.  Or, if you're feeling particularly lonely, you can have a post card sent to yourself, which apparently people do.

The coneheads never went home; they just went to Finland

The village is run by Santa's little helpers, who have to hang up their dignity along with their clothes every morning before putting on their bright red onesies and pointy hats designed for a conehead.  They were basically larger, hairier, more masculine versions of the demonic mall elves in "A Christmas Story."

Anyways, the main attraction here is that you can get a photo taken with Santa because, unlike the Santa in your local mall, this one is real.  You get to wait in a long line outside of a sealed room where Santa sits.  Along the walls are pictures of celebrities and Japanese businessmen (I have no idea) with Santa.  The only one I recognized was Conan.

Alright, this place can't be that bad if Coco came here

After you get out of the room you get the chance to buy your photos.  Five post cards for only 30 euros!  Nothing says the Christmas spirit like capitalizing on tired parents with young children (or, in this case, college students...).  The whole experience was fun, from my perspective at least, as I watched the little child come out of college students from around the world to throw money at an attraction designed for young children.  That being said, it's probably the most disingenuous and touristy place you'll find north of the Arctic Circle.

Saariselka

Six hours later we arrived in Saariselka, a small village nestled in rolling hills covered in taiga forest and snow.  The town has one main street with a grocery store, a few hotels, and several restaurants and souvenir stores.  On the outskirts are log cabins and a few streets of suburbs, if they could even be called that.  We stayed in a wooden cabin with all the basic amenities and, since this is Finland, a sauna.     Saunas are, in fact, a Finnish creation, which came as no surprise to me because they are everywhere. In Finland, it is a common practice to warm up in the Sauna at 80 - 100 degrees depending on humidity and then go for a swim in a hole in the ice.  If you don't have a heart condition, studies have actually proven that this practice has many positive health benefits.  So when you see pictures like this:

             

                    Or this:

You can bet your ass they're not just goofy internet memes.  Now, I don't know how often people drink coffee on a porch in neck deep snow, but here's a couple pictures I took of some old people swimming in an ice hole in Helsinki:

Just another morning in Finland...

I used the sauna in our cabin once.  After spending 15 - 20 minutes in 70 - 80 degrees (158 - 178 F), we rushed out, jumped into the snow, and then ran back in.  It was a strange sensation; I don't think my body knew how to react to such quick and drastic temperature changes because I was left with burning, freezing, tingling sensation like I had rubbed mint toothpaste all over my body.  It was so cold it still took several minutes to get warm again.

Anyways, our cozy cabin had heated floors but was otherwise unremarkable.  What was remarkable in Saariselka was the 1.5 km sledding slope, which is supposedly the longest one in Europe.  Here is a video of me talking to myself while going down it.  When I yell for apparently no reason it's because I pass a couple of my friends, not because I'm a maniac..  Just kidding I don't have friends which is why I talk to myself.

Saariselka also has skiing slopes and some hills with great views, but is otherwise just the hub for other activities in the vicinity.

Just, you know, shoveling the roof

A log Cabin

View from the top of the sledding hill

In the interest of keeping this post at a reasonable length and because I want to give my other experiences the length and description they deserve, I'll finish this post here.  In part 2 I'll talk about the most memorable experiences from the trip, including a husky safari, a trip to the Arctic Ocean, and seeing the Aurora Borealis.