Swedish Lapland!!!!

Sometimes life has a way of working out quite nicely. I was fortunate enough to get to go on a trip to Lapland just as winter was about to come to a close! I had been desperately wanting to take a trip up north this winter to try and see the Northern Lights, and to try my hand at cross-country/forest skiing, but I wasn't sure if it was going to work out, and at the last minute it did! I was apprehensive about how I would handle the frigid temperatures of the Arctic, but the funny thing is that the key is to dress properly and it is manageable, not only manageable, but truly one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen in my entire life.

Lapland is the area in the far north of Finland, Sweden and Norway, or in other words, everything above a certain latitude in all three countries is known as Lapland. In my attempt to find a proper link to share with blogland about the region of Lapland I stumbled upon a link informing me that there is a Lapland, Indiana, cool. In high school Katherine and I said that we wanted to take a trip to all the 'foreign' cities in the United States, but we never managed to follow through on this adventure. Point being, I think that Lapland, Indiana will have to be added to the list along with the others we had planned on, like Toledo, Ohio. Anyways, check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapland_(region)

So to begin our adventure to the Arctic Circle, Dave and I took a train from Finland to Rovaniemi, this is where Santa Claus lives just fyi. And then from Rovaniemi we ventured over to Sweden, because our adventure was to be in Swedish Lapland. Dave did his practical training for school at a really amazing wilderness retreat in Junosuando, Sweden where we were graciously welcome to come and stay in one of their wilderness huts for free. You should check these guys out! They run an amazing place http://www.auroraretreat.se/ 

First we get to Junosuando and stay at a house adjacent the retreat, which they use for their workers. They gave us a room to stay in until we headed out to the wilderness hut. The   town was really quaint and quiet and beautiful! We were so lucky to have miraculously sunny weather. The town is around 350 inhabitants, and it felt so nice to be in a remote village. We stayed 3 nights in Junosuando before heading out to the wilderness, during which time I learned how to forest ski. Forest skiing is a lot of fun! Basically you can 'hike' anywhere you want if you have forest skis, because they enable you to stay on top of the meters and meters of snow. You can even ski on the frozen rivers and lakes, it's so cool, once you get over the irrational fear of falling in! *Disclaimer, none of these photos are mine, except for the exceptionally poor quality ones ;-) thanks Dave for letting me snag your pictures! :-)

This is the retreat in Junosuando.

Practicing my skiing in Junosuando

A field of baby trees in Junosuando! I love these little guys, they make me all giddy!

After a couple of days hanging around Junosuando we then got to go out to one of the wilderness huts that the retreat owns, which is ironically enough in the middle of the wilderness. They were so generous to give us the keys to the place to have to ourselves for a whole weekend, whereas normally people pay to be taken out here with a guide. Dave was a guide for people on these trips during his practical training. Anyways, we got dropped off a couple of miles away, and then skiied to the hut; it was beautiful and adjacent to a wonderfully frozen river. The hut has no electricity and is rather equipped with a wooden stove, which heats the house, and leaves the room smelling amazing! Adjacent to the hut is the wood shack and the sauna, which you can see in the picture below. And additionally there is a compost toilet.

This picture is taken from the porch of the hut.

It was really peaceful and relaxing being out in the wilderness for 3 days with not a sight or sound of any other humans. We skiied, ate delicious food, went to the sauna every night, and played bananagrams to our hearts content. Every day we did a day trip to some beautiful location and had lunch over a fire, it was great. And every night the sauna was such a nice way to relax, and wood fired saunas are my favorite! Plus the stars were incredible, and I stared at them for a sufficient amount of time every night. Being in the middle of nowhere and looking at the sky gives me such an incredible feeling.

View of the hut, sauna, and wood shack from the opposite side of the river.

Another view of the river from the porch. Dave was gracious enough to drill for water every day.

And four separate nights I was unbelievably lucky and I got to the see the Northern Lights, wow! Watching the sky dance was an incredible experience that I'll never forget. We didn't manage to get a photo of the sky on the night that they were the most brilliant, but nonetheless Dave got this one with me as a blur in the foreground, pretty amazing!

Aurora Borealis sighting!!

Dave was pretty gracious on multiple levels, and hauled the sled with all of our things in it every day. He pulled out food, wood, a reindeer skin (to sit on), a shovel, water, camera, tea, and anything else we needed/wanted. These sleds are really amazing!

The pack mule!

He also managed to dig us some really great fire sites for lunch. I can at least say that I contributed by making the food virtually every time! :)

Incredible views

The smell of a fire is truly my favorite, especially when coupled with the smell of curried potatoes.

And now for a photo bomb of some of the other highlights.

I am getting pretty good at identifying animal tracks

Some parts of the river were still flowing, and it was beautiful!

I was so pleased to be able to wear my sunglasses!

Beautiful views of the river from above

Skiing home along the river

Bananagrams by candlelight, pretty fun!

After 3 incredibly relaxing nights it was time to head back to Junosuando. On the way back we skiied past a dead elk, and while very sad to see, I was still excited to see one of these majestic creatures! I was really eager to see an elk, reindeer, or a fox, but I wasn't so lucky and had to settle for this carcass :-/ Dave claims I'm probably the only person that has ever traveled to Lapland and managed to not see a reindeer :( oh well, I'll go again next year! And nevertheless, I got to see the Northern Lights, which was far more important for me, especially because I know some Finns who have managed to still never see them.

I maybe got way too excited to see this guy.

Sweet dreams.

Dave taking a photo of the lonesome trees, this was the only day that it was cloudy the whole trip, the day we had to leave, how fitting.

After getting back to Junosaundo we went to bed and then had to venture back to Finland the next morning. The overnight train was a lot of fun and brought us back to Helsinki a mere 15 hours later. And so concluded the end of an epic holiday! I can't wait to go again next year! 

I thought it was ridiculously cool that the train was honestly called the 'Aurora Borealis Express' because these seems like something from straight out of a movie!