Lapland - Father Christmas

Our last day in Lapland was dedicated to the search for Joulupukki, or Father Christmas.  Like many Christian symbolism and festivals, it has pagan origins.  (You know that Dec 25 was chosen to be Christmas because of an earlier pagan festival celebrating the winter solstice on that date, right?)  What we know of Santa Claus today was created about 200 years ago, and his final look was put together by ... Coca Cola.  No kidding.  It was part of a widespread marketing campaign in the 30's.

Regardless, that image is so entrenched in popular culture that it is now accepted as a tradition.  Many people were certainly willing to pay large sums for a trip to Lapland to meet him.  Although we balked at it initially, we eventually gave in to the fun, and signed ourselves up for a "Search for Santa" excursion.  

At around noon, an elf picked us up in her van (it should have been a snowmobile, but we did not have time for that, so modern conveniences had to step in), and she drove us into the woods, and dropped us near a forest path lit by small candles.  

Like a dream

We came to the elves' house at the end of the path, and the children indulged in tobogganing, snowfights, drove their own snowmobiles, and generally made a ruckus.   

We could pop inside the house to warm up by the fire, enjoy a round of warm berry juice and cookies, and make traditional handicrafts.

After a while, one of the elves came to get us, and said it is time to search for Santa in the woods.  We took a short 5-minute walk 'round the corner, and then ....gasp... spotted a red house at the end of the path with glowing lights 

As we stood outside whispering with the kids about what we'd found, lo and behold, the old man himself came to the door and invited us in.

He said a few things to the kids (in English, of course), asked them to be good, and to make sure Daddy & Mommy are good, and then gave them each a wrapped gift.

Family photo with a legend...

It was a nice experience for those with young children, but I expected more.  After all, plane loads of British tourists book these super expensive one or two day packages to Lapland (starting from GBP 2,000 per pax) every year just for this experience.  We paid much less, of course, since we organised everything on our own, and directly with the tour providers.  

And with that, we said goodbye to our snowy adventure, and hopped onto the plane (delayed 1.5 hours) back to snow-less Paris where it was a warm 2 degrees Celsius.   

Lapland - Huskies & Snow Hotel

The number one activity in Lapland for all of us was the husky ride.  Where the reindeer ride was slow, leisurely, enjoy-the-scenery type of activity, the huskies were fast, adrenalin-pumping, watch-out-for-that-turn! kind of ride.  

Entrance to the husky farm.  As soon as they heard us approaching, they started barking hysterically.

Look at how eager they were to go!

Huskies look like they have wolves for ancestors, don't they?

A quick 5-minute training, half a minute to strap the kids into the sleigh that will be pulled by the guide, a quick prayer that we don't crash, 

and we're off!

We were not prepared for how fast the huskies could go.  They were barking excitedly and speeding off following the lead of our guide, who is also their keeper.  Our guide said that they are trained only to follow the lead pack, and will not listen to our instructions, so we have to make sure we hold on tight and brake whenever it is going too fast.  YL took the reins first, and screamed with laughter while struggling to control the dogs.  

Speeding through the magical winter forest (I know this term is getting trite, but there is no other way to describe it) for 20 km towards the Snow Hotel in Lanio.  While the reindeer ride gave us time to absorb and reflect on its beauty, this ride gave us the chance to admire the vastness of its landscape and how insignificant we are in nature

A bit blurry, but in case you're wondering what husky-driving looks like.  This is the only other participant in our tour, a young German girl, driving behind us.

Phew, we got there in one piece.

There must be several snow hotels in Lapland, and this one we went to was in Lainio.  It is an ordinary hotel that is transformed into an extraordinary icy vacation destination in the winter.  It has a restaurant, a bar, 20+ hotel rooms, walls, slides and sculptures made of crystallized water.

We spent a good half hour exploring the hotel.  As it was just opened for the season, it was still quite empty, so we could take our time and peek in all the rooms and take pictures at leisure.

Corridor outside the hotel rooms

This is how it looks with flash

Carvings in ice outside the rooms, all along the corridors

Each room has a theme; this one is of Neptune/Poseidon, god of the seas.   The bed is carved in the shape of a boat.  There was also one of China with the Great Wall, one of USA with the American bald eagle, etc.  Not sure about you, but I wouldn't enjoy sleeping while a gigantic moody god stares at me like that...

The beds were carved of ice, too, while you sleep in thermal sleeping bags. 

An ice wedding chapel.  The altar, the podium, the seats, the ceilings - everything - were made of ice.

The dining room in the restaurant serves drinks in glasses made of ice, too

The long dining table for large gatherings is surrounded by carvings on the walls.  The benches were painstakingly-carved to resemble wood 

Mini golf - on ice, of course

Lapland - Snowmobiles & Reindeers

One of the reasons we chose Lapland was because of the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, which is a natural light display, usually a greenish glow or light red, in the dark skies in the Northern Hemisphere.  They are caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms.  So, on our very first night in Lapland, we signed up for a snowmobile excursion which took us deeper into the woods and further from the lit areas of the village, in hopes of catching one of the displays.

Getting into our gear

Getting a 5-minute training on how to operate a snowmobile

We're off! Ju and I sat on a sleigh pulled by our guide's snowmobile.  We sat on reindeer skin, and had two layers of blankets, including one made of reindeer skin again, to keep us warm.  Ju was a little nervous and would not let go of my arm the entire 1.5-hour ride.  He enjoyed it, though. 

Unfortunately, it was snowing that night, so we did not see any lights.  We stopped for a tea break in a little hut in the middle of the woods while our guide told us stories about the indigenous people of Lapland, the Sami, and the Northern Lights.

The Sami called the Northern Lights "foxfire" as they believe that it is the sparks created by the tail of a running fox as he dashes through the snow-covered fells in the area.

Ju posing with the snowmobile

Although it was a very unusual experience to be riding in a snowmobile through the snow-covered forest in the dark, none of us really ranked it high in our list of Lapland adventures.  YL said it was not easy to control, Soph complained of frost bites, and I did not like the smell of gas in my face from the guide's snowmobile in front.  But the invention of snowmobiles was a major revolution in this part of the world, bringing much comfort, ease and convenience to the daily lives of the people here.  No longer they had to live a nomadic lifestyle herding reindeer and other cattle; no longer were they cut off from their families or other communities in the winter. 

Higher up on that list of favourite things in Lapland would be the reindeer ride.  
  

The whole family could fit in a tiny sleigh.  We are tiny people!

It was a MAGICAL forest ride.  The reindeer plodded along quietly in the silent, enchanted winter forest draped in various shades of white: the feathery light branches of the pine trees, the blankety soft ground of the forest, the gentle brush of snow falling on our rosy cheeks.   It is impossible to capture this peace and magic on film.  

When it was over, Soph was invited to feed the reindeer its favourite food, lichen, a type of moss

The wife of the reindeer herder has Sami heritage

The teepee in which we warmed up with a cup several cups of hot mixed-berry juice and home-baked cloudberry cookies, while listening to the herder's stories.  It was the PERFECT ending to the experience!

Hanna comes from a reindeer-herding family, and started following his father's footsteps in his teenage years.  His grown-up children, however, have no interest to continue this tradition, although he is heartened that his grand-daughter seems interested.  Hanna is probably 60-70 years old, and speaks Finnish in calm, clear, calculated and soothing tones.  Our guide was the translator but his endearing character came through without any translation.  

Lapland - Last Winter Adventure

While we were in Lapland, we stayed in a wooden cabin 30 minutes' walk from the village of Äkäslompolo, which itself is an hour's drive from Kittilä airport, one of 6 airports serving Lapland.

We cooked some meals, including a few using leftover BBQ pork brought from Paris :)

The log cabin came with modern comforts like a flat screen TV, DVD player, microwave, etc, on top of a rustic stone fireplace 

Unfortunately we did not have enough firewood, so we had a nice fire going for just an hour  

It also came with its own sauna, like all cabins in this part of the world.  You can buy these dried leaves - usually from the birch tree - to slap oneself to promote blood circulation while in the sauna.  We gave it a try and ended up cleaning up a whole bunch of disembodied  leaves and twigs in the sauna after that.  

Look at him go...He loves the snow, and insisted on walking everywhere; the more snow there is, the better!  The -12 degree Celsius temperature did not matter at all.

See his mirth?

Making his first snow angel

Family picture on the road next to the cabin

We had to walk from our cabin to the village center to buy provisions.  The 30-minute walk was a pleasure for the kids because they get to go on their sleds pulled by us.  Ju also loved pulling his own sled.  All offers of help were firmly declined.

Once, when he was tired, we placed him on his sled and pulled him along, and he fell asleep - sitting up, of course - on the walk home.

By the way, if you are wondering, -12 C really wasn't too bad with the right clothing.  Nothing fancy, we were mostly clad in generic Decathlon stuff but we did invest in good gloves and thermal underwear for the kids.  If you are joining an organised excursion, the tour companies will also provide you with a balaclava and gloves and even snow pants if you don't have them.

Here we have just returned from our afternoon walk, and I was wearing a set of thermal base layer, light fleece, winter jacket, beanie, waterproof gloves, and a headlamp for walking in the dark.  I also had those hand warmer packs for some excursions that required us to be outdoors for several hours.  

Reindeers shed their antlers once a year, and you can find the discarded ones for sale at all the shops in Lapland.  

A souvenir shop in the village center

Lapland - The landscape

So for our final holiday in Europe (bwwaaaa.....!), we chose Lapland.  Lapland is a region in northern Finland and Sweden that lies above the Arctic Circle (67 degrees North), and popularly known as the residence of Joulupukki, or as the Americans call him, Santa Claus.

We were also hopeful to catch a show of aurora borealis, as it is said that the level of solar activity is particularly high this year.  Alas, we were not lucky.  It snowed every day during the 5 days we were there, so the skies were cloudy.  We were told that the best chances to see it is after 1am, and hardcore Japanese tourists actually take turns to stay up to watch the skies all night long.  Shall we travel with the Japanese the next time we go there?

 Being there in December means that we only have 4 hours of "polar light" each day, roughly between 10am-2pm.  Polar light is not true daylight, more like a subdued grey/ blue light.  This picture is taken at around 3pm, and not touched up.

Taken around 4pm.

And here are more photos of the landscape:

Post boxes are located at the end of each street

A cabin by the lake

Forest trail lit by candle light

A cosy roadside hut to warm your fingers & toes before continuing your journey

Ski tracks