Dreams do come true in Lapland

What an experience. It's hard to explain what an impression Lapland makes the moment you land. The snow, so much snow, and pretty much no tall buildings at all. So much nature, and even more nature. Not to mention the impressions I gathered while we were on location. We went to Sweden and stayed at the Aurora Mountain Lodge. Want to know more about the location? Then you can still read about the preparations we made for the trip and the gorgeous location. I was really curious whether the trip would live up to my expectations.

The journey to Swedish Lapland

We flew from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Kittilä, Finland. We were supposed to travel with a Tui plane, but on the day itself it turned out to be a completely different aircraft, and from a different airline. It also took a while to take off, because the seating layout of the plane was completely different, and they also kept counting 1 passenger too many. Once we were finally airborne, the flight itself was pleasant with little in the way of oddities. Unfortunately it was cloudy for a long stretch, so we had little visibility. The view of Finland from the plane was then an extra surprise once we were finally through the cloud cover.
The landing was rough, quite hard, and walking from the plane to the bus immediately set the tone for the temperature. Bam, yep, we were in Lapland. Beanie out of my bag and nicely warm over my ears. At the exit of the plane someone met us and directed us to the bus. On the bus there was a package of food and drink waiting for us, which was very welcome! Once the bus was completely full, we set off for Sweden, it would be a journey of at least three hours.
At the start it was breathtaking, all those impressions along the way. Except after about an hour it was already getting dark again, and it became a fight against sleep.

After about four hours local time, we arrived at the lodge. We were allowed straight through to the lounge, where we were briefed on our week, while in the meantime the luggage was taken to the rooms. After the briefing we had to go to 'the garage' to try on our outfit. What did we get? A huge coat, huge trousers, snow boots, a beanie, a balaclava and huge mittens. (Do proper research on whether you get this at the location you book, this isn't always the case). To stay awake until dinner, we then went on to the room, marvelled at the view, and then set off for our first 'excursion' to their own kennel.

The first day in the Lapland landscape

After catching up on a very long night's sleep, we woke up in a somewhat unreal situation. It was still dark, but we could see enough to enjoy the fresh layer of snow and the distant view from bed. To go to breakfast we bundled ourselves up and I ran to the restaurant. It wasn't an elaborate breakfast, but it was high quality and there was something for everyone.
At 10 o'clock we had to be dressed and standing outside for our first excursion; the snowshoe walk through the Lapland nature. Unfortunately Jesse and I started at the front, so we had to do most of the work. Namely making a new path through the fresh snow behind the far-too-friendly guide. Every so often we stopped so the group could catch up, and the guide could tell us about the nature. Never expected that so many animals still lived there in winter, and how many tracks we could actually see. On top of that it was also bizarre how much snow there was, and the silence we experienced whenever we stood still.

After the soup lunch back at the restaurant, we had to report again at two o'clock to go cross-country skiing. Seriously, what a disaster that was. I was still worn out from the busy period at work, and then a full day of travel on top of it. On top of that, I'd never stood on any kind of skis before. In the first 100 metres I thought several times about turning back and quitting. I just couldn't get any forward progress, while the people ahead of me could! And with ease too... Luckily I got a guide in front of me I could copy, and it did get easier once we'd been going for about an hour, but definitely not the way it should be yet. It was quite something to experience this in the dark, while it was still only 2:30 PM.
Had sore muscles for quite a few days after, and was glad once this day was over.

Christmas Day; on the dog sled

People, how I'd been looking forward to this. This was it, this was the reason, among others, I wanted to go to Lapland and wanted to experience this so badly. I'm genuinely obsessed with dogs, and I got to spend a whole day with a whole pack of them out in the gorgeous nature. As the cherry on top, it had also finally cleared up. In front of the kennel we were briefed on how to use the sled and got the necessary tips and tricks.
- The dogs don't stop if you fall off.
- 'Kick' along whenever you're going up a hill.
- Lean the opposite way on corners and on soft snow.
- Use the big metal brake when we need to stop completely, and stand on it with both feet.
- Use the 'drag mat' to slow down.
The tension rose, since we had the second sled behind the guide and I wanted to start. What an adrenaline rush, what a magical feeling, and I had the absolute time of my life. It also turned out we had the strongest team, because even with both feet on the brake, they'd still move forward if at least three of them jumped at once. We had a team of five dogs.
What a fantastic way to spend Christmas Day. With nothing but the sound of the sliding snow and the little paws landing softly in the snow. I soaked it all up whenever I saw the dogs snapping at snow for moisture, or rolling around to cool off. An experience I'll never forget.

Boxing Day; feeding reindeer in Lapland

That day we had the morning off, and we didn't mind that at all. We could take it a notch slower, sort of sleep in, and take some nice photos in the snow around the lodge. For the photos we walked a bit into the forest and towards the river. It was really nice to head out together for a bit and experience the nature without any effort involved.

In the afternoon we went with the group in a huge sled, behind a snowmobile, towards Lannavaara where there's a Sami farm with reindeer. We went in the dark, and that was already a unique experience in the snow. Fairly quickly we got acquainted with the reindeer, which we got to feed with a kind of moss. In Sweden they keep the reindeer wild, and it was also their own choice whether they wanted to come eat or not. What gorgeous animals, and what a gorgeous culture, the Sami.
In a kind of round wooden building with a fireplace in the middle and benches along the edge, we were briefly introduced to Sami culture. We were served traditional coffee and coffee cheese. On top of that we got a truly gorgeous experience. Mother and son sang a traditional Sami song for us about the water, which consisted only of sounds. All their songs consist only of sounds, not words. We also bought a really cool souvenir there. Namely a pair of antlers!

Wednesday; full speed through the snow

A whole day together on a snowmobile. Luckily it was also less cold than I'd expected, NO JOKE, it was really intense. The temperature had suddenly dropped that day to around -25 degrees, while we'd been having around -10 degrees the whole time. Apparently that also means the inside of your nose freezes (the moisture in it), and that you couldn't go a single moment without gloves.
After another briefing we climbed onto the snowmobile. Jesse started, since I found it a bit nerve-wracking. It was nice that the passenger seat was heated, and there were heated handgrips too. As far as I'm concerned it was a long and intense trip. I was a bit disappointed by how tricky the steering was, and how incredibly cold my feet still got.
Still, this was also a really special experience once we dared to go a bit faster and got to witness a gorgeous 'sunset'. I was glad, though, that we had a day off the next day.

Thursday; our only day off

Although that's not entirely true, since we'd signed up for a workshop in the afternoon. I'd wanted to do this from the very start, we could make our own piece of jewellery from a natural stone. Omg. How awesome is that. So after a morning of chilling, in the afternoon we walked down the driveway to the workshop. Jesse went to make a necklace for me from a gorgeous green stone, and I decided to shape a black stone for a ring. It was a whole process from raw stone to shaped and polished stone. Really fun to do, and a really beautiful end result too.

Friday; the last full day

Just the morning today. Jesse really wanted to go ice fishing, so we went ice fishing with a whole group. What an operation that is, haha! First you make a hole in the snow with a shovel. Then you have to make a hole in the ice with a big hand auger. Then, in the hole, you scoop away the floating ice with a kind of sieve, so you can then lower your fishing rod with bait on it. It takes a lot of patience, and sometimes still with no result. Unfortunately we didn't catch anything, but another couple did.
I didn't mind that at all, because a herd of reindeer passed right by us, being driven by someone on a snowmobile, a truly gorgeous way to close out our day, and unfortunately the holiday too.

Going back again sometime? Definitely! Want more tips and tricks or experiences from our holiday week? Let me know and I'll write an extra blog post!