Trip to Lapland (1st day)

My first bigger trip from Tampere was to Lapland. It took me some time to sort and edit my photos which is why I only write this post now. Nevertheless I am dating it back to retain continuance.

The trip was organized by a company called aikamatkat (timetravels) and by ESN INTO. However, we were only 4 people from INTO because most of us wanted to go on the first trip to Vasatokka.

We were picked up by the bus late at night next to the university. The first destination was the Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi the next morning. Because our group was very small (17 in total) everyone of us could occupy two seats on the bus which made the nightly bus ride much more comfortable and so I slept surprisingly well!

: Nightly bus ride

: The first raindeer!

: Arriving in Santa Claus Village

: Santa Claus Village is directly at the arctic circle.

: Map of the area

: Yes, we could not resist to buy this picture 😀

The second intermediate stop on the way to Levi was the Lainio Snow Village. This is a hotel with a restaurant, cocktail bar and chapel, all made out of ice!

: Huskies

: Not far to Levi

: Snow Chapel

: Beautifully crafted seat at the chapel

: Apparently fire safety regulations also apply for snow villages…

: Snow cinema

: A room in the hotel. You will probably need a warm sleeping bag…

: A slide for children

: Cocktail bar

After these two stops our journey continued to Levi where we stayed for the rest of the trip. Levi is the biggest and most popular skiing area in Finland. We stayed in a small cottage which was OK but a bit small considering that we stayed there with 13 people. The kitchen was smaller than the one that I share with my two roommates in Paawola! The other 4 people stayed in another cottage. Directly on the first evening we went out hoping for nordic lights but we were disappointed – for now. More later…