Finland [20 - 27 Dec 2016]
Day 1 - 201216
Helsinki - Senate Square, Market Square, Temppeliaukio Church, Sibelius Monument, Christmas Market, Aleksanterinkatu
Arrived in Helsinki and started our city tour.. getting used to the cold! Nothing much to buy at the christmas market though.. Went for dinner at Naughty Burger as recommended by our tour guide, it's good!
Day 2 - 211216
Ivalo, Kakslauttanen - Santa's home, glass igloo
Took an internal flight to Ivalo, finally the ground is all filled with snow~ Went to visit the reindeers and Santa's home in the afternoon (afternoon is no different from night as we only have 4 hours of daylight everyday, about 10am to 2pm). It was really cold when we walked around to visit the different places, and it was the first time that I couldn't feel my toes! The only thought at that time was to get into Santa's house to warm myself up! Tour guide recommend that we take lots of photos with Santa as photo taking was free, otherwise you have to pay a price for taking photo with the Santa at Santa Claus village.
Finally checked into the glass igloo in the evening! My dream came true :D The only night 我会不舍得睡!! But we were a little disappointed that night as it was snowing really heavily and auroras will not be seen. The snow was so heavy that the top of the igloo was covered with snow when I woke up in the middle of the night. But being able to be there and even staring at the tree in front of our igloo was just pure bliss~
Day 3 - 221216
Kakslauttanen, Levi - Reindeer safari, chasing northern lights on snowmobile
Finally we were able to take nice shots with the igloos when the sun is up in the day. Went to take the reindeer ride, we were very lucky as the weather was not very cold (about zero degrees celsius) so the ride was very enjoyable with the reindeers walking us through the forest. Was offered warm berry juice after the ride (apparently berry juice is THE DRINK in Lapland, although I didn't really like it). Our tour guide also requested the driver to bring us to this scenic place to take photos of the sunset after that, then we checked into our hotel in Levi.
As the aurora index for that night was high, we went on our snowmobiles to chase the northern lights in the forest. Riding the snowmobile was not as easy as I thought, the ground was bumpy although it was all covered with snow, there were slopes and the ride into the forest took us a full hour. I was really stressed and exhausted as the guides expected us to travel quite fast on our snowmobiles as well. The forest was in totally darkness after we switched off all the lights from our snowmobiles. The wait for aurora was quite a torturing one in the extreme cold.. although there was a hut to hide and enjoy some sausages and berry juice. Haha.. but I have to say we were lucky, the aurora appeared after some time, although it was a really faint one at first. Didn't stay for very long because it was time to ride out of the forest as it was already quite late.
Our tour guide was very nice and promised to bring us to a spot where we can continue taking photos of the aurora back at our hotel. Indeed, the aurora was still visible from our hotel rooftop when we got back around midnight! At that moment, the thought that formed in my head was "why in the world did we go through such pain travelling through the forest when it can be viewed from the rooftop at our comfort?!" Apparently the chances of seeing aurora at the rooftop was much lower due to lights in the surrounding. But the aurora was so strong for the night that we are able to see it even in the presence of light :)
Day 4 - 231216
Levi - Ice fishing
My idea of ice fishing before the trip was just to get to a frozen lake nearby and fish. How hard can it be right? But the night before the activity I found out that we had to ride snowmobiles back into the forest (similar to the night before) in order to get to the frozen lake -.- 晴天霹雳.. hahaha.. I've developed a phobia of riding the snowmobile due to the long and stressful ride before. Luckily there were 2 girls who both wanted to ride the snowmobile so they took me and mabel on their snowmobiles (thank goodness!). And i was really glad that i was the pillion that day~ Bcos it was bright (unlike the night before) and the sky was soooo pretty! I was really enjoying my view throughout the whole ride to the lake~ I will be glad to be a passenger to any car/snowmobile anyday!
Fishing at the lake was a real torture.. hahaa.. Temperature dropped to about -10 and we were literally being frozen while sitting there and waiting for fishes to take the bait. No joke.. Talk about frozen face, hands and toes. It was one of the coldest experience we had in our trip. Oh well, none of the 35 people in our tour caught any fish.. but i think no one is too bothered about that.. we were more concerned if we were frozen to death. Lol!
Went back to Levi and visited the supermarket in our overalls (apparently it's quite common for anyone to be in the overalls anywhere in town) and it was free and easy for the rest of the day. Had our dinner at Kotipizza (which offers cheap pizzas) and the Hawaiian pizza was reallyyyyy good! I think that it's the best Hawaiian pizza i ever had although they had doubts on that. Hahaa~ They agreed that it was tasty though!
Aurora index was very high at night again! We parked at our hotel rooftop and managed to catch DANCING AURORA that night. We saw the auroras moving in front of us and it wasn't just the pure white/green light which people usually see, we even saw a tint of pink! Everyone on the rooftop were literally screaming when the aurora was dancing. It was truly a memorable experience!
Day 5 - 241216
Levi - Husky ride, Snow Village
Before the husky ride, our tour guide got us feeling scared by sharing on his experience of flying off the ride as he didn't concentrate on the huskies. But it ended up to be very fun! Although my right foot was literally on the brakes the entire time as our 5 huskies were "flying" bcos we are considered quite light. The dogs keep getting too close to our guide just in front of us. After 5km my legs were feeling very tired already.. And it was snowing heavily during our ride too.. couldn't feel my own chin! Regretted not taking a pic of the aftermath of my frozen face, scarf and hat immediately after the ride haha.
Visited the Snow Village in the afternoon. It's a hotel made of snow/ice and the hotel rooms have beds made of ice too. Spent some time visiting the different themed rooms and the other areas. They also have a bar serving liquor in cups made of ice.
It was xmas eve and we were offered an xmas buffet dinner in our hotel. Most of the shops were closed since afternoon.. even the gondola ride which is required to bring us from our hotel at the top of the ski slope to the town.
Day 6 - 251216
Rovaniemi - Santa Claus Village, chasing northern lights
Merry Christmas~ It was such a different christmas in 2016 :) Visited Santa Claus village for the afternoon and mailed myself a postcard to be received in Dec 2017! Returned to our hotel in Rovaniemi and had xmas buffet dinner and gift exchange as arranged by our tour guide.
Our last night in Finland, and knowing that chances of seeing northern lights is quite high, we went to chase the aurora again in our tour bus. Our tour guide and bus driver also prepared drinks and sausages to BBQ in the cold. They cut branches as skewers for the sausages and helped to set up the fire as well. Enjoying the northern lights with our campfire in ultimate cold.. Thanks to Lorenzo for going the extra mile for us! Truly lucky to have him as our tour guide this trip!
Day 7 - 261216
Our last day in Rovaniemi, we stood in the open although it was snowing quite heavily. We were unwilling to get into any shelter bcos we know we will definitely miss this!! :') We walked around town, had lunch at this chinese restaurant which serves very nice sweet and sour pork (and our much needed rice!) and finally got onto our long flight unwillingly. Haha
This trip to Finland is really different from any other trips. The cold, the rides, the experiences.. Although the trip was expensive, I always believe money cannot buy experiences you gain from travelling. Thank you Finland for the awesome experience!