Month: November 2019

It is cool being able to meet so many people on my travels; other travelers and guides, and people you just bump into. My favourite guide here in Finland is Valeria. She is 23, and is from Murmansk in the northwest of Russia, but she’s been working and living in Finland for 7 years. Valeria talks non-stop, and you can only nod and make agreeing noises as she drives you around, and stare at her as she seamlessly moves from one story to another and another without seeming to pause for breath. Her English is excellent and she is pretty fluent in Finnish as well. She has worked in office jobs, and at Santa’s village (she’s tiny and they made her dress as an elf so she left that job 🙂 ); but she keeps returning to guiding because she loves meeting people, and being outdoors. And talking. I think guiding is the perfect job for her. “Well, you are lucky today is very warm” (it is -6 degrees and she is in a hoody). I ask her what temperature she thinks is cold, “well, -20 is starting to get chilly, but today it is nice”. I think the temperatures in Murmansk are regularly in the minus so she is quite at home here 🙂 The people she takes us to meet love her so much because she has learned to speak Finnish, she respects what they are doing, she is very smart, and also because she is one of the kindest and funniest people you will ever meet. At the reindeer farm she gets on her knees and the family dog comes sprinting to her for cuddles. And when I hug her goodbye after an awesome day of adventures, she hugs back with all her strength before saying, “oh my god, you have so many layers it is like hugging polar bear, but you are nicer, they smell disgusting”. She doesn’t like cooking barbecue for her customers because afterwards she smells of smoke (“it’s so disgusting”), but she is very good at it. As she sets the salmon soup on the grill and checks the lid of the kettle is on, she waves the smoke from her face and says, “It is a good thing you do not wear make up, some of my customers come for the barbecue with a lot of make up on and after all the smoke they look like pandas. I laugh at them so much.” The conversation on the drive home goes something like, “Oh my god look at that yellow house, yuck it’s disgusting. I love to eat reindeer but yuck when you cook it, it smells disgusting like poop. Much better to cook chicken. I hope we don’t meet a reindeer on the road today, that would be terrible. You know, I broke my ribs one time when I fell off my bike after a car hit me. Actually, I am glad I don’t have to bike to work anymore, sometimes I had to bike 60kms and when I get home I am called back to help a customer. I love meeting people all day but honestly sometimes they give me the shits”. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Across the road from my hotel there is a path that has been beckoning me, and following it today I found it leads down to the (now frozen) river, and a forest with more trails to explore, deep drifts of snow to jump in, dogs to pat, and families pulling smiling fat babies on sleds behind them. The only noise is the squeak of shoes in the snow, and the occasional bird. Is there anything prettier than walking through trees in the snow 🙂

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For many people in Lapland, a dog sled, snow mobile or reindeer sleigh is the only real way to travel in the wilderness. I LOVE to go fast across the ground and I really want to get amongst it. There’s not quite enough snow yet for the snowmobile, but we are good to go for the huskies and reindeer. I love animals and I want to support tourist attractions where they are treated well – and my guides have assured me I will feel good about these activities. These dogs are Siberian huskies, so beautiful, clearly very healthy, very friendly, huge smiles on their faces, and jumping out of their skin excited to be given a chance to run which is what they are born to do. Once they’re harnessed, the dogs are quite calm because they know it will soon be time to go; but when the driver steps up onto the sled behind you, the barking all around you is EAR-splitting because ALL the dogs want to come. And then you’re off, and all you can hear is the swoosh of the sleigh on the snow, you feel the cold air whipping you in the face, and ahead you see the dogs running so so fast, listening for commands to go left or right, totally in their element. At first I’m silent, taking it all in, and then I am laughing out loud because this is the most fun thing you could do with a group of happy dogs. Next I visit a reindeer farm that has been in the same family for 500 years. There are around 54 farms in Lapland, and each deer has a special cut on its ear to indicate who it belongs to. During winter the deer are herded on foot, and brought back to the farm if possible for care over the harshest months; but the rest of the year they are out in the forests living a wild life, breeding and competing with their natural predators. And cars; if you hit a reindeer here you pay compensation to its owner, this is reindeer country and you are the visitor. There is a lot of emphasis on the wildness of the animals and the natural order of life here; and farmers helping each other to keep things working. These guys grew up on this farm and instead of attending kindergartens, they were herding deer with their parents and grandparents, learning everything they would one day need to run it themselves. We are given a chance to ride in a sleigh at the farm, if we drive it ourselves (this is how they teach them). It is so much fun; with one hand on the sleigh and the other hand holding a rope that is tied to the harness. As soon as the rope is in your hand the deer takes off like a rocket, while you hang on behind, bouncing around, snow in your eyes, and smiling like an idiot.

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The snow on the trees is so so beautiful. Went for a drive to see some arctic animals today, and came across a herd of maybe 20 reindeer just wandering through the forest next to the road. It was -11 degrees and my hair froze 🙂 and as my pictures became more blue I think my camera also froze 🙂 but I’m loving it, and finally nailed the layering of clothes so only my face (and hair) felt the chill today.

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