Where Magic Happens: Lapland, Part 2

Friday, December 20, 2013

Maybe I sounded too excited in my previous post (check it out if you haven't). Maybe you thought there is not much magic around a zoo, Santa's Village and a lot of snow? Well, you might be right. I wouldn't agree, though. I'm easy to please. Recently a friend asked me if there was a place I didn't want to visit. Amongst those I hadn't visited so far? No, absolutely not. I want to see it all and experience it all. Life is short, I probably won't make it. But let's take one step at a time.
One of the things on my bucket list was seeing the northern lights. Aurora Borealis. It was something I wanted to see someday in my life, but up to few months ago I probably thought that would actually never happen to me.
But it did.


This is not a random photo found on the internet. This was taken by my classmate. And I saw it too. (My pretty little pink camera couldn't capture it this good, though.)
When we came back from Norway, we had about an hour before going snowshoeing. I had never put snowshoes before and that was, well, interesting. :) Anyway, we hiked on the hill and were hoping for some Auroras... the sky was bright, the chances were high. And there it was. At first just a whitish-green line in the sky. Soon it became bigger and started moving. It looked like a huge, but gentle fire in the sky. I'm not exaggerating when I say I almost cried.

If you want to see the northern lights, you should usually go somewhere outside the town, to an area without light.
But this one was really strong, as this photo was taken at the resort, and you can see the lights coming
from the hut and around it.

In my previous post I mentioned two places near Levi we had visited. One of them was Levi Husky Park. The park has around one hundred dogs, huskies and Japanese spitzes, and even semi-huskies semi-wolves. Oh, and a real wolf. :) Some of the dogs played in various movies, so if you have seen a wolf in a movie, (we were told that) it's most probably one of the dogs from this very park.

Which of us is a wolf, can you tell?

Also, if you have seen a white reindeer in a movie, it is this one!

Amazing experience!

It's licking me! :)))


And after the husky park we visited something that might just be the most amazing place! OK, I should stop using superlatives. But still! It was a reindeer farm where we could pet these beautiful animals, feed them and take a ride in a sleigh pulled by them. 

Two of the people running the farm telling us about reindeer and the farm itself. The lady on the left is wearing
traditional Sami clothes.

The farm is run by a family. What I didn't know before visiting it was that there are no wild reindeer in Finland. Every reindeer has an owner, but they spend part of the year in the woods and the other part on a farm. When born, they get their ears marked, and every reindeer owner has his or her specific mark, so when you see a reindeer in the nature, you can tell to whom it belongs. (Theoretically. Well, that would at least apply to me. :))


Traditional Sami boots made of reindeer skin


I hope you liked the second part of my Lapland adventure too.
Feel free to comment and don't forget to like my Facebook page in order to be updated with all the upcoming posts.
XO, 
Tihana


(This is a photo for one of my friends, she'll know)


Authorship: not all the photos in this blog post are taken by me. Credits go to Toivo, Nastia, Gabriele, Birgit, Chaya, Nienke, Serine and Weng, who were kind enough to let me publish them.

2 comments:

  1. srećna sam što sam naletela na tvoj blog, ovo je toliko divno, finska, aurora borealis i irvasi, pa jao :)

    ReplyDelete

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