Spent 10 days exploring the Arctic Lapland province, in Northern Finland…mostly wilderness with national parks and ski resorts…although, currently no snow.

I traveled into Finland with a great respect for this country. Before I left on my trip, my Dad, age 94, explained to me that during WW1, although the USA was a young country, we were the primary country to finance WW1…most of.the European countries borrowed their share of the costs from us….and Finland was the ONLY country that repaid their debt to us. In his words, “the rest of the countries have always “laughed” at us…knowing they can get away with it and not pay their share.”

Finland is supposedly the Happiest country in the world – but not sure how this is possible. So cold, dark and dreary majority of the year, not sure what creates a “smile”. And, people are NOT friendly! BUT…they say If you really wanta understand Finnish culture or happiness, start with a sauna. For many Finns, the sauna is also tied to R&R spent by the lakes. There’s 188,000 lakes in Finland and there are 3 million saunas for a population of just over 5 million. The Finnish sauna culture is actually listed as a a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage site. Conclusion…there’s plenty of space for everyone to sweat out the negative. 😜 I gave it a try twice but didn’t survive the heat for more than 10 minutes. Felt just like being back in Texas🤪

Our first home here was very comfortable with plenty of space to spread out and be comfortable…AND an 85” TV so we could binge watch Netflix movies when not chasing the lights. Other than attempting to burn down our Air B&B…. With over-toasting in microwave, (I won’t name names), we thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

We did take a day to explore Santa Claus Village…a disappointing tourist trap and most souvenirs were from China…although Santa was cute!

With the low levels of crime and corruption, you do feel safe here when out at night. But the key to survival is dressing SUPER warm. Layers and a heavy coat with fur hood, hat or headband, Artic gloves, a couple pair wool socks and warm boots. Chasing the lights actual takes skill…. and once we had paid for a couple guides and loaded the app called Aurora….we were able to drive our car to a dark location and see the lights on our own. The thrilling moment when you actual spot the green electrical charged snakes racing through the crystal-clear, star studded sky, is as uplifting of a feeling as anyone can imagine. All worth the suffering thru the cold and patiently waiting for just the right moment when the clouds clear. Unfortunately, this can be after midnight.

If you don’t like to eat reindeer, you’ll have a tough go of it here. Every restaurant served reindeer…😩…in every form….sausage, pie, roasted, cold cuts they added to your burger, etc. But we did find several good restaurants that served excellent beef tenderloin. Yes, we had seafood, but not as much as I had expected to find on the menus. And, I learned that Finland is listed as having the highest country in milk and coffee consumption.

Leaving was a chaotic mess. We got up at 5am to get to the small airport outside Rovaniemi, just to be told American had cancelled 2 of our reservations. Cecilia and I couldn’t get on the flight to Helsinki. Finnair and American just kept accusing each other of the mistake. Long story short…we got home a day and a half later by flying around the world instead of the direct flight from Helsinki we were originally booked on….and out of pocket about $1500.
All part of traveling!😉

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