The ESN (Erasmus Student Network) runs several trips throughout the semester and we chose to go on the Lapland trip as we couldn't go to Finland without experiencing the arctic circle. This trip was attended by hundreds of exchange students from different universities in Finland. The trip began with one of the longest bus journeys I have ever experienced. The bus left Turku at 10pm on the Tuesday and didn't arrive in the final destination of Kilpisjärvi until 9pm on the Wednesday. This might seem horrendous but, as the journey was broken up with many rest stops and a trip to Santa's village, it really wasn't too bad.
Santa's village was a welcomed stop on our journey to Kilpisjärvi. We got to spend a couple of hours here drinking glögi, patting huskies and, of course, meeting Santa.
Eilidh even managed to scratch her name off the naughty list in time for Christmas.
Kilpisjarvi is a small town located in the arctic circle in the top northwest arm of Finland near the three country border point where Finland meets both Sweden and Norway. The town is situated beside a frozen lake and the second highest mountain in Finland.
Daylight only really lasted for about an hour around noon because it was fast approaching the winter solstice. The never ending night was a surreal experience and one I'm grateful that I got to experience. While in Kilpisjarvi we walked across the frozen lake and took part in a snow shoe hike.
The snowshoe hike was a lot of fun as the holiday company hid items around the hillside for us to find using a GPS tracker. Our little group decided to complete this at full speed which led to a lot of hilarity as we struggled to stay upright.
After all the items were found we sat by an open fire, roasted sausages and, much to the horror of the other students, we all emotionally sang Caledonia under the starlight.
One night on the trip we went on a bus trip to hunt for the northern lights. The chance of seeing them was very low but we were hopeful. The bus journey itself was a lot of fun as we travelled into Norway and listened to our tour guide tell local stories of myths and legends surrounding the Northern Lights or the "fire fox" as they are locally known. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to see them but the chase was still fun. One day of the holiday was dedicated to a trip further north to Tromsø in Norway. Tromsø is a beautiful city which was my personal highlight of the trip. We took a cable car to the top of the mountain ledge Storsteinen and saw an incredible view over the city and the surrounding islands, mountains and fjords. This was the ideal spot for some new cover photos. We were left with some time to explore the city and visit a local micro-brewery.
Our trip to Norway finished with a sauna and swimming in the Arctic Ocean. The Sauna was described as a "disco sauna" which was a sauna with coloured lights and music. This was a fun contrast to the usual quiet sauna experience. Swimming in the ocean was warmer than you might expect and definitely worth it for the bragging rights alone.
The final day was slightly disappointing. The trip advertised a husky safari or alternatively organising your own skiing in Levi. As most of us were keen skiers we decided to go for this option. However, as the husky farm had to be changed to another location at the last minute it meant that by the time the skiing bus got to Levi there was little time for skiing. Instead, we wandered around the ski resort and treated ourselves to reindeer burgers. Definitely, still a good day and it would have been difficult for this to have put a dampener on our overall experience but it's worth checking all the details out thoroughly before finalising your choice of activities on the trip.
Visiting Lapland was an incredible experience and one that I will be annoying my followers on Instagram with for the foreseeable future. There was no better way to finish off our erasmus experience. We would all definitely go back and, hopefully, this time we'll see that fox!
~Elise~
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