Joulupukki and LentoPallo Adventures in Finnish Lapland

Sunday was mostly a day spent in transit, as we flew from Moscow to Helsinki, where we met up with Michael's sister, Katie, and her boyfriend, Justin (they had arrived on a boat cruise from Stockholm, having just finished their whirlwind Europe tour, hitting up London, Dublin, Paris and Stockholm), and then hopped on a short (1 hour) plane ride to Kuusamo.  We arrived to a charming but very snowy little airport:

Anyway, we then settled into our amazing cabin for the next five days.  We spent most of our time skiing, but we also explored around outside our cabin and set up our Christmas tree and presents.

Soapstone fireplace,  perfect for heating up the cabin

Sauna is a very prevalent activity in Finland. Every house has at least one sauna.  We tried it the way the locals supposedly do it -- sit in the sauna until you are stifling and feel like you are being steamed alive, then run outside into the cold and roll around in the snow.  If we were really hardcore, we might have considered plunging into an ice bath, but (thankfully) we decided to skip that part.

Our sauna, capable of going up to well over 200 degrees Celsius.  I am a little frightened of the stove and the hot rocks. 

We had a very good washing machine in our cabin, but no dryer... except, oh wait, the dryer here is actually a heated closet that looks like a refrigerator.  It's a separate standalone unit with racks on it, where you hang your clothes and then set a timer.  When the clothes are dry, they are crunchy and have assumed the shape of the rack.   When Katie asked a local why Finns prefer this contraption instead, the local's response was, because a dryer takes up too much space and this closet won't ruin your clothes.  Um... the Finns are a quirky people.

The drying closet

View from our cabin

On Christmas eve, we went to a very traditional Finnish dinner where Nordic grog, homemade beer and wine were served.  There were performances by kids and an obligatory Santa Claus appearance.  In Finland, the kids open their presents on Christmas eve.  We ate a LOT.  I am proud to say that I tried everything, including the pickled herring salad, the smoked whitefish, the sardines, various slaws and meats, and all of the casseroles.

Fences to keep out reindeer

The candles are encased in ice votives!

Christmas decorations

The spread.

My (first) plate

Overall, the light (or lack thereof) was not as bad as I expected.  I thought it would be pitch black except for two hours a day.  But in reality, it was more like a gray-tinged sky that slowly lightened into a milky, light white blanket, and then faded quickly into an inky night.  I could see how it'd be very difficult to live here on a long term basis though - I would miss seeing the sun.  On our first day exploring, we got to see the light hit the top of the mountain (which Michael and Justin later summited).  But in our entire week, we actually saw the sun only once.

The one and only time - the sun is so low it seems to be setting but this was actually around noon.

Sunrise (kind of) around mid-morning

On a frozen lake near our cabin.  The snow was dotted with wolf, reindeer and rabbit tracks.

Where I promptly made a snow angel.  No fear of falling through here.

The trees in Lapland are able to hold an amazing amount of snow

View of the lake from the mountain top

Made it!

 Here are some scenes around Kuusamo:

The cheese factory, where Katie lives with two of her teammates

Reindeer are so cute!

Katie's gym

Kuusamo street scene

I'm also happy that I got to try reindeer jerky and cloudberry jam, both very traditional Lapland treats!