Lapland Honeymoon Diary

 

Ok, so it’s not a beauty post, but it Lapland IS beautiful and it IS about me who loves beauty so there is a link :0) I promised a few people I’d do this, so here is my diary from our Lapland trip, and some photos.

Lapland was AMAZING, and I could ramble on about it for hours, so feel free to skip bits when you get bored hehe. Magical is the best way to describe it, and not just cause it was our honeymoon, although that of course helped :0)

Friday 1^st February

When we arrived on the Friday evening, it was -4 degrees which for Lapland is apparently tropical. What I was amazed at was how white everything was – I just assumed that some of the snow would be muddy as is the case in Britain when it snows, but in Lapland it’s almost constantly snowing so everything is sparkling white.

We got to the room in our hotel, “Hotel Santa Claus” about 7pm local time and the room was better than expected – I thought it was going to be tiny judging by the photos, but it was quite large with a separate little lounge area, quite a bit of storage and a huge bathroom with an ensuite sauna. Nice!

We decided we were too tired to get changed for dinner so just went to the hotel restaurant as we were and I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was more than just Reindeer on the menu, although that does feature a lot! We both had the Garlic chicken which came with a baked potatoe stuffed with chorizo, and it was delicious. Good start!

Saturday 2^nd February  

Saturday was our first “safari” which is what they called the excursions and we were doing snowmobiling. We had to be at the Lapland offices for 9am, and the offices were just a 5 min stroll away. We went down for breakfast and again I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of food. Some of it was odd of course, like this yummy looking and smelling creamy stuff that I thought was vanilla porridge and was about to take some when I realised that actually it was waffle mixture as there was a waffle machine right next to it, d’oh! I quickly discovered what my daily breakfast of choice would be – granola with sunflower seeds, rye bread with butter & cheese, and a small croissant and jam, with tea and biscuits. Indulgent & unhealthy yes. Yum, yes.

After breakfast we piled on our clothes and realised it takes quite a bit of time to get all the layers on – thermal vest, base layer, then long johns & salopettes, fleece mid layer, inner socks & outer socks, inner gloves & outer mittens, and coat of course, not to mention the mountaineering boots, and neck gaiter & hat. What we also realised was that you did not want to be sitting around for long inside in those clothes as you were baking!

Once dressed, we headed to the Lapland Safari offices and were immediately told we needed to use their overalls which we were disappointed at as we’d spent so much money on ours. The only thing we needed to remove though was our coat, salopettes, and boots, although we later learnt that it’s better to put the overalls they give you over the salopettes so you have 3 pairs of trousers on.

Our guide was Matteus and he was fairly quiet & stern, but very efficient and he got friendlier as the day went on. The instruction for the bike was very short lasting less than 5 minutes, and I remember hoping that Kev had remembered all the hand signals. I was going to be on the back of the bike that Kev was driving, and then there would be the instructor in front of us and 4 bikes behind us. Hand signals were to be used for danger, slowing down etc, as of course you couldn’t hear anything between the helmet and the engines!

I felt quite safe sitting on the back at first and even when we took off it was ok, but I quickly realised that we were going to be going at a pretty fast speed and that I would, for the whole journey, be trying to keep my butt on the seat as you bounce what felt like a foot high. This was hilarious though and made both Kev & I giggle and Kev later told me that at times he wasn’t sure I was even still on the bike, and I wondered myself how I’d managed to stay on.

The scenery on the drive was absolutely breathtaking and I was really trying to take it all in and commit it to memory. I was also trying to calm my fears about the fact that we were driving across massive frozen lakes and Matteus had told us not to worry if we heard cracking – easier said than done!

After about 1.5 hours driving, we stopped to try and catch our lunch with some ice fishing. We each took a turn using the large drill type instrument to make a hole in the ground and then drop our line and just wait. It was here that I had my first fall and fell in the well we had created for the hole. I also had my first experience of being really cold, as there was no bouncing and no activity and my toes & fingers started to feel it.

We waited about half an hour and were then given the choice of either continuing to wait for fish, or we could try snowshoeing. As we were so cold, we opted for snowshoeing, which was hilarious. Huge plastic attachments go on your shoes (kind of like tennis rackets) and although they do mean you don’t sink so far down in the snow, they are very hard to get the hang off and we both had several falls, one with Kev where his head was right in the snow. The hardest part was getting up out of the snow as if you put your hand out to push yourself out, it just disappeared into the snow below and you fell again. All very funny though.

We didn’t get very far on our snow shoes, and thankfully it was time for lunch anyway. As we hadn’t caught any fish, Matteus started a fire in a gazebo and cooked some Reindeer hash. I wasn’t as horrified as I thought about the reindeer lunch, probably because I was very hungry and also because it was mixed in with potato, onion and bacon, and looked rather delicious. After our lunch we even got tea and ginger biscuits.

There were 5 others on the excursion that day – 3 lads from Holland, and 2 Frenchmen who didn’t speak a word of English. (Which meant I had to rack my brains for some school girl French at several points during the day)

After lunch we all got ready to set off but that took some time as one of the bikes wouldn’t start. Finally we set off and the plan was to go to an area where we could do some stunts. This didn’t turn out great however as the snow was really really deep and the bikes kept getting stuck. Finally the idea was abandoned, and at that point we all started on the drive home, us feeling smug that we had managed not to get stuck. The smugness didn’t last long when we hit some deep snow and the bike tipped up taking both of us with it and we were left lying under the bike. Two of the Dutch guys ran over to check we were ok and help us up, but both of us struggled to stay on our feet. I think it took Kev about 3 attempts to get upright at which point the Dutch guy told him he was lucky that we were already married as he wasn’t impressing me hehe.

I knew for sure that I would sleep well that night, and we agreed that dinner would be in the hotel again. I of course went for the garlic chicken again as I didn’t fancy the few other things on the menu.

Before dinner there was just time to try out our ensuite Sauna, ah, what a luxury.

Sunday 3^rd February

Well, I knew I would be in pain this morning but I could barely move my arms from all that holding on for dear life! Seriously achy.

Huskies today and I was excited and nervous that I’d be too scared to go near the dogs. We get driven to the Husky Farm and told how to drive the sled and again about the arm signals.

The dogs are howling and barking and clearly eager to get going, and they look to me like a pack of hungry wolves. I was quivering with fear but felt much happier when we got to the sled and realised they had no interest in us at all, only in getting running.

We are told that as it is only -5 degrees today, the dogs will find it too hot so Kev should try and help the dogs with hills and hard bits by using his foot or completely running behind the sled. Poor Kev was exhausted and drenched when we got back to the farm after our 2 hour run!

Back at the farm we were given loads of information about the dogs and it seems they are a little family there and care greatly about the dogs. They told us that the two front dogs are girls because they know left and right (girl power), the middle ones are the young ones and they are still learning so they can be kept in check being in the middle, and the back two are the boys as they are the strongest and have the biggest load to pull.

The most hilarious bit of the sled ride was the dogs behaviour – of course they need to do their “business” but having a poo didn’t stop them running but did mean you got a big old whiff of as it was happening! They also don’t need to stop for water as they simply chomp on some snow as they are running. Now and again you would see one of them biting the other which was funny and with the couple of stops we had, the younger ones would love rolling in the snow.

The close up photos were taken at the farm where we met Danny the Siberian husky, who loved having his photo taken! All the dogs were so friendly.

There are two types of huskies – Siberian and Alaskan. Siberians are the ones that look like wolves and they can run practically all day. The Alaskans can run faster than the Siberians, but only for short distances.

After the huskies we had a late lunch at McDonalds. I know, I know, McDonalds, but it WAS the northern most McDonalds in the world so we just had to!

Another sauna and some facebook/reading time and we decided that we’d have dinner in the hotel most nights, but maybe try the Mexican “Amarillo” restaurant on Wednesday night just to say we’d ventured outside the hotel for dinner.

Monday 4^th February

Skiing day, woohoo. This was the day I was most excited about, but Kev told me after, it was the one he was most worried about for me. At Lapland Safari offices we met the other couple that were coming with us, Michelle & Matt, and they seemed lovely, as did our guide Sana.

 

We were taken by bus to a hotel with a little shed with all the ski gear and then taken to the slopes which were just outside. This is where I got the first shock – cross country skiing does not mean on the flat, it means up and down “little” hills instead of going up a mountain and down. Hmmm.

The first part of the lesson, was learning how to walk uphill in the skis which took me quite some time to get the hang of. Several falls later I decided that I’d try the side small steps approach, and this worked for me, even though it was extremely slow. It took Michelle & I one hour to get up the first hill, in which time our husbands had gone up and down the hill three times! Kev was of course, a natural born skier.

We did have a good old laugh at Matt on the way down as he somehow managed twice to fall head first into the snow at the side of the slope and all we could see were his legs kicking about.

Going downhill should be exhilarating I guess, but I found it terrifying! I managed it though, and then started back up the next hill. On the descent of the final hill, I was trying to get the hang of walking downhill but it just wasn’t happening. I had fallen about 4 times in as many minutes, twisted my ankle and landed on my wrist, and my knee was hurting me. I was very close to tears at this point and I realised we only had one downhill slope to go down and it was over. The trouble was, I couldn’t get the hang of walking down and I was too scared to ski down!

Kev noticed that I was struggling and he skied back up to me to check I was ok. In his always understanding way he said it was fine if I wanted to take my ski’s off and we could both just walk down the hill, but I was determined not to be the one out of the four that was crying and walking the last bit, it would feel like quitting. I pulled myself together and decided to go the quickest but scariest way, skiing downwards, and I did it. Yay me.

It was certainly a workout and I was sweating through the whole thing. It’s hard to know what to wear for skiing I found out, as one moment I had my hat on, then got too hot and took it off but it quickly got cold again, and so on…

After the skiing we went to the top of the hotel to see the wonderful view and take some photos, and then decided that we were too tired to try and figure out where to have lunch so decided we’d just have another McDonalds. Gotta love McDonalds.

Tuesday 5^th February

A free day at last! Well, a free day, but the evening was a Reindeer sleigh ride from 5pm so we had a late lunch at a pizza place after a morning of browsing the small amount of shops in their “shopping mall”.

The reindeer sleigh ride was probably the coldest one so far, even though we had all our full gear on and a blanket over us! Our reindeer was called Reimilinen and I have to say, the reindeers didn’t seem to have much personality about them. They were uninterested in us in general and didn’t make a sound, even when we stopped for a coffee round a fire, they all just stood still silently. Very odd.

Oh, actually one of them did grumble a bit – at the beginning of the ride, one of the reindeer was being a bit wild and tipped the sled over a few ahead of us. This reindeer was then replaced by another and it was tied up and left in the forest while we went on our merry way and he was crying a bit! The guide later explained that he had been on holiday the day before and didn’t want to come back to work. Well, we all know how that feels eh.

Whilst having our coffee and cinnamon bun by the fire, the guide told us stories of Finland and in particular about one day when he had been in the forest and realised there were baby bears to his left and a mama bear to his right. He lay down and played dead and thankfully survived, but I didn’t love the fact that it was pitch black and our backs were right in the forest!

He also told us that in Lapland they only have 1 hour of sunlight in December, and then 24 hours of daylight in summer.

Wednesday 6^th February
 

It’s zoo day and I can’t say its’ an excursion I’m really looking forward to, but I’m glad we have it as there isn’t much else to do in Lapland! The guide is Annti and he is very enthusiastic and chatty so that’s a nice start.

The zoo is beautiful in so far as it’s again a stunning snowy forest we are walking through, but a lot of the animals are sleeping and quite frankly some of them are rather boring! My hands & toes were numb with cold (it was now -18) and my knee was really playing up also so we quickly made our way round the zoo and waited for the others in the restaurant. I swear I could actually feel my nose hairs icing up and my eyelashes too.

The most amazing part of the day to me was being shown by Annti that you could actually see the shape of the snowflakes falling on our coats. Who knew that snowflakes really were that shape to the naked eye.

The evening was our Amarillo restaurant trip so we decided we’d not put our salopettes on but I wore my thermal tights under my jeans and then put on snow boots. Amarillo was a Mexican restaurant, less than 5 minutes from the hotel, how cold could we get? Well! VERY cold is the answer, we quickly realised we’d need to run, no-one should be out in that weather. I didn’t want to leave to walk back to the hotel!

 Thursday 7^th February

Breakfast in the hotel was crazy busy today which resulted in a man and his son joining us at our table. That turned out to be quite nice as they had just arrived from Israel and were very friendly. They were going on the “ice breaker” excursion that day which was a huge boat and they were going to swim in the frozen water. Crazy!

 Our last day in Lapland and I was very excited to be going to Santa’s village. We were getting the bus which was fine apart from the freezing wait at the bus stop.

The first thing we did at Santas village was go to the Winter wonderland which was “tubing” and the Ice Bar. Tubing is basically sitting on a plastic tube like a tyre, and bombing down an ice slide. It was brilliant fun and we both giggled away and went down the slide about 4 times it was so much fun.

After tubing we went into the ice bar for a drink which was pretty amazing to look at, then we just pottered around the shops and bought some odd things like coloured flame candles and some reindeer meat in a tin.

The rest of the day we spent just chilling and packing up our things since we had an early flight in the morning – 4am alarm for a 6am flight.

And so the adventure endeth! Wonderful place & experiences, and I would totally recommend you go.