Lapland

Homeland of the indigenous Sami people, on the far north which extends to neighboring countries.

Saariselkä – Inari – Ivalo – Rovaniemi ... Towards The Great (winter) North, right inside the Arctic Pole !

I picked Finland to see the mighty Northern Lights, chasing aurora was not an easy game ! Not to mention it was a little struggle due to the weather. Either we had a very clear sky allowing to see amazing beautiful stars and less probability (low KP index) or a very cloudy sky and very high KP index. Where was my luck??

 

Walking on the snow right after landing, the fresh cold air got me excited ! First things first, get our rental car. Second, drive on the snow out there and iced/frozen road. Surprise : it’s a manual car. I don’t need to mentioned I am more of an automatic fan. Stalled couple of times but after a day of trying it got better.

I did not feel the cold that much as I wear my ski outfits but my hands suffered a bit.

We drove around the area, visited many lakes, surrounded by forests, admiring reindeer on the road, more lakes as far as the eye can see and some good pure fresh air and white landscapes.

​

From Ivalo...

A village from which we drove around for kilometers and did not get to see many people. At some point after 70km we got to cross the first opposite car coming ...  

To Rovaniemi...

Capital of Laponie. This is where I got to meet Mr. Santa Claus at SantaPark ! The main highlight here is to cross the Arctic Circle via an underground tunnel.

                                                                                                                                               

- Full of national parks, most forested country, large lake and over 190k reindeer !!... -