Stories from Finnish Lapland - Northern Lights Village
In the space of 6 days, I along with my husband took my 8-year-old son from the 25-degree temps of Dubai in February 2022 to the -25 degrees of Finland. Our first four days we spent at the Northern Lights Village located in a village called Saariselka in Finnish Lapland and we spent the last 2 nights in the capital, Helsinki to break our journey on the return back to Dubai.
It is really hard to put your finger on what makes the northern part of Finland also known as Lapland so special during winter. Is it the miles of adulterated fresh snow or could it be that there are more chances of witnessing the waves of beautiful colours adorning the wintery skies during nighttime. The more north you go to the Arctic the more chances you have of witnessing the Northern Lights. To reach our village in Saariselka which is in the northern part of Lapland we took a flight to Ivalo from Dubai via Helsinki with Finn Air. Lapland is not your everyday commercial tourist destination. It is a genuine encounter with Nordic nature at its purest form and we were here just to experience that.
During our 4 nights at the Northern Lights Village in Saariselka, we rode with huskies and reindeers, drove snowmobiles, had countless bonfire nights, jumped in the ice baths from the hot saunas, walked in snowshoes in the arctic forests to chase the Northern Lights and met with the local indigenous Sami people. Sami’s are the only indigenous group of people left in Finland and also in the entire European Union. It was indeed very special to interact and learn more about their culture and tradition.
Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis as we know it is also called 'Revontulet' which translates as 'Fox Fires' in Finnish. I learnt about this Finnish name for Aurora Borealis and the legend behind it from Sergio our guide on the expedition in the Arctic Wilderness when we went chasing for the Northern Lights. I did some more research afterwards on this mythology and it left me as speechless as I was when I witnessed the brilliant display of lights along with my family on our expedition with Sergio. I want to believe in the legend more than the actual scientific reasoning behind the occurrence of the Aurora Borealis.
We were very fortunate to witness the Northern lights on two nights out of the four that we stayed at the Northern Lights Village in Saariselka. The first time we witnessed was on the day we arrived at the village and were walking to our cabins after check-in. The lights started to appear before us as we were walking to our cabin. We needed more time to acclimatize to the cold that embraced us with a tight hug so we dashed into our cabins. We
watched the spectacle of the night skies from our glass roof Aurora Cabin that night which lasted for about 3-4 hours. The Glass Roof at the Aurora Cabins at the Northern Lights Village is built facing the North West giving an opportunity to witness the lights from the comfort of your heated cabins. There is a soft alarm that goes off in the cabin to alert you of the lights when they appear so you don’t miss them. On frosty days the glass windows get covered with snow so if you were oblivious of the northern lights appearing outside the alarm then helps and so you can defrost the windows just with a click of a switch in the cabin that warms up the windows for the frost and the snow to melt and make the viewing more clear.
We were more acclimatized to the weather in the following days with layers of thermal clothes that we carried with us and also the Arctic Snow Suits and Snow boots that were provided by the village to us during our stay. The freezing temperatures were made more bearable by those who we met that lived here and are in love with the region's simplicity and cold embrace. The guides here shared a genuine love for the area and they all know and care deeply about the experience of the guests. They not only familiarized us and made us comfortable with the climate but also prepared some incredible Lappish Cuisine for us and kept us warm with supplies of warm Lingon Berry juice on all of our expeditions. Our last night here we were indulged in Nordic Cuisine by our guide Abe who cooked us a 3-course dinner in a private Kota, a Sami Hut in the middle of the Arctic Forest. Abe prepared for us Solianka Soup, a Russian vegetable soup with olives followed by Reindeer Fillet with root vegetables and we finished the meal with a dessert made with Leipajuusto cheese with caramel sauce and cloudberry jam.
Looking back at all the wonderful memories we made in frosty Finland warms the cockles of my heart.
