Scandiroads #14 A taste of Finland with a Lapland bite

The road was never ending, and kept guiding me through a beauty even more infinite: rolling, stretching, ongoing pineforests. Lapland had quite the bouncy landscape as it kept going up and down with hills so steep you got that real rollercoaster feeling. Those butterflies in your belly, but not only because of the slide, but because of being in love. I was utterly, incurably in love with this place. I had seen the reindeer already, tons of them, during previous visits, but as this was my first summer-trip, I now realized they’d easily beat the people in Lapland: they took over this planet. They had not been showing up in Swedish Lapland despite the unprotected border, as if they knew Finland was their home. The beautiful creatures stood there, grazing by the road, or taking their sweet time to cross, not really intimidated by a mass of steel racing their way, as here they were kings and queens. Their furs were a beautiful messy combo of grey and brown, their legs as majestic as a their straight-up heads with the impressive, complicated antlers. But what made them totally innocent despite rather impressive sizes, were their cheeky little beady eyes.

To me it was still an absolute gift that on this planet with its overcrowded cities and forever noisy towns, peace still existed in its most pure form: in the quiet, in the absolute stillness of a gigantic green environment, in the untouched, intensely green forests, in the infinity of nature. This was my favourite kind of peace. It’s funny how a moment when nothing happens, can be the best moment of your life. A moment where we realize the most beautiful things in life, lie in simple things like observing the massive gatherings of trees around me, letting the shivering sparkles of the lake blind me, feeling the soft evening glow of the sun on my face, sitting in a chair with my hands wrapped around the wheel and my feet resting on the pedal, going forward. None of my roads thus far had been this quiet without any change of environment at all, and it just made me feel like this was the world right now and that this was the most important place to be; the only place I had to be. But of course I had a final destination, reached after about 2 hours into Lapland; Levi. Levi is a little town that is absolutely quiet, sunny and still 24/7 in summer time, but turns into your ultimate Christmas destination on winter times, with northern lights, meters of snow, Santa and huskies. How could I have known that, finding myself in its total opposite summer version, in the same year of my life, I would actually be experiencing this perfect winter, right here? Some places are meant to come back to, even if you do not plan so yourself, life will somehow put it on your path.

Having parked my car by the side of an adorable wooden bungalow, I had the strange feeling I knew this town, or was meant to know it. the first one could be explained by the fact I already experienced some sunny Lapland during my first Finland trip, the second one became clear to me a few days later, when I knew for sure I was coming back. It was a strange feeling, but beautiful, and I had only one night at his place and wanted to make sure to spend it well. It was pretty easy to do so with the overwhelmingly fancy bungalow I had for this one night, which was a little paradise for a tired traveller that needed a good night’s sleep. It was completely built into a little house, with a kitchen, a living room, a massive bed, and a bathroom with a sauna included. God, to me a sauna is such luxury, but in Finland it’s an absolute basic need: a way to relax at any time. Another thing I love about Finnies, they are contagiously relaxed and consider this a way to master your luck. This relaxed atmosphere is so intensely present you automatically adapt to it, as I crossed the road (as a decent girl I looked from left to right although I am rather sure no cars passed the whole evening) and went for a bite at a very cosy looking pub. Ah, this is where the Finns were hiding, it was as if whole Levi had come together for a beer. Me on the other hand, preferred a burger, in my opinion it is about time someone somewhere praises Finland officially for its talent in burger-making. I always enjoy listening to the strangest language ever, I have to say I’m a quick learner on the language part but I’m not too hopeful on ever understanding more than a few words of Finnish, it’s a powerful and strong, beautiful complication for me.

With a very satisfied stomach I walked back to my cabin and let the quiet sink in for a bit. It was a rare thing, a deafening silence, but it’s one of the most real experiences one can have. A silence so intense you can hear your heart beating and your blood pumping, your breath slowing down. Despite there being a road, a restaurant, a grocery store and more; it was absolute quiet. Where was everyone? How big was this group of everyone? (6449!) And at he same time, Lapland was more alive than any place in the world right now. It was flooded with reindeer, staring at me unimpressed, there were more trees at this one place than I’d ever seen in my whole life together, despite the time closing in on midnight the world was flooded in a pleasantly warm, shade of gold. And then again, I couldn’t stop listening to it, the total quiet. But my body was done for today, it had its fair share of impressions and emotions again and was ready to totally collapse into the bed. Luckily there were the forever loyal mascots of Lapland to guide me to my bed: my mosquitos. No matter how tired you are, how to sleep even better? What is worth staying up for? What is totally needed after a long day? What’s the answer to all the questions you have in life? S a u n a.

Luckily this wasn’t the old fashioned one that needed to be burned up with some firewood, just a switch and some patience for this girl in need. And god, the feeling of entering that sauna again after way too long without it; precious. The smell of warm wood, I know, what makes warm wood different than normal wood? I cannot explain, that’s just how it is, a moistures smell that nasty as it sounds, is the best smell in the world. Then the just as moistures feeling in the air as tiny hot waterdrops turn into a steam that attaches itself to your body, and heats you up within seconds. As your burning body starts to sweat, every process in your body slows down till a point where you breath slowly, stop thinking, feel alive and totally give in to that irreplaceable sauna vibe. I cannot do it for too long, I’m not that much of a hero when it comes to heat, but god I felt reborn after this sauna, as if all the bits of negativity in life are just being sweat out and you’re filled with this new, minty fresh energy. Which is ironic, considering you’re bathing in your own sweat and totally exhausted afterwards. Nothing a shower cannot solve, after which I extended my night even more with a cup of tea and some randomly sitting on my porch, watching the sun not setting, the reindeer not leaving, and the world not moving. Obviously I regretted this decision a little bit the day after, when I could hardly open my eyes. Ah well, to be honest there was no regret at all after having had one of the best nights of my life, but; I did ignore my alarm for about 2 hours and had another sauna before I finally hit the road, onto my next destination where I would spend the final days of my Finland-adventure; Inari. I was getting out of my relaxed mood now, leaning towards worried, when I found out that literally after a few minutes on a normal healthy asphalt road, I entered a gravel road. Yet, my maps mocked me some more by rubbing in my face that I would be following this slippery, dusty road, for 2 more adventurous hours.

- It's an amazing life