Suomi | My Beautiful Places

I followed the arrows. Small chairs with high backrest were arranged against the wall in a round room with wooden walls, a wooden writing desk with a reading lamp on, a few opened letters and many boxes of presents on my right, on a small door made of wooden boards also was written Baby reindeer daycare. I continued through a dark tunnel, crossed a small bridge built over what seemed to be a small frozen lake. I think I saw a big sled. Bells were ringing slowly and joyfully reminding of Christmas, its spirit was here, in spite of what the calendar was showing: end of January. Magic was in the air… A round door opened right in front of me, to a room full of colors. I couldn’t see more. A petite person show herself behind the opening door. She had green clothes and a tall green and red hat. I saw her ears, big and sharp. She was an elf! With a large happy smile and a big welcoming gesture of her hand she whispered quickly:

– Come, come in, Santa is waiting for you!

Leaving Levi

The fantastic sunset on top of Levi hill, next to Santa’s Secret Cabin may have been breathtaking, spellbinding and overwhelmingly astonishing, but it was starting to be so crisp cold outside. A little bit of breeze made it even dreamy. Excitement can’t keep warm endlessly, I was shivering and felt I will freeze down there if I don’t start immediately my way back to the top. The way back was a joke, so easy compared to the the drama and circus to get down there before. I took many last looks as I left, I couldn’t help it.

I took the gondola on my way down to the city. While descending I half unzipped my coat and noticed the border was frozen on the inside. Yeah, that’s what I call cold, I was freezing on the inside now. Happily the headache in the morning was gone. Might have been due to the difference of temperature the day before. 5h outside at -20C, the best cure. For another 4 euro the bus took me back to the centre, and again to the Tourist Information Centre. The same girl from that morning was so enchanted when I shared with her the adventures of my day and described her the phenomenal snow dogs I saw on top.

– It’s very rare to see that, you know, you were lucky.

Yes I was and I knew it. A day before I heard for the first time about snow dogs and a day after I witnessed this wonder with my own eyes.

I was asking too much from an already amazing day but I tried my chances and asked if the evening tour we talked in the morning, for the northern lights, was finally decided. She blew all my hopes saying it was canceled, chances were low, due to the weather.

It was around 4PM and almost dark. It was too beautiful outside and I was too excited to be in Levi to go back to the apartment and stay indoor to warm up, though I needed that. I took a short walk to the lake, to enjoy the beautiful blue hour light reflected on the complete white around.

The lake was turned into a vast white surface as it was completely covered with snow and surrounded by high pine trees and a few houses with red or yellow walls and white porch in front. A sublime landscape, but I was too frozen to walk any more metters and my fingers couldn’t take any more photo. And above all these, I was starving. I saw K5 hotel near, like an oasis of warm and wellbeing. I knew about it from the internet. After a whole day spent outside at -20C, this was my heaven. Simple, warm and cosy: a dim light inside and low volume music, lit candles on each table and a fireplace spreading a comforting mood while outside, in that cold, my beloved white sugar trees, a straight line of high white pines were tempting me from the large igloo like wall made all of glass, to come out again. Not so fast… After 3 hot teas and a hot pumpkin soup I felt alive again.

While I was coming back from the lake I passed by a Lapish tent with a big bonfire place in front, with round wooden seats covered with reindeer skins. It was a Saami restaurant with a super tempting traditional Lapland menu. Was still closed then but the dinner was starting in one hour, and anyone interested could attend based on reservations made inside the 5K hotel reception.

I wasn’t decided what to do, to spent or not 60 euro on a dinner. I finally took my decision 10 minutes before dinner started, was, of course, to go.

The armchair by the fireplace was now vacant so I sit there. I was trying to do a Instagram worthy photo of my white snow boots next to the fire when I heard loud drums beats and the notes of a yoik. These are songs interpreted by the Saami people, the nomad population in the far Northern regions. I got to know their amazing culture last year in Norway. Their simple way of living in a perfect harmony with nature, their legends, food and songs: yoik, are fascinated. In the old times they were burned alive, believed to practice witchcraft when heard singing like this. A man dressed in traditional red Saami clothing came in the lobby singing, inviting us to follow him to the restaurant in the tent and so to start a Saami evening. We all followed. Inside the restaurant, built deep in the ground, was dark and warm and felt sort of homy. A big fire in the middle, who’s flames were reaching high, cracking and spreading smoke and a scent of cooked salmon. A few big pieces of fish were lined up around the fire, to fry. Walls made of wooden pillars, with reindeer skins and horns hanged upon, small wooden tables and chairs covered with reindeer skins.

They started bringing the food and we started filling our plates. And then again. I had the best dinner! From reindeer hearts and tongues to ribs, stew and steak, barbecued salmon with herbs, wild mushrooms, cranberry sauce and sweet mashed potatoes with butter. It all ended epicly with a warm desert made of some sort of sweet cheese and milky warm sauce. After two turns around to the pans placed by the fire, I couldn’t move nor breath nor blink. I was full and round now. This is what happens when you put a foodie in front of an opened buffet with home cooked traditional food. We then listed to stories and yoiks sang by the fire. It was a perfect time in the heart of white Lapland.

I said goodbye to my wonder called Levi with a last 2h walk in that winter wonderland, with white icy roads, puffy trees, white houses… white everything. One of those moments I would have wished to stay somehow trapped forever, as inside a time loop and with no regrets or memories of anything else but that. Just like the boy in The Snow Queen story, to keep on living there like in a crystal ball with a never ending fairytale like winter inside. Just us, winter and I, in a perpetuum cold and limitless beauty. It was the last night in Levi, a dream made true for which I feel too grateful.

But Rovaniemi was waiting! And Santa was there, and reindeers and huskies, ice glass igloos in white forests and a night spent at -30C, hunting for the northern lights.

My heart was beating so fast I could hear it. I was holding by breath with every step, hoping my feet won’t go, this time, too deep in the snow. It was frozen at the surface but I had no idea how deep that snow was. I was mumbling to myself, angry and anxious, hoping I won’t break a leg, or hand or even my neck at the next step. I felt nervous, hot and sweaty, though there were 10 negative outside. There, on top of Levi hill, was that “hot” compared to the temperatures in the valley, where all was white and frozen at -25C.

And there I was, walking down on the steepest portion of the hill top, right between two slopes and under the gondola cables. The frozen snow was creaking loudly under my feet. I knew it was just a matter of time until I will fall. One of my feet or maybe both will fall deeper again in the snow and each time this happened, the snow was deeper than the previous times. Santa’s Secret Cabin was in front of me, but it was still so far away, in the valley. It seem impossible to get there this way. I stopped.

Helsinki

At last in Finland! I was so incredibly excited as I landed and the first think I laid my eyes on in the airport was Smash, the salted snacks covered in chocolate I discovered last year in Norway and made a passion for. And Skyr, the fruit yogurt I had a crush on in Iceland two years ago, that can be found in Scandinavia only. It has proteins, of course, like almost every food in the North.

I found Helsinki under a blanket of snow, white and cold and welcoming. At negative 8 I remembered how strong cold is felt when you’re not used to it anymore and I was hoping this will just help me acclimate faster for what was to come next, the real cold, in Lapland.

My hostel was very close to the central station so I wandered around the centre that evening.

I went to see the famous Oody Central Library launched in December. It’s a wow modern architecture building made of glass and wood. With trees inside, wooden amphitheatres where you can lay down and read and countless white shelves with all the books you can imagine. It makes you feel like reading a good book inside.

The streets of Helsinki were quiet and empty as I left the library, around 22 o’clock. I had a delicious salmon soup with a great top view in the last restaurant I found open late that evening.

Levi

Next day I woke up early, put on as many layers as I could and left for the airport.

At one moment, in the waiting area, I was about to ask an asian girl, dressed very lightly, if she really knows where she’s going…

In the last weeks I was constantly checking the weather forecast. There were -30 there! I panicked and started shopping immediately: new thermals, new sky pants, a down jacket for under, two layers gloves and two layers scarf, wool socks and so on. I was prepared. I thought.

A few minutes before landing the captain shared with us some useful info: welcome to Kittila, the temperature outside now is -30C.

“Yeah, let’s do this!”

My courageous smile froze out a few seconds later, when I saw the air traffic control tower of the small airport in Kittila. It was completely covered with ice and the scene looked like something I saw only in movies shot in Antarctica.

It got even crazier when I finally went outside the airport. The first breath was so cold it made me cough. Next ones too. I felt my whole body contracting as that deep cold was cutting my face like thousands of needles.

Inside the bus for Levi I got back to my senses and thought:

“Damn, how am I going to be able to walk outside in this cold for more than 2 minutes?”

I remember what my Finnish friend wrote me the night before: Don’t worry, in the meanland it is cold but also dry and you don’t feel it so bad. I thought that’s just a Finish theory about cold, made up by people who love cold anyway.

For sure it didn’t work so far with me.

Waiting for the others to take their sits in the bus I took a look around, at the trees nearby. My fear that there will not be enough snow and I won’t be able to see those winter wonderland landscapes that made me so crazy desperate to come to Levi, has vanished. It was more than I could have dreamt of: Lapland was welcoming me in its best: white sugar trees everywhere. This is the most sublime view that winter offers to nature, when even the smallest leave or grass gets completely covered in white ice crystals and all that exists after is white.

The 16km to Levi were a drive through a white fairytale. The road was sneaking through a forest of perfectly white pine trees, tall and majestic.

We very soon arrived in a white town, surrounded by high slopes and white woods and crossed by streets with white sugar trees.

I was quite afraid to get out again in that cold but I had to leave the bus at this point.

Damn it was so terribly cold! The skin on my face hurts me and the air is so dry and cold that I keep coughing with every breath. It’s freezing me on the inside. I cover all my face with the scarf that’s knitted on the outside and fluffy fleece in the inside. It works, it is bearable now. I can’t use the phone more than 5 seconds cause my fingers freeze and I’m afraid my battery will die suddenly, leaving me completely disoriented. I can’t read the names of the streets because all the marks are covered in white icey crystals. I saw from the bus some buildings that seem to be the place I had to get to, but the check in was in a building in the centre.

Using Google Maps as little as I could without having the battery dead or my fingers frozen, I find the office. Thank God this is a small town.

I try to open the door and my hand freeze on the doorknob.

Wow, this will be fun! I say to myself.

The two ladies inside welcome me with a big smile. I was for sure in a hilarious state, all frozen.

– Such a beautiful summer you have here, I say, laughing.

– Yess, it’s really cold these days.

I get the key and in 10 minutes, after facing the frost once again, I reach the door of my studio. I would have been happy with a room only and even with a shared bathroom but this was the cheapest I found. And Levi is for sure hell expensive. Anyway it was perfect, warm, cosy, super central, with all you possibly need inside including a sauna and close to a market store.

There were not so many organised activities during the weekend in Levi and I had in mind a snowshoeing tour on top of the hill that was starting soon that day. It was on a Friday. It’s worth mentioning a slight detail: the name of the town is Sirkka and the name of the hill is actually Levi, but now everybody calls the place Levi.

I had 30 minutes to add more layers on and to leave the house and try to catch that tour.

The cold outside hit me like a wall again. The town was the visual definition of frozen. I have once experienced -20 for like 2 nights but was nothing compared to this because it didn’t last that long. Here in Levi it was around -25-30 for the last two weeks and so. The streets, the traffic signs, the houses, all you could see was white. It looked unreal, unbelievably beautiful. Few people and cars on the streets, mountains of snow, wide sky slopes with plenty of space for everyone, sugar trees completely white. The snow was making a loud noise under my feet. I walked by a lady who was literally frozen. Her coat, her hat and the scarf she had over her face were all white, covered with ice crystals. I have seen this before only on National Geographic covers or BBC Earth documentaries, never with my own eyes. I always thought those people, looking so frozen, must have been close to death. I meet others looking the same. I was walking for 10 minutes when I looked at my gloves. I thought was some sort of dust, but no. It was ice. Then I took my phone out to check my face. My black scarf covering my face was all white, also the faux fur of my coat started to turn white. I was literally freezing and I wasn’t cold at all. I wasn’t coughing anymore when breathing. It was happening what I was praying for. My body was adapting very fast to this new environment. Nature works miraculously!

I got to the Tourist Information Centre right in time and I managed to book the tour 10 minutes before it started. I was so happy they have agreed to take me so last minute.

I wanted to wait outside. I had this strange feeling that I was starting to like that cold. I loved seeing everybody covered in ice, it looked so extreme and exciting.

One guy was preparing hot tea and coffee in front, on an improvised stall on big car wheels. He had made a big fire, boiling water on top of it.

The mini van arrived and I, since I was the last one to come, I was invited to take the middle sit in the cabin. I couldn’t be happier, it was uncomfortable but the conversation with the lady driver and the views were all that mattered. We drove through the white woods covered of snow, until we reached the top of the hill, a wide plateau where only small pines could be seen rising out of the snow in surprising shapes, like fantastic beasts. It was sunny and cold but not that type of white bright sunny day. In January, in Levi, at 170 km North of the Arctic Circle, the sunrise was turning soon into sunset during the 4 hours when the sun rose above the hill. A pale orange light shines over the endless white. A small wooden cabin in the valley was completely frozen and looked magical but was too far to get there. The air was so strong.

We put on our snowshoes and start our way down, stopping from time to time for information. It wasn’t cold anymore but I prefered walking constantly. Sitting still for more than 5 minutes wasn’t fun at all. My phone had reached from 100% battery to 35% in just 20 minutes, without even using it. The perspective of not being able to take a photo there was not good. Fortunately I had my camera too and its battery was handling cold way better than my iPhone. Taking many photos was no option anyway, all it needed were 10 seconds for my fingers to freeze. I tried to push it longer but the pain of frozen fingers was really bad.

Walking on snowshoes was new to me and so fun. It does a great job keeping you at the surface, otherwise we would have been swimming in 1m or deeper snow.

As we started descending from the top, the pine trees got bigger and the views even more spectacular. There they were, the famous winter postcard views of Levi I was dreaming about since I saw the first photos about this wonderful place.

White sparkling snow, orange-pink sun light from a perfect long lasting sunset, pine trees so covered in snow that they stopped looking like trees and rather like creatures from other worlds. Each tree became a masterpiece, as each part of it was covered with ice crystals, like small translucent leaves.

I was walking behind with one of the guides and we talked about Finland, winter in Finland and how amazing nature is.

You surely are taking advantage of your time here, he said when I told him I have arrived in Levi about 2h before.
Is it always this cold here?
Not always that cold. I can take it ok when it’s like that, but when it goes below 30, then you really feel the cold and it gets difficult to stay outside longer.
You know I’m surprised I don’t feel the cold as I did when I arrived.
Sure, you are starting to adapt. And here in Levi, because it’s dry, the cold is bearable.

So, again this theory I first heard from my friend.

– How cold does it get here.

– The coldest I remember is -44C

– Oh, wow!

His eyelashes were white at the top and his blonde beard had small icicles. I was just as frozen. We both laugh about this. The others were also and everybody was taking frozen selfies. All men had their beards covered in ice. On my coat I noticed small crystals of ice were forming. This is something too amazing not to be lived at least once. I know I will need to repeat this not just once.

We stopped by a wooden cabin, completely white and frozen, with its small windows all covered in white ice. A red snowcat was wandering around, pushing the snow and forming 3m high mountains of snow around. It was getting dark, it was the blue hour. In winter, in these moments all becomes blue. The snow was shining like billions of white diamonds, the tall pine trees were looking like white ghosts and the sky was a pale blue. Ice flurries were falling down. It was indescribably beautiful. We had blueberry hot tea and delicious fresh cold cakes. I realised then this was all I ate that day. Such a blessing are the days too exciting to remember about details such as food.

We crossed the forest among trees, snowshoeing in puffy fresh snow, shaking the most loaded branches, allowing the snow to cover us completely. We were all in that group, for sure and with no exception, winter addicts for life. All grown ups were kids again, back in childhood now, laughing and falling in the snow, sliding on their bums. This is how we got back in the town, loudly and full of joy. The same as I used to during those long white winters of my childhood, with my friends, on my street, in the woods behind our house. With our clothes wet, faces red and hands frozen, ignoring our parents threatening us and demanding to immediately enter the house or else… Who cared, we had the snow!

I missed the cracking snow under my feet and the mountains of white snow taller than me, as I used to see when I was 10. That dreamy winter I found again in Levi, together with all the joy I had in those years being a child.

No northern lights dancing that night. But who cared… I felt like I was 10.