Fabulous Finland: My holiday in Finland
Written by Athena Tuesday, 22 June 2010 18:35
This article is about my holiday in Finland December 2002 - January 2003. It is one of many holidays that would have been a LOT more difficult - maybe even impossible, due to money and other concerns - if I had kids.
Crash! I felt the impact and the humiliation. What if I couldn’t do this? What if it was just too hard? What if I came last? Then I decided to just have fun and enjoy myself. And all of a sudden, no time was left for such thoughts as the two beautiful, strong husky dogs pulled at the sled I was pushing and propelled us all forward - fast! Dogs can and do smile, you know, and they were grinning with expectation and anticipation as the snow flew off their soft fur. Any niggling doubts of potential failure were replaced by fear as I clung on and then this fear gave way rapidly to adrenaline and exhilaration! Ice-laden trees became a blur. This was so exciting! Now I sensed the dog’s competitiveness and I too wanted us to win – to be first! They relished the challenge and now so too did I. We were second at the end of the course but ah still the victory was sweet, the thrill of trying something new and full of fun! And then, as we stood still, waiting for the other members of my tour, it got so cold my fingertips began to ache and my eyelashes literally froze.
Lapland. Beautiful, snowy Lapland in Winter. At the North Pole, thousands of miles from my home. Before this trip I’d only dreamed of a white Christmas and Noels were more likely to be spent at the beach or sitting on a deck, warmed by dappled sunlight. This was literally a dream come true. It was not Christmas-time, as I felt myself too old, wise and or jaded to sit on a fake Santa Clause’s lap. For this was where, legend had it, Santa lived. I visited for New Year’s.
And what a New Year’s it was. I spent part of New Year’s Eve following a snowy path peppered with other legends, there were lamps to guide me in the dark and a “wishing tree” to find. And oh, it was delicious and so much fun. And yes I felt full of hope as I found the cherished tree.
I sat outside in the almost quiet night and watched pale green Aurorua Borelis – the famed Northern Lights tint the sky with its eerie long-dreamed of glow. Two teenage girls sat on swings in the Wintry playground, also gazing at the night’s sky. “I wish I lived there” I heard one of them say. And at that moment, I felt the same way.
I got to experience the thrill of literally having a ride in “a reindeer-driven sleigh.” Let me tell you something, reindeer can move very slowly at times, there is no WAY they could go around the world in one night helping “Father Christmas” deliver millions of presents!
I sat in a wooden building and listened to tales of old, retold expressively by a man dressed in traditional clothes and to see how some of the locals dressed and lived years and years ago.
Helsinki was fantastic too. A hip and stylish city with some fantastic modern architecture, a beautifully decorated (if controversial) Russian church, a “church in the rock” and boats resting on frozen water. A gorgeous art deco hotel to reside in plus some of the most interesting people on tour, like an architect and others with interesting and quite glamorous careers and lifestyles.
Truly, my holiday in Finland was magnificent and even though I have less photos than I would have liked due to my camera freezing up many times from the extreme temperatures. Minus 45 one day, celcius or farenheit I forget but either way we were dressed in layers and very warm for the most part. It is a time I will never forget.
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