Finns study abroad...

In the beginning of my stay abroad, I had asked myself how other exchange students perception of their stay abroad was. I interviewed them about their experiences in Finland and their decision to go abroad. While staying abroad, I had gotten to know the Finns as patriotic homely people. This video is about Finnish students who have been or will be studying abroad. They will explain the system of their home university Novia UAS in Turku and talk about their expectations, fears and challenges abroad. 

Thanks for watching and sharing! :) 

Raisa

10 reasons why YOU should participate in the double degree program between UAS Landshut and Novia UAS

The double degree program between the UAS Landshut and the Novia UAS is currently in its 2nd year. The first year of Finnish exchange students will go back to Finland in a few months - the second year of German exchange students have arrived back in Germany already.
If you are thinking about going abroad, here are 10 reasons, that will convince your weaker self to participate:

1. You earn a double degree!
The most appealing feature of this degree program is probably the advantage of getting two degrees. A German one in International Business from the UAS Landshut and a Finnish one in Business Studies from the Novia UAS.

2. Different size of universities and cities!
Both cities - Landshut and Turku are quite different. Landshut can be described as the rather small but cozy rustic city at the gates of Munich while Turku is a very important commercial center and the 6th largest city in Finland.
However as the cities differ, so do the universities! When studying at Novia, you will experience a small cozy university accommodated in an old tobacco mill in the heart of Turku whereas the broad campus of UAS Landshut is located on the outskirts of Landshut and hosts about 5000 students.

3. Experience of different academical learning styles!
Novia is well-known for their team-work and project-based learning. They have gained a good reputation for their so called "Team Novia". Landshut on the other hand imparts mainly theoretical knowledge in the style of lectures and case studies. Participants of the double degree will benefit from both learning styles. During my stay in Finland, I was able to apply lots of business models that I had encountered before in theory in Germany.

4. You are a part of Erasmus!
You will be part of the Erasmus program. This does not only provide you with an extra pocket money by the European Union, it also offers many opportunities like actually meeting people from all over Europe and beyond,  traveling on a low budget, expanding your networks, etc.
Or like Erasm.us puts it: You will feel more of a European than a citizen of your own country.

5. Looks great on your CV!
Studying abroad is a great way to glam up your CV. Germany and Finland are both attractive countries when it comes to studying. The Finnish education system has an excellent reputation while German higher education is recognized as one of the best in the world. Besides both countries offer free education.

6. Still in Europe but a new experience!
If you hesitate about going abroad, this degree program will be a chance for you! As you will be staying within the boarders of the European Union you won't experience that much of a culture shock! Also no matter if it's the insurance, currency, the language (English will get you quite far in both countries) the EU will back you up. At the same time you will experience new, local impressions and customs, which is quite "refreshing".

7. Plenty of traveling opportunities!
Germany's location in the middle of Europe opens up many traveling options. Whether it is France, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Italy or Switzerland, it neither takes big effort nor a big wallet to travel to one of the surrounding countries.
Finland as one of the Nordic countries depicts different solutions in terms of architecture, infrastructure and customs. Russia and Sweden are also attractive traveling destinations.

8. Different geographical environment!
Finland and Germany are not only located on different latitudes, you will also experience a difference in climate, daylight and wildlife.

9. It's safe!
The contract between the universities will help you a lot regarding the pre-selected compulsory courses. You won't have to worry about arranging your schedule by yourself.
As you are traveling with a group of fellow exchange students from your home university, you will have people from your home country/university with you, which makes it much easier.

10. You will grow beyond yourself!
The most tremendous impact, that you will probably only discover, when you are back home is your personal development. A stay abroad will always boost your self-esteem, independence and you will learn a lot about yourself.

That's it from my side! If you are still hesitating, join our FB page and connect with us!

Raisa

PS: Stick around, we are still publishing ;)

5 things we will miss about Finland

Now that we have stayed in Finland for about 9 months it is time to say farewell! Before leaving for Germany, we sat together and put down our thoughts regarding Finland. We were wondering what we treasured the most about Finland. We both agree about the friendliness of people and the implicitness to using the English language (btw. without the latter one we would have been totally lost here)
However aside from that both of us made their individual experiences within the Finnish culture. Have a look at our lists:

The Kauppahalli in HKI

5 things Katharina will miss about Finland:

• The Finnish Calmness: There is no rush, no pressure, no hurry – the people are happy with what they have and everything you do is good! And you don’t have to worry – it will work out some how.
• The Finnish Kindness: Everyone, no matter if you know him or if he is a total stranger to you, is always willing to help you in every situation.
• My Finnish friends: Although it is not that easy to make friends in Finland, I will miss the ones I made. In the beginning it is quite hard to get in touch with Finnish people, but once you managed it, they can become really good friends.
• Kauppahalli: I fell in love with these old and traditional market halls. There you can buy delicious food or directly have lunch with a lovely atmosphere.
• Candy Town: A paradise for candy lovers – something I don’t have in my hometown and I will definitely miss.

5 things Raisa will miss about Finland:

Sauna in our cottage
in  Lapland

• Sauna: Sauna in Finland is a very unique experience and I would recommend anyone visiting this country to give it at least a try. In the beginning, I didn't dare to go to the Sauna. I thought that it might be too hot for me or I would die in there :D. However I changed my mind and appreciate the Finnish Sauna as a calm, cozy place to get away from everyday life.
• Nature: The Finnish nature is way different from anything I have seen before and it is not only the difference between the rustic Lapland in the North and the urban areas in the South. Even though Turku is quite a big city, it is very rich in wildlife. When I went jogging at dawn I usually encountered rabbits, pheasants, lots of birds and all kinds of other small animals. Especially , during spring it was quite entertaining to watch all those animals in the suburban areas.
• Bike paths: Finland has probably one of the most bike-friendly infrastructure. Bike paths can be found almost everywhere and people are actually using their bikes all year round - at least in the city areas.
• Weather: As Turku is located at the Baltic Sea, I would have expected way more precipitation. However, it rained less than in Germany. Actually the weather has been relatively good during my entire stay.
• Simplicity and Kindness of the Finns: Even tough it is pretty hard to get in touch with Finns, I have met plenty of people who helped out, translated, gave directions etc. which made it a lot easier to get adjusted to the country.

A forest area close to Halinen

These have been our experiences during our exchange year. I hope you will have similar experiences, if you ever visit Finland! You should ;)

Raisa

A comparison of the grocery market

The Northern countries are well-known for being significantly more expensive than the densely populated countries in the south. When I arrived here, I did actually miss the variety of cheap no-name products and the number of discount supermarkets in Germany. (Btw. this lead me to the topic for my thesis)

During my stay here, the Finnish newspapers announced that the prices for groceries would drop by 30%. The German discounter Lidl seems to put tremendous pressure on the market. However I still didn't notice a big difference. Whenever I am standing at the cashier, I am calculating in my head how much my purchase would have cost in Germany. I usually come to the conclusion that the expenses for groceries would be a lot less pricey.
To prove this properly, I decided to conduct an experiment! I created a list of products an average citizen (in my case an average student) would buy and looked up the prices in local supermarkets in Turku, which belong to the two parental retailing organizations S-Group and Kesko and of course Lidl. I also assigned a friend in Germany to go shopping for me. Of course we agreed that we would always take the cheapest product - as we are students :P
This is what we found out:

Product	German price	Finnish price
Bananas (1Kg)	1,25	1,29
(Rittersport) Chocolate	0,99	1,55
Haribo Gummibears (360g)	1,19	1,99
Basmati Rice (1Kg)	1,99	2,79
Milk (1L)	0,59	0,85
Butter (250g)	0,99	0,93
Yoghurt (500g)	0,49	0,69
Oats (500g)	0,39	0,54
Yeast (for baking)	0,09	0,20
Flour (1Kg)	0,32	0,81
Sugar (1Kg)	0,65	0,85
Eggs (10)	0,99	1,05
Spaghetti (500g)	0,49	0,44
Barcadi (0,7 L)	12,99
Q-tips (200 pieces)	0,49	0,49
Toilet paper (8 roll-package)	1,95	2,49
Gasoline	1,40	1,52
Diesel	1,20	1,34

In 2013, the value of grocery retail sales in Finland was approx. 16.55 billion euros. There are two big Finnish grocery retailers. The S-Group and Kesko. The S-Group owns Alepa, Prisma, S-Market and Sale. Kesko is the parental organization to the K-Supermarkets, they have several different names e.g. K-Citymarket, K-Supermarket, K-Extra etc. Besides those big players, there is also Lidl.
Take a look at the table below to get a better view of the Finnish grocery market and the powerful influence of the German retailer Lidl.

All numbers 2012	Market share	Grocery sales	Employees
S Group	45,6%	7.316.000	8.897
Kesko	34,7%	5.572.000	19.489
Lidl	6,7%	1.071.000	3.500 (141 stores)

Source: Finnish Grocery Trade 2013

What you can not see from this table is that Lidl is growing at great pace. In 2011 the market share has been at about 6,4%. In 2012 it increased to 6,7%. So Finnish people actually appreciate those inexpensive products from Germany. No wonder as the value added tax is currently 14% in Finland. This is 3 times higher than the EU average of about 5.4%. Three decades ago Finns spend as much as 20% of their income on food.
In Germany, Lidl doesn't have the unique selling proposition of being the cheapest discounter. It is just one of many supermarkets. However the perception of the value of goods might be influenced by this price difference. When talking to Finns, they are always stoked about the low price level in Germany. This is ascribed to the dense population as well as to the intense competition on the German market, which is missing in Finland. Nevertheless, due to the increasing growth of city areas there might be even more competitors on their way to the Finnish market?!

On that note no matter where you live - consume wisely! ;)

Raisa

Getting started at Novia

The first couple of days in Finland will be exciting. You will be stunned by the beauty of the nature and the kindness of people. Fortunately the studies at Novia start slowly, so you should really use the first couple of months to orientate and travel!

Your first duties will be concerned about the administrative part of your studies. The International Coordinator Isabelle Bonnet will be a helping hand with most of the forms. She will sign the Certificate of Arrival for your Erasmus agreement.

If you decide to get a bus card, she will also help you to fill out the Finnish application form and inform you about the different options of bus cards. By the way, you do not necessarily need to get a bus card. I used my bike for the majority of time, as it is cheaper and also faster – dependent on where you live though!

A very important task, you should take care of as soon as possible is the student card. The student card gives you discounts in shops, restaurants, trains and long-distance buses or the student café’s and you can use it to prove that you are student. There are two different cards the Samok and the Frank. However during our studies, we found out that the Samok card is less expensive for Novia exchange students. To get the card, you need to fill out an online form. After about 3-4 weeks, you can fetch your card in the Novium Office on the 3^rd foor.

For more information, you should visit Novium's webiste!

The Erasmus card costs 5€ and will give you discount on activities and parties organized by the Erasmus networks of the Universities. There are several Erasmus Networks: ESN Uni Turku, ESN Abo Akademi and ESNIAC. As an exchange student you can participate in the activities of all organizations. Getting the card is a bit tricky, but you can visit the ESN Uni Turku office in Rehtorinpellonkatu 4-6 B, room B1-43 (behind the swimming pool). If you are planning to participate on the Lapland or Russia trips with ESN, it is recommended to get the card. 

It's also handy to like all of their Facebook-pages to be up to date!

As you will write plenty of assignments during your studies, you should get a library card. There are several libraries in Turku. Novia has it's own library on the 2nd floor in Building A. However, if you are planning to write your Bachelor Thesis, their stock of books probably won't be sufficient. I collected a lot of books from Abo Akamdemi libraries. Abo Akademi has several libraries organized by specific areas. For business students, the main library (next to the Cathedral), the ASA library in Vänrikinkatu 3 A as well as the Economic library in Henrikinkatu 7 might be relevant. Other than this, the Turku School of Economics has a wide-ranged stock of books. You can get library cards for free in at the Info Desk in each library. 

My card collection :D

Novia uses electronic door keys. For your own flexibility and convenience you should get one! It allows you to have access to the computer rooms or the gym during the entire opening hours of the University. The deposit of 40€ can be paid in the Student Affairs Office.  

By the time you start your studies, you will own a whole bunch of cards! 

By the way, the International Student Identification Card (ISIC) is not necessary in the northern countries due to the local student card system. I only benefited once, when I received a discount of about 50 cents when I climbed a church in St. Petersburg. 

Feel free to contact us, if you have any questions! Also the International Coordinator Isabelle Bonnet will be happy to help you! :)

Stay tuned

Raisa

Trip to Åland

Åland - the archipelago paradise between Finland and Sweden! Around 6700 islands are located in the Gulf of Bothnia, 40km from Sweden's and 15km from Finland's coast. The official language is Swedish and due to its autonomous status, Åland has a special role compared to the other 19 landscapes of Finland. It has its own self-administration and besides this, its own parliament.
When visiting Åland, you can easily jump from one island to another by boat, car or bike.
The capital city is Mariehamn and this is where I went to with the Tourism group "Restonova" from Novia University. Mariehmamn has around 11.000 inhabitants and is located on a narrow headland between the two harbors Västerhamn and Österhamn. About 1.5 million tourists visit this city every year :-)

We took a Viking line ferry to go there and our trip took around 5 hours. The boat trip was already an amazing experience, as you pass a lot of archipelago islands :-)
We had the pleasure to get a guided tour on the ship. We saw the different room types including the suite, which is about 400€ per day/night!!!, then we visited the conference area and the restaurants. It was quite interesting to hear and see how such a ferry is organized by its staff members regarding the calculation of the quantity of water etc.

When we arrived in Mariehamn, we first went to our accommodation, which was the Hotel Cikada. A really nice, small hotel where all rooms have a balcony and in the morning they offer a good breakfast buffet. After everyone has moved into their rooms, we started a little walk through the city. The first thing I recognized was the silence and the empty streets - it seemed quite deserted. There were nearly no people on the streets :-) But as we heard later, this was due to the season, which normally starts in May. 

Our next stop was Hotel Pommern, were we also had a guided tour. This hotel is quite new as it is only 4 weeks old and we took a look into the different rooms, restaurants and one of the staff members explained the concept and idea of this hotel. The lobby consists of the reception, the bar and an open restaurant, which creates a free and busy atmosphere :-)

When the guided tour ended, we had some free time before going to dinner together.
My friend and I decided to go to the sea and enjoy the sun and beautiful view there. Afterwards we went for a walk through the little and lovely city center. You can find a lot of shops there as well as some cafés and bars :-)

In the evening we met with the other Tourism students again for dinner at Dinos. This is the "must visit" restaurant in Mariehamn and they offer delicious food, especially the burgers are unforgettable :-) The prices were also quite ok, a beefsteak burger with french fries and some side salad costs around 15-16€. After dinner, we went back to the hotel. 

The next day we walked through the forests and climbed up some small rockets :-) We were lucky again with the weather and had a lot of sun and warm air around us. On the rockets we had a great view over the island and its surrounding - I got the feeling of being somewhere in the south of Croatia, when I saw all the small islands around me separated by the water :-)

For the rest of the day we relaxed in a nice café with a Minigolf area, good music and comfortable sofas on the terrace :-)

Our ferry back to Turku left at ca. 14.30 and therefore we had to be at the harbor at 14.00 o'clock. The trip also took 5 hours and so we could enjoy the beautiful archipelago islands again :-)

I totally fell in love with Åland and Mariehamn, as it is something special and different. The spring already started there whereas in Turku everything was still grey and wintery :-) But to be honest, I could not imagine growing up on these islands, as I also got the feeling of being separated and "lost" in the nowhere. Nevertheless, if you have the chance to visit Åland - go for it!!! And make sure you can stay there for more then 2 days, take a bike with you or rent it there and explore the nature, landscape, islands and peaceful atmosphere :-)

Tack, tack and hejdå! :-)

Katharina

Landshut and its possibilities

There are a lot of things you can do in the lower bavarian capital city, but also the cities around Landshut offer a lot of opportunities to travel around and see many great places :-)
So first of all Landshut. It has a really beautiful city centre with a lot of cafés, bars, restaurants and clubs. You can go shopping there, have a nice and cheap :-) beer or coffee in the centre or at the Isar River side and enjoy your time :-)
During the week there are some parties going on. On Thursdays there is "Studies Night" at "Trixi Schneider" in the centre, which is in my opinion the best Club in Landshut :-) On Tuesdays you always have a party at the "Wohnheim Kneipe", which is the party area in the student's accommodations. Also very popular amongst all students is the "Kitchen party", which might take place every night...depends on your mood :-) And one of the best parties are the "Winter- and Sommerfest" at the University. All the different student organizations organize one party in the summer semester and one in the winter semester in the University. We are allowed to occupy one big area in one of the University buildings for one night :-) All the rooms are emptied out in order to place the bars, music and dancing area there. After the party the student organizations have to clean everything and prepare the rooms again, because in the morning lectures start again :-) And this is not the only "special" party we students have. Once a year there is a student party called "Night of the Profs" in "MeaMea", which is a club in the CCL, the City center Landshut (shopping centre in the city). To this party we invite some professors who are then allowed to be DJ's for this evening :-) That's real fun!

During daytime, when you don't have to study, you can visit the "Burg Trausnitz", which is the castle in Landshut. During summertime they have the beer garden open there and you can also visit some goats :-) and when you are very lucky you might also see some goat babies :-)
If there are some hot days coming up, which is quite usual in bavaria during summertime, you have the "Gretlmühle" for cooling off :-) But this lake I have already mentioned in the post about the University of Applied Sciences...so enough about this :-)

Over the year there are two fairs in Landshut, the so-called "Dult". The "Bartlmädult" takes place around the 24th of August and the spring Dult is sometime in the middle of April. I have only been to the spring Dult yet, but it is a lot of fun there with good food and roller coasters :-)

Landshut is not only nice during summertime, also when the winter is coming the city tries everything to get the people out of their houses :-) The bars and cafés in the centre offer "Glühwein", which is comparable to "Glöggi", and put some heaters outside so you can sit there and usher in Christmas time :-) Then in the end of November the Christmas markets start and you have two different ones in Landshut. One is called the "Pyramide" and this is more or less the Christmas market for the "younger" generation :-) Next to the CCL they build up a christmas pyramid. You can buy Glühwein and listen to Club music, which is really awkward in the beginning, but then again it is something different and that makes it special. The other Christmas market is more like a traditional one, where you can buy winter clothes and all the common stuff :-)
The STUV, which is the students representation, usually organizes a skiing event at the beginning of the year or in the beginning of the spring semester. When I took part there 2years ago we went skiing for a whole weekend to Kitzbühel, which was incredible :-)
And the prices for such trips are always more than fair as these trips are supported financially by the STUV. For this trip they organized buses, which started at the University and  also stopped at some other spots in the city to pick up everyone. Then we drove to the skiing region. Last year, they organized the whole event together with some other Universities in Bavaria and they planned skiing competitions between the universities. I could not join this event, but what I have heard from the others this must have been a lot of fun :-)
So I hope you got a little idea about Landshut and what is going on there.

Stay tuned - I will soon let you know what you can experience around Landshut :-)

See you!

Katharina

Lapland Trip - Part 2

The second part of our journey started off way too early! We left Saariselkä at 7.05 for Norway. The little village of Bugøynes was waiting for us. We drove another 290 kilometers. By now I can proudly say that I have crossed Finland completely! Most of the area we were crossing were natural reserve areas. Our first stop was at Näätämö, shortly before the Norewegian border. We paused at a small gas station which was attached to a K-Market. The people seemed to be annoyed by the crowd of our bus and the cashier was quite busy with all the customers. While waiting in line for the only bathroom, I spotted the offer of white cabbage, which costed 49 cents per kilogram. 

The shops opening hours were also interesting! It opens only 5 days a week. Monday to Thursday from 11 am to 5 pm and Friday from 10 am to 4 pm. However it was a cozy shop and the vendors seemed to be satisfied in this part of the country. Our tour guide told us later that the village Näätämö, which is located close to the gas station counted 14 inhabitants. Only a couple of minutes further, we crossed the Norwegian border! :) As Norway belongs to the Schengen Area, our bus chuggled across the boarder into the landscape of northern Norway. The change of the scenery was tremendous! On the Finnish side, we could see lots of conifers and relative low hills and rocks covered with deep snow. In Norway, we discovered that there were hardly any conifers. The trees were very small and the hills had turned to enormous mountains. However both sides were so beautiful that all the occupants of the bus stared outside on the entire 4 hour ride. On the side of the roads we spotted a lot of Russian road signs. The tour guide told us, that they inform Russian visitors, that they can not go any further without a valid visa. Only after I checked on Google Maps, I realized how far in the North we actually were! 

When we arrived in Bugøynes, an elderly lady warmly welcomed us and told us about her village and how the inhabitants are trying to act sustainable. The lady told us, that she invented the very fist Sauna without a shower. As the Arctic Ocean is pretty clean and healthy she recommended the water to prevent lots of diseases. Due to my sickness (which btw had improved in spite of the cold climate) I decided to only dip my feet in the water and skip the Sauna. While the others roasted in the Sauna, I got rid of my shoes and socks and steeped my feet into the cold, clear water of the Arctic Sea. Fortunately I brought some warm woolen socks - believe me my feet never felt that cozy :)) 
After that I wandered around the village. The village had everything they needed to survive, a small shop, a cemetery, a school, a church and there was even a fish farm nearby, which is the main provider for work places. The people seemed quite reserved and I wondered how people greet each other in Norway. 
For lunch, we were invited in a local club house. We had Norwegian fish soup with white fish. At this point I have to mention that it impressed me how well the elderly knew the English language. For desert, we tried Norwegian brown cheese "Brunost". We learned that the caramelized sugar in the milk creates the brown color of the cheese. The stay in Norway was limited to 4 hours, but the 8 hours of driving there were totally worth it! 
When we got home, Kathi and I went on a big walk around the town. We were lucky as we saw the Northern Lights for the third time that week. 
On Thursday, we  visited a reindeer farm. The animals looked a bit tired. We later found out that they were castrated and therefore not impressed about anything. I felt so bad for them! The Huskies seemed to like pulling the sleigh, but the reindeer simply looked sad and somehow tired! So I couldn't get myself to ride on a sleigh. :/ Later on, a Sami woman informed us about Sami people's lives and their relationship to reindeer. She told us that every reindeer in Finland belongs to someone and therefore it is forbidden to randomly hunt down an animal. At the moment, 1 kilogram of reindeer meet is worth 8 €. Every reindeer owner gathers his animals twice a year. Once on midsummer and once in fall. On these occasions, the reindeer are counted and tagged with new earmarks. She mentioned that it is usually not hard to find reindeer during these times as they like to stay in groups in summer to keep the mosquitoes away.  If they do not find a group at all, they will use a helicopter. She advised us to never ask a reindeer farmer, how many animals he owns. 
We left the reindeer farm to go on a Snowshoe walk in the evening. It was quite challenging to put on the Snowshoes. When snowshoeing, it is important to use the spikes in the front of the device. Basically our tour guide chased us two times downhill and uphill, so we would get tired. When we arrived in the deep forest, we were able to see green Northern Lights for the fourth time that week! After the Snowshoeing, we ate reindeer! I guess it is rather barbaric to visit a reindeer farm in the afternoon and eat them in the evening! :I Hmm. Poor guy! ....! I guess it tastes okay but I wouldn't want to have it regularly! 
When we got back home, we tried to heat the Sauna in our cottage but without avail. I guess we would fail the Finnish survival test. So we took hot showers instead and enjoyed our last night in Lapland. 
On Friday, we were finally going back home to Southern Finland. We had another 1000 kilometers in front of us. However this time it took us only 13 hours. I was happy when we left the ice behind. Nevertheless, I already miss the snow. 
When we arrived in Lapland, there had been a solar storm, which caused the intense appearance of Northern Lights.
Out of all the activities, I liked the Husky Safari the most! The animals were gentle and cuddly. I would have loved to take one with me!

Thank you Lapland! Really enjoyed it! :)

Raisa

Lapland Trip - Part 1

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Our journey to Lapland started off from Helsinki. We decided to go on our Lapland experience with the Finnish student travel agency time travels, which meant that we would travel with exchange students from all over Finland. The bus left from Helsinki at 9 pm on Sunday night. We had about 1000 kilometers in front of us.

Both of us – Kathi and I were excited for the snow and the location but also worried, as we are finally fed up with icy roads and cold, windy weather.  As I got sick, about a week before our trip, I was especially worried, that it would get worse in Lapland.

The bus stopped every other hour for a potty break and to pick up fellow travel mates in Tampere, Oulu and several highway rest areas. Our first big stop was at a rest area near Jyvaskyla. As we drove by night, the rest areas as well as the highways were almost empty and gave me the impression of desolated, gloomy places. There were huge restaurants with lots of seating places. The only “customers” were some youngsters and tourist groups like us. It seemed like those destinations were waiting for crowds of people in vain. By the way – I counted 16 toilets at one place.

The lake - which wasn't a lake :D

At that time my sleep-pattern had been totally messed up, so I decided (more or less unintentionally) to stay awake all night. However my cervical spine collapsed several times, so I had quite a restless night. When the sun rose, at about 7 am, we had left Oulu, heading to Kemi. In Kemi, we visited the famous snow castle,which is built every year from scratch since 1996. The castle is quite a tourist attraction. It is rebuilt every winter with a different architecture. The area covered by the snow castle varies between 13.000 and 20.000 square meters. There were lots and lots of small rooms with decorations carved in the walls. Beside the castle, we spotted a huge lake. People were riding their snow mobiles, doing cross-country skiing or just going for a walk on this “lake”. The weather was great and we enjoyed a marvelous view across the white scenery. We later found out that this “lake” was part of the Baltic Sea. As Kemi is located in the Bothnian Bay. It was quite impressive how thick the ice was in this area and a few kilometers farther, we could see open water. Our next stop was the Santa Claus Village near Rovaniemi. At this point we crossed the Arctic Circle :)) In the Santa Claus Village, we visited lots of tourist shops, met Santa in person ;) ate a Finnish Salmon Soup and took lots of photos. I also approached my very first reindeer in Finland. It was a short and awkward encounter. We both seemed to be creeped out by each other’s appearance.

Finnish Salmon Soup!

After Rovaniemi, we drove another 4.5 hours to Saariselkä. The roads got more lonesome and there were hardly any street lights. The snow lighted up the curbs but the conifers on the sides of the road created a murky atmosphere. All of the occupants of our bus including the bus driver were exhausted. Our tour guide waited for us in Saariselkä and showed us our cottages and our neighbors for the next week. Our cottage mates were quite diverse. We had people from France, Italy and Brazil in our cottage and of course Germans ;) However on our first night we decided to climb the ski hill behind our house to get a glimpse at the Northern Lights. I have to say, we were lucky! Very lucky! At first we only saw light white stripes at the sky but the more we diverged from the village, the stronger they got. The guys in our group made us go to the very top of the mountain across country. There were no tracks so we sank into deep snow every other step. It was quite a workout! At the very top of the mountain, we enjoyed an impressive 20 minute “performance” of Northern Lights. We weren’t able to catch them on camera though. When we arrived back at the cottage, we all fell into our beds and slept like polar bears :)

After that trip I can tell, if you want to have a good night’s rest, you got to go to Lapland!

Our lead dogs :)

The fluffy swing dog <3

On Tuesday, we got up early to visit a Husky Farm. The bus took us to the ranch, which was located about 5 km outside of Saariselkä. We were welcomed by a horde of Husky puppies yowling at us. The keeper took us to a tent and gave us an introduction to life on a Husky Farm. She told us the difference between Siberian Huskies and Alaskian Huskies, Siberian Huskies seem to be prettier and are used as show dogs. One dog eats about 15 kilograms of meet per day and normally does not drink anything except for some kind of meat soup once a day. When they feel thirsty, they eat snow. We also had to opportunity to go on a Husky Safari for half an hour. For me, this has been the most impressive adventure of this trip. Before we met our dogs, we were told about the basics of steering a sleigh and the most important to never let the sleigh and the dogs go. The keeper told us that a sleigh is normally pulled by 5-6 dogs. There are two lead dogs in the front, one or two swing dogs, which are basically in training and two wheel dogs, who basically pull the sleigh. The dogs on our sleigh were very calm. However the lead dogs were quite excited and always tangled up in their team. I cannot tell, if steering the sleigh or sitting in it was better, but I really enjoyed the interaction with the animals. They seem to love their job and long for constantly moving their paws. When the safari started, I used the break quite a lot because I was afraid that we would crash. However it turned out that our dogs were quite nice and at the middle of the trip, they had perceived that we were slow, cautious passengers. The trip ended way too fast, but after 30 minutes, the Huskies were thirsty and new passengers were waiting.

 We spend the rest of the day in bed, eating and exploring the village. In the evening, we had booked a Snowmobile Safari. We were provided with snow suits, boots, helmets and gloves so we won’t freeze on the vehicles. Riding on the backseat of the snow mobile was another highlight of that day! Especially as we saw green Northern Lights, while riding through the forest. I have to say that it is physically demanding to keep the snow mobile on the tracks. I highly respect Kathi’s driving skills, especially since I kept on talking to her steadily and pointing at the Northern Lights. When we switched drivers, I got off the tracks immediately only after a couple of meters, so the guards had to rescue us from the deep snow and drive us back on the path. After that incident we were placed in the very front of the caravan, right after the leader of the group :D :D My driving skills still didn’t improve but with the help of Kathi, steering from the backseat, we were able to keep up and get home safe! :) I definitely preferred being a passenger on the Snowmobile! ;)

This day ended similar to the day before. We fell into our beds and slept immediately.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our Lapland Trip, when I will tell you about our trip to Norway, eating reindeer meet and our journey back!

Raisa