It's that time of year again, folks. The time of year when the green lady graces Northern Europe with her presence. You guessed it! My current obsession is with the Aurora Borealis. Actually, who am I kidding, I have been obsessed since I heard it existed! Having bargained with Brad, using a week of skiing as a sweetener, we booked a trip to Finnish Lapland via Austria for another shot at seeing the Northern Lights.
First, we flew off to Ellmau Ski Resort in Austria, where Brad spent four days laughing at my skiing skills.... Not really, he was very supportive! I got off to a really good start by thanking the ski hire staff for their help and walking straight out of the store with ski boots on - without my skis. In the end, I was pretty stoked with my progress, having skied only once before in Andorra a year previously. Sure, there were five year olds whizzing past me at lightning speed, but you can't let that dishearten you....much.
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| Allll smiles until I saw the slope I had to get down... |
We had the best time and once again were blown away with the quality of the snow and facilities available as well as the affordability of skiing in Europe when compared to Australia. We also loved that dogs were welcome guests in all restaurants - we even saw a stray dog wander in for some pats before leaving again.
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| Brad slums it on the blue runs |
Next stop, FINLAND - woo! Going to Finnish Lapland has been a dream of mine for a long time. After checking in at Munich Airport (behind a whole lot of Olympic athletes being questioned about their weapons and skis), we readied our warm jackets and boarded our flight to Helsinki. And as per usual, we were super UNDER PREPARED for the cold that hit us as we left the airport in Helsinki. It was a balmy -9 degrees as we waited for our Air Bnb host to confirm where they had left the keys - toes slowly going numb in my vans (which I was wearing without socks - rookie error). We explored Helsinki the next day with the first stop being the boot store to buy me the warmest pair of boots we could find.
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| Boots like warm hugs for my feet |
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| Suomenlinnan Island, Helsinki |
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| Kamppi Chapel - the Chapel of Silence, Helsinki |
We caught the ferry through big chunks of ice over to Suomenlinna island, grabbed a coffee at Market Square and went to the Helsinki City Museum (primarily to escape the cold...). As per usual, we bypassed the local food to binge eat south east asian food (something that you can't find much of in Las Palmas and that we miss sooo much living there).
Fiiiinally, we arrived in Levi (Finnish Lapland) and were ready for the green lady to show her face. We thought Helsinki was cold, but it turns out we were wrong. When we landed in Levi and the pilot said the outside temperature was -25 degrees celsius we laughed to each other, not comprehending that such temperatures were even possible. But alas, he was not wrong - it hurt to breathe. And I had my vans on once again - will I ever learn?! The knee length boots were swiftly pulled out of the bag after a brisk walk across the tarmac in Levi, let me tell you! At least the weather was crisp, the sun was out and everything looked like an absolute winter wonderland. On the airport bus into town, we saw cross-country skiers making their way across a frozen lake and road signs warning of the presence of reindeer. I was soooo excited!
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| Beautiful polar light |
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| Absolutely love this pic - Brad enjoying some Arctic Crab |
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| Aussie in sub zero temperatures = kid in a lolly shop |
We had a lovely hotel room in the middle of Levi, right at the bottom of the ski slopes, which had a SAUNA. What a novelty! We got that bad boy up to 60+ degrees one day, and almost passed out... But it was sooooo good.
Yes, the room was fantastic... until we realised there was a bowling alley right underneath us. Brad was convinced it was just someone cleaning upstairs, but when they were still "cleaning" at midnight, we realised what was going on. Levi is a ski resort town surrounded by snowy pine forest and full of trails to explore - and explore we did!
We went on a northern lights tour with an Australian tour guide who informed us that he had seen the lights four nights in a row and was hopeful to see them tonight. Unfortunately, the clouds moved in and we were unable to see any activity at all. From now on, this shall be referred to as "the curse of Kath" as it has happened to us every time. It's like the green lady can feel my eagerness. We even drove over to Sweden looking for them!
All was not lost though, we had a lovely night out on a frozen lake beside a fire, eating home-made brownies, drinking warm berry juice and taking pictures of the frozen landscape. It was a magical evening despite no Northern Lights. Magical and freezing. Note to self: get new thermals (preferably ones that aren't from Decathlon).
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| In my happy place |
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| Long exposure fun |
The next day, we headed off on a snowmobile tour from Levi out to the Ice Gallery. The weather and scenery were magical; snow covered pines, snow up to your waist and beautiful polar light. We had the best time, driving through this totally foreign wonderland and giving way to cross-country skiers along the way.
Brad was driving and on the way home gave me his helmet by mistake which was way too big for me. When I realised and yelled into his ear to tell him, he took this a sign to go faster. As we moved faster, the helmet fell down over my eyes, so I ended up just holding on for dear life and hoping that Brad knew what he was doing. We arrived alive, but I didn't see much of the scenery on the way back.
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| It's greased lightning! |
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| That landscape!! |
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| -23 degrees never felt so good |
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| Levi Ice Gallery |
Next we moved out to the Northern Lights Ranch, which was our treat to ourselves. We had a little self-contained apartment with a glass roof and two glass walls which were positioned so that no one could see in, but so that you could see out and up. It is in the middle of nowhere, built far away from light pollution for Northern Lights viewing.
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| Sky View Cabin, Northern Lights Ranch |
We were able to snow shoe, watch the reindeer, visit the Ice Chapel (which, incidentally hosted a wedding everyday) and eat delicious food for two days. I woke up on the first night at about 4 am and saw some stars in the sky. I quickly checked the aurora forecast and saw that it was a kp 2, so setup the camera and took a few shots. Sure enough, the Aurora was there, but only very faint. It was an amazing place to stay and if the Northern Lights had come out to play properly, it would have been out of this world. Next time!
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| A teeny tiny peek... |
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| Reindeer doing their thang! |
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| Food, glorious food! |
And just as we were acclimatising to the freezing temperatures, our time was over in this winter wonderland and we started the long trek back to Las Palmas, where the temperature was a sweaty 19 degrees! So we have now been to Norway, Iceland, Finland and Sweden and the hunt for the northern lights continues. Plans are already in action for another visit this year.
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| The curse continues... |
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| Frozen airports - how do they even function?!? |
Amazing! All looks so bloody beautiful.
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