Lapin matka

If you throw a group of complete strangers together and a few days later they have become a family for life you know that nothing is more important than connection and experiences. And when you send that group of people on a week long trip to the North of Finland you can be sure they will have one of the best weeks of their lives.

On Sunday the 12th around 11 pm it was finally time. The long waited YFU Lapland trip would start. I spent the day packing and preparing for the 15 hour long bus ride. Antonia and her hostdad picked me up and he drove us to the bus waiting in Korso. With a few other students we were the first ones to get on the bus there. It was only a short journey to Helsinki where we had a 45 minute break and picked up a bunch of other people. It was already midnight when we left but no one really felt like sleeping. Until our second stop in Tampere we threw a small bus party, then we started getting tired. I slept through the next stops in Jyväskylä and Kärsämäki. Almost everyone was on the bus now. Around six or seven I couldn´t fall asleep again but then it was already time for breakfast.
After Oulu and somewhere in the nowhere we had picked up everyone that would join our trip and continued the bus party until we arrived in Rovaniemi where we would visit the Santa Claus village.
I was really thrilled about the whole trip but meeting Santa wasn´t something I was really excited about. But when we entered the house that was decorated Christmas-ish with letters from children framed on the walls I had to grab my friends hand. Suddenly I felt like a small child whose dream comes true and when we actually met Santa, shook his hand, were surprised by his extraordinary language skills and listened to him saying sweet words, I wasn´t the only one who almost shed some tears.
After that a big smile was stuck on my face. I guess it stayed there for the rest of the week.
At around 4pm, after 17 hours on the road, we arrived our final destination. A cozy family owned hostel in Pyhätunturi. We organized our stuff and had dinner and then we were free for the rest of the evening. The first thing we did was putting on our snow clothes and explore the area. The snow reached our hips in some spots and just like meeting Santa we felt like little kids - really happy little kids. After that some people discovered the karaoke DVD in the basement and we annoyed everyone else with a more screamed than sung version of Bad Romance. 
Our program began on the next morning. After breakfast our bus took us to the nearby Arctic Husky Farm. The people who worked there explained how the sleds are used and then we got the chance to make a 1 kilometer trip with the husky sleigh. It was over way too fast, but it was something I definitely wanted to do in Finland and really fun. Everyone got their turn and then we got a tour around the husky farm. The highlight was definitely when we got to pet the little puppies that were only a few weeks old. A small break in the café later we drove to the next place. A reindeer farm. 
Here we started with a ride on a reindeer pulled sled as well. I couldn´t decide which was more fun, but at least the reindeer ride was longer. 
Then we had lunch in a cozy house. It was - of course - reindeer soup and an alternative for the vegetarians and vegans. When we were done with eating one of the owners of the farm, who were all Sami people, so indigenous Northern people, told us about their culture. It was really interesting and we had so many questions but we all were quiet when she sung a so called joik, a traditional song, for us. The joik didn´t have words and the only instrument was a drum that she first warmed over the fire but the feeling it gave us was almost magical. The trip to the animal farms ended with us feeding the reindeers and trying the lasso throw that they use to catch them - I failed horribly. 
For me the Lapland trip could have been complete by that day already - I mean I saw huskies and reindeers! But there were so many more great things to come.
The evening was spent like all the others this week. Sauna, iltapala, talking, dancing and enjoying being together. 
On Wednesday morning our skiing (or snowboarding) adventure started. After everyone was provided with the fitting equipment the different groups went their ways. There were the people who exactly knew how to ski, the total beginners, the cross country skiers, people who wanted to try snowboarding and us - three people who have skied once before and a ski teacher. Slowly we worked ourselves from the children hill to the family slope and got used to the feeling of standing on skis again. I just know that our teacher recognised our bright smiles the second time we went down the hill and I told him I forgot how much fun it was. After we tried some slopes and rehearsed techniques the ski lesson was over and we were free to explore the ski area on our own. 
The day that we spent on the animal farms and Saturday when we drove back to South were cloudy and snowy. But all three days in between were incredibly sunny - I even got a sunburn, believe it or not! - with perfect blue sky and an amazing view from the top of the hill. We spent the days on skis, trying new routes, roasting marshmellos over a fire, listening to music on lift rides and only making pauses for fries or waffles in the restaurant. Me and my friend skiied together most of the time because our skill level was almost identical. The best thing was to see how we improved and could go down the steepest part of the red slope pretty fast at the end of the time even though it took us 15 minutes and a lot of bravery and persuasion the first time. 
The days woud have been great with only skiing but after we went home for dinner around 4pm other really cool things happened. 
The first thing was that we went out to check the sky for Northern Lights in the evening. We had done that the night before and weren´t lucky. Now the apps and the internet predicted a comparatively high chance but the YFU volunteers told us not too get our hopes too high. We walked outside and only saw a weirdly shaped white thing in the sky that could also be a cloud. We were already on our way back when one of the volunteers came outside to check the sky and she told us that it was a Northern Light and in which direction we should go to get the best view. We walked the small distance to the lake where we had been ice fishing the day before. I think none of us had the right clothes and I couldn´t feel my legs anymore. But by the time we walked there the cloud thing chnaged to something that we could actually identify as a polar light. When we stood on the lake we saw a Norhtern Light behind the forest that looked like the earth was glowing and another light on the horizon climbing up the sky. While we were watching they turned from white to green and it was one of the most touching things I´ve ever seen. Later that night and also on the next day we saw even better lights - they are supposed to be the best lights in the last twenty years - not only green but also red and purple, dancing over the whole nightsky. But for me the most special time was this first time we saw them, everyone gazing up in silence, amazed by something that you only know from post cards, speechless and so grateful that we were so lucky to get to see such a spectacle.

Credits go to whoever took these pictures. I´m glad there were people who did.

On Thursday evening we departed for a visit to the Northern Lights Academy. When our bus pilot Petra announced that it was about an hour and 15 minutes drive away we were all surprised but then we remembered we were in Lapland and nothing is close. Laying on our backs in a small tent we got a presentation about Northern Lights so we exactly knew what we marveled at the other day. 
On Friday evening, after our last wonderful day of skiing, we left to make a tick behind the last thing on our bucket lists - next to reindeers, huskies, polar lights, ice fishing and Santa: ice swimming. 
Warming up as much as we could in sauna and then dipping into the water and then back to sauna. I have to admit that it felt really good afterwards and I even did it twice but to be honest: it is not my favourite thing to do. 
Even though we were all really tired and our stuff wasn´t nearly done being packed, we stayed in the common area in the basement long this night. YFU had promised a get together in summer for everyone but it still felt like the last time we could be together like that. And it was the last evening of a trip we didn´t really want to end yet. But if there´s one thing we cannot stop or slow down, no matter how much we want to, it is time. So on Saturday morning at 8 all suitcases were packed and we sat on the bus, waving to the owners of the hostel until we couldn´t see them anymore. 
During the 14 hours that it took us to get back to Korso where I left the bus with some other students as the very last, I maybe got to sleep half an hour. I should have slept more but I didn´t want to miss any of the time I had left with these people. There was a lot of crying on the bus ride, a lot of hugging, a big applause for everyone when they had to leave at their stops. A lot of music, memories, laughter and friendship.
When my host mum asked me the next day what the best thing about the trip was I couldn´t name anything. And not because I had to answer in Finnish. "Kaikki?" she asked. "Kaikki." Everything. 

I have written this blogpost days ago but I didn´t upload it because I couldn´t come up with any final words. I feel like it has to be something meaningful, something special, something that worships this trip as much as it is supposed to be. Words that express my gratitude for being able to live that experience, to see and do all these things. Words that express my love for the people that were on this trip with me, who are so important to me and who I will miss so so much (and also all the people who couldn´t be there and who we all missed very much). But I can´t think of anything. And maybe that is words enough.

Maybe this video does better than my words and gives you an idea of how great this trip was and these people are. Enjoy watching. 

(Keine deutsche Übersetzung heute aber das Video sagt mehr als alle Worte)