Home Additional information on Lapland, links. It's great to have a New Year's Eve party in Lapland - the Santa Claus land. People live here relaxed and enjoy beauty of nature whole year. Winter is real here with snow and hard frost (-35°C/-31°F), so Finish sauna (+130°C/+266°F) counterbalances it.
Helsinki Lake of Geneva
It's hard to imagine better entertainment on 31st of December in Lapland, then husky-safari. Huskies are from Island and East Siberia (Russia). It is dawning, 10AM.
Lapland. It's -30°C now, but one hardly would feel that after a few miles of dog-sledge driving. It turned to be very energy intensive exercise. So, soon we had to have a break for a tea.
This dog-sledge is for two, or for one man and some goods. A driver stays on the back of the sledge (where the kind of break is situated) and does whatever it takes to not fall down while dodging trees' boughs.
And the chief part of the energy is consumed for this dodging movements, for if you fall down, dogs won't stop by themselves, more specifically they will carry a sledge back home.
Clearly, even at noon on 31st of December, the sun doesn't raise from horizon. That's true for whole winter in Lapland, because we are far beyond the polar circle!
Lapland. No comment.
Towards evening, snow becomes of rather amusing colour.
Night is falling very fast beyond the polar circle...
And here is the moon shining! It's time to think about sauna. Finish sauna isn't different from Russian traditional village baths.
Another picture... By the way, here in small resort village Saariselkä (not far from Ivalo), one can not only have husky-safari, but ski along well maintained ski-tracks in beautiful forest as well.
The best food after husky-safari is reindeer with mashed potato and cranberry souse made by landlady. And right after that - sauna with birchen whisk!
Well, it is dark as at night again. 5PM though. It's time to get ready for the New Year Eve party and for Santa Claus, who lives somewhere very near, in the South...(i.e. in the middle of Finland). Shell we wait for northern lights?
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