Lapland Calling
By the end of the month, another adventure was due: Lapland was calling. Another dream was about to come true. However terrible I feel for this, I have to tell, though, that I wasn’t quite enthusiastic for Lapland the days before we had to go. All I could see was that it’s far far away from everything and everyone I love here in Lund. Funny as it may seem, Bauta, this ugly place gave me so much happiness and joy in the last weeks I couldn’t leave it light-heartedly. Especially that I knew very well, what I am leaving behind, and I don’t just mean the two great parties I was about to miss. I was also missing 6 valuable days with the people I got to love from our limited-timed miniature life, because it was also by the end of November that we all realised that the end of Erasmus was speeding towards us, so we tried to hold on to each other even tighter. We were talking deeper, hugging tighter and charging our batteries with each other more often. We started fearing the upcoming, so we lived for the moment.
Amid thoughts like these, did I have to leave Lund, and the fact that the beginning of the journey didn’t go as smoothly as we planned – missing the train to Stockholm… don’t ask – didn’t help to start cheerfully, either. What I learnt, at least, was that there is always another train – if you have money to buy the ticket… Not too nice as a thought, but that’s the ugly truth. Anyway, I’m ever grateful for Kriszti for calming me because a simply phone call gave my hope back the instant moment I would have started to seriously panicking…
Anyhow, we got on the train – a faster and much fancier one than the original, actually, so we arrived to the capital before the others –, found a place on the bus, got pasta from Lidl, and started the long-long journey up to the Arctic Circle. Fun fact: I paid the ticket for the trip and only after that did I check the place on the map… shit, that’s really far! It took a whole day, meaning some 24 hours to arrive – we left at around 8ish (yeah, missing the train, remember?) from Bauta and arrived to Korvala the next morning at around 10. Oh, and those who were sleeping on the floor of the bus were wakened by a police dog’s warm breath and nose just a few millimetres from their face when we got caught at the random border control after reaching Finnish territory. The Labrador was cute, though, wagging his tail playfully. We didn’t smell like terrorists, I guess.
In Korvala, we were welcomed by loads of snow all around, cute Lapland hounds, a nice host family in trad clothes who gave us a nice breakfast, showed around the “farm” and put us the cottages. It’s not fair, btw, to get a small one with less comfort (no real kitchen to cook pasta – that’s a huge loss for an Erasmus student who basically lives on pasta) just because we didn’t know a bigger group of people to move with.
For four days, there was no connection to the outside world – no buses, no town, no wifi –, only the farm, the nature, the family, the dogs, and us. The surrounding was breath-taking, the weather was cold, but bearable – especially the super ridiculous, but super worm and cosy coveralls, socks, and snow boots we could rent –, the dinners were marvellous (salmon, köttbullar, aaand… reindeer stew!), and the huskies were perfect. They deserve a whole paragraph, though, so all the other things first.
We tried cross-country skiing and after a few cross-legged falls, slippery slope sliding, and dog sledge warnings, we managed walk around the whole lake. I definitely take it as a success, my ever first skiing experience. We also sledged like kids from a small hill, we screamed and got snowy all over. We met Santa who said “Kezét csókolom!”; the old man definitely has to update his international vocab. And his village, which was kind of a disappointment with only souvenir shops everywhere. The Post Office and its special service was kind of cool, though. Some postcards got lost, anyway… I might be too naïve, but I imagined Santa’s Village as something like Whoville before Christmas in The Grinch. But maybe it’s prettier in the evening. Anyhow, it was an experience. We also met Rudolf’s kins and hiked a bit in the amazing winter wonderland trying to find a campfire place. We passed it first, of course it was covered with snow, so we dug it out and lit our own campfire in the middle of a Lapland forest. While sitting there like some Arctic people, we even spotted a wild reindeer with its baby.
Speaking of Arctic people, hello sauna! I have to admit that I have never been a big fun of sweating in a small cabin with half-naked strangers, but once in Lapland, trying it is a necessity. I wasn’t really planning on doing the whole experience, though, even on the way to the sauna. It was 10 pm, it was dark and I was freezing; not the best scenario for wanting to run outside in bikinis and jump to a frozen lake in some -20 degrees. We agreed to have a bit of sauna and laugh at those who jump to the lake. Be a viewer before actually doing it – that was our rule, which was pretty much forgotten after the first bunch of some crazy Belgians run out to the snow. They looked so happy that we needed to try. And also, going home without trying it would have been a shame. So we stayed inside until it was unbearable, got on the socks, took a big breath and run, jumped… and whoaaa! It was actually pretty cool as an experience. I don’t know if it’s the sweating, the adrenalin, or both, but it was not as extremely cold as it seems. You have to run back very fast, though. ;) So, one mischief managed!
Another one was just yet to come. THE. HUSKIES. Because that was the real thing. THE. EXPERIENCE. The one and only. The pure joy for a whole hour. That was the thing that balanced my unease about ever coming to this trip. I had some regrets and it was also in Lapland I experienced the feeling of homesickness to a place which in theory not half as cool as the place I currently was. And still, I was missing Bauta so much. I would have loved to share this experience with my friends just the same way we did at Nimis. And of course, I still had some FOMO left in me at that time – the fear of missing out “Back to Bauta” party and almost a whole week with those great people. At some point, I was almost thinking I shouldn’t have come to Korvala, but because of the dog sledging it was definitely worth it. It was worth the second train ticket, the missed party, and the missed snow in Lund (the only snow in Lund to be precise).
absolutely adorable Lapland hounds
Words are dishonest when heaven needs to be described. Sledging through a winter wonderland on a clear sunny day with sparkly snow all over while leading four incredible creatures in my very own team of huskies was unreal. It was magic. It was the definition of happiness. I was smiling and laughing all the way – no matter how frozen my fingers were. We were a team with the dogs, a co-existence. They were so smart, I hardly needed to help with directions. And they were so strong; I was stepping hard on both brakes and they were still pulling the sledge. Uphill. They say, they are around 20 kilos and on short journeys, they can pull twice their weight. They were four; I must have been like a pillow of feather for them.
The way back to Lund was somehow twice as long as the way to Korvala – or at least it did seem like that. For one, we had an extra hour inherited from Finland to spare; for two, leaving time for possible border control (didn’t come) and careful planning of the possible snow problems on the road (didn’t come) resulted in us arriving to Stockholm some 3 hours before our train left. Playing homeless at the station is not really fun when one is exhausted and her every single bone aches from sleeping on the bus, but exploring a city is not really an option, either, when you have a bigger backpack than you – for real! (I’m ever grateful for the bag, Lena). On the top of that: if we got the fanciest train on the other way, on the way back an old Balaton carriage embraced us. As the Roxfort (I mean… Hogwarts ;)) Express substitute was rushing – I mean plodding – through Sweden, I was counting back to minutes and was carving for Bauta more and more. Lund was gloomy and wet that evening, but it has never been so nice for me. I arrived back home, and a nice surprise was waiting for me there.
Love you, guys.
