Lapland - the Winter Wonderland

"These are the days that Reindeer love 
And pranks the Northern star— 
This is the Sun’s objective, 
And Finland of the Year."

Ever since I read about Santa Claus' homeland, I was fascinated about Finland. Watching the magical Northern Lights in the Winter Wonderland was in my bucket list for quite some time and last Winter we finally made it to Lapland. It is the northernmost region of Finland and Rovaniemi is the capital of it.

Best time to visit:

Winter starts from September and lasts till March in Lapland. We visited in the month of February. Sky needs to be clear to see the northern lights and the predicted Kp index should be 4 at least for a decent show of lights. However, when we visited, the sky was supposed to be cloudy and the Kp index was 2.So, you might also get as lucky as we were.

How to reach:

You have daily flights running between London and Rovaniemi. However it can get very expensive on some days. We went to Lapland in the mid of February and prices were sky high. That's when we chose the alternative way to reach Lapland. We took a flight to Helsinki and travelled to Rovaniemi by train. It was a long journey of 8 hours. However the good points were:
1) The landscapes were beautiful throughout. There was pretty surprises everywhere in the form of snow-capped meadows and frozen lakes.
2) All the trains had free WiFi (yay!).
3) If you book the tickets well in advance, you can get some really cheap deals.I used this Website to book our tickets.

Accommodation:

We booked one of the apartments in Niemelän Talo. The apartment was spacious and had a sauna in it. However I liked the balcony the most. Additionally, there was a supermarket named K-market near the apartments.

Things to do in the Lapland:

The first thing we did as soon as we reached Rovaniemi was taking a bus to the Santa Claus Village. You get direct buses to that place from both the railway station and the airport or you can take a cab alternatively.

They don't kid when they say, in there it's always Christmas. It's not every day that you get to meet the Santa Claus and cross the magical Arctic Circle.

There are different activities the Santa Claus Village offers. You can drop them an email to book a slot for your activities. From reindeer to husky, you have plenty of options to choose your ride. We had snowmobile safaris and sledge rides. You must carry your driving licence that is valid internationally in order to ride the snowmobiles. Otherwise you will have to sit behind a rider (like me) or in a sledge. Nonetheless, the safari through the snowy woods of Lapland was an experience of a lifetime.

Now comes the best part of the trip. Nothing matches the beauty of the Aurora Borealis at the wilderness of Lapland. Even this tour was organised by the Snowmobile Park. Even though the town was sparsely populated, we were taken on the outskirts. It was -26 degrees and we were out on a frozen lake named Olkkajärvi. I still cannot describe the feeling when we spotted the northern lights for the first time. It was a spectacular show for almost an hour.

Thanks to our tour guide for lighting a fire and feeding us some delicious sausages. Oh! how can I forget the hot juice? It made us feel alive again.

Finland was definitely one of the best experiences of our lives, if not the best. We were in absolute awe of the surreal northern lights and snow-clad landscapes. It took us some time to digest the fact that we had actually seen the northern lights and it wasn't a dream, even though it felt like one - the most beautiful one.