Second part of my Lapland trip (here the first one): husky farm, reindeer farm, Artic Ocean.

In the first part of the trip I was going to speak about the huskie farm tour and about how much I love these animals: maybe it is because until some years ago I also had a husky, so I could not miss the occasion to drive the sledge pulled by them: a farmer concisely explained us the main commands and operations and then we started !

For one hour and half we have crossed an amazing environment accompanied by these fantastic dogs, it was also quite easy to drive the sledge because they already knew the route and we just had to make them slow down if we wanted, obviously I never did that.

I was actually trying to encourage them to go as fast as possible, and I have to say that sometimes we reached a good speed.

In this picture I am with my favorite one..

What a nice couple, we even look like to have the same expression..

In the final part of the tour the farmers showed us puppies: girls, and not only, got crazy for them!

Husky farm day score 10/10

The following day we visited reindeer farm: these animals are very fascinating because they always remind me of Christmas. The farmers, a Sami family, offered us to try a reindeer sledge tour and we accepted, but they were so slow that at the end it was even boring.

After that, we arrived in a warm room and ate some tasty meat while farmers were telling us about their traditions.

Sami population has always been reindeer farmers or fishers and lately the states where they live in started to protect their language and traditions with some particular deeds; they even have their own Parliament where to take the most important community decisions.

At the end, an old woman sang a song for us in their own language.

I was sure the people I met were not so used to have contacts with the rest of the world, but I found out I was wrong when I saw the face of that old woman on Lapland tourist flyers.

They still have very fascinating traditions but probably they found out a way to sustain themselves in a much more convenient way than just raising reindeers.

As I told in the first part, Saariselkä is not the last place we visited, the penultimate day, in fact, we left for.. Bugøynes!

The fact that it would be a great experience we already realized in the coach: the landscape was just amazing, everything was white and there were even some wild reeinders walking on the beaches and drinking seaside water.

During the way back, there was also an amazing sunset and, even though the guide didn’t want to stop due to the fact that we were late, through lots of protesting we managed to have a break of 10 minutes to enjoy the great view and take some nice pictures such as this one.

In Bugøynes I did something I will never forget: I immersed myself in the Artic Ocean.

That day the temperature wasn’t so gelid, about 0 degrees, but in the water it seemed like -20 and I couldn’t resist in it for more than 20 seconds, after that I came out and I experienced the coldest feeling of all my life, but luckily it was for less than one minute because I immediately ran into sauna. Exactly, there was a sauna on the beach, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have managed to do it. Below, our group in that “hot” day..

Bugøynes is a small Norwegian fisher village, so we decided to try their typical fish soup for lunch: quite tasty!

Artic Ocean bath score 10/10 – Fish soup score 7/10

In Saariselkä there were even several fast-food places and I took a hamburger in one of them, but just when I was eating it I found out it was reeinder meat: it was kind of tasty but since I had the selfie I showed in the first part of the story I felt almost guilty to eat it..

The day of departure was quite sad because we all wanted to stay more in those amazing places, but it was a great trip that I’ll remember for all my life.

The whole trip Score 9/10.

It would be 10/10 if i would have managed to see something like this..

Practical information: the most comfortable way to reach Saariselkä is to take a flight for Ivalo, and from there to take a shuttle for this amazing village (the distance is only 20 km).

All of our excursions were very well-organized by Timetravel agency (www.timetravels.fi); for further information – don’t hesitate to ask!