Happy New Year!
Thank you for joining me for this farewell post to Finland. I’m quite sure I’ve reached my snow quota for this year.
I’m back in Cyprus after a full day of traveling and happy to report it’s a lot warmer. Shocking, I know.
I would happily stay in Finland for another few months, but the darkness is hard to live with. If you’re the sort of person who climbs out of bed by 10am, changes from pajamas by lunchtime (to look decent in front of in-laws) and are fully awake after your 2nd coffee cup by 2pm, then you have exactly about 1.5 hours to enjoy the daylight.
If you’re not a daylight person, you can spend your evenings staring at the night sky, hoping to see northern lights (Aurora Borealis with the fancy name). If you’re like me, even after 6+ years of visits in Finland, you won’t see even a blur of green (had to check with my husband how long we’ve been together as my brain is a bit of mush today).
But that shouldn’t stop you from visiting Finland! There is plenty to see, experience and taste!
Here is a small sample.
Our Christmas tree, decorated and regularly kicked, pinched and pulled by our almost 2 year old.
(I think that’s John Snow in the background, isn’t it? How appropriate!)
We’ve been pretty lucky with the weather, as soon as we arrived we had plenty of snow, with more snowfall following in the next few days.
Before it got too dark, we started with our afternoon project – Snow Hotel and Snow BBQ.
My mum in law joined forces with me and my husband, while grandad was keeping an eye on a sleeping little one. First things first, we started with a big cup of Irish coffee to warm up and rolled our sleeves up for the hotel building.
It came up pretty fast, only thing that was missing was the five stars by the door (see lower).
We also added few snow lanterns around to make sure we will have a nice backdrop for our BBQ.
Snow Hotel Ullava is now open for bookings from January 2017. It’s an all-inclusive resort, but you need to bring your own blankets. These is a complimentary husky ride to the hotel, you just need to check with our neighbours if you can borrow their dogs.
After sunset, we fired up the BBQ and got our food ready. In the spirit of outdoors, we kept it quite simple with few sausages and fish for me.
I could sit here for hours and watch the fire. If my feet didn’t freeze by that time, of course.
The world renowned Snow Hotel can be seen in the back.
Are you hungry yet?
The food went down pretty fast and we quickly ran inside to defrost. Candles were burning out all night, keeping an eye on the northern lights that never appeared (I have to complain every year I visit Finland, it’s becoming a tradition).
It certainly wasn’t a black tie affair, but boy it was fun!
What an end to an awesome year.
I’m not a huge fan of new year resolutions, but I can promise you and myself that I will try to suck less with my story telling and pictures.
Raising a hypothetical glass (quitting wine was another resolution for 2017) to more adventures in 2017, I hope you’ll join me on the journey!
Kiitos Finland for another wonderful holiday.
The ministry of tourism can expect my complaint letter regarding the Aurora Borealis situation.
