It's January again, and that means it's time for our annual trip to Lapland  Our journey got off to a relatively civilised start on Saturday morning, as we didn't have to leave home to drive down to Heathrow until 05.30. Fortunately, the weather in the UK had warmed up a bit; it had been rather cold and icy the previous weekend, to the extent that I was worried there was a risk we might end up missing out on our flights to Lapland as a result of snow-induced travel chaos at home! As it was, we had a straightforward journey, getting to the airport some time around 8am, in plenty of time for our 10.20 flight to Helsinki.

Inspired by my summer trip to Lapland in July, we'd booked our flight to Helsinki in business class and so, once we'd checked our baggage in and passed through security, we were able to go to the lounge. Finnair doesn't have its own lounge at Heathrow, so we were entitled to use the Qantas lounge instead. It was rather posh and there were not many other people there when we arrived, meaning we had the breakfast buffet almost to ourselves.

There was a selection of hot food and pastries, as well as a good coffee machine. We saved some money on the breakfast we would otherwise have bought at Wetherspoons!

Our flight was more or less on time and we were soon on our way, in the comfy Finnair business class seats.

The flight to Helsinki is around three hours. Soon after take-off, we were served a drink and snack (this was blueberry juice, which Finnair serve on all flights).

After that came lunch. It was only some time around 11am at this point, although that made it 1pm in Helsinki, so I decided it was acceptable to have a glass of wine. The meal was... interesting. I ate the chicken and left the mashed potato and brussel sprouts, as well as the beetroot starter!

Pudding was great though! When the air hostess handed me a pastry that looked slightly green, I was initially a bit suspicious, but it turned out to be pistachio-flavoured and actually really nice and sweet  

Around this point in the flight, Tim realised that the privacy barrier between our two seats...

...could be removed so we could actually see each other  

All the drinks on Finnair come in these very delicate glasses. They were fine for blueberry  juice and wine, though Tim's beer looked a little bit silly in them!

I was just thinking that I could spend a lot longer on this flight, when we landed in a rather snowy-looking Helsinki.

It turned out that I was going to get my wish and we'd be spending at least another hour on the plane! When it arrived, the wings had to be de-iced. It was a bit hard to follow the announcements about what was happening, but it sounded like while the plane was stationery having the wings de-iced, some other part of it froze. And that meant that it was then stuck and couldn't continue taxiing to the gate. There were some extremely irate passengers who were missing their onward connections while we were all stuck on the plane, waiting for a vehicle to come and tow it to the gate instead. Eventually it did turn up and we made it to where we were supposed to be, but I suspect some people must have missed their flights as a result of the delay.

Luckily, our next flight wasn't until 20.20 so we still had plenty of time. We negotiated passport control, which did involve having our photos taken and being fingerprinted for the new EES system, and then we made our way to the Finnair lounge.

This was also pretty empty and peaceful; we were able to relax with our Kindles and some wine  

The food offering was rather Nordic. I ended up with meatballs and rye bread...

...plus dessert made from more blueberries.

Our flight to Ivalo was delayed, but only by 30 minutes; it seemed like almost all flights were about half an hour late yesterday evening, presumably because of the need for de-icing. It was a tiny little plane with propellers and only steps at the back.

It wasn't even half full. We had seats next to each other in row 3 but when we arrived the flight attendant asked us to come and sit on opposite sides of row 1 instead and take responsibility for the doors in an emergency.

Luckily, there weren't any emergencies and around two hours later, we finally landed in Ivalo. It was only minus 2, so not particularly cold by Lapland standards.

Our baggage arrived quickly and the airport bus was sitting waiting outside the terminal. It's really good that these buses run to meet every Finnair flight and wait for them, even when they're delayed. The journey to Saariselkä took another 30 minutes, through increasingly heavy snow. Just before midnight, we were finally dropped off at our usual bus stop on the edge of town and walked the final ten minutes or so to our apartment.

We're staying in the same place as last year, which is cosy and has really good Wi-Fi.

The main downside is that you have to pay EUR 15 extra each for bedding, which is then left in a pile on the bed for you to make yourself when you arrive.

By the time we'd arrived, unpacked and sorted out the beds it must have been around 1am. That meant we didn't make a very early start to the day on Sunday, but when we did make it outside it was a lovely day; sunny and not too cold  

And there was definitely plenty of snow this year.

It looked like previous apartment guests had even built a (now slightly wonky!) snowman.

We set off to walk around Saariselkä.

The rows of snowmobiles were out in their usual parking place.

When I'd been here in the summer, this spot had looked rather bare without the snow!

We looped around the village in a circle...

...then turned off once we reached a roundabout to follow a path into the woods.

As we did, we caught sight of a sunrise/sunset in the distance. It was around midday by this point.

The colours were really spectacular  

We walked towards the sunset...

...before turning off onto a smaller road to the right. This led us past the local fire station.

When we'd been here last year, the weather had been quite warm; there had been a thaw, melting the snow which had then refrozen. This particular path was one which had been really icy as a result. Today it was fine, though; lots of fresh snow everywhere

You can see if you compare the photos of the same walk last year to today that there is definitely more snow this year. Here is Tim on the walk last year. You can see that the trees look quite green.

Here's Tim on the same walk today; the trees are a lot whiter!

The reason we like walking on this path is that it leads past a little enclosure of reindeer.

There were three of them in there today.

At least two of them were very tame and wanted to come and say hello

This one was particularly friendly!

This one was a little bit more timid and kept his distance.

It was fun to see them and watching how happy they were in the snow definitely showed me why they'd been finding last summer's Lapland heatwave uncomfortable!

Once we'd finished admiring the reindeer, we walked a bit further through the forest.

Some trees were definitely feeling the weight of the snow.

There were some beautiful colours in the sky from the setting sun.

It wasn't a circular route so at some point we had to turn around and head back towards Saariselkä.

On the way back we stopped to look at this tree; it was a huge conifer whose lower branches were so completely weighed down with snow that they formed a little tent.

It was a big enough space to walk into...

...and crouch inside.

How cool

As we headed back into the village, we could see the sunset colours getting even more intense.

We went to the supermarket to stock up on some supplies for the week, then headed back to the apartment to warm up and catch up on the blog

Although yesterday was quite a clear and sunny day, it started to get cloudier towards evening. I subscribe to an app every year which sends me notifications if the northern lights are visible outside, but I wasn't expecting that we'd have any luck yesterday. Around 10pm I was just contemplating getting ready for bed, when suddenly the app pinged me. The temperature had dropped to about minus 13 at this point and so it was very tempting not to put all our clothes back on and go outside again... but I'm glad that I did, because it turned out that the northern lights really were visible.

Wow!

This is supposed to be a year of strong aurora activity.

While, as ever, the lights are never quite as green in real life as they appear through the camera lens, they were strong enough to be clearly visible to the naked eye.

For a brief minute, there was a display of swirling, purple lights which the camera just about managed to capture.

Then for a while the entire sky was lit up.

It was so cool to see

We were very lucky with the northern lights last year as well, but I think these are definitely in the running for the best we've ever seen.

It was a very active display, and so we were able to watch the lights moving and dancing around.

I was very glad that I'd bothered to get dressed and go outside

After about 20 minutes or so, the lights began to fade and we went back inside to warm up.

When we woke up on Monday, the thermometer told us that it was minus 11 outside.

When it started to get bright around 10am, we set off through the village.

Our destination was the entrance to the Urho Kekkonen national park. It looked rather snowier than last time I was here.

(This is the teepee without snow)

The aim for today was to do a short walk, called the Aurorapolku.

In theory it's quite a simple walk, which starts by crossing a ski track.

The ski track had a new sign this year, warning people not to walk down it!

In practice, the first part of the walk was quite difficult today because the snow was quite compacted, making the downhill slopes rather slippery.

Once the path began leading uphill, it became a bit easier.

We walked up through the trees, which were really beautiful covered in snow.

There were some gorgeous colours of sunrise in the sky.

At the top of the uphill section I spotted a bench that I definitely recognised from the summer.

From there the path was downhill again, although not too steeply this time.

Every so often there were more glimpses of bright colours in the sky.

I may have taken quite a few scenic photos of trees!

Towards the end of the route there is a view of the Kaunispää hill, which we'll probably climb later this week.

Eventually the path emerged onto the main road into Saariselkä.

From there it was an easy stroll into the village...

...and back to the apartment to warm up for the afternoon

I was just getting ready to go to bed last night when I got another notification on my phone that the northern lights were visible. Tim had wet hair so wasn't able to go outside, but I threw my thermals on and went out for a look.

It turned out to be worth the effort!

The aurora activity was really strong last night and there were some incredible colours in the sky as a result.

I couldn't believe the reds, pinks and purples I was seeing.

The colours looked particularly impressive when I got away from the street lights a little bit and watched the lights over the trees.

It looked a bit like they were shining down from a UFO  

It felt pretty cold outside, so I didn't stay out for too long.

When we got up and went outside this morning, I could see that the thermometer outside our apartment was indicating minus 18.

The plan for today was to walk up the Kaunispää fell. We made our way to the starting point of the walk.

This was another place which looked so different to how it had in the summer!

In summer, there is a small lake here.

In winter, there's no sign of a lake at all.

The path leads uphill, but it's quite gentle to start.

As we walked through the trees we could see that there was definitely more snow on them than last year.

This is always a good walk for scenic tree photos; there are all sorts of different shapes and sizes

After a while the path starts to follow alongside a cross-country ski run.

Then it turns off and leads more steeply up the fell.

On windy days, this part of the walk is pretty cold and exposed. Luckily, today was a calm day and so it didn't feel too bad at all.

The trees here are quite exposed to the wind and it was clear that some of them had taken a bit of a beating.

Now that we had gained some height, we could look down to Saariselkä and the forests beyond.

It looked like some mist or low cloud was coming in over the village.

Once we got a bit higher we could see the cloud more clearly...

...and just a hint of sunrise in the distance.

Today was definitely not as sunny as the past two days have been, and as we got closer to the top it was hard to tell where the sky ended and the snow began.

Eventually we could see the distinctive weather station, which sits on top of the fell, appearing in the distance. We were nearly there.

There's also a lovely restaurant on the top of the fell. 

The building looked rather icy, compared to last time I saw it!

When I was here in the summer, I climbed to the top of the observation tower.

That also looked significantly colder today.

We went into the restaurant and got a nice table by the window.

Tim bought me a gluehwein, which was a great way to warm up...

...and then we had burger and chips for lunch.

Once we'd finished eating, it was time to leave the restaurant and start climbing back down the hill.

We passed the big Saariselkä sign, which had a touch of what was probably now sunset appearing behind it.

You can see that the snow is quite high when you look at a picture of it in summer.

The view was quite misty as we made our way back down to ground level.

I suspect we won't be seeing the northern lights tonight, but after the displays of the past two days I definitely can't complain

As predicted, the sky wasn't clear enough last night to see any northern lights. When we stepped outside this morning, we found that the temperature was a bit warmer than yesterday at around minus 11 degrees...

...but the sky was still very cloudy and overcast.

We started walking through the village, past a shopping centre...

...where I realised there were enormous icicles hanging off the roof!

Then we followed a trail which led us out into the forest.

We were following signs to a place called Laanila, which is an even smaller village just outside Saariselkä.

Or, at least, we were trying to follow signs! Luckily we've been here before, because the signs were quite iced over

There isn't very much in Laanila once you get there, but it's a nicely maintained winter walking trail through the woods.

The trees were completely covered in snow today; it felt like we were walking in Narnia  

Some trees were completely bent over...

...while this one had already fallen over and collected a lot of snow on top of it.

It's really interesting comparing the photos to when we did the same walk last year. The trees were a lot greener then...

...and the signs were a lot more readable.

It's definitely been a colder winter this year!

For me, of course, it was also interesting to do a comparison to what everywhere had looked like in summer. I hadn't followed this exact trail in July, but I'd walked through Laanila on the day when I was transferring between Saariselkä and Kiilopaa. The trail I'd walked along was this one in the photo below, running alongside the fence. In winter, this is a cross-country ski run.

In summer it was a nice hiking path!

This is the winter walking path we'd followed today...

...and this is what the same route looked like in July.

I love seeing the contrast! By this point we were pretty much at Laanila. We had a walk around, confirmed there was still nothing to see there, and then started heading back through the woods.

It's quite a long walk, though mostly flat. Today has been a 15,000 step day.

On the way back we crossed over a snowmobile route through the forest. No sign of any snowmobiles today, though.

Then we were more or less back to Saariselkä

It was still looking very overcast, so not sure we're going to have any luck with the northern lights tonight!

We decided to go out for dinner last night and try a new Italian restaurant in Saariselkä. I had a pizza, which I'm pretty sure wins the prize for best pizza I've ever had in Finland.

Based on the quality of other pizzas I have had in Finland, it is not actually a high bar to clear. There was the tinned peach pizza I had in Kiilopää over the summer...

...and this one drizzled in béarnaise sauce which I had at a different restaurant in Saariselkä back in 2023.

I think yesterday's pizza would have been recognised by Italians as actual pizza, so definitely a big improvement  Not sure whether the Italians would recognise the lasagne Tim had as actual lasagne, though; it was made with reindeer ragu and topped with crisps.

It remained very cloudy overnight, so no northern lights. When we got up this morning we found that it was a bit warmer than yesterday; around minus 7.

There was a digger busy outside, clearing snow away from roads and driveways.

As we walked down the main road, I realised that the locals had turned a frozen lake into an ice hockey pitch.

This is what it looked like here in summer:

We'd enjoyed climbing to the top of the Kaunispää fell on Tuesday, so the plan was to repeat that walk today.

As we set off, I noticed some footprints that looked like they might have been left by an arctic hare. We caught sight of one in the woods once on a previous holiday, but no luck this year.

As we made our way up the hill, we passed all kinds of beautiful snowy trees.

The weather was still extremely cloudy, so the colour of the sky and the colour of the snow were essentially the same.

As we got higher, the clouds meant we couldn't see very far into the distance.

It was still a beautiful walk, though.

And as you can probably tell, I never get tired of taking photos of the trees!

I just went back and had a look at last year's photos on Kaunispää and the trees were surprisingly green up here too.

They definitely didn't look like that this year!

Some of them seemed to have frozen in quite unbelievable shapes!

This solitary tree marked the point at which we knew we were almost at the summit.

Everywhere looked so white today that my phone camera struggled to focus and pick out the Saariselkä sign against the background of snow and sky.

We made our way towards the restaurant at the top of the hill to warm up.

It's very warm and cozy inside...

...and always cool to see how snowed over the windows are from inside.

We had the same meal as on Tuesday. Just as we were finishing eating, two large coaches full of Chinese tourists arrived and it became a bit less peaceful! 

I'd seen some people climbing to the top of the triangulation tower when we'd arrived earlier, so decided to give it a go and see whether it was possible in winter.

The steps were actually well cleared of snow and ice, so it was fine.

The views from the top were very different to what they had been like in summer. Look at this...

vs this...

...and this...

vs this.

In summer I'd been able to see a long way into the distance...

...whereas today I could barely see anything at all.

Tim did spot a column of snowmobiles coming up the fell, though.

Some people seemed to be passengers in a snowmobile taxi, which looked fun

We set off back down the hill again.

There was plenty of time to admire the trees again before we made it back to the village.

Once we were back on the main road, we were able to look up and see the cabins, which are towards the top of the hill.

It was another fun day Given the clouds, I don't think we'll be seeing any northern lights tonight though!

When we left the cabin this morning, it felt noticeably colder than it has for the past two days. The thermometer outside suggested that it was about minus 18.

The good news was that the sky seemed to have cleared and it didn't look anywhere near as cloudy as it had yesterday.

Our plan for this morning was to rent snowshoes. We went to the office of the company that we normally use, but found that they weren't opening until 11.30 today for some reason. It was only about 10am by this point so that was unfortunate; we didn't want to miss half the daylight by standing outside waiting! We ended up walking around the village trying a couple of different places, until on our third attempt we found somewhere we could rent them from. Phew.

Snowshoes obtained, we set off to the national park where we were going to complete part of a route called Iisakkipää. There were some lovely sunrise colours in the sky as we set off.

The route starts by following the beginning of the Aurorapolku trail which we completed earlier in the week.

At the point at which the path reaches the edge of a little gorge, the Iisakkipää route branches off.

In summer, this gorge is really rocky.

The trail follows along the edge of the gorge for a while.

Then it comes to a really steep slope, which I never enjoy trying to navigate my way down.

Here's Tim climbing back up to show how steep it is.

In summer there is a series of little steps to help you climb down.

Once you've successfully navigated that slope the path becomes a bit easier, leading through the woods.

We passed a rather concerning hole in the snow!

Then we snowshoed through a pretty little valley.

In summer there's a little stream here.

The colours in the sky were beautiful as we continued to walk.

As we climbed higher and the sun got stronger, they became even brighter.

I may have taken just a few photos!

It was really nice to see a blue sky too after all the whiteness of the past few days.

At one point when I'd stopped to photograph a tree, I caught sight of something moving.

It turned out to be a ptarmigan, very well camouflaged against the snow.

Unfortunately Tim was too far ahead for me to shout him to come back!

Never mind, I snapped a couple of pictures and continued on my way.

It is difficult to take pictures when you're snowshoeing, especially when it's as cold as it was today. You have to stop, disentangle your hands from your pole straps and then take a glove off.

I kept seeing things I wanted to photograph, though

The path continued to climb higher.

We walked past all these tiny little trees, buried in the snow.

It was around midday by this point, so the sunrise was about to turn into sunset.

Eventually we caught sight of a big fell in the distance.

At this point the small path comes to an end and you have to walk on a ski run for a short distance.

Luckily there didn't seem to be any skiers out and about here today.

Eventually you get to a point where the ski run becomes just a ski run and there's a sign telling you not to walk any further.

In summer this part is a normal hiking trail and I walked along it on my way to the Rumakuru gorge. Look how different it is without the snow!! The two photos are pretty much taken from the exact same place, so I can even identify individual trees between the two pics. The summer hiking trail is a lot narrower than the winter ski run.

The winter hiking route turns off to the left here and loops back to Saariselkä. We always opt out of that part of the loop and retrace our steps back the way we came, because the other half of the loop involves a very steep slope.

In summer, you can see that this signpost is a lot higher off the ground than it looked with all the snow today.

Here's me with the sign in summer...

...and here's me with the sign today.

As you can see, it really was cold today!

My hair had completely frozen!

Tim's beard had frozen too!

It was fun taking photos, but in this cold we didn't want to linger longer than necessary. We turned around and set off down the ski track again.

The trail was just as scenic on the way back.

The sky was getting mistier in the distance though and the sunset wasn't as visible as the sunrise had been.

By the time we were got back to the national park entrance, Tim's entire ponytail was turning white!

I thought that was it for the day's excitement, but later this evening I got a notification that the northern lights were visible outside.

I didn't think we'd see them again with all the cloud we've had over the past few days, so this was really exciting.

There seemed to be a lot of light pollution this evening, so it was a struggle to capture them in photos at times.

It was a really amazing display though.

We even saw the purple lights again! They appear really suddenly, dance in the sky and then disappear.

Definitely worth coming outside for, even if it was incredibly cold.

By the time we'd finished taking pictures, our fingers needed a bit of warming up!

It was a great end to what has been a really fun day

When we stepped outside of the apartment this morning, it was clear that it was going to be another very cold day. The thermometer on our building was indicating about minus 20.

We were going out earlier than normal - around 9am - so it wasn't very bright yet.

The reason for the early start was that we wanted to catch the ski bus to nearby Kiilopää, where there are some great snowshoeing routes. There's only one bus per day to Kiilopää and it stops outside one of the hotels in the village at 09.25.

The route it takes isn't very direct, stopping at all kinds of other hotels on the way, so it was about an hour later when we arrived at the Kiilopää national park gate.

For comparison, this is what the gate looked like when I stayed in Kiilopää in the summer.

We strapped into our snowshoes and set off on a route called Poropolku (reindeer trail), which is the easier of the two snowshoeing paths we were planning to follow today.

Everywhere looked so different to how it did in July!

The first part of the walk involves navigating the edge of a ski run. We always have to be careful not to accidentally trample the ski tracks with our snow shoes.

Fortunately, that part is only short and after that there is a proper path to snowshoe on.

The sky wasn't anywhere near as clear as it had been yesterday and there was a lot of mist over the hills in the distance.

To be fair, the walk had been very misty when I'd done it in July too.

The first part of the walk is quite easy, mostly being flat.

We passed some beautiful trees as we snowshoed and in one direction I could see the sky perhaps starting to clear a bit.

After a while the route crosses a bridge.

Obligatory picture of the same bridge in July! 

Shortly after the bridge, we had to negotiate the reindeer fence. I got quite good at these over the summer but they are harder to climb over when you're wearing snowshoes.

After that the path becomes a bit harder, climbing more steeply uphill.

There were some great views though, with a little pink becoming visible in the sky where the sun was trying to poke through the clouds.

Our route led further and further uphill...

...and the sun began to get stronger.

Eventually we reached the summit of the hill we'd been climbing. 

Under that mound of snow above were the pile of rocks which mark the summit in summer.

As you can probably tell from the pictures, it was rather cold up here today!

Everything was frozen, even my neck gaiter.

There was a fantastic view of the sun though, and we could see that the clouds were starting to move.

From here the route leads downhill again. After about ten minutes or so, I was excited to get to this signpost.

I remembered taking a picture of this one in the summer and being amazed how high off the ground it was compared to in winter.

After this point the path was quite straightforward...

...if a little cold.

By midday we'd finished the walk and we had to decide what to do next. There is another snowshoeing route called Kiirunapolku, which we tried for the first time last year. It is considerably harder than the route we'd just done, despite being about the same length, as it involves climbing to the top of Kiilopää fell at 546m. The ski bus wasn't coming back to Kiilopää until 16.45, so we had plenty of time to kill. We decided to give it a try.

Our first task was to get to the starting point of the walk. This involved following a much easier 1km trail called Vasapolku.

We remembered from when we came this way last year that we'd passed a bench covered in snow. There was so much snow this year that we nearly missed it entirely!

Here's Tim pretending to sit down on the bench this year...

...and here's the same pose last year. Definitely more snow this year!

Shortly afterwards we found the starting point for the Kiirunapolku trail and got our first glimpse of the Kiilopää fell we were going to climb, just starting to emerge from the clouds.

Unsurprisingly, the route started by leading us uphill.

The sky really had started to clear up by this point and there were some fantastic colours.

The top of the fell started to become clearer.

And soon we could see the sun itself.

I loved seeing the trees silhouetted against the sky.

Though it was a bit disconcerting, being able to see so clearly how far we had to climb.

Our route led us uphill, alongside the reindeer fence.

I climbed down alongside this fence as part of a walk I did in the summer.

As the day had brightened up, we had some great views downhill towards the forests.

It was ridiculously cold, though!

And there was still quite a long way to go!

I'd just paused to take a photo of the scenery, when I realised I could see something unexpected.

Reindeer! When you see them lying down in the snow like this, you can imagine how much they must have been suffering during the Lapland heatwave last summer.

We'd been climbing for about an hour by this point and we were definitely getting closer to the top.

The colours in the sky continued to be amazing and now we could almost see the whole sun.

The last part of the ascent was the steepest (and coldest - there was a biting wind!) but eventually we made it to the top.

This is our victory selfie  

When I climbed to the top in summer, the weather turned quite misty and I didn't get a view at all.

Today we could see quite far.

It was great to have made it to the top, but we still had quite a steep descent ahead of us.

The snowshoes and poles were invaluable; I would have struggled to make it down without them. Although we did get overtaken by a very fit Finnish man at one point who appeared to be trail running up and down the hill!

In the photo below, you can see Tim snowshoeing alongside what looks like a fence.

I climbed up this way in summer, so I can confirm that it is in fact a staircase

The sky was still incredible to look at, which is why Tim is so far ahead in the pictures. Every time I wanted to take a photo I had to stop and take my big gloves off.

And I kept wanting to take photos

Eventually, the worst of the descent was over.

From this point we just had a more straightforward stroll through the woods, although still with some great views.

We were really lucky with the views, because as we got closer to the Kiilopää centre we could see that the sky was starting to cloud over again.

It was about half past two by the time we made it back down, in the last of the daylight. I was very excited to find that Kiilopää was hosting some Moomins ice sculptures this year!

Here's me looking very cold with Sniff, my favourite character

After all the exertion we were glad to get inside and warm up. The doughnuts are 100% the best bit about the food offering at Kiilopää.

As the ski bus wasn't due until 16.45, we had time to get a proper meal in the restaurant though. The restaurant itself is very cosy...

...and it was cool to see old-fashioned snowshoes on the wall.

The food is not going to win any prizes, though. I reverted to one of my staple choices from last summer; ham, blue cheese and tinned peach pizza  

By the time we'd finished eating and went back outside to catch the bus, darkness had well and truly fallen.

The ice sculptures looked great illuminated in the dark though.

It's been a really fun, although tiring day. We caught the ski bus to Saariselkä and then went back to the apartment to start packing up our stuff, ahead of our early morning flight from Ivalo back to Helsinki tomorrow morning. It's been another fantastic trip to Lapland, and I have a feeling that it won't be our last