WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2025

FLYING TO LAPLAND, AND A FIRST TASTE OF AURORA

Today was the day I hopped on Finnair for the 90 minute flight up to Inari in Lapland (Sápmi in the native language), Finland’s Arctic north. I took the train to the airport for a civilized 11:20am flight (this time making sure I knew where I was going), and stopped for a quick coffee and croissant at an airport cafe.

One of the funniest coincidences around this trip is that the day before I left for Helsinki, I saw that an old summer camp friend from childhood (who I’d reconnected with as an adult thanks to social media) posted on her Instagram that she was on her way to Finland of all places! Elyssa was there with her dad for a U. Michigan alumni trip, and even though we’d be doing a lot of the same things, we didn’t think we’d overlap enough to get to say hi – until she messaged me this morning and we realized we were on the same domestic flight up north! So we were able to run into each other in the Helsinki airport of all places, after not seeing each other for literally 30 years, and it was so much fun to be able to reconnect.

Posing here with one of the strange Moomin characters. I think we both still look the same!

The flight itself was an easy one – I did love on the way onto the plane spotting the flight attendants’ list of announcements and seeing that “Santa’s Message” was one of them. We were on our way to his home, after all!

Santa's message 🥹

Lucky me with an empty row!

During the flight, I couldn’t help but take a bunch of photos and video out the window – it was such a unique landscape as we headed north, like nothing I’d ever seen before!

We landed smoothly, and walked off the plane directly into the snow and towards the tiny airport. Definitely in a whole new world!

Given the limited number of flights to the Ivalo Airport, there were six of us who arrived at the same time, and we introduced ourselves and met the driver who would take us in a van to the lodge where we’d be staying for the next four nights.

After about a 40 minute drive, we arrived at our lodge, the Wilderness Hotel Juutua. It was a little early to check into our rooms, so we dropped our suitcases at the front desk and walked over to the lunch buffet that was set up and getting ready to close. It was our first taste of the food at the lodge, and it was great!

When we were finished eating, we were able to get our rooms, along with an introduction to how the lodge worked, and the overall schedule for the next few days.

There was no agenda today other than a designated time later in the day to get fitted for our snow clothes that the lodge lends you for the duration of your stay, and then a welcome Flash Pack dinner at night, so I wanted to walk around and explore the lodge and its grounds – Jennifer, Sarah, and Jacinta joined me for the walk, and we took in the beautiful area!

Sarah taking a spin on the kids’ zipline

After walking around for a bit, we stopped back into the main lodge to relax with a warm drink in front of the fire before it was time to get fitted for our winter gear. I had a chai latte that totally hit the spot.

Finally, it was time to visit the storeroom where we were given a warm snow jumpsuit, mittens, thick socks, and snow boots. The lodge mandates wearing these for all activities. You’re supposed to get boots that are comically larger than your shoe size since it keeps your feet warmer when there’s air around them and they’re not pressed up against the sides of the shoe. Never thought about that, and it makes sense, but it took a minute to get used to walking around in such big clown boots haha.

Had to take another loop around the lodge in this pretty afternoon light

Eventually it was time for our welcome dinner, where we met our Flash Pack leader Petri (Pete) as well as the rest of the group. We all got along immediately, and knew we’d be in for a great trip.

Dinner at the lodge’s award-winning Restaurant Aanaar did not disappoint, and reiterated what we somewhat discovered during lunch, that this lodge was really exceptional in the food department. I chose to eat vegetarian for most of the trip as I’m a little squeamish about unusual proteins and there’s a lot of reindeer on the menus here. It was the right choice, and the veggie meals were really delicious!

This first night, I had a cloudberry cocktail (they're a prized Arctic berry that grows only in northern latitudes and has a short harvest season, and show up regularly on menus in Lapland as a local specialty), then an appetizer of beets, berries, and what I think was a goat cheese on a flatbread (with a pickle). And the entree was a really delicious combo of sunchokes and mushrooms over hummus, with kale chips on top. It was all really high end, and not what I’d expect in the middle of the Arctic wilderness!

During dinner, I was keeping an eye on the aurora app I had downloaded, and went out a couple of times to check the sky. At one point there were a couple of wisps, but nothing major to note. The second time I went out… major. I couldn’t believe the amount of aurora we were seeing! The odd thing about it is that while you can definitely see it with the naked eye, and it's beautiful, camera sensors are more sensitive to light than our eyes – so even just pointing your phone at the sky shows you more color and intensity than you're actually seeing. The video I have below is a little more accurate to what you see with your eyes in terms of vibrancy.

But when it comes to taking the picture, I have to give props to my phone (iPhone 16 Pro) for taking some pretty impressive aurora photos!

What an unbelievable introduction to Lapland!