Day 36 Snow-boarding In the land of Lap.

(I was misguided by a certain red-haired individual that there will be no internet connection in the cottage, but it turns out that there is, so I am borrowing my cottage-mate's laptop to update this, ARGH red-haired woman!)

I find names of places in Finland very interesting, first we have Finland, then we have lapland, what exactly do Fin and Lap mean in the first place? I have absolutely no idea, but I guess that is how things work here.

I left for Lapland yesterday at 10pm, the journey from Helsinki to Lapland takes about 12-1/2 hours (roughly the time necessary to go from HK to Helsinki by plane). Lapland lies to the north of the Arctic Circle, here you can enjoy the natural wonders of the northern regions, discover the tranquility of the virgin wilderness, experience the polar night, meet the real Santa and his reindeer.

But the first thing we heard when we left for Lapland was not good news at all, in fact,
(Photo: our coach broke down, so we had to wait for another coach to come, they originally wanted us to wait in the cold, but we fight for indoors, so here we are, in the broken-down bus, waiting for another bus.)

(Photo: There were only 2 stops on this 12-and-a-half hour trip. One was this food market/ gas station stop, we stopped there at about 3 am.)

(Photo: And so the coach went on for hours, I saw the sunrise on the bus! The sun then tailed behind us as we furthered our journey.)

(Photo: This is our coach, good job coach, we survived travelling on the snow!)

The highlight of today was snow-boarding. Well, sort of, I didn't exactly snow-board, but fell, tried to stand up, fell again, gathered my courage to stand up again, slided a few metres, fell down, and the cycle repeated itself.

But still, I think I looked cool in my snow-boarding gear, but looked like a fool snow-boarding down.
(Photo: The boots were really heavy! I felt like a robot wearing these!)

(Photo: Me and my rented snowboard. My arms and legs are aching from the falling, getting up on the snow and finally giving up and walking down the slope to a gentler slope.)

(Photo: This was the slope that I snow-boarded down. I later read on the map that it was one of the hardest slopes. Hm... maybe I should try an easier slope next time!)

At night, we decided to see the Northern Lights by hiking for about 30 mins to a really dark wilderness.

(Photo: Into the dark. But we did not see the Northern Lights at the end after waiting for about 15 mins. We decided it was too cold and left. I guess I will just have to try my luck tomorrow then.)