Apukka Resort

Day 0 = Thu 9 Jan

• Arrived at Apukka
  • Emma checked in
    • Kid on phone didn't notice his suitcase was making the automatic door open and close for half an hour
  • Dropped our luggage and picked up out outer clothes
    • The guys doing the clothes were Greek
    • Big coveralls and boots
• Snowshoeing
  • Guide was an Austrian of Congolese parentage (Aime?)
  • Walk along lake (ice is about 0.5-1.0m thick)
  • Into forest
  • Erica and I up front group, Emma and Carl further back
  • Carl's snowshoes kept falling off, then Aime's and others
  • Stopped for Fika of bikkies and gloggi
    • Carl-friendly pepparkakor (I took a photo, "Semper" brand)
  • Emma knackered by the end, walked back over lake carrying snowshoes
• Igloo
  • Checked into igloo
    • Luggage had been taken there already
  • "Kami glass igloo"
  • Upstairs mezzanine for our bed with glass ceiling
    • Kids downstairs
  • Very cramped but cosy, barely room to open suitcases
    • Bit hard to see too, the lights were not bright and hard to find
  • Short panic when Emma noticed her laptop bag hadn't been delivered
    • Went back and they had it behind the bar because a tag had fallen off.
• Dinner
  • M Sauteed reindeer and mash - tasted like corned beef\
  • E Tenderloin, which she enjoyed
  • Em Risotto
  • Carl = Chef (Giovanni Ribisi lookalike) came over to discuss
    • Arctic char (like salmon) and veggies and chips
    • Carl happy, really good service
  • Desert
    • Rosemary and cream cheese parfait with cloudberries
      • Tasted like really good vanilla icecream (really nice)
    • Erica had Chocholate cake and orange icecream, she looooved the icecream
    • Emma had Cinnamon and cloudberry sorbet, which was nice bit not as nice as my "parfait"
• Back to cabin and everybody fucked about way too long, especially Erica
  • Gin and cloudberry "tall drink" from 24hr market in Rovaniemi
• Bed
  • No aurora, even though app alerted Emma
  • Internal reflections of fire-like LEDs
  • Comfy bed and luckily I didn't need to go to the loo since that was down a lomng ladder.

Day 1 = Fri 10 Jan

• Breakfast
  • Usual hotel fare but jolly nice
  • Chef (Rihho?) once again did a great job catering for Carl - bacon, hash browns and baked beans
• Reindeer sleigh
  • I grabbed us some mittens
    • Easier to keep hands warm since fingers can warm each other
    • I found slipping thumb out of its bit and balling fists helped when my hands got cold.
  • Local Bjork-nosed guide "Jannika" from these parts
    • Her partner and daughter own reindeer, and she works on the family farm
    • I didn't get the impression that she was Sami though
  • Nice walk to reindeer pens and fed some lichen to some reindeer.
  • Then a fika of warm berry juice and some reindeer facts while we waited for the reindeer to be ready.
    • All reindeer in Finland are (technically) owned - there are no wild reindeer
      • Finns don't like to say how many reindeer they own, though
        • "Enough for a small swamp"?
    • Curved toes on traditional Sami boots are to hook into skis
  • Jumped into sleights 2 per sled
    • Me and Erica, Emma and Carl and Granny (who joined us for the day) by herself.
  • Reindeers pooped and weed - drilling a yellow hole in the icy ground.
  • Through the forest and then out along the (Apukka) lake
    • Rising sun (11am) touching/illuminating the tops of the pine trees like giant candles
  • Really great experience
• Walk on lake solo
  • Dropped everyone off for lunch, but decided to go for a walk as still full from brekky (and stingy)
  • Walked out on lake, past last footprints.
    • Probably ruined a few photos for other people, but wanted untouched snow
  • Meditated for 15min (boots good, feet not cold in snow)
  • Breeze smelled like the "birch-scented" sauna oil
  • Gorgeous - naturegasm
    • Lots of photos of forest and snow and island
  • Sun low in South and moon slightly higher in North
  • Snow angel
• Back home for a beer and wait for the others
  • Emma and Chris changed Emma's bandage on her finger
  • Chris headed back to town and I dragged Emma out for a walk on the lake
• Walk on lake with Emma
  • Lovely out there again
  • Sun setting, and a couple of stars
  • Sky clear, fingers crossed for some stars tonight at least
• Back home for a rest before dinner and Night Train
• Night train
  • Greek guide and Spanish guide
    • Finnish driver
  • Old bus on skis pulled by a snowplough
    • Not the cute one, but possibly warmer
  • 30min drive out, pretty dull and a bit more crowded than I prefer
    • To frozen swamp with a couple of koti huts and fires
  • Guide started telling us about the science when we asked if the light behind him was the Aurora
    • He said yes, so we all went over to look.
    • Dim, but noticeable, though Emma was in the koti at the time trying to get hand warmers working for Carl
  • Guide and driver helped us take photos with Aurora
    • Some trick to do with focusing on the ground first to set the light and then pointing up and shinging a torch
      • Anyway, the Finn knew what he was doing and took photos for us.
      • Interestingly, the Aurora shows up better in photos than it does to the naked eye
  • Then the Spanish guide fucked off to the other group with the Greek and left the Finn to tell us interesting things and hand out the food
    • Grilli Makarra
      • pre-cooked sausages grilled over the fire on pronged skewer
    • Gloggi
      • warmed berry juice
      • "I'll hand out the chewies."
    • Reindeer in Finland
      • 180000 limit (so as not to stress the environment)
    • Sami and Finnish legends about Aurora
      • Don't whistle when there's an Aurora or a fox (or old men) will come and eat you
    • The Finn seemed to do most of the work of the other two
    • Aurora didn't really reappear and we were getting very cold
    • On bus back about 10min in there was an Aurora alert on the app and it sounds like we missed a sighting at the resort
      • Oh well, no guarantees we would have seen it or that it was any better than we saw out on the swamp
      • Full moon didn't help
    • Back around midnight
      • Very tired next day

Day 2 - Sat 11 Jan

• Up early for last breakfast
  • Erica being annoying and I had to sit at a different table because I'd offended her somehow
• Husky ride
  • Whole family packed into one sled
    • Me driving and the other three wedged in instead of as pairs
    • We all protested but no joy
    • Erica in tears
  • Farkin cold
  • Kids hated it and decided it didn't happen
    • Because they were painfully uncomfortable and cold
  • Puppies afterwards
• Another solo walk on the lake
  • Sunset was more impressive than Aurora
  • Dug down through snow to ice (about 20cm)
  • Meditated
  • Feet not cold in snow (snow warmer than air)
• Train station
  • Cemetary IV
    • Found Emma's great-grandparents grave
    • Farkin cold (painfully so)
    • Decided that this must be why Finns have "sisu", since they live in an environment that is literally used by scientists to simulate pain (ice-fingers)
      • Danes: "Hygge" = "Let's hang out and get comfy together."
      • Swedes: "Lagom" = "Only take what you need."
      • Finns: "Sisu" = "Stop wingeing, we're all fuckin cold."
    • Lit the memory candle
  • Restaurant (Alvari)
    • "Rovaniemi" pizza = Smoked Reindeer, pineapple and blue cheese
      • Actually really yummy
• Train
  • Compartment
    • Toilet converted to shower
      • I had a shower, it was cold
        • Brisbane cold, not Rovaniemi
    • Carl ended up in my compartment after a late reshuffle because Erica didn't want to share with Granny.
      • He took top bunk
      • He also enjoyed sitting by the window and watching the scenery
      • And he also propped himself up on his bunk to enjoy the scenery as he listened to his sleep story
  • Scenery
    • Oulu
  • Forest
    • Mostly dark but saw Big Dipper
  • I listened to a Ghost Notes podcast and went to sleep pretty easily