Grant’s Travel Column: Finland

This column is written by Grant I., who has traveled extensively and will share his advice on where to travel in the future!

Have you been thinking about traveling somewhere once this pandemic is over? Where have you thought about going? Maybe you thought about going to a beautiful and clear blue water beach; what about a pink sand beach? Or even Black or white? Have some of you thought about going to visit some historical sites like the Eiffel Tower or the Big Ben or the Great Wall of China? What about seeing the northern lights or sleeping in a glass igloo? These are some of the places that I will be reviewing in this new travel column!

If you are looking for a special and unique place to go to and even create a bucket list for your end of pandemic vacation, this is the place to read about it! Pack your virtual bags…get ready for… my first travel experiences column!

Today we are going to explore Finland, sleeping in a Glass Igloo Hotel and seeing the Aurora Borealis! This is a trip that I can share my personal experiences on. Our trip began when we landed in Lapland, Finland Airport. There was over a foot of beautiful white fluffy snow and a very clear and dark sky. My family and I went outside and looked up. All we saw was shining stars above us without a cloud in the sky. It was very cold. It was frosty the snowman cold!!! You could see your breath when you talked and after a minute we couldn’t feel our fingers anymore.
We took a Taxi about fifteen minutes to the Glass Igloo in the middle of nowhere. When we got there we unpacked our bags and settled in. The Igloo was heated and there were glass walls throughout the igloo, including the roof. There were two bedrooms so all five of us could fit. There was even a bathroom, shower and refrigerator. I could not believe that we were in an actual Igloo, except that it was made of glass and heated! It was so amazing and we were all excited to go in our beds looking up at the sky in our warm pajamas.

We were given a headband light and were told that the Northern lights would show tonight. The hotel suggested we either go outside where it is very dark or we could close the lights in our room. We decided to do both! We ran outside with our pajamas and coat and realized quickly how cold it was. Good thing we packed our winter coats, boots, gloves, hats, and snow pants. We walked in the dark in the snow and brought our cameras. Words can not explain what we saw! The sky had swirls of green and yellow all across it. I heard about the Northern Lights but I never thought it would be across the whole sky and move so fast and dance all around almost like waves of light. I tried taking pictures of it but it did not look like what we actually saw with our eyes. It was so spectacular that we could not believe our eyes. After a while the light show started to disappear into the night sky so we decided to go back into our room for the night. We left the curtains open so we could continue to see whatever the sky was doing during the night. There was no guarantee that we would have seen the Northern Lights. We were very lucky.

The next day we went on a reindeer sled ride. Who knew that Finland has more reindeer than people in its country? The reindeer pulled our sled slow and it was a little bumpy on the snow. Then we went to the reindeer farm and learned about their antlers, drank hot chocolate and learned about how to eat reindeer. I thought that was weird….Soon we learned that reindeer meat was very popular and my mom ate it thinking it was bacon for breakfast! She wasn’t happy afterwards!!

Another activity to do in Finland is cross the Arctic Circle. There was a sign that showed us where it was. We were each given a certificate after we did it!
We also went on a husky ride and met Santa Claus. Most people wouldn’t believe a vacation like this existed. It is true though. You can see and do all of this if it is your kind of vacation. Hop on this virtual tour and continue reading my travel column to find out more! Thanks for reading. See you next time…