I Wanna Ride a Reindeer

Here we are in Northern Finland, far above the Arctic Circle, in a town called Saariselka, where the sunrise is at 11:19 today, and sunset is at 12:40PM. Dawn breaks just after 10:15AM here- and the brightest parts of the day still resemble dusk. When we ate dinner last night, after 4 hours of darkness, it felt like we were eating in the middle of the night. I’ve never been a place with so much darkness, and I find it both comforting and unnerving. It’s strange to play with your child for hours and hours in sheer darkness before you put her to bed.

We are here for three nights, in hopes of glimpsing the magical, elusive aurora borealis. So far, 1 night in, no luck. We are staying in a little igloo village, where the ceilings are made of glass. Today we really had a wonderful experience of a reindeer adventure through the woods. We left when it became light, around 10AM, and departed for a reindeer farm 20 kilometers from the igloo village. As we drove, the guide told us about all of the people he knew in the area, and how many of them lived alone in tiny little log cabins throughout the winter. When we arrived at his house, which has been in his family for generations, he told us how he was raised in a house until 20 years old with no electricity or running water. He now lives alone and runs a reindeer farm and gives rides to folks like us, as well as raising reindeer for meat, hides and antlers (we didn’t share this information with Luna). We were pulled by a wooden sled through the forest by a reindeer! We were on the sled for about an hour, which was the perfect amount of time. It was silent, and the animals were kind and steady. Our guide invited us into a teepee made of reindeer skins, where we got to huddle around a fire, make pancakes on the open fire and eat with berry jam. He performed some traditional songs and then we made our way back home for lunch. Luna kept exclaiming how beautiful it was and how much she enjoyed our adventure, but the thing she was most fascinated with was how reindeer poop. After our gorgeous, picture-perfect ride through nature, she exclaimed, “this is great, but I wish I could poop in tiny balls like a reindeer.” I guess it’s all about perspective.

And now we’re off to meet Santa Claus. But that’s another post for another day… Ho, ho ho. Or whatever Santa says in Finland…