...crashed parties and even more snow!

At 5 o'clock the alarm clock rang. The trip to the Arctic Ocean was on. Marcos night was much shorter than expected, as he couldn't find any rest for almost two hours due to alternating deep (Nicolo) and loud (Darius) snoring. But these were now the best conditions for a nap on the bus.
We had four hours of bus ride ahead of us until we were supposed to arrive at our destination in Norway or rather the fishing village of Skitbon. Tired and relatively unmotivated, we went to the meeting point. The cold was particularly biting on this day. But in the bus we were fortunate and each got our own 2-seater seat for ourselves. In front of us, there were certainly ten rows of French people, who were loudly exchanging something incomprehensible among themselves. The next oddity was that despite the engine running and several minutes of driving, it just didn't get any warmer. We were freezing in the bus. Marco grabbed his jacket from the storage compartment, Flo didn't take his off in the first place.
So our situation was as follows: -3 degrees in the bus and a loud France in close proximity. Not a good prerequisite for a relaxing excursion...
First stop, a small souvenir shop with hot drinks. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the temperature display. -27 degrees Celsius. It was like a slap in the face when we got off the already cold bus. You can't really put it into words, you have to experience it for yourself. After a short break, we continued our journey. Luckily, the heating system slowly started working. France calmed down, as some were still hungover from a party. Finally, we had peace.

When we crossed the border from Finland to Norway, the landscape also changed abruptly. From the snowy flatlands, we drove through valleys and over snow-covered mountain peaks. Suddenly, the view from the window became really entertaining.
Another hour passed until we finally arrived at our destination. A kind of holiday village with an adjacent trailer park. -8 degrees Celsius outside temperature didn't seem too bad at first, but we knew what was on our agenda: a relaxing swimming fun in the Arctic Ocean!

Since there were too many participants in total to squeeze everyone into the adjacent sauna at the same time, we were divided into two groups. We decided to go first. So, off to the tent and into our swim trunks. It took some effort just to walk to the sauna. Unfortunately, there were incapable people at work there. The constant repeating of the infusion made the stones cool down too quickly, so that it was at most warm in the spacious sauna. We had enough and after only three minutes we decided to be the first ones to go for the ice water. Officially, it was two degrees Celsius water temperature, but it felt like painful -22 degrees. You couldn't feel anything for a short time while walking into the water, but then the pain set in very quickly. The feet were most affected. The first walk was only up to hip height, the second was even up to the neck including a short dive for Florian. I think our hearts stopped beating briefly in between.
Since the sauna wasn't really of any help, after the second bathing session we went back to the tent to put on our warm clothes. Greetings to the stove and the burn hole in Flo's towel. The idea was okay.

While the second group was "enjoying" the water, we warmed ourselves up with hot Glöggi. The Scandinavian version of mulled wine. Theoretically, that was the whole activity. On the way home, we had soup again in a restaurant and another shop to buy souvenirs. We finally reached our log cabin again at 7 pm. Exhausted and knowing that snowmobiling was planned for the next morning, we wanted to end the evening in a relaxed manner. A small group gathered in our living room. We opened a few beers and bam, it escalated!

Heated games of 'Kings Cup' and 'Fuck the Dealer' ended with the decision to crash a house party. Not invited but drunk enough for twenty, the six of us set off. When we arrived after what felt like an eternity, we had to realize that we didn't know anyone there at all. And to make matters worse, we ended up with the French again. But it didn't matter, we didn't let it spoil the mood. Flo could observe everything from his high seat (best idea ever). Wonderwall performance, smoking on the dance floor, jumping on the sofa, and spontaneous Italian sessions included. All of this made the evening great. The way back home was miraculously much shorter than the way there. The bed felt like heaven in that situation. Let's just forget about the short stop in the coach, the slain snow reindeer, and the stolen snowman.

We closed our eyes for a short moment and the alarm clock rang again. We struggled to the meeting point to hike to the snowmobile rental place. Equipped with chewing gum and a scarf, so as not to smell bad. Snowmobiles are only allowed to be driven with a valid driver's license and in a sober state. During the briefing, we were asked in the group if any of the participants had consumed alcohol the night before. Everyone had to hide their grins in their snowsuits. Then the message came that the police might be waiting on the route and would check. Some fear arose, and we decided to take the risky option and went to our two-seater. Flo was the first in line. The route took us over frozen lakes, through snow-covered forests, over bridges, and finally to a reindeer farm. There we took a short break and warmed up. Driver change and the same route back. We reached a speed of 70 km/h at times, but the participant in front of us was rather cautious. A long and straight stretch of road and what did he do? Enjoy the scenery and almost come to a standstill... Boy oh boy. Next time, when Flo flashes you with his headlights, you better pull over to the right.

Without any major incidents (let's ignore the one accident of two adventurous drivers/French people) we returned to the rental place. Even Nicolo and Darius reached the finish line unharmed. Miracles do happen again and again.

Back in the cabin, we first turned on the sauna. You just have to take advantage of a private sauna. We relaxed and made plans for the further course of events because our day wasn't over yet. Snowshoe hiking and farewell party were still on the agenda. From here on, Nicolo's story begins again. As reported, gravity seemed to affect our Italian friend a bit more than others, so it was hardly surprising that he was the first one to fall on his face while hiking. To make matters worse, he also lost his painstakingly put-on snowshoe and a guide had to help him. This spectacle repeated itself for almost every one of our friends. Selina was more on the ground than on her feet. Phillip always found a shortcut, even if it led straight down a slope. Nicolo was continuously cursing because he didn't seem to enjoy the outing. The mixed drinks and beers we brought were emptied during the short breaks, and there was a lot of laughter. What was initially a struggle turned into a highlight for all of us... except Nicolo. But his evening was about to get even better.

Back from the trip, it was just a matter of changing clothes, freshening up, styling, and then PARTY (definition: consume large amounts of alcohol as quickly as possible). We heard that a beer at the party was supposed to cost 5€ and since we are economically thinking students, we needed a decent amount in advance so as not to leave the club with debts. For the entire semester, the Buffalo rule was already in effect. Just to explain briefly: You only drink with your non-dominant hand. If you disregard this and another participant notices, the rule breaker has to chug the current drink.

And that's exactly when our Italian Stallion's big moment came. He broke the rule five times in a row and since he chugged every beer, he had a total of five full beers in his system within 20 minutes. That was also the end of his evening. The rest of us went to the party, Nicolo went straight to bed.

The farewell party was a successful conclusion to our extremely good time in the North of the world. Searching for phones, always having two beers in hand, playing Black Jack, and just having a lot of fun ended with an after-party, which we could actually have done without. Quote of the evening: Just do it!

We went to bed at 6 o'clock. To be woken up again 3.5 hours later. Getting up to tidy up the apartment was on the agenda. Totally destroyed, we prepared everything for our move-out. But before we got into the bus to Lappeenranta, we visited the spa we had booked in advance. Unfortunately, Finns have a different concept of wellness than we do. It was more like a water park, and we searched in vain for the heated pools. There were drafts in the sauna and even the outdoor pools were not warmer than 26 degrees.

After an extensive Burger King visit, we boarded the buses that were supposed to take us to our study location in a 15-hour drive. We somehow passed the time with Netflix and Spotify. This time sleeping was definitely easier. In total, each of us got about 5 hours of sleep. We reached our stop at 6 o'clock in the morning. Priority number one when we arrived at our flat: Sleep!

Lapland was incredible and an absolute highlight of our semester abroad. Unfortunately, our idea of winter has been shattered, but we are happy to have had this experience.

This Sunday was chosen as an absolute rest day. Our motto was to do as little movement as possible. Nevertheless, we made the effort to go to the supermarket to stock up on food. We had already started putting two euros into one of the countless slot machines after each shopping trip to test our luck. Our favorite game is called "Emma" and on that day, Emma was really good to us. In total, we turned those two euros into a whopping 23€. Currently, we are 25€ in the black and addicted to a new game. We even briefly considered dropping out of college but then decided to get two pizzas from Selam instead. Free pizza greatly improved the day.

Our time here is coming to an end. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of work waiting for us. Nevertheless, we try to enjoy everything to the fullest.