Day 3 Welcome to Lapland - from Rovaniemi to Levi

24.3.2024

The night ends at 4 a.m. We didn't sleep well. It was very warm in the room, even though I had opened the window when the temperature outside was below zero.

Well, it also makes getting up easier.

The Spanish are also already active. Apparently we weren't the only ones who had the idea of taking the earlier shuttle to the airport.

At 4:30 we are in the lobby - and we are not the first!

About 30 people are already waiting for the shuttle in front of the hotel, and other holidaymakers are in the lobby.

We also wait outside and are greatly relieved when a large bus stops in front of the hotel. By the time everyone is inside, it is already very full. The bus stops at two more hotels. At this point, we can pile up on the bus. It is now jam-packed.

The airport is already bustling with activity; we check in, print out our boarding passes and drop off our luggage.

There's a lot going on at security, but here they have the most modern security system I've ever seen. In Frankfurt we didn't have to unpack bags of liquids and tablets/laptops, but here it's even better. Everything goes into the box, which moves through turbine-like fluorescent tubes and is automatically moved to a neighboring conveyor belt for inspection if necessary. We're lucky. No inspection. The whole thing is quick. Great!

Off to the gate. Deja vu - Gate 28 again. We walk past duty free and clothing stores and look for free seats. Now we have to wait - another hour until boarding, 1.5 hours until departure. Yawn...

Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Lapland has deteriorated rapidly in the last 24 hours. I hope we won't have snow all week with temperatures of -10 degrees during the day 🙈✊🏻

Wait and see... We can't change it anyway, so we'll make the best of it.

We are sitting in the last row on the plane (36 A/B/C), without any neighbours, because the toilet is opposite 🫣

The plane is packed and it feels like 90% of the holidaymakers are from Asia.

We are so tired that we almost sleep through the takeoff. At some point I look out the window and notice that there are strange cranes on trucks around the plane. Ah, de-icer. Further ahead a sign is flashing to say that a de-icing process is in progress.

After the plane has been de-iced, we can finally take off.

The flight is quiet, we sleep and land in Rovaniemi after 1.5 hours. Contrary to the forecast, the sun is shining ☀️.

Yay!!! However, when I get off the plane I get a cold shock: -12 degrees at 8:30 in the morning 😵‍💫🥶🥶🥶

According to the weather app it feels like -18 degrees 😱

We quickly walk across the runway into the airport building, collect our luggage (two baggage belts decorated with Santa Claus sleighs, plush huskies, presents and reindeer) and pick up our rental car from "Green Motion".

A tour group is just leaving the airport, one of the young men is wearing a t-shirt with a baseball cap. It feels like -18 degrees 😵‍💫🥶🥶😱

We quickly find our rental car, a Toyota Corolla station wagon hybrid with automatic transmission (and quite a few scratches and dents, as the rental car company had already informed us on a note), but driving off is more difficult: the windshield is frozen on the inside 😱 As are the driver and passenger windows. It just happens - in these sub-zero temperatures 😅

After we turn the heating up for a few minutes, the ice melts and we can set off. We're heading to the ski resort of Levi / Sirkka, near Kittilä, almost 200 km away.

The roads are clear, we hardly see a car on the way. We reach Levi at 12 noon, see the Levi ski resort (Oy Levi Ski Resort) as we drive past, check into our small "semi-detached house" at Levilehto Apartments and move into our "cottage" with a stove, 2 bedrooms and our own sauna. Nice.

Levilehto Apartments is also a campground. There are pitches for campers everywhere between and behind the houses. And they are almost all full. Winter campers 🥶🥶🥶

Behind our house we look at the campground, where the caravans are partially covered with tarpaulins and the fairy lights and Christmas decorations are still up. They are really hardcore winter campers...

Cottage number 12 is the last cottage before the campsite, on a side road. We park right in front of the house, in front of a huge mountain of snow. There's no one else walking around here, so no one can look into the windows 😅

While our son recovers from his short night, we go shopping. The supermarket is practically across the street and the ski area is less than a kilometer away. Perfect.

Food is - of course - much more expensive than at home. We pack the most necessary things for the next two days into the shopping cart and make a very unspectacular frozen pizza in the oven for lunch. Today it has to be quick and easy.

The cottage is well equipped, there is even baking paper 😜

After dinner, my husband and I walk through the center of Levi to explore the culinary variety. It ranges from Subway to Burger King, pizzerias to luxury Italian and fine restaurants. The pancake restaurant in particular caught our attention. That's something different. We'll probably have dinner here in the next few days.

Although it's already 4 p.m., all the lifts are still running and the sun is shining on the slopes of the Point Zero ski station. We're already itching to get on the skis. And there's hardly anyone on the slopes. How cool is that??

I send a few quick prayers to heaven for good weather as we research where we can rent our ski equipment tomorrow.

After that is cleared up, we follow the bass and the party atmosphere and end up at the outdoor party bar " V'inkkari ". It's a real party! Alcohol flows freely, people dance on the tables. We throw ourselves into the fray and try to find out what people drink here for après ski:

Beer, small bottles of liquor and a well-filled 0.5 l plastic cup with a drink that looks like bitter lemon.

We decide on the bitter lemon drink. The ladies at the bar hold the bottle of gin in front of our noses and ask if we want an "extra shot". Before I can react, my husband nods and we get another huge load of gin in our cups - and bang - €31 gone 💸💸💸

The drink turns out to be the Finnish "national drink" of the party scene and is called "Lonkero", a mix of grapefruit lemonade with lemon and gin. It fizzes like lemonade! I can hardly walk straight after drinking the cup 🫣😱 Wow, that's a real blast.

(Fun fact: the Lonkero was "created" especially for the Olympic Games in Finland at the time, because they really wanted to have their own "Finnish" Olympic drink. Well, the Lonkero stayed 😉)

The Finns sing and dance on the tables and benches. The songs are a bit strange. We can't sing along, but raising our arms and rocking back and forth works fine 😅

The party hit that gets everyone screaming and dancing is "Esson Bariin" by Poju. Nothing can stop the Finns (and after the Lonkero, not even us 🤣).

They are a funny people, the Finns.

Back at the house we relax in the sauna and play a few games next to the fire. Very nice here!

Tomorrow we're off to the slopes!

My son wants to rest for another day, so we will go alone.

I'm excited to see how it turns out ✊🏻

Key data:

Flight: AY0531 (Finnair): Helsinki - Rovaniemi / 7:05-8:35

Rental car: from Rovaniemi Airport, Toyota Corolla Hybrid station wagon Rental company: Green Motion

Accommodation: Levilehto Apartments (2 bedrooms, sauna, stove)

Weather: Temperature shock on landing of -12 degrees & sunny/slightly cloudy

Driven: 172 km