By way of an introduction, Finland is situated between the 60th and 70th degree of latitiude, covering an area of 130,000 square miles - 10% of this area is covered by water. It has a population of approximately 5 million people. The land in the north of Finland forms part of Lapland, an area inhabitated by the Lappish people and their Reindeer (220,000 Reindeer, 200,000 people). The principal town of Finnish Lapland is called Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle, and 150km north of Rovaniemi is Luosto.
…but think of the poor idiots behind!
Luosto is primarily a ski resort and has around 200 permament inhabitants. The town consists of a few hotels, a few shops and quite a few log cabins, all centred around the foot of the Luoston fells where hiking in summer and skiing in winter are the main attractions. If you want to know more about Luosto, please use the link opposite to access the official website - www.luosto.fi .
Our journey to Finland and Rovaniemi was made possible by the national airline of Finland - Finnair. Although we had some unforgettable flights (see diary pages) we were looked after nicely and the price hike on the ticket so close to the millennium wasn’t as extortionate as it could have been. You can find Finnair’s website at www.finnair.fi .
Our stay in Luosto was very special. Our accomodation was a log cabin, centrally positioned and within snowball throwing distance of the world-famous Hovi. The cabin had four on-suite bedrooms, each with two large bunk beds and a personal drinks cabinet (some people call them fridges) together with table and chairs. Other facilities in the log cabin included; Sauna, open fireplace, changing area, fully fitted kitchen, overhead projector(?!), TV and stereo. The view from the open french windows out into the wintery wilderness was excellent.
The Hovi was our main haunt at night, the bar was always open well into the early hours, serving Lapin Kulta and Hoff beer. Special nights were laid on, including a Karaoke night, and it must be said that the best place to be on the night of the new millennium was on the steps of the Hovi, watching fireworks explode in the snow-ridden heavens. The Hovi’s web site is at www.luostonhovi.com .
Some nights were spent cooking, but it soon became apparent that cooking time got in the way of drinking time and so the establishment on the right was visited regularly. The speciality of the restaurant Kerttuli was melt-in-the-mouth Reindeer with the world’s softest mashed potatoes, but for those of us who couldn’t bring themselves to eat Rudolph there was a wide variety of European dishes that were just as tasty. The Kerttuli website is at www.luoston-kerttuli.fi .
A special mention must be made to the supermarket in Luosto, the Tupasvilla. This is the place where we bought food to cook ourselves and all the other essentials like big bags of crisps and crates of Lapin Kulta. We were warned when organising our trip to Finland that the price of beer and food was astronomical, so maybe we fell lucky on having such a value for money place right on our doorstep. What’s with the internet in Lapland when a supermarket has got it’s own site? (http://tupasvilla.luosto.fi ).
Finally, entertainment during the day was provided by the ski resort (for skiing, snowboarding and sledging) and the Snowgames company, who kindly let us break a few of their snow mobiles. Snowgames can be found at www.snowgames.fi.
