Sodankylä

I got invited last week to go to Lapland for the weekend with Erno & Katri (& Mano). It’s a non study week for all the university students this week so Katri was going home for the week to visit her family. I managed to get Friday off and we drove up to Sodankylä on Thursday night after I finished work. This was a long drive but was not two bad shared between the three of us, and Katri did the last bit when it was darkest and most slippery (as she was most familiar with the roads and knew where we were going). We arrived at a pretty unreasonable hour and didn’t do much but get to sleep.

On Friday morning after a slow start to the day we eventually visited Katri’s Grandmother who seemed very nice even though I could only understand a couple of words she said to me. We stayed for lunch and were fed some traditional Lapland food. Included on the menu was some berry juice, poronkäristys (Sautéed reindeer served with potatoes), and some bread, cheese, ham, and salmon. All very good, except the Salmon was very well salted and tasted a bit too fishy for my liking.

After arriving at Tähtelä about 7km outside town and the place where Katri grew up (our accommodation for the weekend). We scrounged around for a while finding some appropriate cloths to borrow to go skiing. We then spent another little while finding Katri’s gear which had mysteriously been moved. Eventually we headed for Kommatin Rinteet (the closest Hill) and arrived at 3pm so we could fit in two hours before the lift turned off. It was only a small hill but that was ok with me especially given there was only 2 or 3 other people on the slope. It cost €15 for a 2 hour lift pass and another €15 to hire the skis and boots.

After managing to get the things on and stand up we headed up the slope. Once at the top it started to get a little more scary, standing up was easy, moving was not difficult and heading down the slope was a piece of cake. Actually going where you wanted to or stopping, that was a bit of a challenge. After two times half way up the slope we ventured to the top which was a bit steeper. This proved no more difficult and the more I tried the easier it got and more comfortable. It wasn’t until the forth time down the slope that I actually fell over so I can’t have been trying hard enough as I fell over allot more after that. I think I managed to get a reasonable handle on things considering the short time we had. Katri was on her snowboard and was giving some helpful coaching tips to Erno and myself. Although I think I had a little bit of beginners luck I really enjoyed myself. Next time I’ll have to go for a little bit longer though.

After collecting some food and beverages for the night we headed for the sauna and some a little bit of snow rolling in between. I think I may have been refered too as the crazy Australian in Finnish at least once or twice as the Fins were a little taken back by my snow rolling enthusiasm. The evening then continued with sausage cooked over an open fire and eventually we caught a taxi into town and went to most of the local pubs (there were only 3). I was surprised by the number of people inside the pubs given the size of the town. They were busy but it wasn’t too difficult to find a seat. After a bit of dancing, some talking and more drinking we made our way outside, ordered and received some fast food and grabbed a taxi back. I admit it’s a little fuzzy but I think we got back about 4am.

Needless to say there none of use were particularly enthusiastic about Saturday. Mostly we watched the Skiing World championships on the television, went and got pizza (I had more reindeer on mine), played some card games and went through the sauna again.

On Sunday morning we woke late and went back to Katri’s mum’s place where she feed us Porosoppa (reindeer soup) for an early lunch followed by some ice cream and coffee. I then left to drive back to Pietarsaari at about 1215, finally arriving back home at about 2030. Most of the trip was ok except about 150km between Oulu and Kokkola where I was stuck behind a truck which was dragging a massing plumb of snow behind it making visibility virtually none existent.

So I think in the end I ate more Reindeer than I saw over the weekend, perhaps I should comment on the meat. As far as meat’s go there is nothing wrong with it, I was surprised at how good it was on the pizza. It appears similar to beef in colour but smells more like lamb whilst cooking, but I wouldn’t say it tastes like either that much, It was just different. Perhaps I need to try it again and get a better description; that will have to wait for another day though.