Reindeer, and moose, and grouses, oh my!

March 1st, according to the Russian calendar, was the first day of spring, and so far the weather seems to be responding appropriately. It's been getting a little bit warmer every day, and even rained a little yesterday. The 4" thick slab of ice that covered everything for the last two months has mostly melted off the sidewalks, and even the Neva seems like it might start slushing up and moving again soon.

So, I'm reminded of the seriously cold white glory of our trip to Lapland, and thought I'd share our trip with y'all.

Just a little background- Lapland is a territory inhabited by the Sami, the native people of Scandinavia. They used to be known as Laps but really Sami is their preferred term and more politically correct. Lapland stretches across Norway, Sweden, Finland and a small part of Russia. While it works with the governments of those countries, it has a sort of government of its own, and even its own flag.



The capital of Lapland is Rovaniemi, in Finland. It's a pretty small town, population around 60,000, but because it has annexed a large part of the surrounding area to provide utilities and services to as many people as possible, its land mass makes it one of the largest cities in the world. Rovaniemi was completely razed by German forces during WWII and was built back up from essentially nothing; the new town layout, which is supposed to represent reindeer horns, and some of its most important buildings were designed by the famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.

The Sami were traditionally nomadic, making a lifestyle of fishing and herding reindeer, and living in teepees. They still fish and raise reindeer today, although they're less nomadic, and they've embraced technology, using snowmobiles and GPS tracking systems to keep track of their reindeer.

Anyway, so here's the play-by-play of our trip.

Day 1: we took the train to Helsinki, then flew to Rovaniemi. There we were greeted by our guide, whom I'm pretty sure was named Tatu. I can't be certain, but we're gonna roll with it. He drove us out to the lodge, about an hour southwest of Rovaniemi. We had an awesome dinner of reindeer, and hit the sack.

Here's the lodge:



Here's our cabin, in the back corner of the lodge:



Day 2: The fun begins. First we got outfitted in proper winter gear. We thought we already had some pretty hard-core stuff... we brought all our boots and long underwear and thick socks. We thought we were set until Tatu scoffed at us and took us to a barn with REAL equipment. We were each issued a snowsuit, boots two sizes too big in order to fit our socks plus two pairs of thick wool socks, thick leather-palmed mittens big enough to wear over our gloves, a cotton ski mask to pull over the face, and a hat with ear flaps. Underneath the snowsuit, we had our own long underwear, cordorouys, shirt, and sweatshirt. It averaged about 5 below (farenheit) while we were there, so it's a good thing we had the gear piled on, although walking in giant boots is a real challenge.

Our main event of the day was visiting a reindeer farm. We got a little tour and were told about how reindeer are raised. Each reindeer gets the farm's pattern cut into its ear, sort of like branding. Here's the ear-cutting pattern of the farm we went to:



After the reindeer are branded, they're pretty much released into the wild to mate and eat and generally fend for themselves. Once a year several local farmers will round up all the reindeer and sort out their herds to see how they're doing. The reindeer used for meat are butchered quite young, often before a year old. When butchered, nearly every part of the animal is used somehow; the skins are very warm of course, and crafts are made from the horns. (Ancient Sami religion also used reindeer horns and bones for telling fortunes.) Some of the best are kept for mating; some females are kept to give milk; and the smartest are kept to pull sleighs. Smart is a relative term, though... reindeer are some of the dumbest animals you'll ever come across.

Here's the reindeer on the farm:



petting the reindeer:



reindeer close-up:



Our next activity was to take a ride in a sleigh pulled by a reindeer. It was definitely on the goofy/lame side of things, as we were merely taken around a track, but apparently it takes SEVEN YEARS to teach the reindeer how to do this. At least we were allowed to "steer" the reindeer ourselves. The sleigh ride was pretty slow-moving. The owner would give the reindeer a good whack, and he'd run... for about 2 minutes, until he rounded the corner and was out of site of the owner, at which point he'd stop and start looking for grass. Then we'd have to shake the reins to try to convince him to go again. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if that makes him extremely dumb, or extremely smart...

On the sleigh:



View from the sleigh.



For our extreme skill, we were awarded Reindeer Driver's Licenses. I'm so proud.



After this we had lunch in a cozy cabin by a fire and learned a little more about reindeer herding and the Sami. The farm owner's son introduced us to his husky, which helps him with herding. He also showed us his grandfathr's "four winds" hat. Sami tradition tells the story of the four winds... wind from each direction, North, South, East and West all blew all at the same time, making life miserable. Then a wise old man somehow captured the winds in his hat and wouldn't let them out until they promised to only blow one at a time, one direction for each season. Hence the 4 pointed corners of the hat, and the four colored ribbons in the back. I believe something about the colors and the four winds also has something to do with the Northern Lights...

Jonathan with the hat.



Thus ended our tour of the reindeer farm. Here's us with the owner's son, in traditional Sami costume:



After the farm, we were taken to downtown Rovaniemi to see the "sights." Of which there are few. Here's downtown Rovaniemi:



Here's me along the Kemijoki river, which runs through town, with the famous Jatkankynttila bridge.



After this we returned to our lodge and took our first sauna of the week. Few things are more refreshing than a sauna... especially after having been outside in some seriously cold weather all day. Here's the sauna building:



And here's the part of the lake they keep churned up, if you're crazy enough (like Jonathan was, once) to jump in the lake after you sauna:



After the sauna, which seriously builds up your appetite, it's time for dinner. All our meals were semi-traditional Sami fare, and they balanced the line perfectly between something hearty after a cold day and something fresh for keeping the body clean. It was soooo nice to get really good fresh food after all the mayo in Russia. Dinner usually consisted of meat (usually reindeer) or fish (salmon or something from the lake), potatoes, steamed veggies, then a big fresh salad, some pickled veggies, traditional Finnish breads, and a dessert. Mmm-mm!

This is the dining hall, a little fogged-over since I'd just brought in my lense from the cold:



Well... as usual when establishing plots, this first act has been pretty long-winded. Better divide the rest of the trip into more parts...