The story of an Erasmus student moving to Finnish Lapland
I’m sitting here behind my laptop, excited to write my first blogpost for the Visit Lapland platform… My name is Kaat, nice to meet you!
In the beginning of 2020 I was planning to come to Rovaniemi to study. Sadly everybody’s world got turned upside down later that year because of COVID-19 and I changed my plans. Summer 2021 I decided to go to Milan, Italy instead for my Erasmus program, but the dream of going to Rovaniemi was still there. I fell in love with living abroad and decided to take my chances and find an internship in Finland.
So, here I am! In Finland, doing an internship for Visit Lapland, writing my first blogpost; My first impression of Lapland.
Travelling from Milan to Rovaniemi
February 14th, 2022. There I was, at the airport with my three suitcases on a roller, ready for my new adventure. I’m never nervous to travel but being there in the airport… I was fully packed like a camel in the dessert, going to a place completely opposite from where the camel would go.
Lapland, a place I dreamed of visiting for years but now I won’t only go visit… I will go live there! The snow, the cold, the wilderness, the northern lights… all things I’ve never experienced before as a foreigner born in Belgium, living in Milan. From Italy to Rovaniemi… Opposites in a lot of ways. I smiled and greeted the cabin crew with a big smile on my way to my seat in the airplane. Here we go! Of to the land of the midnight sun!
Stunning airplane views
The landscape starts to change as soon as we’re flying above Finland and white patches of snow contrasted with darker patches of cities and woods alternate the view from my airplane window. The sun is setting at the horizon while the few glowing street and cities start to appear.
It was one of the most stunning airplane views I’ve ever seen, and as a cabin crew I saw a lot of them.
While the space between the airplane and the surface of the earth was getting smaller and smaller, I was amazed by how much snow there is everywhere. Even the airport grounds were covered in a white layer of snow… And to think that we in Belgium already stress for the 1 cm snow that is on the roads for maybe a few hours in the morning before it melts… I smiled and with that thought I carefully went down the frozen airplane stairs on the way to the shuttle bus that took me to the airport.
When I left Milan airport it was around 10 degrees in Milan. I look at the current temperature and see -20 degrees Celsius popping up on my screen. 30 degrees difference… I giggle in the thought of all my Italian friends that told me I was crazy to go to the cold.
A warm Lappish welcome
The stunning Lappish nature appears on the side of the road on my way to the city centre. All I can do is smile. I made it! Next thing that pops up in my mind: Northern Lights… Would I be able to see them tonight? One thing is sure! I will go out every night if there is a chance to see them!
I dropped my suitcases went to do some grocery shopping and ate a late dinner as quickly as I could. Rovaniemi was already in sleep mode when I walked trough the city streets on my way to the riverside.
Packed again, not with suitcases but in the thickest sweater I own, 2 woollen layers underneath and my long winter jacket. I wasn’t really prepared for the real Finnish cold and didn’t own snow or ski trousers yet. It was going to be an experience, that I knew.
I made my way along the river side whilst looking at the sky. Is that a line in the sky? Is it a cloud? In the beginning I vaguely started to see some lights, doubting what it is. The longer I looked the more I started to see and recognize changes and some lights in the sky. Two vague white and grey coloured lines started to appear in the sky while walking towards Arktikum…
Like a kid in a candy shop
Luck was on my side that night. A few minutes after arriving at Arktikum, walking on the frozen river to get a bit further from the light pollution of Rovaniemi city… I got to see the dancing lights in the sky as if it was meant to be. It almost looked like a snake dancing, moving trough the sky. I made a little scream of excitement and looked at the sky in awe of the beautiful phenomena that I could finally see with my own eyes.
I didn’t realise in that moment how lucky I was to see such a show that close to the city, that fast upon my arrival. Nature, Lappish nature already stole my heart in the first two hours after my arrival. A few moments later the show was over, the clouds started to block the view and the cold started to crawl underneath my clothes. -26 degrees, my lashes and hair frozen underneath my winter hat but smiling like a little kid in a candy shop.
Time to go home.
I fell asleep with a big smile on my face that night.
⇐ By Kaat Vandeweyer / Visit Lapland ⇒
