A friend of mine spent his exchange semester in Finland till December 2019 and invited me to visit. I like the cold of the winter, I like Finland, I wanted to travel a bit. And my friend had not been to the North of Finland yet, so that would be nice to revisit. In the South it was a bit like back home, around the freezing point, barely any snow when I arrived.
I booked a car, so we could move around better, but first I had a look at Lappeenranta itself of course. I had totally forgotten what it looked like. Had been a while. it might not be the most striking of Finnish cities, but it was nicer than I had in mind. Though getting a pin with a Finnish flag on it proved to be difficult. Maybe there are not enough tourists in this area?!
Generally, the two of us took it slow. It was a vacation after all :-) But we had two things in mind: (1) Visiting Lahti and getting to see some of the landscape on our way there, and (2) a trip to Lapland, the snow and maybe even the Norwegian fjords.
On the day after my arrival we went to Lahti. Of course we took a little detour going North so we could see the Saimaa lake area a bit more. This is a humongous collection of connected lakes in the midst of nothing but trees it seems. Many people have their summer houses (with saunas) there. And if you are lucky and far enough into the winter, you can cross the lakes by foot as they will be covered with thick ice that can at times even carry trucks. In Lahti we visited the ski jumping hills. Quite impressive, though only artificial snow at the time ;-)
After a day off, some planning and walking around in Lappeenranta, we started our second endeavor: a road trip to Lapland and Norway. We would go near Inari first, then drive around the North Eastern parts of Norway for a bit, return to our place near Inari, and then make our way down to Lappeenranta over two days, stopping over in Oulu. That road trip was mainly… long (3500km in 4 days). But we enjoyed seeing so much of Finland and the changing of the landscape from South to North and back. And we had lots of snow in the North as well, which made it even more enjoyable. Even walking on lakes was possible. Not just for us, but for all the reindeer we encountered as well :D The fjords and landscape of Norway were really impressive as well. Much different and much rougher than what we saw in Finland, but very beautiful. A sight to remember and to revisit.
When we got back I had only one day left, which I used to go around Lapeenranta for a bit again. We also enjoyed a little good bye dinner after all those breathtaking experiences all over Finland. It was a short trip after all, but it was really nice to visit a friend and to see Finland again. Check out the pictures, if you want to get some nice travel impressions!
Flew in from Frankfurt to Helsinki… 
…where I got my car behind those wonderful doors… 
…and then set off into the sunset. Nice isn’t it? 
My friend stayed at a typical Finnish apartment. 
Our day trip to Lahti started out by having a look at the more remote areas with their lakes… 
…and tiny forest roads. 
In Lahti we visited the famous ski jumping arena ofc! 
This random picture is the cereal bowl I used every day for a good breakfast :P 
And after one of those good breakfasts we went to drive North. The route was… not very complicated to follow. We had to take a turn every other few hundred kilometers. 
But over time we headed into the more snowy areas. With classic country houses,… 
…snow-covered trees… 
…and ofc the reindeer country road signs ;-) 
As you can see the roads are not really curvy most of the time, but go up and down a lot. 
Which is probably why this boat didn’t find it’s way out… joke ofc. 
Our first encounter of reindeers was in the middle of a town :O (Sorry for the quality, but I could not leave that picture out.) 
We had booked a place in the countryside near Inari. This is the driveway… 
…which led us to this nice spot… 
…with a little bbq house, I suppose… 
…and a frozen lake behind it! 
We could even walk on it… 
…and look back at the house… 
…just as some reindeers did ;-) 
On the second day we met a few more reindeers such as this one… 
…passed snowy roads… 
…to meet even more reindeers… 
…leading us closer… 
…and closer.. 
…to this reindeer. 
If you were wondering how the trees were doing… they were coated in snow… 
…and maybe ice. 
The further North we got towards Norway (which you can see in the background)… 
…the more scarce the vegetation became… 
…but it is definitely beautiful. 
We found more frozen lakes ofc… 
…which we gladly walked onto… 
…after taking the mandatory eyesight test! 
The further North the rougher the landscape… 
…but so much more interesting at the same time. 
That did not save us from getting hungry though, so we went to a city to eat. Note the way the sidewalk is cleaned. More than enough in my opinion. 
Speaking of food… the next day we saw someone ice fishing! 
Other than that we mostly enjoyed the landscape with sun… 
…and snow… 
…and even more snow… 
…and snow that made us wonder why those trees are still standing… 
…and power lines covered in snow! 
Luckily the sun was on our side and we had pleasant days… 
…with awesome colors… 
…and again… snow. 
The occasional reindeer was an integral part of our journey still… 
…with some clearly having some sort of traffic education walking on the proper side of the road and such. 
On our trip we had to stop at Santa Village of course. The most touristy of touristy places, but that’s fine. While we were in the neighborhood ;-) 
Santa Village is near Rovaniemi, where we went after… 
…and walked around the Arktikum a bit (it is a museum)… 
…(Arktikum from the back)… 
…and onto the river ;-) 
We ate at a restaurant with this “interesting” toilet design… 
…and visited Lapland University (outside only) later on. 
But we stayed in Oulu for the night, which is a bit further South. 
Oulu is quite nice at night with its bridges… 
…and harbor houses… 
…and snowman… 
…and bicycles. 
And not only birds swim there… 
…and dive. 
Also humans do it. This is part of a public sauna… 
…which can be seen here right next to the river. 
We actually did some sort of sightseeing in Oulu… 
…with its nice houses… 
…some made with stone… 
…others with wood… 
…some for music… 
…some probably for storage, 
The harbor area… 
….is home to the public library as well… 
…and well-guarded by this harbor policeman! 
Apparently people don’t like to walk on snow when shopping in that area though. 
But everything was closed anyway and we made our way through the city to see churches… 
…government buildings… 
…and other random… 
…houses. 
We ended up at the University of Oulu, of course. Educational trip and all :P 
This lady seems to be the patron of the university. 
Towards the end of the trip my friend wanted to make me cry for sure and took me to his university in Lappeenranta. I mean… a gaming room? Seriously? 
And a stage piano for everyone to use? We might have some catching up to do in Germany. 
After all those different impressions it was time to go home to Germany again. Back in Helsinki I said Bye to these little rabbits… 
…and their friends, the bears. 
And after a little laugh and some sort of relief that Finland is not absolutely perfect after all (they have Windows errors as well)… 
…I boarded the plane and safely arrived in Frankfurt, from where I went home. What a nice trip.
