Somewhat glad to get off the train!
We arrived in Kolari after our epic journey, extremely happy (can you tell?!) to have almost reached our final destination, and in awe of the beautiful sunset we were witnessing at just 2pm. We’d watched the sun come up at about 11am, so it was a little confusing to our body clocks to see the sun dip back down over the horizon a few short hours later:
Sun setting in Kolari
We hopped on a bus to the ski resort town of Levi, where we were to spend a few blissful days over Christmas. We were all in desperate need of a shower and a nap in an actual bed (hadn’t seen one of those for a while), but we couldn’t relax for long, as we’d booked a snow shoeing tour for that evening. After dinner, we headed down to the meeting point, and after a few minutes of panic when we realized the group had left without us (we were 5 minutes late!), we contacted the guide and they came back to fetch us (phew!). We were driven almost to the peak of Levi, where we were fitted with snow shoes and poles, and headed up the mountain. The snow shoes were so much lighter than I had expected, and made walking through the deep, powdery snow so much easier than when wearing boots…although it was still a good workout. We reached the summit and admired the views for a moment, then made our way back down (the fun part!), to this stunning hut, completely covered in ice:
Magical icicle hut
Once inside, we were served glögi (a traditional Finnish drink of hot, spiced juice) in wooden cups, and we were each given sausages to roast for ourselves over the open fire in the middle of the hut.
Delicious comfort food
By the time we came out of the hut, the sky was almost clear and the moon was casting a ghostly glow over all of the snow-covered trees; it was simply magical! We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis, but we were’t so lucky this time. The picture below is my favourite photo from our whole trip – we held up the tour group so we could get the tripod out and try to set up the camera with freezing fingers, but I think it was worth the pain:
Eerie skies
Our guide could tell how much we were loving walking through the deep, powdery snow; we were sinking in and falling over, but having a great time; so she took us through the forest of snow ghosts (where the trees are so covered in snow that you can’t see the tree anymore, it just looks like a ghostly figure); we spotted all sorts of wacky shapes while we were trekking through the snow, but we were stopped in our tracks when we came to a clearing and were greeted by the most stunning view of the forest, backlit by the moon and a floodlight:
Backlit forest
Unfortunately the tour had to come to an end; but at least it ended in style! We walked to the top of the main Levi ski run, which leads into the village. At this point our guide told us we could make our way down the steep slope any way we wanted. Snow shoeing down seemed far too obvious, so we chose to slide, roll and dive our way down the piste, laughing, joking, and filling our clothes with snow all the way back to the village! It was the highlight of my whole trip; and if you ever find yourself in Levi in Winter, please do this tour! It’s an experience you will never forget.
Levi from the top of the piste
