Amazing adventure

The story continues with the tour guide that sat down at our table without even asking who we are.

Satu is not only our tour guide but also the owner of another hotel in Inari. She is Finland oboriginal so she knows the area very well. She is very funny, nice and chatty. Once she sat down with us she talked about everything! She talked about the tour of course, then where she went to study in US, then the demanding Chinese tourists and northern lights and even my favourtie cartoon Moonmin.

Anyway she picked us up from the hotel at 7pm. Once we got into her car she took off her hat and said "oh it's so hot!" And I was like seriously? It's minus 4 outside! She told us we may not see the northern lights tonight coz it's very cloudy and it's going to snow. So she decided to bring us to even further north! Hang on! Does that mean we are going to North Pole? Nah. We are just going to Norway! Hahah 

So in that 2 hours drive we not only searching for northern lights but also talked about Finland, Australia and Hong Kong. Sometimes I wish I know Hong Kong better coz all I know about Hong Kong now is what to eat and there are lots of people from China. If I know Hong Kon better than we have much more to talk about. 

When we started driving, Satu told us Finland can be as cold as minus 50! And usually the snow is like 6 meters deep. Holy crap! 6 meters are like 4 of me tall. So if we come here in the middle of winter Iain may suddenly lost me coz I fall into 6 meters deep snow! We have no chance to live here at all coz we don't even bother to cut  our lawns!! Imagine if we never clear the snow outside our house? We better off just sleep in for the whole winter!

Satu also told us the cars in Finland are built to cope with cold wether. The petrol won't freeze up to minus 35. So I asked her does people still need to work or go to school when it's minus 38? She said yes people still need to work but children may not be able to go to school coz the car won't start! OMG... In Hong Kong we dont go to school when it's plus 38 degree! 

Satu told us it's much easier to drive in minus 38 than 0 degree coz it's less slippery and when she's telling us why she was only driving with one hand. Or NO HAND! God bless her! I almost have a heart attack when we were flying on the ice! But anyway you have to trust the person behind the wheel when you are in the middle of a snow forest! When Iain was asking her what else do we have to pay attention when driving on snow she was like oh it's quit easy when it's not icy and suddenly she said in winter the cold makes your skin very dry you have to put lots of moisturizers! Oh... Maybe having dry skin is worse than driving on slippery ice....

So 2 hour later we finally arrived our first stop - her cousin's house! Yes we were visiting some unknown cousin in the northern Finland. Unknown cousin has a reindeer farm there and their little boy Is just about to feed to the deers so he is waiting for us to show us how to feed deers. He is such a funny young man! Before we arrived, he kept callig Satu and asked her to hurry up coz he wants to go to bed. When we were finally there, he shown us how to feed the deers and he told us how tired he was coz he was gathering the deers all day.

It's just crazy isn't it? We suppose to see northern lights but we came all the way here to feed the deers! And the deers arnt even hungry! 

Anyway, the owner of the house invited us to go inside and have a cup of tea and something to eat. It's amazing to go inside the most traditional Finnish house. Well I should say Sami (Finland oboriginal) actually coz Satu is a full on Sami. 

When we walked inside the house the first thing we saw was this giant reindeer head hanging on the wall on top of the piano. That's crazy! Why do you want to do that? As if you are hanging your favourtie deer's head at home? I can't really understand the concepts of it but anyway that's the way they live here!

They also invited us to have some sausages but we have to BBQ the sausage ourselves! How weird is that??? Don't get me wrong. We totally enjoy the warm welcome from this family and we think it's fantastic! Nothing can be more special than this! But can you imagine 2 Aussies having sausages barbecue in far north Finland at 10pm?? 

It's an amazing night. We had such a wonderful time with this family. We talked about travel, people, animals and culture. That makes the whole visit so special because we were treated like an old friend not some strangers from Australia. At that point I thought to myself it's ok if we don't seethe northern lights tonight coz this home visit is special enough.

You know when you travel, the cities mean nothing to you if you are only a traveller there. It makes such a big difference if you know somebody there. As if you will be back next time and you will see them again as old friend.

Our adventure coninued by driving a bit further west to Norway! I can't believe we actually drove to Norway! We were planned to go there ourselves and do some local sight seeing but the snow were too heavy so we cancelled it. 

By the time we came back from Norway it's like eleven o'clock already so we thought that's it right? But no! The trip is not ended yet!

To be continued.