There is so much to see here in Lapland.

I’ve been living in Lapland for over 6 months now and it’s hard to put into words how much I’ve fallen in love with this place since moving here. I have crossed many items off my wish list and have had one of the best experiences of my life here.

When you think of Lapland, you think of the Northern Lights. No matter where we’re from, we’ve all heard about the colorful lights dancing over the snowy northern landscape. My biggest dream from a young age was to see them for myself, and here it finally came true. One of the best places I saw the Northern Lights was near Rovaniemi in Norvajärvi. We rented a car and picked a place on the map where the chances of seeing Northern Lights were good. Halfway there, we stopped on the side of the road and saw the lights, which were red and purple in addition to the usual green. That was one of my best experiences. The place itself was just a small road next to a frozen lake. The definition of “in the middle of nowhere.” The whole sky was on fire and dancing around.

During my studies, I also visited Kilpisjärvi, the northernmost municipality in Finland. My friends and I once again rented a car and drove north. Our plan was to hunt northern lights, but unfortunately that was not the day. We were disappointed, but soon we saw the beautiful mountains, which we could clearly see as the bright light of the moon reflected off the fresh snow that covered the entire landscape. On our way north we found a laavu (Finnish word for a place to sit around a fire), parked the car and made a campfire. While eating marshmallows and sausages with perunaleipä (Finnish word for potato bread), we enjoyed the beautiful scenery Finland offered us.

On the way back from my trip to France, I accidentally boarded the wrong train in the Finnish capital Helsinki and ended up in the Finnish Lake District. Despite my disappointment, I enjoyed my time travelling in the wrong direction because I was able to experience the beauty of the region through the windows of the train.

I can say without a doubt that those months I spent in Lapland were some of the bests in my life so far. Even if you don’t come here to study or for an Erasmus program, come here one day, you just have to see it for yourself.

– Vincenzina
1st year Data Engineering Student –