It's time for another story about my adventures!
I've spoke a couple of times before about my time as a holiday rep, and the main reason I did the summer season was to get to Lapland for Christmas. My Mum took my little brother in 2014, and she said it was amazing, that the holiday rep was just like me and that I should definitely apply. So I did, I mean I was graduating, what did I have to lose? I knew I would have to do a summer season first but I was honest from the beginning, I just really wanted to go to Lapland.
So I did my summer in Greece and half way through, we were asked to apply for any Winter 2015 or Summer 2016 placements we may want to be on. I applied for the Summer with the mindset of 'Why not?' but really the main thing for me was the Winter Placements. Whilst people I had worked and trained with were off to places across Spain for Winter, I wrote magical stories to get on to the Lapland Programme. I remember when the day finally came for me to find out, my manager said down the phone that I'd got it and I screamed (in a hotel) with happiness... I was so excited!
Once the time came for me to come back from Greece it was only 5 weeks until I was jetting off to Helsinki, and then to Kittila. The emails and chat kept coming thick and fast, and I had packages arriving most days - whether it's a crazy alarm that flies around the room forcing you to get up, water free moisturiser (I was told it gets so cold that face products with water in could freeze on your face... OUCH) and a thermal scarf. Soon I was making my way to Gatwick to meet the people I would be spending Christmas and New Year with! So exciting!
We had a 9 hour stop over in Helsinki airport, which was a great way to get to know everybody and not a very good way to get some ZZZZZz's. But once we landed - it was SO worth it. I was just off of Kittila Airport which is approximately 2 hours into the Arctic Circle. When we landed it was around 0 degrees, which apparently was quite warm for end of November, but the lowest it got to was -28. At -28 my hair froze, my brain stopped working and it was a lot harder to keep children happy!
It was a completely different kind of cold to being back here in Britain though, it wasn't wet, gloomy and boring like it is here! Waking up every morning to the glittery snow is SO worth being a little bit chilly, and I can honestly say I was only really cold a couple of times, once when I was skiing (I am not a natural skier and I don't think I'll be going on a skiing holiday any time soon) and I skid off across the slope, into a snowdrift and got stuck for about 15 minutes/15 hours. The instructor kept skiing past with the other people on the class trying to get me back up the hill, not believing my constant assurance that I was in fact done with skiing.
- Invest in gloves. Once your hands are cold you really don't want to do anything so get a good pair - I got mine from TK Maxx and they were only about £20 but be sure to try them on!
Where do you want to travel too? Let me know below!
I've spoke a couple of times before about my time as a holiday rep, and the main reason I did the summer season was to get to Lapland for Christmas. My Mum took my little brother in 2014, and she said it was amazing, that the holiday rep was just like me and that I should definitely apply. So I did, I mean I was graduating, what did I have to lose? I knew I would have to do a summer season first but I was honest from the beginning, I just really wanted to go to Lapland.
So I did my summer in Greece and half way through, we were asked to apply for any Winter 2015 or Summer 2016 placements we may want to be on. I applied for the Summer with the mindset of 'Why not?' but really the main thing for me was the Winter Placements. Whilst people I had worked and trained with were off to places across Spain for Winter, I wrote magical stories to get on to the Lapland Programme. I remember when the day finally came for me to find out, my manager said down the phone that I'd got it and I screamed (in a hotel) with happiness... I was so excited!
Once the time came for me to come back from Greece it was only 5 weeks until I was jetting off to Helsinki, and then to Kittila. The emails and chat kept coming thick and fast, and I had packages arriving most days - whether it's a crazy alarm that flies around the room forcing you to get up, water free moisturiser (I was told it gets so cold that face products with water in could freeze on your face... OUCH) and a thermal scarf. Soon I was making my way to Gatwick to meet the people I would be spending Christmas and New Year with! So exciting!
We had a 9 hour stop over in Helsinki airport, which was a great way to get to know everybody and not a very good way to get some ZZZZZz's. But once we landed - it was SO worth it. I was just off of Kittila Airport which is approximately 2 hours into the Arctic Circle. When we landed it was around 0 degrees, which apparently was quite warm for end of November, but the lowest it got to was -28. At -28 my hair froze, my brain stopped working and it was a lot harder to keep children happy!
It was a completely different kind of cold to being back here in Britain though, it wasn't wet, gloomy and boring like it is here! Waking up every morning to the glittery snow is SO worth being a little bit chilly, and I can honestly say I was only really cold a couple of times, once when I was skiing (I am not a natural skier and I don't think I'll be going on a skiing holiday any time soon) and I skid off across the slope, into a snowdrift and got stuck for about 15 minutes/15 hours. The instructor kept skiing past with the other people on the class trying to get me back up the hill, not believing my constant assurance that I was in fact done with skiing.
The views of Lapland are just unexplainable. It is b-e-a-u-tiful. Once it gets to around the 3rd December the sun sets for the final time that year, and doesn't come up again until around a month later at the beginning of January. This brings for lots of sunrises and sunsets without doing long days, crisp lighting and sparkling snow - but unfortunately makes taking pictures difficult! I think the ones above make you see just how beautiful, breathtaking and magical it is as a place. And yes, I did see the Aurora Borealis, and no you cannot get a decent picture.
I was over there for just over 5 weeks, and whilst I was there I did a lot of very 'snowy' type activities, which really were once in a lifetime (if I wasn't very set on going back) such as husky riding, being pulled along in a reindeer sleigh, snowmobiling, partaking in traditional Finnish New Year activities and most importantly meeting the real Santa!!!
The most important thing about any of this was learning this one fact: Huskies stink. Like they really smell. When we went and met them and cuddled them it was all very sweet - until the next day you put your scarf on and it smells like a dog pooed on it. It's so bad hahahaha.
I think that picture of me with a reindeer is possibly my favourite picture ever. The guide was teaching me how to get close to him without it getting too scared and just before this she had said 'make sure he doesn't hit you with his antlers cause that'll really hurt' or something like that - hence the scared face. The guide also decided to be right cheeky and said 'oh maybe you'll have a boyfriend now' hiiiiiiilarious ;)
It's now top of my travel list to travel round Scandanavia - namely see more of Finland and also Denmark and Norway I find most exciting. The only thing that puts me off is everything is so expensive over there! You can get cheap flights and cheap hotels but I know that eating and drinking is going to be soooo costly. But eh, anyone fancies hitting it up with me, lemme know ha!
I thought I'd also give you guys some tips for travelling in cold places, so here y'are:
- Invest in gloves. Once your hands are cold you really don't want to do anything so get a good pair - I got mine from TK Maxx and they were only about £20 but be sure to try them on!
- Be careful with products. A lot of products for hair, face, body etc have water in them and you don't want your face to freeze so be careful which ones you choose!
- Hand warmers are great. This is something I didn't have but they look like tea bags and you take them out the packet and shake them and they stay warm for ages.
- Alcohol is expensive, bewarned.
If anyone has any questions about travelling or repping feel free to give me an email on melberryy@googlemail.com!
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2 comments
Oh this sounds so interesting! I've been to Finland before - we were in the east close to the russian border photographing bears, and then headed up to Rovaniemi so we could visit Santa's Village and cross the Arctic circle line haha!
ReplyDeleteIt was amazing - desperate to go back this year! Ah that sounds so sweet, Finlands really nice isn't it? Ah yes I was just a couple of hours up from Rovaniemi at Kittila/Olos :) x
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