We flew into Helsinki and had one night together before our other members of Team Extreme joined us, Mouse and Marty. Join us they did! Much excitement, much merriment! We spent our time in Helsinki trying not to spend all our money before Christmas. We caught a ferry to a cool island that reminded us a bit of cockatoo island and we visited the very Scandinavian looking Christmas markets where we ate some delicious gravlax tasters. We also visited a church and a giant food market with amazing looking fish. Too bad we had to get on an overnight train to Lapland. Our train was a slow moving beast where we only had chairs to sleep on, the lights were never turned off and people liked to rustle and munch their packets of chips at three in the morning. It was great. I still managed to sleep though, try and stop me! We made it up to Kolari station in the morning where it was still dark. I had organized a taxi to pick us up and take us direct to our cabins in Ylläs. Brilliant! Our cabins, oooohhhh our cabins!! Even writing about this week is making me excited. I had the best time ever! Best way to spend Christmas when away from family and what an awesome bunch of people to be with. We had two adjoining log cabins with fire places, full kitchens and saunas! We were five minutes from the ski fields, the weather was sunny and clear all week and the place was full of activities.
I sucked at most of the activities such as walking in snow or on ice, and skiing but I excelled in sledding and northern lights watching. We tried cross country skiing again and I was OK but pretty nervous of the big hills at the beginning of the track. I fell over a bit. Because the sun was only up for a few hours they keep the cross country tracks and slope lit up until ten. This meant we could enjoy dinner, have a few cold ones then head down to the big hill with a bit more pep in our step. It took me a while but I finally made it down without stacking it! The best part though was finally seeing Rowan stack it. I was about two meters away and it was spectacular. What a legend! I didn't get him on video though, not like Frosty's stack. It still makes me laugh! Just message me for a copy of the comedy gold.
We never took as many photos as we would have liked because it was so cold our camera couldnt handle it!
I sucked at most of the activities such as walking in snow or on ice, and skiing but I excelled in sledding and northern lights watching. We tried cross country skiing again and I was OK but pretty nervous of the big hills at the beginning of the track. I fell over a bit. Because the sun was only up for a few hours they keep the cross country tracks and slope lit up until ten. This meant we could enjoy dinner, have a few cold ones then head down to the big hill with a bit more pep in our step. It took me a while but I finally made it down without stacking it! The best part though was finally seeing Rowan stack it. I was about two meters away and it was spectacular. What a legend! I didn't get him on video though, not like Frosty's stack. It still makes me laugh! Just message me for a copy of the comedy gold.
We never took as many photos as we would have liked because it was so cold our camera couldnt handle it!
Our cabin came with some bonus plastic sleds and we liked to take these to a hill after dinner and go nuts. It was a road so it was nice and icy and you could go really fast and really far. Unless you were Mouse. She had some sort of gravitational pull towards the walls and piles of snow. Marty even made us some sweet jumps and I took 'em all. Then when it was time to go back I would get frosty to give me a big push and I'd go down the road, round the corner and stop out the front of our cabin. I loved the sledding. Reminded me of riding on skateboards at Nan's old place in Hornsby.
One of the ultimate highlights was watching the northern lights every night! How lucky are we?! We'd eat dinner, sit around being cosy and warm and usually myself or Marty would go and check how things were going. Then we'd rug up to the nines and run out as fast as we could. Each night got better and better finally lighting up the whole sky with green and purple dances. I'm so addicted to it! Once you pop you can't stop! One night we were having some quality sauna and beer time when the call came. Running around like headless chooks we finally got enough clothes on and bolted outside for the show. Wow! Most beautiful thing I'd seen since Rowan in his ladies jacket. It was great sharing the experience with everyone and hearing us ohh and ahh and shout and point. "That was a great show! Oooh, getting a bit chilly. I'm going inside. Have you got the key?" "No, who's got the key?" "I haven't got the key!" "I don't have it." Classic. Locked out. We all pile into Rowan, Ella and Al's cabin to spend the night. The best part? The spare key was in the unlocked car the whole time but we didn't know that until after we'd made it back in. Nothing like quality bonding time with your buddies!
Christmas day was so lovely! We had decorated our cabin with hand made goodies to make it super festive. Marty and I made pancakes and French toast for breakfast while we had Christmas carols playing and merriment making a plenty. After breakfast Al whips out a package from his bag and hands us all a bunch of cards and gifts from our families! It was so amazing! The best surprise ever and what a legend he is organising it all! I loved reading the messages from our families so far away. So good!
We all chipped in to get our Christmas feast ready. The day before Al and I had prepped heaps of things so it wasn't crazy on the big day (I had about 2 liters of gravy). Our feast consisted of gravlax, black bread, cream cheese and pickles for an entrée. Bacon wrapped pork roast, with roast veg, nut roast, gravy and apple sauce and dessert was lemon curd with whipped cream and custom made ginger bread men. I came, I ate, I conquered. It was even better late at night eaten with our fingers.
After dinner we had our very own gift giving extravaganza. We all had to find something around the cabin to give as a gift and weren't they thoughtful and beautiful! My girl Mousey even made us special Christmas hats to wear!
The rest of the night was filled with cards, music, laughing, dancing, northern lights watching, jumping down snow piles on bums, saunas, nude snow runs and of course, late night sledding.
One of the ultimate highlights was watching the northern lights every night! How lucky are we?! We'd eat dinner, sit around being cosy and warm and usually myself or Marty would go and check how things were going. Then we'd rug up to the nines and run out as fast as we could. Each night got better and better finally lighting up the whole sky with green and purple dances. I'm so addicted to it! Once you pop you can't stop! One night we were having some quality sauna and beer time when the call came. Running around like headless chooks we finally got enough clothes on and bolted outside for the show. Wow! Most beautiful thing I'd seen since Rowan in his ladies jacket. It was great sharing the experience with everyone and hearing us ohh and ahh and shout and point. "That was a great show! Oooh, getting a bit chilly. I'm going inside. Have you got the key?" "No, who's got the key?" "I haven't got the key!" "I don't have it." Classic. Locked out. We all pile into Rowan, Ella and Al's cabin to spend the night. The best part? The spare key was in the unlocked car the whole time but we didn't know that until after we'd made it back in. Nothing like quality bonding time with your buddies!
Christmas day was so lovely! We had decorated our cabin with hand made goodies to make it super festive. Marty and I made pancakes and French toast for breakfast while we had Christmas carols playing and merriment making a plenty. After breakfast Al whips out a package from his bag and hands us all a bunch of cards and gifts from our families! It was so amazing! The best surprise ever and what a legend he is organising it all! I loved reading the messages from our families so far away. So good!
We all chipped in to get our Christmas feast ready. The day before Al and I had prepped heaps of things so it wasn't crazy on the big day (I had about 2 liters of gravy). Our feast consisted of gravlax, black bread, cream cheese and pickles for an entrée. Bacon wrapped pork roast, with roast veg, nut roast, gravy and apple sauce and dessert was lemon curd with whipped cream and custom made ginger bread men. I came, I ate, I conquered. It was even better late at night eaten with our fingers.
After dinner we had our very own gift giving extravaganza. We all had to find something around the cabin to give as a gift and weren't they thoughtful and beautiful! My girl Mousey even made us special Christmas hats to wear!
The rest of the night was filled with cards, music, laughing, dancing, northern lights watching, jumping down snow piles on bums, saunas, nude snow runs and of course, late night sledding.
One day we went to the snow village down the road where a whole hotel is carved out of ice. It had rooms, a slide, cathedral, cinema and bar! The bar served shots of local spirits in one off ice glasses. Pretty snazwit! It was cold here. Bloody cold! The lowest we got was -28c. I don't remember it getting above 0. It was so cold your nose hairs, eyelashes and man beards would freeze. Your skin would ache and no matter how many socks you had on, your toes would go numb. It was even worse at night when you never wanted the northern lights to end but you kind of did so you could get warm before it started again. I loved it all. Loved it!! Then we had to leave and I was sad. Back on the hellish train to Helsinki and straight onto a ferry to Tallinn in Estonia to get ready for new years eve!
Tallinn was beautiful! One of the best cities we'd been to. Cute, snow covered old town, Christmas markets and good, affordable beer! We loved the old town so spent lots of time there. I found this guy dressed in medieval get up selling elk and boar pies and elk soup! Sign me up big fella!! And he was selling them for one and two euro! We also saw Santa, exhausted after his big day but still willing to have his photo with us, and some of his snoozing reindeer.
New years eve, of course, was big. We hit the town, I slipped over on ice on the way and almost did the splits...gracefully. We had craft beer, seafood feasts and much merriment. We made new friends, Mika and the Latvians, and bought in the new years with a massive fireworks display that never really ended because people bought their own to keep it going. We wrestled in the snow and went to a look out to view this amazing city in all its new year glory.
A little while out of town was a snow tubing park? what's that you ask? only the greatest adventure ever! you get in a tyre tube with a thin plastic base and launch yourself down the ice, bumpy slope. it was crazy!! The bumps were huge we were getting so much air, fresh snow would fly up into your eyes and all you could do was hold on, close your eyes and hope for the best! The way up was easy! trap onto a strap, sit in your tube and get pulled up along a big cable. This was prime snow ball fighting time. The last person to the top usually got pelted with snow balls. You had to be quick and you had to not waste too many on your way up if you wanted a chance!
The end was near. Team Extreme was parting ways. We said goodbye to Al, Mouse and Marty and hello to the Dream Team aka Rozwit, Ella, Kat and Frosty.
Look out Latvia we're coming for ya!!
Tallinn was beautiful! One of the best cities we'd been to. Cute, snow covered old town, Christmas markets and good, affordable beer! We loved the old town so spent lots of time there. I found this guy dressed in medieval get up selling elk and boar pies and elk soup! Sign me up big fella!! And he was selling them for one and two euro! We also saw Santa, exhausted after his big day but still willing to have his photo with us, and some of his snoozing reindeer.
New years eve, of course, was big. We hit the town, I slipped over on ice on the way and almost did the splits...gracefully. We had craft beer, seafood feasts and much merriment. We made new friends, Mika and the Latvians, and bought in the new years with a massive fireworks display that never really ended because people bought their own to keep it going. We wrestled in the snow and went to a look out to view this amazing city in all its new year glory.
A little while out of town was a snow tubing park? what's that you ask? only the greatest adventure ever! you get in a tyre tube with a thin plastic base and launch yourself down the ice, bumpy slope. it was crazy!! The bumps were huge we were getting so much air, fresh snow would fly up into your eyes and all you could do was hold on, close your eyes and hope for the best! The way up was easy! trap onto a strap, sit in your tube and get pulled up along a big cable. This was prime snow ball fighting time. The last person to the top usually got pelted with snow balls. You had to be quick and you had to not waste too many on your way up if you wanted a chance!
The end was near. Team Extreme was parting ways. We said goodbye to Al, Mouse and Marty and hello to the Dream Team aka Rozwit, Ella, Kat and Frosty.
Look out Latvia we're coming for ya!!