Day 5 – 18/04/26

Ignacio:
We all woke up around the same time and had breakfast with toast made from a very popular bread in Finland. Then, we cleaned and prepared an bathtub, filled it with water, and cut wood to heat it. They also showed me how to cut and prepare firewood properly. After that, we had lunch, chicken with roasted vegetables, and then we went to Bore, the town where the family grew up. There, they bought some things and left one of their boats for repair. When we returned home, we heated the bathtub again and tried a typical Finnish dessert made of melted cheese with milk and jam from a local fruit. For dinner, we had stuffed baked potatoes. Later, we tried one of the most popular Finnish traditions: we first spent some time in the sauna, then went into cold water (around 10°C), and finally into the hot bathtub (around 40°C).

Enrique:
When we arrived in Lapland, we were very tired after sleeping on the train. Still, we left our luggage in a cottage where Jimi’s grandmother lives, and where we would stay for a few days. After that, we went to the forest behind the cottage, where I saw snow for the first time in my life. It was a bit frozen because of the low temperatures at night, but during the day it became softer as it started to melt. Walking in the forest was difficult because our feet sank into the snow, but we kept going. At one point, we found an axe and some logs, so we cut some firewood. After lunch, we explored the village of Äkäslompolo, visiting a supermarket decorated with a giant reindeer statue. Then, we walked on a completely frozen lake with amazing views, where some people were fishing and others were cross-country skiing. After spending more time exploring the village and playing in the snow, we went back home, used the sauna,                                                   since there was no lake nearby, we jumped into the snow instead.