I’ve been quiet for a while as I’ve had the very good fortune to at long last take a holiday. We did a 6 week sojourn through Europe and the United Kingdom. One of the places we were privileged to stay at a few days was the Star Arctic Hotel located Saariselkä, part of Lapland in the very northern area of Finland. We stayed in some glass cabins for two nights in the hopes of see an aurora and while we did get some very faint ones it wasn’t quite what we hoped for but that’s the dice you roll on aurora hunting.

What I did get was some amazing experiences with the cold, sun and wind. I don’t normally do video but I couldn’t resit capturing the view from the top of Kaunispää mountain that overlooks Saariselkä. The morning was bright and crisp, there had been solid snow overnight and I had the entire place to myself. The air temperature was -16c but with the howling winds (which you can hear in the video) it was closer to -22c. As someone that much more enjoys the cold than heat this was fantastic.

Despite the short stay I loved this area of the world. I loved standing by myself in the howling wind taking photographs while my partner took the much more sensible approach of relaxing in the very well heated cabin. I very much want to revisit this corner of the world for a longer period and take more of it in.