Lapland - sports

Something you should not miss when travelling to Lapland and spending time there is doing sports.
Lapland is full of snow and as a result of this offers a wide range of winter sport facilities.

During my time in Lapland I tried to do cross country skiing, sledging and ice swimming.
It was my first time trying to go cross country skiing and I absolutely loved it. On this Thursday afternoon the weather was extremely lovely and the sun was shining through the trees as if I was in a fairytale.
After a short introduction and some practicing how to use the skies, the whole group went for a tour through the forest. I liked the silence and spending time in the nature and that is why I continued to go for another tour with 3 spanish guys. For my first time, I managed really well and did not fall down into the snow at all. I am pretty sure I will do cross country skiing again when I am back in Austria.

Our tour through the forest

I met a lot of new people during the trip and built up some new friendships with people from different parts of the world. Together with some French, Belgian, Mexican and the Northern Irish girls we went sledging down a hill close to our cottage. The accomodation provided some sledges which were free of charge. I had so much fun but could feel my butt hurting in the evening.

The sledging was not the only activity I did with them but we also went for a walk and had a snow fight. The snow was a bit powdery and so it was quite difficult to form the balls but we were able to fend for ourselves and took some chunks of snowice instead. They were so heavy that we knocked ourselves over sometimes. But luckily nobody got hurt and we had something to laugh about.

The accomodation also included sauna and ice-swimming in the lake next to the building. After being to the sauna in the evening we jumped into the snow and swam in the lake. The water was totally freezing and so I quickly got out of the water again.

Doing ice-swimming after the sauna releases the body and makes you feel so much more awake and refreshed afterwards. People should not miss the chance to try this amazing experience when they ever decide to come to Finland!