Day 5, Finland, Inari

In Lapland, weather it is Norway, Sweden or Finland, you can always find standard snow activities. These include: skiing, cross country skiing, Husky dog sledding, reindeer farm activities, snow mobiles and the less popular, horse riding and ice fishing. Well, we had done most of these activities on previous trips so we went for the ice fishing. Next to the Inari Hotel there is the tourist info which can give advise and contacts, and next to that is the office of "Inari Lake & Snow". It is a family run business, they also run the camping ground down the road. For 155 Euro per person, we were kitted out in snow gear, and went on a 4 hour excursion, riding snow mobiles over the ice covered lake. Our guide took us to two of the local sites, the wooden Pielpajärvi wilderness church and the Island Ukko which was once a Sami burial site. You get to climb the hill on the island, which is high, and open to the elements, especially the wind, but it gives you breathtaking views. After that we stopped in the middle of the lake and tried our hand at ice fishing. Only our guide caught anything. Then he took us to a hut on another island where he lite a fire in the centre and we had a light meal, including cooking the fish over the open fire. We don't eat meat, so feel free to tell them your dietary preferences.

Once back in town we looked around the souvenir shops. Make sure you shop around as although there are only about three shops, the prices vary. We found that the biggest souvenir shop had the best deals.

Over dinner that evening we heard about the Inari International Indigenous Peoples Film festival, and more importantly the after party that would be held in the Inari Hotel! The film festival is worth seeing not only to experience watching films in the outdoor ice theatre , and for seeing unusual films by various indigenous people from around the world, but more importantly, it gives you the chance to get to know these special people in the Inari Hotel pub afterwards. The place gets packed, and there are performances by Sami musicians, really an unforgettable evening.

Photo from Luontoon