This darkness makes me think of last summer and especially one week in the beginning of August. I spent five days in Lapland with my sister and my sister-in-law. It was a holiday away from the nearest and the dearest - the perfect holiday, that is!

We flew to the northernmost airport in Finland - Ivalo and spent one night at Saariselkä. A one-hour flight and we felt like being abroad. That's the magic of Lapland. The following day we made a roughly 30 k hike in the mountain area, enjoyed the beautiful landscape and took photos of reindeers that always make sure that they show their bum to you when you're taking a photo - a funny animal.  

I had been hiking in Lapland with my sister a few years earlier and the first thing we taught to our sister-in-law was the right kind of picnic for a mountain hike - a sandwich and a bottle of champagne and cloudberry liquor! You just pick a few cloudberries and a perfect cocktail is ready!

The following day we decided to drive to the Arctic Ocean - for a swim! It was hot in Lapland (25 degrees) - a swim in ice-cold water seemed like a very good idea. We drove to the northenmost village in Finland and stayed they for the night - in an amazingly friendly hotel close to the Norvegian border. The staff even heated the sauna for us and we had a chance to swim in the river! Fantastic. We enjoyed the neverending daylight and the midnight sun.

The next morning we crossed the border to Norway and approached the Varanger fjord - breathtaking. You could see the Arctic ocean - the misty horizon of the Barents Sea. It was almost dead calm, not a breeze. We got out of the car, it wasn't hot anymore, the temperature had dropped down to 16 degrees. But it didn't prevent the locals from being in their shorts and t-shirts! Rough conditions, tough people.

We drove the road to where the world ends - at least so it seemed. But didn't find a beach for a swim. I was driving and my sister was complaining that I deliberately missed all the beaches she spotted on the way - quite honestly the sea didn't look inviting to me and I didn't see any other people in swimming suits.

When driving back we chose another road, the one that goes close to the Russian border, so we drove close by the point where three time zones meet: the Central European (Norway), the Central Eastern European (Finland) and the Eastern European (Russia) - taking a few steps in that region basically means loosing or gaining two hours - quite unique!