Lapland in Winter
Sodankylä - Tromsø

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22^th of February 2002
Car trip, day 1: Kiilopää - Sodankylä - Tromsø

The weather was again not the best when we started our car trip to Sodankylä at 9 o'clock in the morning. It was overcast and it began to snow.

Very soon we learned the most important lessons in driving in Lapland. So we stopped every time when we saw a forthcoming truck we stopped, because behind the truck a huge cloud of raised snow obscured our sight for many seconds.

Sodankylä, one of the most important towns in Northern Finland, is not very interesting. We visited the old church and continued our tour to Norway.

The snowfall was getting more and more dense and when it was getting darker it was sometimes difficult to see the road. When we crossed the Norwegian border the weather and the landscape changed rapidly. The road transformed to a steep mountain road down to the sea and the foehn wind broke up the cloud cover, so that we were able to gaze the daunting mountain scenery of Norway in the moon light.

Short before Tromsø we saw fantastic Northern lights above us. The whole landscape was shimmering in a strange green light and the mystic lights were drawing weird formations in the sky. It was the first time, we saw such an intense Aurora Borealis and in good mood we arrived in Tromsø.

Searching the youth hostel, we found a nice, small hotel near the city centre (Hotell Nord) and after we brought our luggage to the room, we made a walk to the city centre.

Unlike to the cities of Northern Finland, this city is full of life and has real old wooden buildings ... it was like a dream.