Greetings from Lapland, Finland!
We took a little trip to the Northern part of Finland. Stanley liked it very much although his clothing was again not so suitable but we found him warm mittens, a hat and overalls so he could enjoy the nature.
Lapland is a large area in the Northern parts of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia. In the old times there used to live "Saami" -people that spoke their own language and got their living from fishing and reindeer.
At the moment there are not very many original Saami -people left so they try to keep up their culture and language so it wouldn't disappear.
As we've had a lot of snow in Hamina, it didn't surprise Stanley that there was even more of it in Lapland. Stanley went on some skiing trips (in the rucksack, the journeys were too long for him as we skiied almost to the top of the hill you can see behind him in the picture). The best part of the trips were when we stopped by a fireplace in the forest and grilled sausage! Yum. It tasted really good with some warm juice, and it also kept us warm. There were a lof of tourists from different parts of Finland and even from different countries of Europe. But no, Stanley didn't hear any English around him, only Finnish, Swedish, German and French. But he kept on smiling and communicated that way.
Stanley was very anxious to see some reindeer and one day he was lucky! Too bad we didn't have the camera with us, but Stanley thought that they looked exactly the same that he had seen on movies and cartoons. People keep reindeer for their meat and the fur. The reindeer meat is dark and quite dry meat and people eat it as a roast or a stew, usually with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam.
We stayed in Lapland for a week as we had a little winter holiday from school. Stanley really liked the nature, you could see so far away and there isn't so crowded, you can enjoy the quietness and peace. Stanley was very relaxed and is ready for new adventures. Only the trip home was quite long, we had to drive 12 hours back South.
Stanley continues his stay here with us. Now we are waiting for the spring to come, now the weather has been sunny but the snow is still there. The children still go skiing and skating! But soon it shoud get a little bit warmer so Stanley can play more outside. Jaguar Stanley wants to wish you all a Happy Easter in Finnish, It's "Iloista pääsiäistä!"
