(Finland) Amazing memories in Korpikartano 6 – Snowmobile and Ice Fishing

[15/01/01~07 (D+1225) Korpikartano Hotel]

It had already been four weeks since I stayed in Korpikartano Hotel. There was amazing sunset around 1 pm. It had been really long time to see clear sky around the sunset. Susana, one of colleagues in the hotel told me a few days ago that she dreamed seeing the sun above the horizon. I thought I could understand why she dreamed like that, because I missed the sun so much, too. The last time I’ve seen the sun on the high sky was maybe two months ago.
Although now I was in Arctic Circle where the sun didn’t go above the horizon, the sunset was enough beautiful that I run to Susana to tell her there was amazing sun light.
When I closed to the wilderness, I could realize the most amazing thing on the earth was the sun. I’ve learned this one since cycling.

Always lively hotel..
The left on the picture was Maarit who cooked amazingly. I liked her because she always made so yummy food.
The next was Iitu. She also worked in the kitchen, but sometimes she worked for other things. She studied Wilderness guide, so when the hotel was busy, she worked as a guide.
The next was my boss, Anne. Although she was the owner of the hotel, she did everything such as cleaning the room, cooking in the kitchen, working in the office for marketing and other things. She told me she didn’t do one thing anymore. That’s Guide. She also studied Wilderness guide, but she didn’t guide anymore, but except that really she did everything. It was quite interesting to me that the boss could do everything. She was the hardest worker in the hotel. Sometimes I worried her hearth. I hoped she was doing well. Anyway I’ve learned many things from her.
The last on the picture was Linda who also studied Wilderness guide. But now she worked in the office to help Anne.

Together~

There was a small kitchen in the office. Always there was lots of yummy food on the freezer. I got free food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every time. The last of the picture was typical Finnish food that rice was mixed with orange and some sauce. As Korean who had eaten rice all life in Korea, this food was weird. If my mum sees that I made this food, she would say “Stop playing with the food, I told you!”
The most meat I had eaten was meat of Reindeer. Reindeer was the most expensive meat, but Anne loved to serve the guest a local food. So I ate a lot of Reindeer. Also there was a lots of fish.

When I was in an office, Anne made a call to Linda to tell there was a big aurora now. Also Haruna made a call. When we went outside, there was really big aurora.

Purple Aurora was above the head.

I felt like the aurora will cover all over the earth soon with the beautiful light.

It was not possible to see aurora in an office or room, because the room was too bright and outside was too dark. If we turned off the light, it might be possible to see. But the aurora only didn’t appear one side, it could be left, right or backward. Also we never knew what time aurora came out. Usually 8~11pm was common. But this time it was only 5 pm.

It was hard to go outside all the time in the cold weather. The best way was to check aurora forecast. I did trust this site so much.

http://aurora.fmi.fi/public_service/magforecast_en.html

As my experience, this site was the best for hunting Aurora in Finland. The hotel was close to Kevo, so I always checked the Kevo.
When the activity was weak, the color was green. When it was strong, the color was red. So, when the red was shown in one hour, I was prepared for camera and clothes.

http://aurora.fmi.fi/public_service/english/latest_asc_image.html
This was live cam. I watched Kevo. So, when I could see red on above table, I kept watching the cam. When there was a small aurora shown on the cam, then I run to the outside.

There were other websites, too. But I didn’t trust it much.

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/Europe/

http://www.aurora-service.eu/aurora-forecast/

Except working time or other time, I always opened http://aurora.fmi.fi/ for hunting aurora.

If you stay in Korpikartano Hotel (http://www.korpikartano.fi/), I do recommend checking this website. http://aurora.fmi.fi/

Thanks to Anne, I had done many winter activities so far. At the first day I always did snow mobile. But at that time I didn’t drive. This time I had chance to drive. It was more fun to drive alone. Today there was really strong aurora at 5 pm, but now the sky was very cloud.

But there was big Moon halo.

The picture was me. Suddenly I got a new wish. I did want to buy a snow mobile. I had so much fun to drive.

Today our guide was Sebastian. I told him that I wanted to buy snow mobile. He told me that the price could be the same as a car. My wish suddenly disappeared. Hahaha.
After fun activity, I asked him I would like to park snow mobiles. Usually after using snow mobile, a guide parked at one place and covered with plastic thing. I wanted to work this this kind of job, but I didn’t have chance. Now I got the chance. So, I asked him. He was cool that he let me do it.
It was super cool night!!

At the next day around 10 am, it was still dark. Martti was going ..

with guests for guiding

I went to a small cottage and had my last fire in the hotel.

Susana made a beautiful cake.

Linda, who helped cleaning the room for the busy season, was Sami, aboriginal people in Finland. She had Reindeer farm that she was usually busy. She would teach Reindeer herding in college of Inari soon. So it was her last day and also my last day. That’s why Susana baked a pretty cake.

Well done~

Always the kitchen of the office was busy. Although the judgment from the abroad was that Finnish are quiet, actually people were very talkative in the hotel. All of them could speak in English, so I didn’t have any problem to communicate. But when they became talkative, usually they spoke in Finnish. So, I could not join their conversation. I wish I could speak Finnish that moment.
On the picture Miia was holding some stick, which she got as a gift. She told me she might play when the hotel was slow.

Haruna was Japanese and she came to Finland five years ago. When she arrived in Finland, she could not speak any Finnish. She started working in other place. She wanted to join conversation, so she studied Finnish hard. Now she spoke Finnish all the time. She also studied Wilderness guide here.
When she talked to Japanese guest in Japanese, I was surprised. “wow.. she can speak Japanese”

Susana was like American that she was so friendly and talked a lot.
When Susana spoke in Finnish and Haruna spoke in Japanese, it was surprising. Wow American speaks Finnish and Finnish speaks Japanese. Sorry for bad joke.. haha

I thought I didn’t have many pictures of me with aurora. So, I tried it, but aurora was weak.

I was really happy to see beautiful aurora many times during staying in the hotel.

By the way I didn’t try ice fishing yet. At the last I got the chance. I drove snow mobile alone again. Martti was showing how to do it.

First of all he made hole and scooped ice.

Actually he told me January was easier because there was lighter. But I was just excited to have experience.

I thought that if I put more light, maybe the fish would come.

I asked him about it. He said it would be not much helpful.

He caught a small fish first. Yeah, that’s guide. He was maybe right that the light was not important.

He let fish go as soon as catching.

I was thinking maybe I should make other hole.

Meanwhile he caught another fish, but it was bigger. I asked what trick was. He just smiled.

He also let it go again soon.
If I caught it, I might have bbq in a small cottage.

We moved to the other place. He showed the typical Finnish way to use net fishing. There was a stick on the lake. Now I realized that it meant there was net. He removed the snow, opened the lid and broke the ice.

He pulled the some string.

It seemed that there were two holes for net.

This time it was quite big. He smashed fish head to the ice. Maybe it gave fish less pain for dying.

He put back the net. It was very interesting day!

I didn’t make this one by myself. I guessed some guest made it.
It was super lucky to have the contact to Korpikartano Hotel and the got volunteer job. Actually I thought I got more things than giving to the hotel. I got free room which cost over 100$ per night and free food. Also I had so many activities for free. My working time was not much and I got day off very regularly. Also colleagues were so kind to me I really stayed well here. I had so many thankful things to the hotel.

I cycled in the freezing cold winter because I wanted to see dancing aurora. Finally I made a ream real. I do thank to all of colleagues in the hotel.

Thank you so much for all your kindness – http://www.korpikartano.fi/

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The video of Aurora

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[15/01/01~07 (D+1225) Korpikartano Hotel] Amazing memories in Korpikartano 6 – Snowmobile and Ice Fishing