Avtor: jkregar

The journey of our curious fellowship, Anka’s Angels, began at Tievatupa Youth Center, from where we had set off to the settlement of Kiilopää. We were granted a good weather, and well maintained roads nearby Kiilopää provided the best environment to get used to walking with our heavy backpacks and hiking shoes. On the hills above Kiilopää, herds of reindeers started to accompany us, and, sadly, mosquitoes joined them once we got down the hill to the valley. The character of the landscape changed – swamps and rocks appeared soon after we entered the deeps of the Urho Kekkonen National Park. We spent our first night nearby a hikers’ hut of Laavu, we prepared our meal on a proper bonfire, we washed our faces in ice-cold and ice-clear river. During this very pleasant evening, some of us had undertaken an epic flip-flop journey over misty bogland and sharp rocks, just to greet our friends in another camping spot across the hill.

The next day started with a river crossing – done in all caution and safety. A romantic path through a river canyon unfortunately also caused a muscle injury of one of us: Ieva had no option but to leave us at another camping spot. We continued in four, map and compass in hand, raincoats always ready, songs on our lips. In the evening, after getting through another canyon, so silent that only our breath was being heard, we found a much-needed bridge over a large river of Suomujoki, and joined another group of travellers at camping spot of Kotaköngäs. What a pleasant evening – swimming in the river, a good meal, heath of bonfire and friends around.

The good weather started to change the next day. After a little navigation problem in the forests near Kotaköngäs, heavy rain struck us on the road, and we were lucky to find shelter in Tuiskukuru, the eastest point of our expedition. Fortunatelly, the sun hurried to dry our things off soon after we came. Next, we climbed hills covered with young birch trees, and we headed to a beautiful lake area with some most romantic views and places. The sun shining through Anka’s hair confirmed that the name of our group, Anka’s Angels, was indeed chosen correctly. We left our leaders and assessors, who followed us in a distance, letters in every hut we passed by, and in the evening, we finally built our tents nearby another hikers’ shelter. Before we went to sleep, a national park ranger travelling aimlessly from hut to hut shared some good stories with us.

To our surprise, the last day of our expedition was filled with energy. Looking forward to the shower and proper food, we had set off earlier than ever before and in incredibly fast pace, we crossed the rest of the hills and swamps to reach Kiilopää and our beloved youth center, Tievatupa.

-Anka’s Angels: Greta, Katarina, Anouk, Vojtěch & Ieva

We are international youth group. We are from Slovenia, Czech rebublic, Netherlands, Lithuania and Finland. We spent four days hiking in Urho Kekkonen National park.

We started in Kiilopää and we went to suomunlampi where we spent first night. On second day after 20 kilometres hiking we slept on Luirojärvi. There were many beautiful views that we could enjoy.  After good night we started walking to kataköngäs where we spent last night. Our stop point was also Kiilopää which offered challenging road.

Everyone learned a lot. Hiking in international group was challenging but memorable. We had some problems acrossing rivers and swamps. It was fun to walk barefoot. Environment was different than in our home countries so that was a new experience. We were happy to walk in silence and just think about everything.

Best wishes UVB

Moi, Sveiki, Hallo, Ahoi, Labas, Zdravo,

Today was the last day of our 4-day expedition in Lapland. We were a group of 6 people, who were all of different nationalities. Because we had such a diversity in our group, we had to communicate using english, suprisingly it wasn’t as difficult as we had thought. We had an amazing time together, sharing stories, making jokes all the time and helping each other complete our golden adventure.

At the beginning of our adventure, we didn’t know what to expect. Quickly we began sharing stories and getting to know each other. We were a really positive minded and helpful group and that’s what made our expedition to be extremely fun. We discoverd new things about each other and ourselves and we are very grateful to have participated in this program and to have met so many amazing people.

We hope that people all over the world will be encouraged to join the Award Program because we found to be an amazing experience and one that we will never forget.

Thank you all and we wish you all the best,

Goodbye, Houdoe, Heihei, Viso gero, Adijo, Na shledanou, Visu labu,

TEAM SOPULIT

Three out of five groups have already arrived in Tievatupa. Surviving in the wilderness was a positive challenge for everyone and all of the hikers were enjoying their time in Urho Kekkonen National park. Participants were showing exemplary team work and I am sure that everyone learnt a lot in these multicultural groups. As a leader I was happy to follow my team’s working, great team spirit and how they helped each other in every situation.

We are waiting now the two last groups to arrive and will then have dinner together <3

-Mari

Today we had a very informative day, everyone was preparing for our hike with their subgroup. We practised with navigation, packing our bags (without forgetting something), the basics about cooking and the very important first-aid lesson ;). After that we drew the routes we were going to walk during the expedition. After a very long meeting, everyone was finally finished making the routes. The groups are almost ready to go on the hike! But first we will have a very fun evening program!

-Dutch team: Seline, Margriet, Anouk, Mirna, Paul & Tom

Today was an exciting day for us. We finally left our beloved Tievatupa and drove for about an hour to Ivalo, a rainy town where we visited Inari radio and the public library. The radio is run by local youngsters who inspired us with thier creativity and talent. We also had the honour to be interviewed and talk about the camp and our lives in home countries. In the afternoon, we visited the library where we carried out the workshops planned the day before. There were some visitors and they all enjoyed our cup song, caricatures and interviews a lot, just as we did. Next on our plan was a visit to a supermarket, where we bought the needed food and clothes for the expedition. Due to the cold weather we were all buying gloves. On our way back to Tieavatupa we stopped in Saariselkä, where we saw our first moose and reindeer. We went to another outdoor shop, where many people bought sporks. We are looking forward to sauna and movie in the evening and we are excited about the coming day.

-Živa and Katarina from Slovenia

Another amazing day has ended here in Tievatupa and it was as good as yesterday. Another day with interesting plans were introduced. Firstly let’s talk about a well known Youth pass&Erasmus+ topics. Surely we heard those names as well as the programs itself before but did we know enough? After this presentation we can strongly say YES. The appearance was well implied and shown to the participants. We were given interesting information which increased our knownledge. With that being said let’s move on to the next activity: Preparing the library visit. The workshops were really successful. The three part division: art, music, storytelling had team work, communication flew easy between participants and in the end the main goal was accomplished. Probably the most emotionaly challenging activity was the game between two different cultures: Durdians and Engineers. It showed us how to be acceptable, tolerant, patienant and communitative. The evening program had a lot to offer: starting with food and ending with traditional dances, culture and even history aspects. After a long day of learning and physical activities we finally managed to relax in the long waited sauna. Now we await what the future days has to offer.

 

-Lithuanian team: Gabrielė, Greta, Dovilė, Saulė & Karolis

   

 

 

Written by the Czech team: Vojtěch, Tabea, Matej, Barbara & Tomáš

Meanwhile, take a look at this amazing video the Lithuanian delegation created whilst doing their practice expedition.

See you tomorrow!
-Katri

Hello!
At first I want to introduce myself: I’m Maiju from Finland and your travelmate at the adventure. I live in Joensuu which stands in Eastern Finland. I study Home Economics in UEF and will graduate soon

Now I want to tell you something about Finland! Finland is a beautiful country where we have four really different seasons when weather and nature changes. Let’s start at the beginning of year:

At spring, the sun starts to shine longer and warmer. At first there is cold and snow, but later all our plants/herbal/vegetation will grow so it’s greener and greener every day. My brazilian roommate said that people crawl out of their homes to have sun, meet friends and have picnics. And that people seems to get really alive when summer gets closer. I agree

Then comes summer. Summer is my favourite season! It’s warm – sometimes over +30’C – and in this summer not just some but several really warm days! It’s now end of summer and so most of our flowers have already gone. Nature wears still it’s best outfit, so you’ll see the most lively nature when you arrive. Today it’s no clouds in the sky and my thermometer says there is +27’C in the shade (27.7., 2:45 PM). You’ll see our summer soon so I don’t ruin the surprise more than this!

Let’s move to our next season, autumn. It is the time when weather gets chilly after the hottest period. That means most of our vegetation starts to get ready for winter to come. Leaf changes colour from green to red, yellow, orange and brown. We call it “ruska”. After “ruska” most leaf fall  to ground an they protect the gound from becoming snow. Maybe the ground needs lot of moist also, don’t know, but despite that it’s raining cats and dogs. Raincoats (to you and your equipment) are necessary!

Last but not least comes winter. You all probably know Santa Claus who visit everyones home at Christmas with reindeers and snowmobile. Lanscape is full of snow and there is so dark outside you can see the stars really easily. Well, not every winter looks like that, but every year comes some snow and sometimes even before Christmas At wintertime we can have under -30’C so it’s very cold somedays. You may want to take some woollensocks with you even it.s not winter!

It is hard to know when season start and end, but they all last something around three months. Now it’s time when summer ends and autumn starts. You’ll need to be prepared to cold and warm, sunshine and rain. Temperature in Lapland will be between -5’C and +25’C.

I welcome you all to Finland and hope you get some unforgettable memories while Tunturi2016!

See you in two days!!
-Maiju