A week or two inside the Arctic Circle

When you are travelling it's inevitable that some places you visit will leave a much bigger impression than others. We really only picked Muodoslompolo as a long term stop because there was some volunteer work available, meaning we could stay for a week and hopefully see the northern lights. There were a few other options of places to work in the north but Oliver in Muodoslompolo seemed like the kind of guy we'd get on with. I'm so glad we chose to volunteer with him. 

Amanda took this doozy of Oliver and Mini using her Dianamini
film camera - Say no to hipstamatic iphone camera aps, use film. If
you see a square photo on this blog it's from Amanda's Dianamini

Olivers house

Reindeer, potatoes and lingon berry jam

Oliver moved to Sweden from England a few years ago, bought himself the old community centre in Muodoslompolo and has been chipping away at making it into his home. It's a gloriously massive building and he was happy to have two extra pairs of hands to knock out a few jobs. I spent my first few days helping Oliver construct a storage area for his heating fuel while Amanda was busy doing some gardening and sanding. The weather was really mild; we were there around the autumn equinox so had a pretty normal daylight to dark ratio. But there were a couple of wicked frosts and some awesome clear nights. So for about a week we were helping out around the house, taking frequent trips to Muonio in Finland for supplies, and meeting Oliver's awesome friends. We ate a fair bit of reindeer meat, which is like venison but even more flavoursome, drank some great beer, and worked on our baking skills. I adapted a vegan brownie recipe (to be full of butter) which was a glowing success and Amanda conquered the art of swedish style cinnamon pin wheels (Kanelbullar) as well as smashing out some pretty awesome loaves of bread. 

Amanda's fantastic Kanelbullar - even the locals were impressed

We were really lucky to see the the northern lights a couple more times during our stay. One night was really spectacular. Bright green, almost blue, fingers of glowing light were sweeping in long arcs across the northern horizon. We sat outside for a long time ignoring the sub zero temperatures and gawking at the visual delight of excited particles emitting photons 80km above our heads. It's hard to get decent photos with pocket cams, especially when all you want to do is gawk. One night, as the outside temperature hit -7C, we were sitting in the sauna drinking beer and sweating in the sticky 70C heat. When the heat became too much to handle we'd pop outside and steam for about ten minutes until the bite of the frost finally penetrated our red hot skin. Repeat twice, then rinse and sleep like you've never slept before.

Oliver has some amazing friends around Muodoslompolo. I met Jönne when I was outside pulling nails from some wood and he pulled up in his hearse. This buzzed me out a bit until I looked in the back and saw it was full of tools and other bits and pieces. He asked about my van and I told him about the fuel pump issues we were having. After a quick gander he assured me it was quite fixable and suggested we pop around to his place that night and he'd have a look at it. So later in the evening we took what was left of our very cheap, and not very delicious, border crossing beer and nursed Edward over to Jönne's place. He had some astounding nic nacs and memorabilia around his house; my favourite was a soviet moon globe from the 50's. The 'dark side' was black as there was no way of photographing that side in those days. Awesome. Anyway with a quick tap of his mig welder he had (as a not so rigorous idle test showed) fixed the leaky pump, so we retired to his upstairs sitting room and drank our cheap beer.... and then some of his delicious beer. It's exciting to meet someone who hordes amazing stuff and isn't afraid to get things out and play with them. Jönne's 1930's gramophone still works and his acetate first pressings of 30's big bands still sound incredible. He also has an mint vintage Bang & Olufsen stereo. We listened to some incredible records and marvelled at the euphoria induced by pristine analogue audio. Jönne told us stories of travelling in a home made camper around eastern Europe. Back then the USSR was in full swing and he gave us a interesting insight into what it was like being a tourist the in the communist states. I can't remember exactly but I think he even drove all the way to Iraq. Basically Jönne is my hero on a hundred different levels. Nowadays he makes little wooden birds for a living. You can check them out here. We saw them in loads of different tourist shops in Finland over the following few weeks. Just before we left he gave Amanda his old Kodak Box Brownie camera from the 50's because he was stoked to find someone that would use it again!!

Jönne getting it done

Gramophone + acetate jazz and swing records = Bliss

We were also very privileged to met Äke. He helped run the community centre before Oliver purchased it, and they have been great friends ever since. Meeting Äke was like meeting a jolly and wise wizard from some ancient fairytale. Like a mix between Geppeto and Gandalf. He lives with his wife in a beautiful house nestled next to a wooded area, surrounded by log cabins that he has built from scratch. Äke used to make amazing knife handles out of wood and reindeer antlers. They had stunning intricate carvings of reindeer and elk and must have taken many hours to make. His rheumatism has slowed him down a little but he's still very active and it seems like there's always someone around that Äke is giving a hand to. We visited him many times during our stay. His coffee is strong and zippy, and the treats delicious (pikelets with cloud berry jam were a hit). Amanda wishes Äke was her Grandfather.

Äke, coffee, pikelets and cloudberry jam - perfect

After our week long stay in Muodoslompolo, it was sad for us to say goodbye. Oliver took off for a trip to Finland for a few days and we stayed for what we thought would be one more night before heading back south. But when I tried to start the van the next day it took some serious encouragement and polite reassurance. I assumed starting it in sub zero temperatures was the problem but when I lifted the bonnet my heart snapped a little. The fuel pump was leaking at an all time high so we had to abandon our plans for heading down through Finland that day. It was a real downer for us. We had no idea why it was leaking so bad but thought that maybe the cold nights had possibly caused the already perished seals to be completely ruined. We thought about abandoning the rest of our trip and flying back to the UK. No one in Sweden had the fuel pump we needed, and not many people anywhere else in the world had them either. Äke to the rescue using his magical skill of turning up at just the right time. I had the bonnet up and was trying to remove the pump seal to take it over to Finland and find a replacement when he pulled up and saved my freezing hands from losing any more blood. He towed me to the nearest garage (just a cool 15km away) and kindly translated for me, explaining the problem to the pessimistic mechanic. After a weekend of waiting they decided they wouldn't touch it with a 50 foot pole. Edward was just too old and not worth the effort. We contacted Oliver who said we could stay in his house as long as we needed to figure out a plan, even though he wasn't there. THANKS OLIVER! So we spent a few days trawling the internet looking for pumps that would fit our van but really had no luck. Oliver kept in touch and was kind enough to send some ideas our way. A couple of depressing days later we finally found a pump on ebay UK that looked like it might work. I got stuck into taking out the old one and (magical timing again) Äke popped round to see how I was going. Then Jönne drove by and stopped to talk to Äke. I swear these guys are part of a secret league of extraordinary gentlemen who are at all times waiting at alert level 4 to rescue people from every day mishaps. Jona pulled the pump apart and spotted ruptured O rings on the throttle spindle. Another twist of fate (or magic) and Äke pulled a box of various rings from the back of his truck. Sorted. No leaks. No problems. Jönne came around the next day and welded the broken bolt back in place so we had a semi permanent fix. Elation ensued. We were pretty happy that Edward would be on the road again. By this time Oliver was back so we stayed another few nights to hang out and watched the All Blacks world cup semi against Australia.

Mini changed my long held negative opinion of cats

Now that the van was running we decided a quick sprint into Norway was worth the short 400km round trip. We headed for Kautokeino, a small village near where Finland, Norway and Sweden all meet. We couch surfed with a nice couple there. Gerlinde and Berndt were so lovely. They both work for the Sami theatre in Kautokeino where they put on plays and musicals in the traditional Sami language. They have even toured to India with the show. Berndt had some wicked guitars lying about; my favourite was a bass ukulele with rubber strings!

Ice meets liquid in Kautokeino - The sun never got much higher than this

Confident in Jönne's repairs and having spent yet another 'last' night in Muodoslompolo, we finally said a sad farewell to Oliver, Holly and Mini. We will have to go back one day and experience Muodoslompolo in the grips of the northern winter, do a bit of cross country skiing and lay in the snow after scorching hot saunas. When I grow up I want to be like Jona, and when I grow up even more I want to be like Äke.

Goodbye kittys!

Oliver is looking for more volunteers to give him a hand around the place. If you're thinking of a trip to Lapland (and if you're any where near Europe you MUST go to Lapland) you should definitely go and stay with Oliver. You'll never forget your stay there. Get away from the expensive tourist traps and let Oliver and friends immerse you in the Lappish pace of life. Click here to see his profile on workaway.info