Our disembarkment port of Kirkenes was the farthest north town on our itinerary. I had read only a little of its tragic WWII history. Early in WW II the Nazis recognized that this distant far north town held a strategic position near the Russian port of Murmansk. Over 100,000 Nazi troops
occupied the town, and it became the second most bombed town in WWII, with 320 devastating Russian raids devastating the city. It was liberated by Soviet troops in 1944, but not before the Nazi occupiers burned the city to the ground, as they did many Norwegian and Finnish towns by the end of the war. The city was rebuilt but bears the scars of this terrible period in history.
The Russian border and the road to Murmansk are just a few kilometers away, and on the way back after our visit to Lapland, we detoured to view the border between Norway and Russia. As the guidebook warns, don’t even bother to try to step across the border there. Border guards possess surveillance equipment, and huge fines for illegal crossings or even tossing anything across the border create penalties extremely tough on the travel budget! We took photos---carefully---and retreated judiciously.
On the dock at Kirkenes our guide Matheus and his van awaited us. A German who has lived in Finland for 15 years, Matheus added another rich dimension to our experiences on this unusual trip. A sled-dog farm owner and guide in the winter, he owns 44 sled dogs and loves each one equally. He can describe each of their foibles in detail—and did during our five-hour drive to Lapland. He is gradually expanding his thriving sled dog business.and spent a winter recently in Minnesota’s northern wilderness helping a friend set up a new sled-dog enterprise north of Ely. Along the way Matheus briefed us on the Sami reindeer herders’ culture. The Sami people have inhabited much of the land in that region of Finland and Norway for centuries. He described rules and laws enacted in Norway and Finland to assure that the Sami reindeer herders continue to flourish.
Our destination was Inari, a tiny Lap village, where one of its two hotels sits in a patch of forest along a rushing river. At this hotel he introduced us to our guide for the next two days. Lisa, a stocky gray-haired smiling Finnish woman, who has been a wilderness guide for the past twenty-five years, is the mother of six and grandmother of 10.
She led us on an excellent guided tour through the new Sami interactive culture museum of Inari. Through her vast knowledge of the land and its people, we absorbed much about the flora and fauna of this northernmost region of Scandinavia and the culture of its Sami citizens.
After lunch that day, we headed off for perhaps the most memorable moments of our entire trip---visit to a Sami reindeer farm. The farm of Tuula and her husband is located about 30 kilometers from Inari. Tuula, a charming farm wife and expert craftsperson of about 50 years old, was waiting. She would squire us around her farm for an intensive introduction into the real Sami farm life of Finnish Lapland. She was surrounded by four giggling 10-year-old blond, barefooted children when we drove up the dirt road to her simple farmhouse. The girls, hopping up and down with glee in their eagerness to meet us, had faces covered with blueberry juice from picking ripe berries on the farm. We learned they were not Tuula's children but that all the neighbors’ children spend much time at her farm learning the traditions of the Sami people. We were delighted to get acquainted with them and they in turn were delighted later to perform a skit, poem and song in Sami and English as we sipped tea in the farmhouse.
But first, we followed Tuula into the barn to see her 12 domestic reindeer. We fed them, touched their horns and observed Tuula harness them to a sled decorated for Christmas. Emily persuaded me to jump into the sled --- (probably for a photo op for a Christmas card. We’ll see.). Meanwhile, the girls picked blueberries and strung them into necklaces they hung around our necks.
Taking off our shoes, we entered Tuula’s spotless farmhouse. She demonstrated Sami traditions and presented an excellent slide show featuring photos of the four seasons on the Arctic farm. Later, she showed us how she picks plants for preparing the many dyes she uses to color yarn she also produces. She held a remarkable book of her yarns, arranged in an artistic array of all colors of the rainbow. As though this was not impressive enough, next she demonstrated how she, like many Sami, makes reindeer shoes --from skinning the animal legs to the curing and cutting and scraping of skins to cutting patterns for shoes, and sewing and stuffing them with hay to keep feet warm in the deepest cold.
The afternoon ended when we were served tea and blueberry tarts baked by Tuula. We were so impressed with this resourceful Sami woman and the tough life her people lead in this harsh inhospitable Arctic environment. They appear to remain almost entirely self-sufficient in a modern world. On Tuula’s farm, which we understand is similar to many in the Sami culture, she and her husband grow their own vegetables and flowers, keep 12 reindeer, fish daily and in the winter cut through the ice of the adjoining lake for fish. They exist on reindeer meat and use the skins for a variety of needs and use dried plants and mushrooms for dying wool for their clothes.
Somewhat reluctantly, we headed back toward Kirkenes with Matheus the next day.
[Go to Norway Part Ten]
