Hey guys!

After a long time I report back again, after I have invested a lot of time in my studies. I'm now heading towards the first state exam, even though I still have some time ahead of me and I'm really excited about how it's going to be. But since I promised you more about Finland in the last posts (I did a semester abroad in Rovaniemi) I will of course follow this, even if a bit late;) I hope you're doing well and that you got through the last few months okay. This post is about a great place, Ruka, where a few of my friends from Finland and I went on a little "road trip".
And the greatest thing about this trip we got to see later: Namely the famous northern lights, also called auroras. But more about that later in the post!

We had planned the trip a few days before and finally wanted to start it as a foursome. Unfortunately, a very good friend was no longer there at that time because she had to go back home to her home country, which was a pity. Nevertheless, we wanted to make the best of it. From Rovaniemi (our starting place) Ruka is not so far away for Finnish conditions, one drives "only" about two and a half hours by car. We had rented the car from a rental car company beforehand and wanted to start our trip with it. Already at the beginning, the car did not sound very confidence-inspiring, but it brought us safely to our destination.
But even though Ruka is so well known for its winter sports, there are many other great trips you can make there: For example, you can experience husky sledding or even ice fishing (which would be too cold for me personally, brr) but also with the snowmobile you can explore the landscape. It has something to offer for everyone, so to speak, without now advertising this beautiful environment haha:)

Ruka is very famous especially for winter sports, it is located in the Kuusamo area. A friend of ours really tried the slopes later, but more about that later. At the time there was also a competition going on, unfortunately I don't know what kind of competition it was but it certainly looked like a professional event.

A ski competition in Ruka between the lights of the slopes

We had this view from below and watched the skiers jump. It looked a bit like a fairy tale and it was beautiful. It was a totally snowy landscape and the lights of the ski slope looked partly a bit blurred in the white powder snow. It was not yet properly evening and yet already dark, it was one of the most beautiful "pictures" I had seen so far. Of course, sun, beach, sea and palm trees are also very beautiful but this was somehow something special for me, even if we of course already had a lot of snow in Rovaniemi and such landscapes were nothing new for us now.
I think if I fly there again I would take a little more time in Ruka and try all the slopes there. There is also a ski resort in Rovamiemi, but it is smaller and (in my opinion) looks a bit like Ruka Skiresort. But for families the small resort of Rovaniemi is definitely perfect :)

Around this time, a lot of decorations were already in place, as you can see here, because it was already before Christmas. In this environment, the decoration had an even greater effect on you, which was a great feeling.This is how you could imagine a winter wonderland, haha:)

I'm sorry that the picture is a bit blurry, sometimes it was so cold that you quickly took off your glove for a photo and then quickly put it back on after taking the photo, which sometimes resulted in pictures like this haha: ) It was just too cold:D

A drive through snowy Finland with auroras on the way

And then we were incredibly lucky on the way back: suddenly we saw something shimmering in the sky, and it really was the Northern Lights! So far I had seen them only a few times in the months I was in Rovaniemi and was now even happier that I could see them again in the snow.

Scientifically, they are also called aurora borealis and appear due to nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the atmosphere. They are caused by energetic particles interacting with the Earth's magnetic field. It sounds complicated, but actually it's not. At least they look beautiful! And we have made the experience that they are even clearer to see on the cell phone camera than with the naked eye. To the naked eye they often just look whitish, but they are still very beautiful to look at.
Have you ever seen auroras? And if so, what color were they? And where did you see them? I saw them for the first time in Finland, but I'm sure they won't be the last:)

But that wasn't all about this trip, the last pictures tell you a bit where it went, but more about that in the next post. In any case, it was very nice there, too.
As I write this post, I realize once again what great opportunities we have these days, that there are programs like Erasmus and that the students are supported in this way - just great. You can be very thankful for that.
I hope you enjoyed my post and that you had fun reading it! I know, it's been a long time that I was active here, the study is just very exhausting and I try to get everything under one hat. Anyway, I am very happy to be able to experience all these things and I am also very grateful for it! But now I'm looking forward to your posts, stay healthy and see you soon!