Kakslauttanen

Have you ever stopped to think about how awesome cut and paste is? Seriously. Without it, I’d have had to attempt to recreate the spelling of the place in the title. Multiple times. I mean, even though the word is in the header, I have to mention it in the body of the post, since that’s the subject of my #wanderlustwednesday, right? And it’s in the url of the website. Can’t post about an awesome place without linking to their website. That’s at least 3 instances where I’d have to try to correctly spell “Kakslauttanen” by hand if copy/paste had never been invented. Though one could argue that perhaps the internet might not have been invented if we’d never conquered that simple convenience. That’s four times now , since I just used it again there. Possibly unnecessary, but since I already had it copied, why not. See how technology makes lives better?

But to get back to my point, Kakslauttanen. It’s a place where you can supposedly see the Northern Lights up to eight months per year. From a high-tech IGLOO! An igloo is essentially a snow cave, and if you happened to read my post about the Cuevas in Guadix, Spain, you’ll remember that I can hardly contain myself in the presence of caves. So, imagine my excitement when finding out that there’s a place where you can lie in a glass igloo, and watch one of the most amazing sights the earth has to offer. It was intense, but this was more the introspective, “the world is so amazing, and I want to see all of it!” kind of excitement, and less the shouting at the top of my lungs and bouncing around like a 4 year old kind that sometimes overtakes me.

The fact that the Northern Lights exists fascinates me, and I very much want to see it in person. I picture watching the colors, and contemplating our place in the vastness of the universe…

So, I came upon this video one day, which I immediately sent to Tracy.

It’s not even quite a month since we settled on our Travel Top Ten, and I’m already lobbying  to revise it. Tracy did select something in the area as one of her original places, Iceland’s Ring Road , but it didn’t make our final cut. Well, I now this place in Finland has to go to the top of the list. I’d make the case that we could kill 2-birds: maybe after a few days in Finland, we could pop over to Iceland and see both.

Full disclosure, I’m listening to Sigur Ros while writing this. And though they’re from Iceland, and just released a soundtrack for traversing the Ring Road in real time, I think the tone of their music fits the beauty and mystery of Kakslauttanen as well.

From late August until April, the lights are visible, and it’s reportedly one of the best places on earth to witness them. And you don’t have to camp out in the frozen north to do it. While you can choose to stay in a log cabin, or even Santa’s House, I’m 100% on board with the glass igloos.

I just think this would be one of the most unique and amazing experiences to have. Sure, campers would probably tell me that it’d be way better to brave the cold and see the Aurora from an even more remote location, but if you know anything about Tracy’s and my feelings about camping…you know that’d never happen. And to us, the mixture of feeling remote, yet having the comforts of a hotel is pretty much perfect.

In addition to light-watching, there are lots of other activities that the hotel and the area have to offer in both winter and summer, but I’ll take the winter wonderland experience. I don’t even mind if we just spend a few days holed up in our own private igloo, and watch the sky go by. That sounds pretty amazing right about now. So, at least in my opinion, the Top Ten list is officially revised, and this is on it. I hope Tracy agrees!