Day dawns in Nort­hern Euro­pe. In Lapland, sunshi­ne reaches just abo­ve the hori­zon, brin­ging light into the morning after polar night. Ope­ning the curtains, one sees 15 cen­ti­me­tres of fresh snow in the yard. Ther­mo­me­ter out­side the win­dow shows it is ‑35 degrees Cel­si­us. Febru­a­ry, the mon­th of true deep win­ter, snow and cold tem­pe­ra­tures is here.

Howe­ver extre­me the con­di­ti­ons are, life must go on. How can you be pre­pa­red against chal­len­ges that Fin­nish win­ter throws upon you? Rule num­ber one is that ever­ything takes much more time than nor­mal­ly. Befo­re lea­ving the house, the car needs to be pre-hea­ted and fresh snow­fall should be clea­red away from the yard.

Clot­hing is a bit trickier issue. When it is cold, you should put thick lay­ers on, but not too many. If you move a lot, too much clot­hing makes you swea­ty. It beco­mes a pro­blem in the form of cold­ness if you need to have a break or stop moving. The­re­fo­re, the easiest way is to deci­de whe­ther you will do only moving or take addi­tio­nal clot­hing for a break with you. For examp­le, if you go to ski and deci­de to have a break, cold­ness will come quick­ly without a fire­place whe­re to warm up or a chan­ce to chan­ge your shirt. Natu­ral­ly, if it’s too cold for you, perhaps some easier out­door sports opti­ons should be tried and more time and ener­gy con­suming ones could be post­po­ned for ano­t­her day.

Dri­ving in Fin­land requi­res some extra atten­ti­on too. First, you need to con­si­der how’s the wea­ther like. If it is snowing, the visi­bi­li­ty is very poor. Other peop­le on the road might not be as skill­ful dri­vers as you; remem­ber to keep a safe­ty distance. Icy road can be rela­tively dif­fi­cult to dri­ve if you are not used to sno­wy con­di­ti­ons. Spe­cial atten­ti­on is requi­red if you are dri­ving a ren­tal car that you are pos­si­b­ly not that used to. On top of this all, the­re are forest ani­mals appearing on the road, such as elks and rein­de­er that are dan­ge­rous for the traffic.

Food is of cour­se a big part of the day. If you deci­de to go on a forest trip, some­thing simp­le and quick to warm on the fire is your best opti­on. Finns typi­cal­ly take some warm juice on a ther­mos bot­t­le and a packa­ge of sau­sa­ges along. Sau­sa­ge is jokin­gly said to be unof­fi­cial natio­nal food. As every man’s rules app­ly, ever­ything you car­ry to the natu­re you car­ry back as well. No wrap­pings, bot­t­les or any other trash should be left behind.

Sau­na is a per­fect way to finish off a typi­cal Fin­nish win­ter infer­no day. Come back to the house, put the sau­na on and light up the fire­place. Mean­while wai­t­ing for the sau­na to warm up, sit back and enjoy your well-deser­ved hot drink on the sofa.