It's midnight in the Arctic Circle, the sun is shining, and we've been surrounded all week by freakishly
large salmon and wild reindeer. That means one thing:
you're watching Vagabrothers, and this is Finnish Lapland
If you haven't heard of Lapland
You're missing out. Lapland is a huge area
That strecthes along the Arctic Circle, through Norway,
Finland, Sweden, and Russia
It's untouched nature in its purest.
Pine forest as far as the eye can see.
Herds of wild reindeer
Rivers full of gigantic salmon
And lakes so clean,
you can drink from them. It's also home
to Europe's last indigenous people: the Sami
historically nomadic reindeer herders
and fisherman who have lived here since the end of the last
Ice Age. So when Visit Finland offered us a chance
to see Lapland for ourselves,
we grabbed our cameras, waived goodbye to America
and hopped on the next flight to Finland,
landing in Helsinki and connecting to Ivalo
We could not have had a more drastic change of scenery:
from VidCon in sunny Southern
California to an airstrip in the middle
of a massive forest. We rented a car
We've got a ride
and drove from Ivalo
to our first stop, Inari, where there are
more reindeer than cars,
and locals use interesting technics to keep
them off the road.
Lapland is the least populated region in Finland
the least populated country in the EU
so the first thing we noticed was silence
As we cruised along the Lake Inari to Ukkos Island,
a holy place for the Sami
We had a lot more of Lapland to see
so we hopped on Highway E 75 and hit the road
But not before Alex tried to learn
how to drive a stick
We got in this argument because
I was trying to drive, and he literally
took the keys out of my hand so he could drive.
"I'm going to learn how to drive a stick today!"
And this is what's happening..
heh heh..............Eventually,
I got the hang of it, and we made our way south
to the Lemmenjoki National Park,
the largest park in Finland, and
the largest pine forest in Europe, if you count
the other half on the Norwegian side.
Then we checked into a hotel whose front door opened onto the lake
because until the 1950s,
most transportation in Lapland was by rowboat
in the summer or reindeer drawn sleeds in the snow.
Lapland is so far north that in the
summer, the sun literally does not set
from May until the end of July.
So at midnight we hopped into a boat
rode out to the middle of the lake and got eaten
alive by mosquitos.
The next day
was time to drive to Nourgamin, the northern most village
in the European Union. It sits on the
Tenojoki River, which has the best salmon fishing in Europe.
After checking into our
riverside cabin at Nourgam Holiday Village,
the hotel owner, Remo and his son
made us an offer we couldn't refuse:
going fishing
in the Arctic ocean
just across the border in Norway.
Where are we going?
We're going to Mortensnes
It is in Norway beside
the Arctic Ocean
Sorry Visit Finland.. We had to go.
As always,we had a little brotherly competition.
Catch number one
Two to one, Marko winning.
I won. And then came home to Finland
to cook up the catch and wash it down
with some local beer.
Smoked salmon, ice cold beer,
you can't get much better than this.
But we've just had the dankest dinner of fresh cooked salmon
fresh caught, hand cooked salmon
smoked salmon, Bro
You're right. Yes, I know.
It's also 11 o'clock, and we're going
to fish for more salmon.
Only in Lapland. Let's go!
Well it's 1:30 in the morning,
and it's still light out, and we've just caught 40 kilos
of fresh salmon
Yes we did, we're going to finish our night
by hopping in the sauna and cracking a beer.
Welcome to Lapland
We had a ton of fun exploring nature,
but one of the main reasons we came to Lapland
was to meet the Sami, traditionally nomadic
reindeer herders and fishermen who for
thousands of years have preserved the
way of life different from any other in Europe.
There are about 75,000 Sammi in
all of Lapland, and 9,000 of them live
in Finland, most around Lake Inari
We started in the Siida Museum and Cultural Center
where we learned about the technics the Sami have used
to survive the Arctic winter which
gets as cold as negative 40 degrees C.
But Sami culture isn't only found
in a museum: it's very much alive,
and we were lucky enough to visit during
one of the most important times of the year for the Sammi:
the reindeer marking. Although most Sami
are no longer nomadic, every
single wild reindeer belongs to a reindeer herder,
and it's considered impolite to
ask them how many reindeer they own.
It's kind of like asking you
how much cash you've got in your bank account.
Each summer Sami families come together
and round up thousands of
reindeer, taking stock of newborn calfs
and identifying individual owners
by making small markings in their ear
kind of like branding cattle.
We were lucky enough to be invited to one
such ceremony. And we met with a young Sami named
named Aslak Paltto, who's both a reindeer herder
and a journalist
and was happy to explain what was going on.
What is happening outside right now?
We have started reindeer markings
two nights ago
This is the third night, so we
now have 600
calves that we have marked
We're going to go and see
which calves belong to which mother
and who's the owner of which reindeers.
And so these are newborn
calves?
Yeah, they're born in May
and we have to wait for the mosquitos to wake up
The mosquitos bring
reindeer together and then
it's possible to control the reindeer.
How many people are here? 15 different families.
wow
What does the reindeer mean
for the Sami people?
It is the life of everything.
The reindeer have been here
It's why people have been living here thousands
and thousands of years
Because of the reindeer. They've got everything
They've got skin; they've got shoes;
they've got clothes; they've got food.
But then in the last 30 years,
we've seen a rapid change.
Electricity came,
Snowmobiles came
Motor bikes, ATVs.
And so the reindeer herding
changed and you have
to change. If you haven't
been changing with the system,
then you have been left out of the system
So right now we are
adapting and trying to cope with
with the old way
of working with reindeers
with the new ways with machines and everything.
But preserving traditions is just one
part of maintaining a culture
Language is extremely important
and of the nine Sami languages,
some are spoken by as little as a few hundred people
So we met with local rapper,
Ailu Valle, who uses his music
to inspire young Sami to learn the language of their ancestors
What inspired you to start rapping
in Sami? I can definitely see
how it is difficult to motivate
young people,
especially young boys
to learn Sami language
in a class room. First I rapped
in English, and then in Finnish
because that was the rap that I was hearing.
But, after
a while, I started to grow up
and I understood it was
the language of my heart.
What do you rap about, then?
Oh, well it's kind of much about nature values.
Basically because I've grown up here
so I've seen how do you
how to live or how people live in balance
with nature.
So that's the whole basis of the culture
and it's kind of contradictory
to the way we are living today;
living in a system that is not
balancing the nature
or trying to live in balance with nature
It's taking everything from nature.
So, what sort of impact
so you think your raps have on
Lapland and Sami culture?
Well, I think the biggest impact is in
the young people, because like
I said , it's about teaching
the language. That's the way
of making it cool. As long as you have
your heart with you, that's what will preserve anything.
Mark and I have been really lucky to travel to
a lot of places, but nowhere as
pure and untouched as Lapland.
and if we've learned one thing
during our short time with the Sami
it's the importance of preserving places like this
And as we drove away, we realized
that Lapland is not just a place
with incredible natural beauty, but also
great cultural wealth.
A place that's quiet literally worth traveling
to the ends of the earth to see.
Thank you for watching the video. Hope you enjoyed it.
If you found it educational, inspirational, entertaining,
please give it a thumbs-up,
subscribe to the channel, and share it
with friends to help us bring you more
travel videos on YouTube. Also,
big thanks to Visit Finland for making this trip possible.
If you guys back at home
are thinking about coming out to Finland or Lapland,
check out their links in the info box
below for more information. Also,
don't hesitate to leave us a comment, we love
reading and replying. Ok, we'll see you guys on the road.
Later.