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.