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Best served chilled The call of Lapland – a place of otherworldly white landscapes of frosted forests and icy lakes – is hard to ignore. Answering it, Richard Webb donned a snowsuit and headed north ... far north

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ith its snow-dappled forests, jutting mountains and vast frozen scrublands, Lapland is the original winter wonderland. It’s the place of the Northern Lights and a winter that lasts six months, a place where the reindeer outnumber the people and Santa Claus is at home.

Where exactly is Lapland though? Both Sweden and Finland claim the name for their northern regions and it is often used to refer to the whole of northern Scandinavia, especially the area within the Arctic Circle. Indeed, this huge, largely unspoilt area does have a spirit that crosses national borders. But, forced to choose a more specific destination, it was to Finnish Lapland that I was headed.

I flew from Helsinki to Kittilä, then took a bus to the ski resort of Levi, one of the most northerly settlements in Europe. Here you can experience the striking polar nights – a time when the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon for as long as 51 days, the moon and stars illuminating the way for the holidaymakers who flock to the region.

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Eat like a local I already knew about Finnish vodka, but couldn’t name a single traditional dish. So I asked my host in Helsinki, Tiina Jaatinen, editor-in-chief of the Nokia Conversations blog, what Finns typically eat. ‘Traditional Lapp food has always used nature’s bounty, with recipes that have been passed on through the generations orally,’ she said. ‘As herding reindeer and fishing is a traditional way of life, we eat a lot of these foods.’

Little reindeer meat is exported, as it’s nearly all eaten locally – in a variety of creative ways. Stew made from sautéed reindeer meat (which contains only around 4% fat) is a nourishing and delicious meal, and so is reindeer heart in various forms. Dried reindeer meat (including the heart) is used as a snack, similar to our much-loved biltong. Salmon, Arctic charr, trout and pike are cooked, fried, smoked or cured.

‘Cloudberries are the most famous berry, used for jams and desserts and in liqueurs.

However, getting the locals to reveal where to find them is difficult,’ said Jaatinen. Dry, sour rye bread is superb, especially with a big knob of butter. ‘And Finland has really delicious chocolate. Local firm Karl Fazer produces 65 million kilos of chocolate a year in many flavours, such as yoghurt, honey, and, yes, cloudberry.’

The chance to witness the Northern Lights (or aurora borealis) was truly one of life’s greatest gifts

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There is also the opportunity to meet the mystical figure of Santa Claus. Pay a visit to one of his numerous local haunts and you will experience his largess as he gleefully dispenses exquisitely wrapped presents.

It’s enough to make even the most jaded adult feel six years old again.

For me, though, the chance to witness the Northern Lights (or aurora borealis) was truly one of life’s greatest gifts. Lapland on a clear and dark night, from September to March, is the best place in the world to secure an icy ringside seat for this celestial light show.

These otherworldly solar-wind-driven lights appear, arcing across the sky, when charged particles are trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field and collide with atoms in its atmosphere.

They disperse energy in the form of light – vibrant colours that rapidly change intensity, hue and shape. The blue and violet lights are made by nitrogen in the atmosphere, while the yellowish-green and occasionally red hues are produced by oxygen.

The Finns call this spectacle revontulet, meaning ‘fox fires’, because of an ancient fable about a fox that created a fire as it ran through the snow, its brush-like tail spraying up ice crystals, sending the spectral sparks off into the sky.

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lapland: a photographer’s paradise My ‘camera’ of choice for my Lapland trip was the 20 MP Nokia 1520. As I was used to an iPhone, I was expecting to be baffled by the Windows Phone 8 Black platform, but using the phone and its fabulous camera was a revelation. The camera did a good job in bright sunlight, thanks to its ability to recalibrate based on ambient light conditions, and it handled use with bulky snow gloves pretty well. The 1520 – which qualifies as a ‘phablet’ (phone/tablet) at 6” – is certainly big in size. It also marks a long list of big firsts for both the Finnish tech company and Windows Phone.

I spent some time talking with Juha Alakarhu, Nokia’s head of imaging, who told me that in 2007 he had sketched the concept for a 41 MP camera phone on a serviette over a few beers in a Tokyo bar. He didn’t tell me how many beers, but he did share some tips on how to get the best out of smartphone photography.

1. Touch to meter and focus Metering is the way in which the camera decides how much light to let in. Tap the part of the image you want to focus on, so the camera will determine the exposure (the length of time the ‘shutter’ is open) based on that area. This prevents photos in which someone’s face is pitch black, but the tiny pinprick of light they’re posing next to comes out perfectly.

2. Clean your lens A quick polish-up with a microfibre cloth and some Windolene will rid the lens of smears.

No one likes selfies with a greasy fingerprint superimposed on top.

3. Be clever with the light The biggest drawback of any smartphone camera is the small sensor. The larger the sensor, the more light is transmitted, and the better your low-light photos are likely to look. Balance your phone on something stable to reduce the blur that can come with a long exposure and try to orient people towards the light.

4. Use flash sparingly The flash doesn’t illuminate much and is often harsh, so you can generally achieve better photos by turning it off and trying to improve the lighting.

5. Take advantage of HDR HDR (high-dynamic-range imaging) uses software to compensate for the fact that there are both bright and dark areas in an image. Rather than take just one photo, at one exposure level, HDR captures three exposures in quick succession. The phone’s software then picks the best bits from each one and combines them. However, don’t use HDR when your subject is moving.

6. Avoid digital zoom Don’t do it! Unless you have a really good camera, rather just take the picture and crop it afterwards, since that’s all you’ll really be doing anyway. Instead of adding extra pixels (and more detail), digital zoom just enlarges the existing ones, making your photo look horribly pixelated in the process.

7. Press the hardware button

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Most phones allow you to use one of the hardware buttons (normally volume, up or down) as the shutter release. Make use of it. Once you’ve got the shot all set up and ready to go, moving your index finger down to tap the shutter release is a much bigger movement than just pressing the allocated button and can often contribute to the blur that curses much of smartphone photography.

My host cheerfully enquired whether anyone would like to join her for a spot of traditional sauna and ice-swimming.

‘Are you mad?’

I asked myself silently

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By air Kittilä’s airport is just a 15-minute drive from the mountain village of Levi. Several airlines shuttle between Helsinki and Kittilä all year round.

Finnair, www.finnair.com Norwegian, www.norwegian.com SAS, www.flysas.com

By land A train will get you to Kolari (100 km from Levi) or Rovaniemi (the capital of the province of Lapland, 170 km from Levi). Buses onward to Levi are available, but make sure to check the connections.

Alternatively, you can take your car on the train and drive the final stretch.

Railway: VR, www.vr.fi Buses: Korsisaari, www.korsisaari.fi Matkahuolto, www.matkahuolto.fi

Travel information

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Finnish Tourist Board, www.visitfinland.com Regional Council of Lapland, www.laplandfinland.com Levi Tourist Office, www.levi.fi/en

The seemingly boundless, noisy energy of the dogs races you along, guided by a series of near-inaudible ‘ssshhh’ sounds and deft clicks of the driver’s tongue Finnish Lapland is an enchanting playground on ground level, as well. For those who want to explore far off any beaten track, the vast and rugged expanses make for superb skiing.

The season begins in October and lasts all the way through to May, the northerly latitude keeping the slopes snowbound far longer than the Alps.

My host in snowy Levi cheerfully enquired whether anyone would like to join her for a spot of traditional sauna and ice-swimming.

‘Are you mad?’ I asked myself silently, instantly dismissing the activity as an extreme sport for masochists. ‘The initial shock and momentary loss of feeling in your legs soon pass,’ she continued breezily.

The prospect of slipping into black, freezing water was not appealing, but I was somehow convinced to give it a try. Once I got in past

my waist (and unleashed an uncharacteristic string of profanities), I realised it really wasn’t too bad. And, as I thawed out in the sauna afterwards, I found that I was left with an incomparable energy boost.

There are so many items to be ticked off your bucket list in this land of simple beauty and remote landscapes. Experiences such as mushing a team of huskies tethered to a sledge.

The seemingly boundless, noisy energy of the dogs races you along, guided by a series of near-inaudible ‘ssshhh’ sounds and deft clicks of the driver’s tongue. A ride such as this is an unforgettable symbol of Lapland’s frosty charm, just one of many stories waiting to be told.

photography: gallo/gettyimages

Getting to Levi