We visited Ruka as part of my birthday trip. And beside skiing, my birthday wish was to fulfil a long-time dream of mine - to see the Northern Lights.
The day before my birthday was sunny, so the forecast seemed promising. As we had no experience at all, we booked a snowshoe walking and Northern Lights hunting tour. We felt so ready to see this miracle of Nature - we had our camera and tripod with us, with all setting already set. We forgot only one thing. To try it first. Well, I guess this is what happens, when most of the time we take photos with our cell phones and rarely use the camera, although it is a great camera... Anyways.
We started our snowshoe walking tour just off Ruka, climbing up. As we were stoping to check the sky we got to feel the forest and its magical silence. It was so peaceful. Almost scary at times, but very fulfilling. And then it happened! The skies were forming these beautiful, green shapes that started to dance as growing over time. Of course we tried to capture the moment and mounted all the equipment in the snow, but there was no result at all. The camera refused to take a single image, neither to give us a clue why (we found out later when we got back to the hotel and we felt so, soooo stupid!). Instead, it gave us the opportunity to truly experience the moment. While everybody else from the tour group was taking photos (super happy for them though!), we just stood there in the dark forest, enjoying the moment. Of course we were very angry with the camera and every once in a while we were trying to make it work, but then we were just like "forget it, just look at the sky! This is amazing!"
Thankfully, a very friendly english girl named Jess, was kind enough to send us some of the photos she took with her GoPro camera and allowed me to share them here. Thanks, Jess!
And thank you, Nature!
Folk tales say that Northern Lights were born when a fox in a hurry whisked the snow with his tail. The whisks turned into sparks that flew in the sky as a single band, forming a fairytale light show across the sky.
Experiencing its magic is a truly fairytale indeed.
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