Reindeer likes chips

The winter of recent years, and especially this one, doesn't look like itself anymore, at least in Serbia. March has just started and the temperatures are already summer. Nothing from skiing, at least in Serbia. Since it is the way it is, indulge in your imagination. Imagine driving a car on a perfectly cleared road as you pass endless piles of snow, sparkling white, clean and stacked for months. In the distance you see gentle slopes, and behind them slightly more serious mountains, also neatly covered with snow. Here and there you pass by wooded, mostly conifer areas. While you are enjoying your leisurely ride, you notice a warning sign with an animal-like shape that is relatively unfamiliar to you. Ista quickly tries to remember it well. Just a hundred meters away, you step on the brakes and stop in complete whiteness in front of a majestic reindeer. The initial shock is replaced by a smile as Mr. Poro (reindeer in Finnish) shows no intention of going anywhere, but stands still, ruminating, moving only his funny lips on his long snout, and staring at you.

Reindeer in Lapland (eng. Laplant, fin. Lappi) are a real tourist attraction. They are tame and very calm, you will understand why only when you enthusiastically get out of the car and start feeding him chips - the stench or, better, the body odor that spreads from him is almost unbearable. He will lazily walk up to the car, look curiously out the window, and let you pass easily when he realizes that the chips were the last thing he got from you.

In Lapland there are also Lapps, little people like from a fairy tale, reindeer herders who wear colorful clothes with a red base. They are very shy, so much so that when they realize that a bunch of tourists, mostly Finns, are coming to watch them, they pick themselves up and leave the village, leaving their wigwams for you to admire and wonder how civilization in such a developed country has not reached there. They say that Santa Claus also lives in Lapland.

In Lapland, no "mountain" exceeds a thousand meters. The climate is very mild, but the slopes are not. Skiing is divine because there is no wind, there is often sun, temperatures are low, and there is a huge amount of snow. The huts where tourists mostly stay are made of logs and perfectly furnished, each with a fireplace.

Have you ever thought about trying ski walking (cross-country skiing)? If so, there is no better place to do it than Finland and Lapland. As far as I know, this year's world champion in this discipline is exactly Finnish. And what else would you do in a country that is bound by snow and ice for eight months?