Taylor Swift in Lisbon

August 7, 2024September 13, 2024 / Maria / 3 Comments

It’s been a very eventful year for me from a traveling perspective. I went to Patagonia in mid-February with Seth and then 3 months later I took another 2 weeks off to go traveling with Emily. Our original plan had been to go to Greece last September, but then something came up and we cancelled that trip. So I ended up with two major trips back-to-back, which was somewhat overwhelming, but also awesome, so I can’t complain.

The reason we cancelled our original trip is because Emily got tickets to see Taylor Swift in Lisbon! Like most people, we failed to get tickets to see Taylor on her US tour and couldn’t afford the resale tickets, so Emily signed up for a ton of presales in Europe and managed to score 4 tickets in Lisbon! The tickets were for May 25, so we planned a whole trip around the concert. We had a little over 2 weeks and we planned to start in Lisbon for the concert, and then we each picked a destination for the subsequent 2 weeks of the trip. Emily picked the Azores and I picked Marrakech, so stay tuned for that!

But first off, Lisbon. We were traveling from opposite sides of Canada, but the easiest way to get there was for both of us to meet in Toronto and then we caught a direct flight to Lisbon. It was an overnight flight, so we got as much sleep as we could and arrived in Lisbon around noon. It’s only a 3.5 hour time difference for Emily and she managed okay, but it was an 8 hour time difference for me, so my body had no idea what was going on.

As soon as we landed in Lisbon, you could feel the energy. Our pilot welcomed all the Taylor Swift fans to Lisbon and our uber driver started off by saying, “the traffic is really bad today! I don’t know if you heard, but we have a big concert happening this weekend”! We got dropped off at our hostel in central Lisbon, where we had booked a private room. The temperature was around 24 degrees, which we thought would be perfect, but it’s quite humid in Portugal, so it felt a lot hotter.

We took a quick shower and then decided to go out exploring the city. We easily could have gone to bed, but that would not have helped the jetlag, so we pushed through. We meandered through the city and wasted no time sampling some pastries. Our cousins, Andrew and Emma, were using our other two tickets for the concert and were at the tail end of their Europe Trip, so we met up with them and toured the Lisbon Cathedral and went in search of dinner.

Taylor was playing her first show the same night, so as we walked around the city, it was easy to spot all the fans. The streets were filled with women dressed in glitter, sequins, and cowboy boots. Everyone was smiling and there was just a really great vibe in the city! Europe actually has ticket resale laws that limit price gouging, and Emily tried to convince me that we should get tickets online for night 1 too, but we opted to catch up on sleep to prepare for our concert instead.

The next day, we did a walking tour in the morning to learn more about the city. It’s actually my second time visiting Lisbon, but the first time was in 2012 and I honestly remembered nothing. We learned a lot about Portugal’s history, of which I didn’t know that much. Like most of Europe, Lisbon is a very old city and was originally settled by the Moors, which is a term used to apply to Muslim Europeans, Arab, and Berber people. Lisbon was part of the Kingdom of Portugal for a long time, until Napoleon invaded in the early 1800’s, and the Portuguese monarchy fled to Brazil. The history is already a little foggy, but it was a pretty short lived occupation, and the monarchy returned until revolution in 1910, when the last king and his heir were assassinated.

The most interesting thing I learned was that following the revolution, Portugal lived under dictatorship for 50 years between 1926 and 1974. It was the longest European dictatorship and it ended in 1974 when there was a military coup known as the Carnation Revolution. Since then, Portugal has been a modern democracy.

Lisbon is a very hilly city and we visited several historical spots. It was also interesting to learn about Lisbon’s history of earthquakes, the biggest of which was a 9.0 earthquake that occurred in 1755 and leveled most of the city. There is still some architecture left which predates this earthquake.

After the walking tour, we returned to our hostel to get ready for the concert! There were other Swifties on our walking tour and we’d learned that the previous night had been a bit of a disaster in terms of venue management. The concert was late starting because there hadn’t been enough security to process all the fans. People had to queue for 3+ hours in the hot sun to get into the stadium. So we decided to go pretty early to the stadium and were prepared with sunscreen, hats, and water.

We met Emma and Andrew on the Metro before the concert, but fortunately, we didn’t have any trouble accessing the stadium for our concert. They’d resolved whatever kinks had been present the previous evening and we were able to get in the stadium with no issues. Our seats were in the lower bowl and we were super lucky to discover that we had end row seats right next to the bathroom. Plus, our seats were under a bit of an overhang, so we had shade from the sun too! The bathroom situation at the concert is really interesting. At our stadium, all the sections were blocked off from one another, so there were only 4 bathrooms that we could use. 3 of the 4 bathrooms were male – the stadium has designated 1 of the male bathrooms as female, but fans seem to have made the decision that all bathrooms are unisex during the concert! We loved it because, of course, there’s a lot more women at the show.

The concert was obviously fantastic! It completely lived up to all the hype and we had the absolute best time! It’s just such a great vibe. Everyone is really happy and friendly. I’ve heard some European fans are mad about the number of North Americans coming to the show, but we didn’t experience that at all. We wandered the concourse trading friendship bracelets and generally had a great time talking to fans from all over the world!

Taylor’s stamina for the show is incredible. I barely had time to pee during one of the transitions, so I don’t know how she manages with all the wardrobe changes! It’s hard to pick a favourite era because they are all wonderful. I loved the anticipation at the start of Lover; the energy of Red; and the vibe of Folkmore. It’s also incredible to watch her perform her new TTPD songs, but the surprise songs were probably the highlight of the concert for me. Before the concert, we’d all fantasized about our dream surprise songs. Emily wanted anything from Fearless, Emma wanted Long Live, and I said I’d die if she sang You’re on Your Own, Kid.

She started with a mash-up of The Tortured Poets Department and Now That We Don’t Talk on the guitar, which was great. But I couldn’t believe it when she started playing You’re On Your Own, Kid on the piano!! I know she plays this song a lot, but I couldn’t believe I was so lucky as to get my first pick! I admit, I did tear up a little. Then she did a mash up with Long Live and Emma died a little inside too!

It could have been pandemonium trying to get the train home after the concert, but it was pretty orderly all things considered. We didn’t know that merch wouldn’t be for sale in the venue (only outside), so Emily and I lined up for merchandise after the show, but I’d recommend getting it before if you have the chance. Fortunately, we were right by the exit, so we beat most of the crowd.

I know it’s not affordable to see Taylor Swift in North America. We paid under $200 CAD each for our tickets in Lisbon, so pairing the concert with a holiday was 100% the way to go. I never thought I’d fly so far away to see a concert, but it was an experience and I would definitely do it again! It’s Taylor’s Summer for sure! Check back next week to hear about our experience in Sintra.

Skiing in Levi

May 10, 2023August 13, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

The last segment of our trip was to another small town in Lapland called Levi. It’s only about an hour from Yllas, so we drove there after our visit to the snow hotel. While I didn’t care to sleep in a snow hotel, I was keen to try out one of the glass huts. There are several different glass huts around the region and as the name suggests, they are basically glass roofed hotel rooms. Unsurprisingly, they are not cheap, so I shopped around a bit before deciding on the Northern Lights Huts in Levi, which are pretty new and the cheapest I could find in the region.

It was a great choice! It’s located on a reindeer farm about 20 minutes away from Levi town. There’s 10 glass huts on the property and we had one booked for 2 nights. The huts are very new and really nice on the inside, so it was nice to relax for a little bit after a busy day of dogsledding. We returned to town for supper, but otherwise had a chill evening.

My primary motivation in booking the hut was as a last ditch attempt to make it easy to see the northern lights. Fortunately, we’d already seen them 4 nights in a row by then, so it removed a lot of the pressure. The geomagnetic storm was winding down and the KP was back around 2-3 for our last two nights, so I wasn’t sure if we would see them. On the first night it was pretty cloudy and we didn’t see anything before bed. The app said the clouds would clear around midnight, so I set an alarm and we woke up at midnight and could see them from our bed! So it ended up working out nicely because I definitely would not have trudged down to the lake in Akaslompolo at midnight, but it was nice to wake up and watch them inside for a bit and then go back to sleep.

On our last full day in Lapland we had planned a second skiing day. Levi resort is bigger than Yllas and fortunately the wind storm had moved on and the entire resort was open! While Yllas only had two faces to access the mountain, Levi had at least 4. There are two main lifts, one from Levi town and one from the south face, which is where we opted to start. Levi was busier than Yllas, so it took a while to get our rentals, but after that there was a lot of terrain to choose from.

I recall there being at least 3 chair lifts and 1 gondola, but pretty much all the other lifts were T-bars and there must have been at least a dozen of them! The mountain is completely bare on top, so you can pretty much ski down it in any direction. Each T-bar only services about 2-3 runs, so we slowly made our way around the mountain. The terrain was simple enough that we could ski any run on the mountain, so we just explored as much as we could. It’s a very different experience than skiing in Canada, but I enjoyed it more than Yllas.

We had lunch at a small restaurant on the east side of the mountain, but my favourite skiing terrain was on the west side. While the temperatures had been between -10 to -20 degrees celsius when we arrived in Rovaniemi, it had warmed up a lot over the week and it was around 0 degrees when we skied Levi. It felt much warmer and it even starting to feel a bit like Spring. There was no fresh powder on either mountain that we skied, but because it’s generally cold and dry in Lapland, neither mountain was icy.

We discovered a pancake restaurant in Levi that I was excited to try for dinner on our last night. So we enjoyed some giant savoury pancakes before retiring to our hut for the evening. The KP was only 2 on the last night, so I wasn’t expecting much even though it was clear, but the aurora treated us a real show! I guess because we’re so far north, you can still get a very active sky, even with a low KP.

At first the lights seemed pretty normal and similar to other nights, but around 9 or 10pm they got incredibly active and despite having the glass roof, I couldn’t resist going outside to photograph them. The lights were pulsing from horizon to horizon and we couldn’t catch the full scope of them from inside. It was probably the second best night we’d seen them and it was a real treat to witness them swirling across the sky one last time. Seth had kind of gotten over the allure by that point, but the northern lights captivated me every single night I saw them. I admit I got a little obsessed and since I returned home, I’ve been plotting when I can see them again.

The aurora goes through cycles throughout the night, but they also go through larger cycles throughout time. We’re currently heading into a period of increased geomagnetic activity for the next few years, so it should be easier to see them over the next 5 years, so if there’s ever been a time to plan an aurora trip, this is it!

Our last day in Finland was pretty boring. We enjoyed our buffet breakfast at the hotel and then drove two hours back to Rovaniemi to catch our flight. One thing we learned is that the Finns all have a secret sweet tooth and eat a lot of candy and chocolate. Finnish chocolate is really creamy and delicious, so we stopped by the grocery store on the way back to stock up. We had an uneventful flight back to Helsinki and returned to Katie’s apartment for our last night.

Katie took us to a ramen restaurant for our last meal and we spent an hour walking around the city before returning to her place for one last sauna session. She’s scheduled to finish her degree before the end of the year, but she’s also planning to stay in Helsinki and look for work, so who knows, we might be back again in the future.

Finland is probably not the first place that comes to mind when you’re planning a holiday, much less a winter holiday, but I really loved it. The aurora certainly made it memorable, but even without the aurora, it’s a cool place and I liked a lot of their progressive policies. I would definitely come back in the winter to chase the aurora again – I’m not sure I’d visit Lapland in the summer, but I’d consider returning to Helsinki in the summer and maybe tack on a visit to Norway or Sweden to do some hiking. Overall we had a great trip and would definitely recommend!

Dog Sledding and Other Adventures

May 3, 2023August 13, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

On our second day in Yllas we made another attempt at the ski hill. This time we drove around to the Yllas side since there are more chair lifts. It was still windy, so we were disappointed that the top half of the mountain remained closed, but we decided to go skiing anyways. It was mid-week, so fortunately it wasn’t too busy – we had to wait in line at most lifts, but given that half the mountain was closed, it could have been a lot worse.

Skiing in Finland is a very different experience from skiing in Canada. It’s not a very large mountain and it’s incredibly bare and exposed, so the skiing is not as adventurous. If you like groomed runs, it’s a decent mountain, but there’s almost no ungroomed terrain, so it can be a bit boring. The mountain is deceiving because it looks like there is un-skied powder between each exposed run, but because of the climate, the snow off-piste is very crunchy and bumpy – not fun for skiing.

But the biggest difference is the lifts. Yllas had one high speed chair lift going half way up the mountain and one (closed) gondola going to the top. Besides that, it’s almost entirely T-bars. We also skied a second resort in Levi and it was the same. None of the terrain is very steep and because the mountain is so bare, you can ski down any face, so I guess it’s a lot cheaper to install a ton of T-bars, with each one only servicing a couple runs. It wasn’t that big a deal, but it does make for a tiring day when you don’t get to sit on the chairs because then you are constantly on your feet.

So it wasn’t my favourite mountain to ski, but it was definitely an experience! We skied all over the mountain in the morning, then after lunch we managed to find one glade run on the far side of the hill, which ended up being our favourite, so we skied that one a few times. There’s a lookout on the way back to Akaslompolo and we timed our departure to catch the sunset from the viewpoint. We didn’t see that many sunsets in Lapland, but the ones we did see were very beautiful. The sky turns purple and pink and reflects off the snow.

On our last day in Yllas we opted to do a dog sledding tour. I was really on the fence about it because they’re not cheap and you can do them in Canada. But I went to Banff last winter and opted not to do one, so I figured now was the time and booked a half day tour with Rami’s Huskies.

Rami’s is located just outside the National Park and we arrived to the predictable symphony of screeching huskies. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we were excited to learn we would sledding in pairs of two, which meant we would get to drive our own sleds! We got a quick lesson in the basics: hand signals, stopping, how to take turns, and when to slow down; and then we prepared for our 16km run in the National Park, with a lunch break at the half way point. The sled is just big enough for one person to sit in it and one person to stand at the back. The person on the back is the driver, so we decided Seth would steer first while I took photos from the sled.

There was about 10 of us on the tour, plus two guides. Each team had 6 dogs, so there was a whopping 42 dogs in our party! When you’re dog sledding in the wilderness, you direct the dogs verbally on where to go, but we were following a track the entire time, so the dogs pretty much just follow each other and the track, so it’s easy to drive. You just need to use the brake whenever the person ahead of you signals because you don’t want to run into the team in front of you.

It’s a bit of a slow start at first because the dogs are extremely excited to run and there’s a very sharp turn early on that the guides want everyone to take slowly. We had a few stop and starts, which are challenging because the dogs were very restless, but eventually we got into the groove and no one fell off their sled the entire trip, which is a bit of a rarity. Seth had his work cut out for him when we kept stopping because the team behind us had a very excitable lead dog named Ginny, and she would get too close to Seth whenever we’d stop and nip at his butt to try and get him to keep going. Our team was a bit slow, so eventually the guides swapped Ginny into our team and we went a lot faster after that!

We had so much fun on this trip! I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but we were thrilled to drive the sleds ourselves and what left the biggest impression on me was how much the dogs love to run. They are loud when you arrive because they are already hooked up to the sleds and they can’t wait to get going. Around the 8km mark we stopped for a break and the dogs mostly settled down for a rest, but as soon as we started getting ready to go again, they were up and eager to keep running.

We had what I can only call a boil-up for lunch, which is popular in Newfoundland (the similarities continue). We got a little fire going to make tea and the guides roasted sausages for us to snack on with some biscuits. We had the chance to question them on the dogs and learned a lot about the sledding industry. At Rami’s, the dogs will run about 32km a day, 5 days a week, at their peak age and health. They’ll either do two 16km rides (like ours), or a 16km ride in the morning, followed by a 10km ride in the afternoon, and a 5km ride in the evening. They regularly swap out which dogs are in which teams, but the dogs all have distinct personalities and some won’t run together, while others will only run with certain dogs, and some will only run as lead dogs.

It takes about 2 years for dogs to mature, so they don’t work full time before then and are mostly in sled dog training. Once they get older, they reduce the number of kilometres they run per week, but they never fully retire the dogs for their mental health. Huskies are an eccentric breed and I can see how it would drive the dog nuts to not run at all after a lifetime of it. Rami’s doesn’t do dog sledding races, only tourism, and they have about 75 dogs in their kennel, which is considered small. Some kennels have up to 450 dogs!

So if you ever find yourself in Lapland, or even anywhere in Canada that offers dogsledding, I would highly recommend it! We really loved it and I wouldn’t hesitate to go again – now I just need to do some research on where I can go in BC!

Rami’s is close to the Lapland Hotels Snow Village, so after we finished our tour we decided to drop by the hotel. It’s a hotel compound made entirely of snow, so it gets re-constructed every year. I think the layout remains the same year after year, but the village is filled with tons of snow sculptures and those change every year depending on the theme. It seems like their most popular year was when they did a game of thrones theme, but when we visited they had an around the world theme and had sculptures of iconic monuments from around the world.

The village comprises of a snow restaurant, a normal restaurant, an ice bar, and a hotel. During the day the hotel has a cover charge to view, so it operates primarily as more of a gallery. There’s about a dozen different themes rooms with varying numbers of beds. Since no one stays there during the day, we were a little bit confused about how it worked because the village is open to visitors from 10am to 10pm. But if you’d like to stay in one of the snow rooms, they are available purely for sleeping starting at 10pm. So basically you check in, sleep in the room, and get hurried out in the morning, so it wouldn’t be my choice, but to each their own! We enjoying viewing the sculptures and then hit the road for our next stop in Levi!