Throwback to Summer ’22
Welcome to my throwback story about my days in Nuorgam last summer. My summer job ended at Nuorgam’s Holiday Village last month. My last day at work was 10th of August. But let’s start from the beginning.
When I arrived in Nuorgam, it snowed. Yes, at the start of June it still snowed. It was +3 degrees, cloudy and I had just arrived to totally unfamiliar place middle of nowhere by bus.
Oh, how did I ended up there? Well, after my seasonal work ended at Levi in May, I wanted to stay in Lapland for the summer and I found a summer work place from Nuorgam. Job sounded interesting, so I applied, got accepted and here I am.
I was nervous, but excited at the same time. New place, new adventures, they say and I’m never afraid of those. Bus drive there was long, but fun at the end. My last 3,5 hours was in a small 16-seet bus and I was only passenger. The bus driver told me all kind of fun local fact and also was kind enough stop by at the supermarket before dropping me off at my stop. Otherwise I wouldn’t have nothing for the evening as all places would have been closed when I arrived. After that I met up with my boss for the first time. She took me to the apartment, about 2km away from my coming workplace. I got settled in and after a day it was time to start at my new job.
Summer job begins
My main job was handling the summer café and also a restaurant. There were summer cottages and apartment rooms to rent, So I also handled check-in/out customers to those. Also fishermen came to print their fishing permissions at the office so time to time I did those too. Have to say information flow was incredible as there was so much to learn about the place, salmon fishing and about local sightseeing places. Also as we were close to Norway so customers often asked advice about where to go and how. July was a specially busy month and time mostly went by working. Luckily my coworker had a car so we did a small road trip to Saariselkä, where we stayed for one night. Unfortunately, the weather was really poor so we couldn’t do any hiking, but instead spend a relaxing evening at the spa.
Exploring Nuorgam
But finally, in August it was time for sightseeing and experiencing different things. We had already a fat biked to nearby fell what was an amazing trip, but the climb to the fell was… a challenge. It was so steep and long, about 3 km before we were up there. But finally, we made it to a Skaidijärvi (Skaidi lake) and then we headed back to the main road, this time a little bit easier way down. Adventures continued in August as we went to kayaking with a coworker. We rented a kayak from our workplace and got a drop off to a starting point what was surprisingly at Norway’s side. So first time in Norway too.
The starting point was from Pulmankijärvi (Pulmanki lake), which is an old fjord and which north side is on Norway’s side and south on Finland’s side. Starting from the lake we head down a small river that leads to back towards where we came. It took us around 3 hours to paddle back and we could have taken longer, but we had a timeline as there would be others, real, customers renting the kayak for the evening. Luckily, we didn’t have to rush, but paddle calmly and we had a small break on cute shore at the middle. After that, it was nearly the end of the season. So I just took it easy, went to pick some bilberries and also hiked a bit nearby areas.
My days in Nuorgam
The true adventure started actually after I had finished my work. My best friend came to Lapland after I had finished my work and we did a small road trip through Finland in a one weekend. We also visited a bit more Norway on that trip, but that’s a another story. Overall I loved my time in Nuorgam. It was amazing to see new parts of Lapland and it just made me realize how little bit I know of my home country. Even it’s called Lapland the landscape is so different when you comprehend south, middle or north Lapland. Don’t know will I go work there again, but absolutely going to visit there later. Hopefully with my best friends as I want to show them those amazing places that I managed to see and of course to see more myself. So hello and goodbye Nuorgam, until we see again!