bluearmy

In work on Friday some of the lads were having one of those nothing conversations just talking rubbish how men do. One of the lads came out with a half-hearted attemp at humour with "if I won the lottery I would go to Lapland for the dancing" which then lead onto where exactly is Lapland?

We were all of the opinion that it is in Scandinavia but the guessing went from Norway to Iceland; Greenland; Sweden and Finland. I have had a look on the net and I still cannot get a definative answer. From what I did find I think that Lapland is a region spanning some of the nations already mentioned but I still cannot settle the argument until I know exactly where Lapland is. I know we have tfp members in that part of the world and I am counting on your help to make me look like a genius to my mates in work.

charliex

the northern area of norway, finland, sweden and russia kola pennisula

uncle phil

he's right...

__________________
"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
-----------------------------------------
"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
-----------------------------------------
never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

Mehoni

In Sweden:



http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapponia

__________________
There seem to be countless rituals and cultural beliefs designed to alleviate their fear of a simple biological truth - all organisms eventually perish.

Ashton

Cynthetiq

almost made it there when I was in finland... but I want to see it when we can stay in the ice hotel

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Deker

I think it's the private room at the local strip club.

__________________
Former beach bum (now I do nothing)

santafe5000

That is about what i was going to say, or something to that effect.

__________________
When all else fails, QUIT.

suviko

I am from Finland, so I am sure about this. Lappi aka Lapland is a northern part of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. The natives of lapland (saamelaiset aka sami people) traditionally lived by herding reindeer for meat and milk so they have to move around and live in one spot at winter and one place at summer time cos of the animals so they the wandering people didn't respect official borders of nations. They speak their own language (The language is called "saame" in Finnish, dunno what's that in English, sami probably), actually 9 so distict dialects that they are counted as separate languages and have a flag, they are proud of their ethnicity but are not a politically fueled group to get independent state or anything. They are disappearing, people are blending to the main culture and moving to cities and give up the traditional lifestyle.

BTW: While the people in The States think Santa lives at North Pole (and there are other traditions of his whereabouts around the World), Santa Claus is believed to live in a mountain at the Finnish region of Lapland. Lapland is where the cloudberries come from and Finland's Lapland is full of ski resorts.

http://www.scandinavica.com/sami.htm

troit

Interesting sidenote suviko. Guess you learn something new everyday....

__________________
I've yet to dephile myself...

siogo

Yeah!......... What Suviko said.

__________________
California sunlight, sweet Calcutta rain, Honolulu starbright, the song remains................the same.

bluearmy

What was a throw away line by one of the lads in work has really caught the imagination in my work place. On Monday I had to listen to others who had done their home work and knew that Lapland was in Finland and another who insisted it was Norway and while not wrong they didn't have the tfp to get the full story. Thanks to you all for responding I was able to put a few people straight, I even printed off some of the replies from; charliex; Mehoni; and suviko and much to my surprise the people I work with were genuinely interested.