Price and donations
The base price of the retreat is 380 € (includes VAT 24 %). This covers the travel expenses of the teachers and the managers, the food expenses and some other practicalities. The bus from Rovaniemi to Kittilä is included in the price; meals during the travelling are not included.
We feel that financial situation should not prevent anybody from participating, so we are willing to offer the retreat for a reduced price, if needed. If the base price is too high for you, please contact us at retriitit2@nirodha.fi and let us know how much you are able to pay.
Please note, due to the rising costs the requests for reduced prices have increased and at the moment we may not be able fulfill them all. We are very sorry about this and hope to find a solution soon. If you are attending this retreat and you are in a good financial situation, please consider supporting those in need of discount by paying more than the base price.
The teachers and organizers do not receive any payment for their services, but offer these freely, so that as many as possible have a possibility to benefit from the teachings regardless of their financial situation. This principle of generosity is very central in the teachings of the Buddha, and has made it possible that we can still practice meditation 2500 years after him.
The retreatants may support the teachers and organizers by donations after the retreat; we ask you to take a payment card or cash with you for this. The teachers live primarily on donations.
Registration and cancellations
You can sign up by filling the registration form. Once you have registered, you will receive an invoice for the 35 euros registration fee. Please pay the invoice using the reference number by due date. The registration fee cannot be transferred to another retreat.
Before the retreat we will send you a second invoice for the rest of the retreat fee. Make sure you pay the invoice by due date, or your place will be given to the next person on the waiting list.
If you wish to pay via Paypal, please choose ”Registration with PayPal invoice” on the registration form AND contact us via email at retriitit2@nirodha.fi. We will create a Paypal invoice for you then.
In case you need to cancel the retreat, we kindly ask that you tell us as soon as possible, so we can give your place to the next person in the queue. In case of cancellations, the registration fee is not refundable. If you have already paid the second invoice but need to cancel, we will unfortunately be able to refund you only if we can find another participant to fill in the empty place.
If you are coming from abroad, please note that we are not able to provide any documents for visa applications because of limited resources.
Time, place and travel arrangements
The retreat starts on Tuesday the 15th of August. We will gather at the Rovaniemi bus station at 9 am. A bus will take us from there to Kukasjärvi area. We will stop on the way to eat something. One the first day we will walk to our camp, which is about 3 km from the nearest road. The retreat ends on Tueday the 22nd of August. The bus picks us up so that we are back at Rovaniemi railway station after 5 pm.
A good way to travel from Southern Finland to Rovaniemi is by taking a train from Helsinki. The night trains for Monday-Tuesday night are cancelled, but you can come to Rovaniemi on Monday or take a night bus, which will arrive to Rovaniemi around 9 am on Tuesday (the exact schedule is not published yet, but we will wait for anyone coming by bus – please check Onnibus for the details).
For the journey back, a suitable train leaves Rovaniemi on 22nd of August at 17:45 and arrives at Helsinki on the 23rd of August at 6:27 am. You can purchase the train tickets from vr.fi. Travel costs to Rovaniemi are not included in the retreat price.
If you are coming by car, please let us know! We will give you instructions.
Conditions in the retreat
The conditions in mid August vary a lot from year to year. There may be huge swarms of mosquitoes and other biting insects, or almost none (in any case, it is good to bring a mosquito hat). The weather may vary from warm to even occasional snowfall; the daytime temperatures can be anything between 5 and 25 degrees. The temperature may go below zero at night, but this is not very likely. Sun cream might be needed during the days.
The camp has very basic equipment. Nights are spent in shared tents and food will be cooked with portable stoves. There will be a dry toilet available and possibility to wash yourself.
During the days we will do walks (up to 12 km) in the surrounding area. We will walk partly on paths and partly outside of them. The terrain may be wet or stony and we will wade across small streams.
There are some other cottages around the Kukasjärvi lake, so we might meet other people or hear their voices every now and then. Nevertheless, we will have a chance to be mostly on our own.
Equipment needed
The equipment needed for the retreat are listed in the equipment list.
If you do not have everything on the list, please try borrowing from your friends or use a rental service (e.g. Kuinoma).
We do not have an insurance for the participants. It would be good to have your own personal insurance, which also covers trekking in Lapland.
Food
On the Outdoor Retreat we will eat trekking food, which is light to carry to the camp and on our day walks. We eat three meals a day, and there will also be some common snacks. All the food will be vegetarian. You can tell about your food allergies in the registration form.
There is a spring near the camp and during out walks we can get drinking water from the streams. The outdoor retreat is a drug-free event. We also encourage people not to smoke during the trek.
Last
We will send the participants more practical information closer to the retreat. If you have any questions, please contact us at retriitit2@nirodha.fi. We hope that this retreat will be an unique and beautiful experience for everyone!
You are warmly welcome,
Heini Repometsä (practical arrangements) heini.repometsa@gmail.com, +358 45 6755043
Marianne (Nella) Woodbury (registrations) retriitit2@nirodha.fi, phone (only Whatsapp, Telegram & iMessage): +1 470 641 7056