Eight years ago, we left London for Lapland
- Levi Foxfires
- Aug 11
- 5 min read
Yesterday marked eight years since we arrived in Levi and started a completely new life.
Eight years.
Sometimes it feels like we have been here forever, and sometimes it feels like we arrived only yesterday.
So it seems like a good time to tell the story of how a Polish wife and a British husband and, of course, our Parson Russell Terrier Gooseberry, left London and ended up living in Finnish Lapland.
Is there another path to take?
We had been living in London and working for corporations for nearly fifteen years, but we were growing restless and a little jaded with city life. We started asking ourselves:
Is there another path to take? Can we escape the rat race and thrive? Is there a way of life that means we can spend more time together?
There were three questions we needed to answer:
What can we do for a living?
Where can we go?
And when is the time to jump?
What can we do for a living?
The first question was actually quite easy to answer. We would do what we love. And what we love is hosting, cooking, creating and working to our own schedule. So we decided that one day we would open our own boutique accommodation. At that point, we knew what we wanted to do. We just had absolutely no idea where we were going to do it.
Where can we go?
This question was much more difficult. We had travelled a lot around the world and seen many beautiful places, but choosing somewhere to build a completely new life was very different from choosing somewhere to visit. We talked about Wales, Poland, France, Italy, Slovenia… but none of those destinations seemed quite right for our big move.
Then, in 2017, we arrived in Levi for a winter holiday.
We immediately fell in love with this place. We knew right there and then that we had to find a way to be here in Lapland, under the Northern Lights, permanently.
It felt like home after just one day. Suddenly, we had the answer to our second question.
Lapland.
When to jump?
And finally, there was the last question to answer.
When?
It is never easy to make such a big decision. To leave everything you know, all your friends and family, your jobs and the life you have built, and move to a place you only know from a few days on holiday.
Almost a year after that first holiday in Levi, we were on our honeymoon in South America. One relaxing day, sitting among the vineyards in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, we started talking again about our big dream to move to Lapland. And we realised something.
We were never going to feel completely ready for such a big move.
So we looked at each other and said:
Let us just do it.
That was it. The decision was made. From that moment, it took us only eight months to organise everything.
London to Levi
In August 2018, we packed our life into our car and left London. We drove through eight countries and crossed seven borders. Seven days later, we arrived in Levi to start our new life in the wild.
Looking back now, it was quite a thing to do.
We had left our corporate jobs, our home, our friends and the city where we had spent nearly fifteen years. We were starting again in a country we barely knew, building a business we had never run before and learning how to live in a place very different from London. And of course, we didn't speak the language!
But we had made the jump. And now we had to make it work.
The beginning of Foxfires
In Levi, we set up our company and called it Foxfires.
Our dream job started with providing private Northern Lights hunting during our first winter. For our second winter, we designed and built the Arctic Spa. Then, in 2020, we completed the built of our home and guesthouse.
And Foxfires continued to grow. Not quickly and not according to some grand business plan. We simply kept creating. We designed, built, learnt, changed things, made mistakes and worked incredibly hard.
Over the years, Foxfires has become much more than the boutique accommodation we originally imagined back in London.
We now have created our boutique accommodation, private Arctic Spa and travel guides, with our newest cabin currently taking shape. Almost everything you see at Foxfires has been designed and created by the two of us.
It has certainly not always been easy.
There have been very long days, plenty of uncertainty and probably more hard work than either of us could ever have imagined when we sat in those vineyards in Argentina.
But it is ours. And that means a lot to us.
Eight years living in Lapland
Living somewhere is very different to visiting it on holiday.
Eight years in Levi has allowed us to experience Lapland through every season and in every mood. We have learnt a huge amount about this place, but perhaps more importantly, we have learnt what kind of life we want to live here.
We still work very hard, particularly during winter. Foxfires is a small family business and most things are still done by the two of us, although these days we are very grateful to have some help, mostly with cleaning the cabins.
But we are building something together. We spend our days creating, hosting, cooking and working to our own schedule. Exactly the things we talked about all those years ago in London.
Would we make the same decision again?
Eight years ago, we could not possibly have known where that decision would take us.
We simply knew that we wanted something different. We wanted to spend more time together, create something of our own and build a life that felt right for us.
Looking at the life we have built here in Levi, there have certainly been challenges along the way, but we have never regretted making that decision.
And yes, eight years later, we would make the same decision again.
Thank you for reading
Thank you for following our journey and for being part of Foxfires as it has grown and changed over the years.
There are still plenty of ideas, projects and adventures ahead of us, and we hope you will continue sharing this slightly unusual life in Lapland with us.
Aggie, Paul & Gooseberry
Every photograph in this article was taken by us and is part of our own journey from London to our life here in Levi.
