We caught an overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland which sits just a few kilometers from the Arctic Circle. The train ride was beautiful, which is just as well because traveling north to the Arctic Circle in July means you enter the land of twenty four hours of daylight so at least I had some nice scenery to watch as insomnia kicked in. Finland bears a strong resemblance to Cottage Country in Muskoka, Ontario: lakes filled with canoes and swimming rafts; quiet rivers nudged by gentle breezes and relaxed currents; perfect reflections of healthy trees on dead calm waters.
Once the train pulled in to Rovaniemi and we dropped off our backpacks, the Arctic Museum was our first destination. One section focused on the Arctic itself with plenty of interactive exhibits, lots of interesting artifacts from Arctic people worldwide, information about how the Arctic has been changing over the years due to climate change and human involvement, and a beautiful aurora borealis light show.
Another section of the museum was dedicated to Finland and, more specifically, the history, people, and traditions of Rovaniemi. The Soviets attacked the town during WWII and Rovaniemi was consequently almost completely razed.
In the afternoon, we went to the main attraction: the Arctic Circle! A shopping and entertainment plaza named Santa Village & Park is conveniently located on the Arctic Circle, so you can try on all the furry hats and buy all the tacky, Christmas souvenirs your heart desires. As a kid, I was a huge fan of lingonberries so I was glad to see them available here.
I skipped the souvenirs but I did pay fifty cents for an Arctic Circle stamp in my passport. In fact, this is the first stamp in my British passport!
From my trip to Ecuador, I learned that the equator isn't just the narrow red line painted on the ground, but an entire zone about twenty-odd kilometers wide and I know that other geographic points can shift, like the magnetic North Pole, so I played it safe and walked a fair distance in each direction of the marked Arctic Circle in case the it wasn't precisely where indicated. It's a good thing I did because I found out the next day that the real Arctic Circle is actually about one hundred meters off from the painted line.
It's a twenty minute walk to the hub of Santa Park. As we walked, we spotted a baby animal in the woods that I believe was a young moose.
I was really excited to go to Santa Park since it looked like there were lots of cool activities. We forked over the hefty €16 entrance fee…and promptly regretted it! It was more like a gift shop than the amusement park it was described to be. The place was absolutely dead except for a few kids and their parents. There was a oddly psychedelic ride through what I can best describe as a trippy forest and Santa's workshop, an ice bar with ice sculptures, and a deserted restaurant with a stage where so-called elves (which looked more like evil, dirty trolls in my book) jumped around the stage in what I can only assume was supposed to be dancing. It was weird. It was so weird that it was hilarious, but we chose not to stay for the 4 PM session of elf secrets. The one highlight of Santa Park was the life sized snow globe where I got to frolic and play in the fake, chemically snow. Apart from that, it was absolutely the worst place I've ever paid to go to. If you should ever find yourself in the Arctic Circle, I implore you to save your money and skip Santa Park.
In the evening, we went for a nice hike through the woods where we weren't technically lost but definitely disoriented. Since we had seen a young moose earlier in the day, we kept hoping to find a wild reindeer but had no luck.
Just before midnight, we walked to a beach to check out the Lumberjack Bridg and wandered around, snapping photos of the midnight sun and swatting the mosquitoes away. I don't know how people live here year round where they experience twenty four hours of sunlight and darkness. It was tough getting to sleep and I woke up constantly.
The next day I went bobsledding for the first time! In the summertime, there's no snow so I went down the course on a little wheely chair. It didn't look like I'd be able to pick up too much speed so I completely eased off the brake and, of course, on the next turn I went flying up in the air! Despite a couple of impressive skid burns on my knees and elbows, I was in good shape and got back on my wheely chair and laughed all the way down to the bottom.
The town's main plaza was Lordi Square, named after the heavy metal band Lordi which won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Mr. Lordi, as the frontman is known, originally hails from Rovaniemi.
Apparently Lapland still appreciates the mid 1990s with this humble homage to MC Hammer.
Traditional Finnish foods include salty licorice ice cream and reindeer.
Not to be missed is the world's northern most McDonald's.
That night we boarded the train back to Helsinki. The scenery was once again peaceful and gorgeous as I looked through the 1980s dull pink curtains which were useless against the nighttime sun.
