* Rovaniemi (notes)
AUSTRALIA | Tuesday, 14 January 2025 | Views [188]
Day 0 = Sun 5 Jan
- Flight (Finnair)
- Gorgeous view of Finland from above (daytime flight)
- Snow-covered-ice-covered-lakes
- Forests in between
- Granite boulder fields
- Listened to Sibelius 2nd Symphony and blissed out
- Landed in Rovaniem1 at about 1:30 and -25C
- Taxi to accom
- Another brown taxi driver
- Really helpful (also the Finnish guy at the airport)
- Beautiful scenery
- Hoarfrost on all the trees
- Farkin cold
- Like being naked in Brisbane winter
- Accom
- Korkalonkatu, which Emma simplified to "Krakalakin St"
- Small penthouse
- Lucky Granny had decided to find her own because not really big enough for 4 (barely big enough for 3)
- But great location
- Also a sauna in the bathroom
- Went shopping
- Little Tardis of a K-market
- Reindeer soup, blueberry juice
- Moomin tea
- Then a walk by myself to Lordi square
- Sampokeskus - named after the cornucopic macguffin of the Kalevala
- Rival Santa hut
- Cutting Santa's lunch and badmouthing the wait time
- EUR35 for a photo?
- Walk to river
- Back home via different supermarket
- Dinner
- Reindeer soup
- Like cream of mushroom soup, but with smoked reindeer instead of mushrooms
- Very nice
- Karhu (The bear, Brown bear, Angry bear)
- Sauna
- Part of ensuite
- Very relaxing
- Sauna oils - Birch, Pine tar, Smoky, Eucalyptus (empty)
- Cold shower after
- Sort throat at bedtime
- Possibly due to extreme cold or extreme heat of sauna?
Day 1 = Mon 6 Jan
- Breakfast
- Blueberry pouring yogurt turned out to be blueberry soup, still nice though
- Testing clothes
- Balcony was enclosed but outside temp
- So got Carl out there with all the layers to check
- Me too
- Bottom = Undies, thin trakkie dacks, (optional inner pants), pants
- Top = Merino undershirt, T-shirt, Cotton knit long sleeve shirt, fleece, windbreaker/raincoat
- Feet = normal socks, woll socks, boots
- Hands = Women's jogging gloves, Goretex ski gloves
- Head = Normal beanie, extra beanie, neck/face warmer (more practical that scarf), N95 mask also quite an effective facewarmer
- Walk with Carl
- Towards river
- Through park with sled hills
- River with sign saying "Don't walk on the ice!!!" next to lots of footprints on the ice.
- Back past the apartment to wave through the window.
- Shops again - Moomin bag, cocoanut water for Carl
- Shop attendant greeted us and I thought he was saying "Do you need help?" so I said "No, thanks"
- And he said [Finnish accent] "But I greet all my customers! It's my way of being polite!"
- He seemed quite upset, poor guy, but it was kinda funny how dramatic he seemed.
- Lunch and chill
- While Emma and Granny went for a walk along the river to have Fika ("kahvitauko")
- Finnish TV
- Chill with the kids
- Got Erica a bit excited about Arktikum Museum (there's animals)
- Also got her a bit excited about trying Reindeer soup
- Walk after Emma got home
- Apparently the next 2 days are take with Santa Clause and Ice HOtel
- Walked to Arkticum to check how far
- Saw lights on horizon, not sure if Aurora through cloud, or city lights reflected in cloud
- Shopping - no
- Walked home via river
- Initial patch of light probably city, but about 4 other patches that were probably Aurora through cloud
- Went to K-market for Reindeer Soup
- Home
- Erica liked the reindeer soup!
- Meatballs for me, but she left me a bit of soup
- Snow ploughs out cleaning the streets
- Specialised front-end loaders
- Sauna before bed
- Cold water in bowl in basin to cool beer
- Lapin Kulta = Lapland's Gold/Treasure (also name for sweetheart)
- Löylya = to throw water on a sauna
Day 2 = Tue 7 Jan
- Santa Clause Village
- Bus from City Centre, near Granny's place
- Italian bus driver who couldn't quite remember the timetable on the way back
- "Ah forget it, just-a take a photo of the timetable at the stop."
- Stop at Santa Park and then Santa Clause Village
- Finding our bearings
- Info
- Tickets to get a time to line up for Santa
- Photos of "Arctic Circle"
- Lunch
- Erica's "emu" for the morning
- Ended up with Santa's Pizza and Burger
- Tempted by the "Reindeer and Peach" pizza, but left them to it and went exploring
- Reindeer rides were nice to look at
- Mrs Santa Clause Cafe had a nice walk in
- Lined up for Santa
- Told the wait was an hour, but only 20min
- Met the big guy and got some photos
- Erica had a meltdown about choosing the right photo
- The one she liked of herself had the rest of us blurry and/or awkward
- Granny finally put her foot down, but Erica in tears
- As we were leaving the Elf handed Emma a copy of the other photo for free with a "Here, Merry Xmas"
- So awesome
- [One day a young elf took pity on me]
- Missed sunset but went for a walk around
- I showed them Mrs Santa Clause, lost Granny, found Granny
- Walked to find the huskies for a look
- Granny had seen them from outside when she was here in summer years ago
- But looks like they were behind a wall now
- Everyone tired and cold by then, so waited for the bus home
- Back in town
- Granny went home and Emma and Carl went to buy Carl some under-gloves
- Erica and I went home
- Walk to Church and lake
- After Emma got home, I went out for dinner supplies
- But first I really wanted to check out the church nearby ("Rovaniemin kirkko")
- It was gorgeous, with hoarfrost-laden trees all around and floodlights
- Even the graveyard was pretty, and neat
- All you need is a good snowplough and everything looks neat
- Down to Kirkkolampi ("Church pond")
- Looked pretty, but no time for a lap yet
- Resolved to bring Emma
- Local teenager preparing to cross ice, didn't stay to watch.
- K-Market
- Jams - Cloudberry and Lingonberry
- Tastes the same as IKEA jam
- Smoked Reindeer
- Cross between salami and mushrooms
- More Reindeer soup
- Karhu 8% - "Angry bear"
- Decided to blow off Snow Hotel visit
- And spend more time seeing Rovaniemi
- Church, Sledding, Arktikum
- Emma's finger
- Driving finger
- Sore all trip but now looking infected
- Had got some antiseptic ointment a few days ago, but we're off to Apukka soon, so best to try and get some antibiotics
- Trying to book Dr appt
- Sauna and bed
Day 3 = Wed 8 Jan
- Emma off to Acute Care Clinic nearby with Granny for her finger
- She saw a podiatrist/physio who said it looked fine (though, presumably, longer and higher up than they were used to seeing?)
- Winds overnight have blown some of the frost off the trees )-:
- But got to see the difference between frost-covered trees and snow-covered trees
- Sledding with Carl
- Angry Birds (themed) Park
- Easy hill
- Harder hill
- Hill with snowplough mound
- Carl loved it
- Walk with Emma
- Around Church pond
- Lovely
- Quiet neighbourhood (Rauhankatu = "Peace and Quiet St")
- Art
- The Lord is my Shepherd in English and Finnish
- Lady on Cross Country skis
- Church
- Still gorgeous
- Looked for grave (E8 from Anders email)
- Dug snow off a few graves (8 from each end of a few rows), no luck
- Found directory and then dug down to some Oikarianen graves
- Dug down through snow, not, y'know, dirt...
- Another look suggested that we were in a different cemetary and the one Anders was pointing us to was further out of town
- Went inside
- Nice lady priest
- Nice paintings (looked a bit like really good chalk drawings, but obviously more permanent)
- Altar, ceiling, along alcoves in walls
- Home for lunch
- Convincing Erica to actually go out for a change
- Arktikum
- A bit of effort getting Erica out the door
- But a nice walk across town
- Good museum exhibits
- Science
- Arctic climate
- Northern lights
- Arctic animals
- History
- Sami
- WW2 and the destruction of Rovaniemi
- Salmon
- Shopping
- Returned cans
- Good system
- You take the cans to the supermarket and put them in the machine
- It gives you a docket with a barcode,
- which you scan at the checkout for a discount off your bill
- Both supermarkets
- Unplugged beeper ("Bee-boo!")
- Dinner banquet of leftovers
- Including Piirakka (Pirog - borrowed from Slavic)
Day 4 = Thu 9 Jan
- Packed up and headed to Apukka Resort
- The usual stress and bother.
- Cab to resort
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