I
arrived in Rovaniemi (Santa's town of choice) in Finnish lapland via
overnight express train (a fitting entrance i thought). I had a
sleeper cabin all to myself during the 10 and a bit hour trip (though
i didn't know it was all mine and kept wondering throughout the night
when the hell my roommate was going to get on the train). Despite
the very pleasant bed i didn't get a lot of sleep and i just did not
want to get out of bed and off the train.
Eventually
i dragged myself off the train – into a very wet Rovaniemi morning.
With checkin to the Guesthouse Borealis (cool name) not until 2pm i
wandered off into town. Rovaniemi town is quite new – everything
had to be rebuilt after the Germans had a hissy fit when they were
evicted at the end of world war 2. Mostly just tenement housing but,
due to the good graces of Alvar Aalto (yep the Finnish architectural
God), there are some great buildings too. The town concert hall and
library are Aalto creations. And then there is the stunning Artikum
museum – which has a statuesque main building and then a glass
tunnel (under which the museum exhibits are housed) behind. There
are also some touching monuments recognising the hard work of the
people who rebuilt the place from scratch after the war.
After
my quick look around town i headed off on the bus to the official
Santa Claus Village. Yes it was pure unadulterated touristic cheese
– but it was free to get in and you get to send postcards home with
Santa's north pole mark. Oh, and your picture taken with Santa (for
muchos euros of course) – they are even so hip as to offer you a
flash drive loaded with video from your time spent with The Claus.
Me and Nathanial (a kiwi i bumped into on the bus out to the village)
did kind of wonder why he was talking to us so long after we had our
picture taken.
The main reason i ventured out into tourist hell was
to cross the Arctic Circle. I did it several times, quickly, so as
to avoid the hordes of mosquitoes itching for tourist blood.
Rovaniemi could easily get sponsorship by some mozzie repellant
company.
Nathanial
and i also visited the Husky park in the village. There we met some
very cute huskies, some half wolf/half huskies and one very hungry
raindeer. the guide was great too – enlightening us about life in
lapland during dark winter and the joys of dog-sledding. It would be
fantastic to go on a husky safari in winter!
My
second day out in Rovaniemi i spent basically the whole time at the
Artikkum – the polar museum. It has to be the best museum i've
ever been to. Very informative (in english – yay!), laid out in a
fun, interactive way (they have ice caves, videos, a movie, computer
games and heaps of cool photos and interviews) and was a good mix of
intellectual sciency stuff and human interest stories. And all
housed in an ultra stylish building right on the river – with a
nice glassed corridor from which to view all the rain!
Bumped
into a Cosmos bus tour tourist (a very friendly Indian electrical engineer
working in the UK who was a seasoned traveler) on the way to the
museum too so had someone to wander the exhibits with.
After
that i went to the public library – yes i know, i am a geek. But
the place had free internet – oh, and dancing as part of the folk
festival. Actually it is a very cool library – it has books in
sami, inuit, and a bunch of other languages (especially focusing on
Artic people) – and they have announcements in english!!!
Sadly,
due to the wet weather (it really does seem to follow me around) i
did not manage to view or photograph the midnight sun. I did get to
suffer through trying to sleep in perpetual daylight in a room with
white curtains though. And got to meet a very nice dutch girl
(roommate in our twin hotel-style room at the hostel Rudulf).
