Rovaniemi

Ahhh, the day after auroras, waking up with the thought of “did that really happen?!?” Absolute awe. Now just to wait for the pics because if there aren’t pictures, it didn’t really happen right?!?

Both a bit overwhelmed and tired from a late night we got stuck into some good ol’ Finnish delicacies – well, the version from the local Kioski, heat n eat style from our kitchen with a snowy view…

Salmon soup, chicken & cheese soup and meatballs with mash… surprisingly tasty… or just really damn hungry…

Having not heard back from our 2 star Airbnb host, we had hoped to stay in our accommodation for a few hours longer to avoid the -17 outside, but low and behold Annikki (made that up) arrived to clean so time to leg it, out in -17 at noon with no where to go, luckily the Finnish get the whole drink coffee and veg thing. Their coffee houses are funky as hell and the coffee ain’t too bad either.

So having to wait it out til 3.30pm for our bus to Saariselka, after the coffee house got bored of us we dragged suitcases and all to the local shopping centre where our eyes did not deceive us, a rock n roll Mexican restaurant – never knew those two things belonged together until now! Cue gin… and a trip to supermarket to stock up on snacks for the road trip… and then some more gin… my first taste of the national Finnish drink Lonkero, which just happens to be Gin… knew I belonged here.. and you can buy it in the supermarket aisle… triple points for Finland!!

And in another plus for Finland, their bottle shops are called Alko, for reals… this place has my heart!

So bus station bound with Google leading the way, how the hell people got around before Google maps in this weather without turning into icicles is beyond me, but we trudged, dragging suitcases through the snow to the Linja-Autoasema and after some interesting conversation with a local who thought we needed advice on how to live our best life – we were off to Saariselka. I guess we did look that bad and the dude thought we needed it…

So after a breakfast of microwaveable goodness, second breakfast of coffee, elevenses of gin and I guess a lunch of gin, it was time for random supermarket snacks for luncheon and afternoon tea – Thai Green Curry Pringles, something chocolate, another thing chocolate then this green sugary bundle of yum – still no idea what it was, just tasted like green according to Kyles…

The bus ride was like crossing the Mountains of Moria, snow blizzard outside and Saruman trying to bury us in snow.. luckily takeaway cans of gin took the edge off the fear… somehow on a road we couldn’t see, our frickin amazing bus driver got us to Saariselka, and what do we know, our accommodation is at the local pub where there’s a roaring fire and karaoke!!

No surprises, we took two minutes to drop bags at our room and head to the local. We settled in fireside for a dinner of salami sticks and potato chips while indulging in a supper of Lonkero, which I renamed Loki after my favourite Avenger and then somehow my arm was twisted into singing Karaoke… after a Wonderwall warm up, we struck a chord with Don’t Stop Believing then our final ballad of I Got You Babe… of course we are both amazing singers, we didn’t at all clear the bar, just enjoyed the wild applause from our audience…

Yeah nah. Bedtime.

Thursday 3rd January 2019.

Jumping off the train station you’d be forgiven for thinking we’d just disembarked from the Polar Express… snow, snow and more snow, still no Jon Snow though…

Arriving in Rovaniemi just after 7am, we were like kids on Christmas Day, having literally arrived in the official home of Santa Claus. We stashed our bags at the train station and headed for the jolly old man’s home. Having been lucky enough to visit the snow before, this was still something else. Trees covered in snow, cars covered in snow, everything had a thick layer of snow… and then amongst the fascination it hit… snow is farken cold, -11 cold, WTF!!

Rocking up at the Santa Claus Village well before anything was open, which was fair enough given the dude just had a really heavy workload, we killed time with a Finnish breakfast buffet, copious amounts of coffee and a view like something from a fairytale… through the blur of a crappy iPhone.

We hit up the old man straight away to get ahead of the pesky kids who hog Santa’s time – Kyles was sweet and just wanted to ask Santa to see her niece Paige next Christmas, I took a more pageant queen angle and wanted world peace. Neither of us will get what we wanted, dude didn’t even ask. Isn’t that part of your job description? Anyhoo, pics to come later, new age Santa gives you pictures on a USB and that’s one adapter I didn’t bring, damn would have been more useful than the curling iron I packed… here’s the creepy LEGO version instead…

Out and about in Santa’s Village, it really is magical. Fairy lights, snow, reindeer (yum!) and snowmen (sorry – snowperson)… and my fave, an ice bar! We were super touristy, paid to do all the overpriced things and didn’t care one bit… it was worth it!!

Check this out and try tell me you don’t believe in Santa!!

So the husky sledding was freakin awesome but heartbreaking in the beginning. Stay with me… walking up to Bear Hill sledding and seeing all of these glorious dogs tied up and yelping, broke my heart and then realised I was one of those arsehole people that hurt animals for my own entertainment. Didn’t sit well. Thank goodness Kylie is her awesome self and talks to everyone so we found out that these dogs love to run, the yelping is from having to stop and wait… the huskies (Alaskan, not the pretty hyped up Siberian ones) are born and bred to run over 1,000 clicks a day at up to 30km/h so pulling our heavy arses around is just part and parcel of what they love… hmm, did I fall for the tourist pitch, yeah, kinda…

Awww, you’re a good boy…

Anyways, after our sledding adventure with the incredible Tom Hardy (oh yeah…), it was the ice bar and all the vodka…

Hey Kylie, lick it…

… and of course, where there’s snow, there’s ice ice baby, ice planks and hammer time (that’s for you Pattie!)…

In case you’re wondering how to dress for -11, or -17 by the time we left, all that is required is: 3 x pairs of socks (the third an overpriced pair of wool ones from the souvenir shop that saved at least three toes), knee high winter boots, thermal leggings, jeans, snow pants, thermal top, jumper, ski jacket (hood up), snow gloves, neck/face protector, scarf and beanie… yes I’m full of Christmas pudding but looking like the Michelin man is just part of snow adventures… which is what I’ll keep telling myself…

Special thanks to Paula for lending me everything, would be coming back minus a few fingers and vital organs otherwise…this is how big our smiles are when we find an open fire to warm our cold arses on…

The scenery in Santa Claus village is other worldly – in that a good little Aussie lass without a sense of adventure would never in her life see such beauty in the snow covered trees, purple and orange skies, icicles and glittering snow, just wish my pictures could show just how mind blowing amazing it really is…

Oh yeah, and amongst it all, I found the wall… knew it was out here somewhere…

Our last adventure at the Santa Claus village was a 3km reindeer sleigh ride. When booking it in the morning for a 4pm departure, it seemed like good timing – obvs forgot that at 4pm it’s dark and around -17 degrees… the look on Rudolf’s face says it all: “Paybacks a bitch, this is for eating my brother…”

So for all our adventures at Santa Claus’ Village, the biggest adventure was our night time hunt for auroras courtesy of the bar man at the ice bar who Kylie made friends with… a dude we don’t know, picking us up in the middle of the night and taking us to the middle of nowhere…yeah, all kind of psychotic serial killer movie twists running through my head but must have made it back alive… unless its a ghost writing this, or the bar man… nah, he wasn’t this funny… (ok, we all know only my mum thinks I’m funny).

So we made it back alive but I’ll save the hunting auroras update for when we have all the glorious pics from the bar man… auroras on my dumb arse iPhone looks like this:

Wednesday 2nd January 2018.

Holly vs the world

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Hobbits

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