I awoke a Christmas card outside my window at about 8:30am. It was dawn – the sun hadn’t really begun to rise yet but everything was white, covered by a few feet of snow and I was in the middle of a forest, a pine forest where the trees all looked like they had bee sprayed with fake Christmas snow. There were no lights or tinsel but there were snow-covered wooden cottages interspersed throughout the trees. I had arrived in Lapland. A couple of hours later, I arrived at my Arctic Circle destination – Rovaniemi – home of Santa Claus.
I wandered around for a while until I honed in on the city’s information centre, which was near the hotel Santa Claus and situated in Lordi Square. Santa Claus may be the drawcard for the tourists but the folk of Rovaniemi are much more obsessed with their favourite sons – the band that brought Eurovision to Finland. Apart from the Lordi Rocktaurant and the square, there are Lordi references everywhere, including the greasy little kebab shop advertising the ‘spesial Lordi kebab’. One imagines this delicacy is based on the way they used to order a kebab on their way home through the snow at 4am after a gig.
Once I had the pertinent information on how to get to Santaland and had left my backpack at the Santa Claus Hotel (Hostel Rudolf check-in was later in the day), I did what the Finns do – went into a coffee house, order a latte (no such thing as a flat white here) and snuggled in the warm to drink it. The temperature wasn’t actually that bad. The -30s that gave me palpitations before I left were not realized and the minimum only got down to about – 12 I think. Most of the day it was a balmy -4. With the thermals, my new boots and my puffy jacket (along with scarf, gloves and beanie), I felt positively toasty. The Finns keep the heat up pretty high inside (probably because of that other Finnish pastime, the sauna) so after carrying my pack around in the snow with all those layers, I started sweating if I didn’t remove some clothing once I got through the door. And yes I totally overpacked so don’t get too excited if you get a package from me, it could just be my excess baggage.
I’ll pause here for a moment, for a word on the Finns – They are helpful and friendly enough, if you ask them something but otherwise they are oblivious to your existence. Not even a sideways glance when you are walking through town with a backpack or a T-shirt with Australian tour dates on the back. They smile and help you if asked but won’t be engaged in conversation. At this point I am going to plagiarise from Georgie’s musings and add, in square brackets the soundtrack on my MP3 player – I could have said iriver but only one person would get that. [Words – Doves, somewhat appropriately, followed by There Goes the Fear, which some would recognize as my mobile message tone.]
After the coffee, I wandered around the town to get my bearings. A couple of observations here: Firstly, when everything is covered in snow, it’s hard to tell where the road begins and the footpath ends or what I imagine was a footpath if there was no snow. The do plough the snow to make an even surface but in this weather, snow is better than having an icy surface. 2) In Finland it seems that cars have the right of way at crossings. They do slow down if you are on the crossing but not if they see you on the kerb. I mastered the art of the Finnish snow crossing however and (so far at least) have not landed on my arse in the snow. [‘Cailin’ – Unwritten Law – dark, grungey punk seems more appropriate than the sunny SoCal stuff. Scandinavia isn’t all about black metal – Millencolin come from Sweden you know.]
It’s clear tourism is a big industry in Rovaniemi. The bus that heads out of town to Santa’s ‘official’ village is plastered with Christmas images despite the fact that most of its journey is on a local route. En route to the village you pass one of Rovaniemi’s other big attractions, a snow park, complete with steep downhill runs, jumps and miles cross country ski tracks. If I was a skier (or not frightened I’d break my neck trying, I would have a go at this. Even the toboggan run looked a bit steep for this little black duck. [Sister Havana – Urge Overkill – despite the sunny title, another dark winter song – just the way I like my music and weather]
Santa’s village is everything I thought it would be – kitschy, tacky and completely wonderful. I was really glad I left it until the afternoon to visit. The village is open until 5pm but as the sun started to set at 3:30pm, it really came into its own (it rose at about 9:30am although it was overcast all day). The whole place is surrounded by ice sculptures that were lit up with varying colour schemes as the darkness set in. There were fairy lights everywhere and waterfalls of light. And a blue line about 15 feet in the air marking the Arctic Circle (the real Arctic Circle moves everyday apparently but everyone’s gotta have a symbol). As tacky as it was, the whole scene was magical and to me at least, beautiful.
I visited Santa (which was free) but kyboshed the idea of a photo that cost more than a five star hotel – well not quite but close. After that it was off to the Santa Post Office where all the letters to Santa are delivered. Postcards, postmarked from Santa’s post office are on their way to some of you. Tacky souvenir shopping was easy her – you name it they’ve put Santa in it or on it or plastered it with a reindeer image or made it reindeer-shaped. [An Open Letter to NYC – Beastie Boys – not really about Santa but my fave Christmas song – Do they Know it’s Christmas? Exists only on vinyl in my house thousands of miles away]
There’s also Santa Park, an under ground amusement park that costs about 30 euros. You can take a skidoo or a reindeer sleigh ride to get there from the village but it also comes at a price. Post-Christmas, Santa land was closed for some renovations so I made do with the free village and the arctic ice park behind it that would almost give Piss Weak World a run for its money. There was an ice café with no one serving, an ice maze, an ice rink (not like they aren’t a dime a dozen here) and ten pin bowling in ice lanes. The only saving graces were the two fires, one outdoors with reindeer skins to sit on and one in what’s best described as a yurt; and the rubber tyre slide. Not anywhere near the length of the one at Selwyn but fun nonetheless. All this for 10 euro.
After the helter skelter of Santa’s world, I returned to town and checked in. It was then off to my other reason for visiting Rovaniemi, dinner at the Lordi Rocktaurant. This place is an experience – the vibe is gothic and among the skulls and battle axes, there is a host of Kiss memorabilia. At a guess, I’d say these guys spent their youth listening to glam bands such as kiss and playing dungeons and Dragons – in between becoming local Rovaniemi heroes, of course. Warning to vegetarians and vegans – the following paragraph contains graphic descriptions of meat. As mentioned elsewhere, another establishment claimed to serve the Lordi kebab, so I thought that would be a good choice. I could have it with rice or fries. wtf… rice with a kebab? I’ll have the chips thanks. After a few minutes of surveying my surroundings, the food arrived. I should have chosen the rice. A kebab comes in bread right? Especially if the other menu items consist of several different burger alternatives. No – on my plate was kebab meat piled on top of French fries with a side salad. As nothing much grows in the arctic at this time of year, salad consists of cabbage, a pickled mild chilli and orange tomatoes – the kind you get when they have been artificially ripened. [No Sleep till Brooklyn – The Beastie Boys – more appropriate on the plane but I was busy with all the telly at my fingertips.] Despite these oddities, the kebab was really good. The marinade for the meat which was kind of a sweet barbeque flavour was thoroughly delicious and despite my reservations, the fries were the perfect accompaniment, smothered in the sauce from the marinated meat.
Apart from being the home of Santa, Rovaniemi is a student town and there are bars everywhere. I contemplated visiting one of these but am not quite ready to drink at a bar on my own. Maybe in Helsinki… I did, however have to visit McDonalds on my way back to the hostel, mostly just to see what was on the menu. Although Maccas is slated as the great leveler, there are often local variations to the menu. From my extensive travel so far I note that the menu at Maccas in Bali has a high proportion of chicken offerings and serves rice as an alternative to fries. In Rovaniemi at the ‘world’s northest McDonald’s’ the menu is pretty close to the Australian version – except that there is an alternative to a sundae that I understand is a frozen yoghurt – a treat quite popular here. I really felt like chocolate though and can report that a chocolate sundae in Finland tastes exactly the same, despite coming in a paper cup rather than a plastic container. [Feed the Tree – Belly – another grungey wintry song. I always imagined a north American fir forest, like you see on numerous episodes of the X-Files, when I heard this – wrong continent, right visual.]
After my first proper shower since leaving home – the overnight train afforded an opportunity for a sponge bath but no shower – I settled in to my comfortable hostel room, watched some Swedish doco, a British drama I didn’t recognize and then quickly changed to an old episode of CSI (possibly running here for the first time, subtitled in Swedish (more people in Lapland speak Swedish than Finnish, given the area’s proximity to their neighbours). Alas no Aurora Borealis – the sky remained completely overcast.
