~* Trip beyond the arctic circle 02.02. - 07.02. 2006 *~
- view from Maria's living room
|
02.02.2006, Day I February 2006 the circumstances were finally right to book a flight and take off to Rovaniemi with my good friend Tharuka. Blue1 took a bit over 100 to bring us there safely. After getting out of the airplane the city immediately showed what kind of image it wanted to bring across: The conveyor belt at the luggage return was decorated with a northern scene featuring reindeer and other nordic fauna... It was after ten o'clock in the evening, we took the airport taxi to the center having no idea where to get off. After some time we tried to ask the driver, but he didn't speak English. My poor Finnish didn't really help but he told us that we would have to walk four kilometers. We prepared for a long and cold walk and tried to get off when he told us to Wait! Good times started. Sitting in a bus, not being able to talk to the driver in a reasonable way, not knowing how long it would take and not really knowing where it was going...made me feel a bit excited. |
But since all good things have to come to an end, we arrived at the home of Maria, who would (hopefully) host us for two nights. We called her and thanks to couchsurfing it went perfectly. Maria was there, nice and friendly showing us a super-clean living-room to stay. It had a gorgeous view. A nice surprise was Maria's friend Nina, who had returned from her exchange semester in Japan just two days earlier. She had greatly enjoyed the time and had been studying so intensive that she sometimes answered in Japanese rather than in English. We were sitting in the kitchen while jrock group Janne Da Arc was playing. Did you know that they use computer controlled, speaking toilet-seats there? Even though it was a nice evening it was a pity that Maria didn't unwrap the incredible *Halli Galli* Game that we brought as a present. I never played it and it would have been __fun!!
|
- mailmaan pohjoisin McDonald's
|
03.02.2006, Day II Next day was a Friday and Maria went to university. Rooky, Nina and me shifted to town to see yet another great attraction, namely the *most northern McDonald's of this planet*. I had a Mc Feast Jr for two Euros there, yes. Now I have this wish to visit >>Invercargill to see the planet's most southern one;) It's funny to say that I felt a bit giddy in the beginning of this trip because a had a feeling that we are so _high_ up north that I felt a bit of acrophobia. Nina was wearing this kind of lilac lenses. She is quite a tall girl using a somewhat gothic style and she told that the Japanese seem to find her devilish. She told that a lot of the boys over there where really slim, lightweight figures wearing makeup and trying to concentrate all attention that they get on their pretty faces. The Japanese girls seem to like that but for Nina it wasn't the right thing;) Nina was also having a celly-cutefier. I liked that. Then we tried to get to the Arktikum, a museum about nordic culture, flora and fauna. Well it took as at least 45min to get there because we made some detours. Rooky's and Nina's toes were pretty frozen. Nina hadn't had adapted to local conditions and was still wearing thin Japanese socks... Nevertheless, after unfreezing in the entrance-hall we went in. It was designed by the Danish architects Birch-Bonderup and Thorup-Waade and its main feature is a 172 meter long glass tube pointing straight to the north, running parallel to the highway to Kittil. There was a photography of a Smi-child. The caption of the picture said In early infancy the children of the Smi learn how to use a knife. The picture showed a cute little girl (?). She was wearing a fine headpiece made from a traditional scarf. Blood was running down her chin because she she was holding a piece of meat between her teeth while she was cutting it in half. |
..kayaks made out of animal-skin, a huge globe showing the arctic circle and other geographical features, recordings from Smi-people singing old songs, a gas station from the 70ties... Nina left earlier and when the museum was closing Rooky and I went to meet Krisse in the center. After a frosty walk and some good food in the Martina restaurant (me: cold smoked salmon pasta, Rooky I guess beef with pastry) we met her, she who rides her bike trough the coldest cold...;) Around the corner, in the Hemingway Bar, we sat down to have a beer. A bit later Suvi Mikonen (the red one;) joined in. She had changed her style and was wearing dreadlocks. After checking out places we ended up in Pub Tupsu, around three and a half Euros entrance fee, a place in which one seemingly sits under big umbrellas. We went there because of the live music and The Bookends really rocked the house! They were good! Good! To be honest I didn't feel so nice this evening but Tharuka was quite talkative so I rather just listened.. The next station was the Pub Kellari, where Rooky played (and lost;) against Henna, who we would see later again... But for this evening it was enough and we went to Doris Night Club to meet Maria, which we did, taxi, and we were back in Maria's living-room. In this very same living-room a view minutes later we happened to get to know Juoni, Maria's BF who referred to himself as just a boring guy from around here but he was flying F18 Hornet combat aircrafts. It's just a job. was his laconic statement. He also offered us to ride his ultra-fast Snowmobile. That was nice. I have to admit that my image of a combat pilot was rather that of a brainwashed militarist close to exploding his chest because it's so full of proudness. Concerning Finnish combat pilots this is corrected now. I hope to meet an American one soon. |
- me and da Artic Circle! (it's under the snow, I'm lying on it ;)
|
04. 02. 2006, Day III In the morning we checked out buses to go to Inari, which is about 330 kilometers higher in the north. We wanted to go hiking and stay in a wilderness hut. Gold Line Oy would bring us there and back for about 80 Euros. For real it was cheaper, I guess around 50 because we got the students deal. But for the moment we had to get out. Maria also needed some time on her own to study and charge up for the GooM student's cruise. There was a nice goodbye and then we left for ... the Arctic Circle and Santa, who lives there all year long!! I was looking forward to that :-) Next we were sitting in Bus number 8 from the bus station to the Santa Village, 5,60 Euros and it's cheaper if you buy the return-ticket right away. I liked it!! I jumped it, I lay on it, walked and run over it, the nice Arctic Circle!!! Also Santa was there. I was scared and didn't dare to go in straight away. The interior was in a huge scale making you feel really small, like a child. When a group of Norwegian military servants rushed the room I dared to go in as well. Strange situation between this is so ridicules and tawdry childhood memories. But this Santa was a clever one. With the right voice and questions he created an atmosphere of celebration and one Norwegian girl fell back to an infant mind state, trustfully asking: Santa, can I tell you my wishes? After trying to take a forbidden picture we left the scene. |
This snowmobile-guy told us that we could ride the snowmobile for a Euro for ten minutes. When I went there to do it he said: Maybe in Thailand. Here it's 20 for ten minutes. Too much. What to do next? It was around five and the party would start much later. The tactics here is to wait and see in a place called Meidn Kebap just opposite the Martina-Restaurant. We drank tea, watched The Simpsons and wrote our travel reports. But soon we happened to be in a conversation with other guests of the restaurant. I guess Rooky with is Sri Lankien roots has a bit of an exotic touch to some people which makes it a bit easier to make contact. There was Taru, who likes to sing and recently found the Diva in herself by singing Queens Bohemian Rhapsody. She was really into music and has records of David Bowie and Thin Lizzy. She likes Thin Lizzy so much that she feels really sick and almost has to vomit because they are so good. As we told that we wanted to stay in a wilderness hut the nature-guy Arto gave us functional advice on how to behave: Be friendly, that works in every country! (especially in nature) and also some general information: It's all about nature. I already knew that one from my 2004 stay in Kouvola, but it was good to hear that it is still true. |
- yip
- yo
- arctic circle
- in
- the snow
|
05. 02. 2006, Day IV We woke up 6:30, wrote a node to Suvi and Henna and went to the train station to catch the bus to Ivalo. The bus driver was _cute. An elderly man who gave us the student's deal, took ages to print out the tickets from his huge ticket machine just to throw them away because they were wrong and finally gave us the tickets with his shaky hands. He was also one of those who maintain the good Finnish tradition of telling the times of arrival in various cities on the way as well as the coffee break times in Sodankyl. There were three apprentices traveling with us, doing a five weeks internship in Lapland, they were nice. Sometime around two o'clock we were in Inari, which consists basically of a curve. It was Sunday and the village was sleeping. We asked the bus driver where to go and he told us to go back on the road to find the Lomakyll. |
We rented cottage Nr. 8 for 50:-/ and went to the frozen Inari-Lake star watching. Occasionally cars came along the road and they could be heard from very far apart, having a strange hollow sound. Sometimes it was quiet. I let myself fall into the snow and watched the stars. It was nice. It was nice. Of course we minded our business, went to sauna, rolled in the snow and went back to the center to Ranta Mari to have beer and play snooker. Rooky won two times :-/ There were many pictures of gold-diggers on the wall, I didn't know that it was so popular in Lapland. Later in the night Rooky went back to the Lake to see a Aurora Borealis but he had no luck. |
- boys with five weeks of internship in Lapland ahead
|
06.02.2006, Day V At the tourist office we had a lengthly conversation with two ladies who knew the area and the basically turned our hopes of staying in a wilderness hut down. So we decided to go to the Pielpajrvi Wilderness Church. 2.5 kilometers road, 4.5 kilometers on a path trough the woods. We started 13:20 (too late). Sometimes the path was just covered with 1 meter of snow, which made us walk very slow. We were there two and a half hours later, at 16:00. The church was all wooden, very old from 1760 and painted colorful inside. There was room for (I guess) around 150 people. I think it's the place to marry someone. I would like to see it in summer light. Rooky's fingers were hypothermic so we changed gloves, mittens are warmer than gloves. We switched the headlamps on and went back. I had to realize that it was not possible to see our own tracks with the headlamps, I was surprised that they were just so weak. |
After half an hour of walking we had to stop, I lost our tracks and I couldn't see any signs no more. I didn't feel cold. I felt really hot. Adrenaline was flowing. Shit! Shit! I thought it's not good to get lost in the woods far beyond the Arctic Circle when it is almost dark. Okay, we did the only right thing. We decided to go back to the church and to call for help from there. After one or two terrible minutes were on the path again and after half an our at the church. The man that came to save us was Tapani. He had a big sledge behind his snowmobile. Rooky and me put on some special overalls and took a blanket each. Finally we had our snowmobile-ride. And yes it was beautiful. But also hard and expensive. |
- Rooky in the "Wilderness"
- Ranta Mari
|
07.02.2006, Day VI After another night in cottage Nr. 8 (we got five Euros off;), seeing some nice faces in Rouvaniemi and a normal flight to Helsinki Rooky lost his mobile and I my wallet. Hui, what an ending of the trip! The Muslim night bus driver was praying verses from the Koran and very nicely let me ride for free. Late night calls to lock my credit card and visa electron. Next day Rooky went to Tallin and I went to work. |
- cottage Nr. 8
