Rovaniemi: Crossing the Arctic Circle (journey)

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I have just woken up on a night train from Tampere to Lapland. This night was awful. I could not fall asleep because of much light, noise and short seats. I do not get how the train seats in Canada could be comfortable – or at least how I could think so. Last night I was wide-awake; I barely fell asleep in the morning. Anyhow, I hope that our visit of Lapland will be worth of it.
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Our plan in Rovaniemi was pretty simple: pass the polar circle and visit the Stanta Clause s village. Everything else was inconsequential, but of course, we were happy to see any sightseeing on the way.
Rovaniemi with cca 50 000 inhabitants is the capital of Lapland. In fact, the whole Lapland has only 600 000 residents which is in compare to European metropolises and areas a very tiny number. We travelled as far as we could get by train and if we had wanted to go farther, we would have had to either pay far too much money, or hitchhike. I would really love to go to the northest place in Finland; to open taiga where is nothing but open landscape, arctic nature and small villages with aboriginals. I hanker after seeing the northern light, watching arctic wilderness, experiencing midnight sun or never-ending twilight day. However, we did not have a chance to experience these things, but on the other hand we had also several unforgettable experiences.
At first, after getting off from the train, I wanted to show off that I can wear only a T-shirt, although weather was pretty chilly. We considered local buses to be expensive and an almost 3-hour-long tour as a nice walk, so we decided to get to the Stantas village on foot. It is funny to write about my stubbornness while sitting on a train back to Helsinki, but even if I felt terribly cold, I did not put on my jacket until we arrived. I think it was particularly because Lila has always good ideas, but sometimes I do not want to take her advice on purpose, just because I would look like an obedient dummy. Needless to say, this kind of behaviour many times does not pay off and I had to suffer because of my own crankiness :P
Nevermind, my fault... Actually, the walk was very nice. Soon we left the city and walked along a highway, enjoying beautiful outdoor paths, fresh air and northern nature. The walk took us longer than we expected and immediately after arriving to the Santa s village, we took a lunch break. Few kilometres before the Santa s village there is a Santa s amusement park that was closed in the summer time. Even if it had been opened, we would not have gone there; the admission fees were freaking expensive (18€/p). Anyway, I can imagine myself going here with children and have fun for the whole day if I had money to visit these places in the future.
For the first glimpse the village looked abandoned and small. We missed the typical Christmas spirit which you need to feel during these holidays, but on the other hand we did not queue in shops and on streets. In a matter of fact, one could say what a stupid idea to go to the Christmas village in the middle of summer; but why not. We had a chance to go there, so we jumped at it. The dream of every American kid to meet the Santa personally could come true and believe me that I was determined to do that. To meet him we had to wade through his palace with many magical creatures until we reached his main office. He welcomed us adoringly and I was deliriously happy that I can have a small talk with him. In fact, I was so happy that I did not know what to tell him. I completely forgot to ask him whether I can get a new cell phone for the Christmas and I also wanted to warn him not to drink and eat so much, cause he was obviously out of shape - but in the end I did not want to be rude and risk insulting him and not getting my cell phone :P He was very curious about Slovakia and also promised to see us on holidays, bring a lot of presents etc. He is a nice guy, indeed. His servants even took a picture and movie of us. I was just about to buy it, but I was put off by the fabulously high price of the postcard. I really wanted to have a personal photo with him, but paying 25€ for that was way too much for me even if I could fulfilled one of the biggest dreams of every small guy. Never mind, I was not angry with him – in our capitalistic society he also must make his living on something. I even asked him whether he could give me the picture on the USB stick and he replied that with his personally signed Christmas USB together with some short movies it would cost us only 49€ - I almost blacked out after hearing that price. Whatever, such an unforgettable experience cannot vanish from my memory and I do not need a photo to show off that I met Santa in his own village. People would be only freaking jealous of me, anyway.
By a stroke of luck we met a Czech couple travelling to Nordcap – the northest place in Finland. Having a nice small talk, I got inspired for my next journey: in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia by hitchhiking. I just need to find one valiant and tolerant person to go with me. Then we did some shopping in nearby souvenir shops, giving my credit card a hard time. I decided to take up a new hobby: collecting fairies. In Amsterdam I saw a very cute one and I bought it despite the high price. I wanted to have at least one innocent present from Amsterdam and she was really beautiful. In Santas village I saw a bigger and nicer one for even the same price, so I could not help myself not buying it. Two fabulously beautiful dreaming fairies – I have never been so happy at buying a souvenir like I am now. Next I bought a T-shirt, and magnet (my usual collection of magnets from different places) Far the best and the most original souvenir was buying a postcard and sending it from Santa s office with an original stamp. I wrote a funny greeting on behalf of Santa to my family and had it sent on Christmas. In that time I will be staying in Edinburgh and they will be pretty surprised what is going on. I am pretty sure that this fun was worth of 2€ for sending each postcard.
Walking around shops and admiring souvenirs, we completely forgot about time. When we realized that, we had just enough time to hurry up to the train station to take our last train. I came up with an idea to try hitchhiking, so we walked to a gas station and try to find a compassionate soul who could give us a ride. After standing there for 15 minutes we gave up on that and set off for a long walk. We were really exhausted and I was afraid that we could not make it on time. We had been walking for about 20 minutes on a different route somewhere in rural areas when we saw a first car passing us. Lila rose up her thumb as if it were an unconscious habit and surprisingly, the car slowed down. An old Finish man opened the door and said something in Finish. Lila jumped above a small stream and showed him a map. He did not speak a word in English, but it looked like that he was willing to give us a ride, so we jumped in. Before I even realized what was going on, I was sitting in a car, riding to the downtown. I am quite sure that this man did not plan to go to the downtown, but he did not know how to say anything, and probably decided to take as right to the train station. We were deliriously happy, because I cannot imagine walking there. Thanks to God and that man we did not miss our train and as a happy end we had our dinner inside the train station. Later we had a short walk in the downtown to take some pictures, but when I saw that Lila was totally worn out and pretty annoyed, I decided to go back to the station. So, our visit of Rovaniemi was very nice – we had a great walk in the forest, visited the original Santa s village and by a stroke of luck we successfully got back. Being completely tired, we fell asleep within several minutes after getting on the train and I firstly had a good night sleep on train.