Silly Season – Part 1

I have to apologise for it being so long since my last post. As tends to happen at this time of year I’ve been pretty busy. Allot has happened since the last post I made. I’m now working from the new factory in Pietarsaari which is great. It’s closer to home and only a 10 minute drive as opposed to 25. I now have a desk in the same building as the boat, and no longer have to brave the cold just to go and check on things (or use the facilities). I’m also in the same space as the project managers and local design team. This both makes me feel a bit more involved in the project and is also providing me with more things to do as it’s so much easier for questions to be asked.

In the middle of October I was discussing with Gaby going to visit Lapland, and we spent some time looking up Hostels and what to go and see and then kind of forgot about it for a while. I did book a day off work but apart from that we didn’t do anything more about it until the 1st of December. Even then we were unsure about what we would do. On the evening of 3rd we finally had a plan. Luckily Peter had found out we were going and thought it would be fun. A friend of his dad had a Cottage in Muonio which we were able to use which gave us both a place to stay and a destination to get to. Peter was also happy to drive which was much easier than having to catch the train.

So at stupid o’clock on Friday morning (the 5th), Gaby, Mariona, Peter and I got into Peter’s car and hit the road. After a couple of hours of driving we stopped briefly near Oulu for a Coffee. Back in the car and after a couple more hours of driving we arrived at Ranua. We only had a short stop on the way when some reindeer were on the road. We got out and tried to get some photos but they ran off into the forest.

Ranua is a pretty small town, but the reason we passed through was the Zoo. The Ranua Zoo has at least 30 different mammals and species of bird. We didn’t get to see all of them due to the season. Much of the birds were elsewhere (likely flown south), the brown bears were hibernating and the weasels were not making themselves known. We did see a beaver, an otter, a number of different owl’s, a golden eagle, hawks, ravens, wild boar (although not very wild), polar bears, wolves, lynxes, wolverines, various deer, moose, and a few foxes as well. The owls were all very cool, as was the golden eagle. The real highlight was the polar bears, unfortunately the male seemed to be sleeping (we think we could just see him up the back of the enclosure. But the two females we having fun digging apples out of the snow. The lynxes were playful and were running around. The arctic fox came and said hello and gave us a really close look. The deer were many and the moose were big. Probably the most unfortunate thing was that all our camera batteries died about half way through (except Peter’s camera phone). After the Zoo we visited a local Pizza place call Hakuna Matata. Then it was another hour and a half north to pass through Rovaniemi and enter the Arctic Circle.

We stopped for supplies through Rovaniemi and then continued on to Santa Park which is five or ten minutes extra drive. The park is built into a natural cave (which has been further excavated) so after entering the front doors you descend down a long ramp and into a foyer where there is a big Christmas tree and a ticket booth. After being a bit taken back by the entry price (25 euro each) we finally gave in and paid the happy elf who assured us it was worth it. With map in hand we then descended down another ramp into the main area of the park.

It took us all of 15 minutes to see the whole park, including take a ride through Santa’s workshop. We got a photo with Santa at great expense, we looked through the post office and decided that we didn’t feel like decorating gingerbread men. The ice bar was cool (pardon the pun) but we didn’t have a drink as we still had a while to travel. We just missed entrance to the last elf school session of the day, and although the ice gallery looked really good we didn’t want to pay the extra to get in there. Just about the only thing inside that was free was the Elf dance which went for about 5-10 mins, granted it was entertaining but not really worth €25. I think in total we were there for about an hour and as we left and the happy elf at the door asked us if we had enjoyed our stay we couldn’t really say that we had.

A few minutes down the road was the Santa Clause Village where you could walk around without having your wallet go on a diet. This was basically a number of buildings with shops and restaurants, spread out and dispersed with giant snow men and appropriate decorations. There was a sign post here pointing to a number of major cities around the world (just like in the cartoons).

After a few more hours driving we eventually made it to the cottage in Muonio (which was very nice and could have housed 8-10 people even before venturing upstairs). We got settled in and had a few drinks and got the sauna heating up. It was a bit colder that far north and there was a good half meter of snow outside. It was surprising how refreshing it is to go outside wearing virtually nothing when it’s below zero and role around in the snow. Then go and step into a steaming wet room at about 60 degrees. It may have been the beers helping but this was thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable.

On Saturday morning after some breakfast we left the cottage a little before 10am. The plan was to drive north and see the Arctic Ocean. So we spent another long day in the car and gradually made our way north. This was slowed down a bit once the sun rose and the amazing scenery we were driving through became apparent. At one stage we seemed to be stopping once every ten minutes to take photos under the glow of the orange sun which was barely holding itself above the horizon. Eventually, just before sunset we made it too our destination, the town of Alta in Norway. We managed to get a few photos before the light faded and then went into the small museum where we had stopped. This was more to get out of the cold than anything else as it was well below minus 10 outside. After a quick look through the museum we went down to the shoreline and touched the water. We then started on out way again. Once back at the cottage we ate and then went outside and played in the snow including a quick step over the boarder (bridge) into Sweden. We finished the evening with another session in the sauna.

On Sunday morning the thermometer was showing minis 17 degrees when we left the cottage to make our way back to Pietarsaari. This was again a long trip, we stopped in Levi and saw the ski fields and were again slowed down by the beautiful landscapes once the sun was rising. We also had another look around at the Santa Clause Village as Gaby was fixated on getting a photo standing on the line marking the Arctic Circle. We eventually made it back without too many more stops after the light disappeared again.