Railing thru Europe: Stop 10.3 Finland – Rovaniemi (Lapland)
We are about to embark on the “Santa Claus Express” (Kinda reminds us about the animated film “Polar Express” with Josh Groban singing in the background) to bring us to Rovaniemi, capital of Lapland and home of the Snow Queen! Of course the journey wouldn’t be complete without the trip to visit Father Christmas at his village!
Among all the night trains we took which were seaters, we had been looking forward to this one as it was the 1st time that we paid supplements for a sleepers cabin where we have proper beds to rest on.
Here’s a video of our night train journey on the Santa Claus Express to Rovaniemi
Marketplace at Rovaniemi
J and I were saying maybe the driver would turn into Mr Santa upon reaching the Santa Claus Village
Jätkänkynttilä bridge over the Kemijoki river
We are officially within the Arctic Circle (red outline on the globe)
The lady at the souvenir shop would write your name with her lovely handwriting on a certificate stating that you have step foot on the arctic circle.
I'm sure if we came during winter, this place would turn magical as it's the headquarter of all christmas spirits.
We felt like kids all over again. It was as if we were about to meet someone very important and got nervous while walking thru exhibits leading to Santa. When we finally met up with the big man, we were lost for words. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in there. It would cost 25 euros to have a picture taken with the beardy man.
The busiest post office during Christmas where children from all over write to Father Christmas
9394km away from home
At the post office, you could send postcards to loved ones at anytime and it would be delivered on Christmas Eve with the official Santa Stamp
413,80m long letter written by 2110 children from 8 different schools in Brasov, Romania
Letters from all over the globe
You could take a horse carriage to nearby Santapark
We chose to walk thru the forest
Santapark, a place for families and kids where there are classes and workshops on how to be elves and how to make gingerbread.
This is no ordinary McDonald's
Rovaniemi was our last stop in Finland but we would come back during winter...someday
We got on a night train back to Helsinki but this time on a seater and it was quite a nightmare. There were a finnish delinquent couple whom we wondered if they were brought up by animals as they were enjoying themselves spitting phlegm at one another making an awful lot of noise clearing their throat thru out the night. Everyone was kept awake and tremendously annoyed with their animal-like and utterly inconsiderate behaviour. They slept only when the train was about to arrive in Helsinki. How stupid is that? They slept like pigs and none of the passengers onboard bothered to wake the 2 idiots up. Let’s hope the train goes back and they ended up back where they came from.
We are back on the viking heading back to Stockholm
Everyone gathered at the Cafeteria as the big World Cup Finals is about to start! At first, J and I thought if Germany made it into the finals we would be able to watch it at the heart of all german fans as we would be heading there after Scandinavia. However, it was Spain vs Holland but we've already been there. Nonetheless, we are supporting Spain to win and so did most of the crowd on the cruise.
Tension in the air as everyone was waiting for that one goal after extra time...
and indeed! SPAIN WON~!
On the viking, we met a guy from Finland and he was heading in the same direction to the train station in Stockholm. We lead the way and also brought him to the food court we went previously for some asian food. He actually fancied abit of the spicyness in asian food. Anyway, we parted ways as he was heading south to Copenhagen while we would be heading to one of the most sparsely populated country in Europe, fjordland Norway!
Love, Yee
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