From Rovaniemi to Helsinki to Tallinn

Models of Laplanders chilling out in the Arktikum museum

Seeing the Northern Lights was one of those experiences never to be forgotten, but as we didn't get back to the hotel until sometime after 3 a.m., it also meant not getting much sleep as we faced our last day in Finnish Lapland. It'd snowed during those few hours we were asleep, but the plows were busy at work clearing the streets as we walked from the Guesthouse Borealis to the Arktikum, one of Finland's best museums (according to Lonely Planet):

It didn't disappoint. The Arktikum is an ambitious museum that attempts to educate visitors about many aspects of life in Finland's north, from the culture of the indigenous Sámi people and the history of Rovaniemi to interactive displays on the region's fauna and flora, and for the most part it succeeds:

Another highlight of the Arktikum is its glass tunnel that stretches out from the museum's entrance to the frozen Ounasjoki, and a snowpack measured at 74 centimeters (30 inches):

Following a surprisingly good buffet lunch at the museum restaurant (featuring curry chicken and rice) and some further exploration of the displays, we exited the Arktikum and went next door to the Pilke Tiedekeskus, another museum. Housed in the basement of the Metsähallitus (Finnish Forest and Park Service), it's a collection of hands-on exhibits on Finnish forestry. Amber enjoyed all the environmentally-conscious interactive displays...:

...even the not-so-PC bear and moose hunt simulator (this is Finland, remember):

A pleasant surprise upstairs, where there was a display on modern Japanese arts and crafts from Yamaguchi 山口 and an opportunity to bring out my rusty, deteriorating 日本語:

Eventually the time came to say goodbye to Rovaniemi and return to Helsinki. We landed at the airport there in the midst of a raging snowstorm which managed to subside somewhat by the time we hauled our bags through the snow from the central train station to our previous accommodations, the Hellsten Helsinki Parliament. We were even given the same apartment. The view from the bedroom window:

A drawback to staying at apartment hotel and in a room with a kitchenette is that breakfast is left to your own devices. There is the Cafe Morocco across the street, however, which offers fried eggs on toast, pastries and coffee at a 10% discount for hotel guests:

As checkout wasn't until noon, the girls decided to relax in the room on Thursday morning, so I went for a walk. Just a few minutes on foot from the hotel is the Temppeliaukion Kirkko. This Lutheran church, designed by Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen, was built in 1969 out of the solid rock that lies just below the ground (and in many places sticks out of it) in Helsinki. With its wood-and-stone interior (capped with a copper-stripped roof 24 meters in diameter), the Temppeliaukion church represents an idealized Finnish connection with nature, the antithesis of the ornate medieval cathedrals you usually expect to find in European cities. No wonder it's a popular tourist draw:

Just before noon, we checked out of the Hellsten Helsinki Parliament and took a taxi to the ferry terminal, where we boarded a Tallink Line ship for the two-hour trip from Helsinki to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The ferry pulled away from the Helsinki waterfront just after 1:30 on a Thursday afternoon:

The ride was largely uneventful, and we spent the time having lunch, then checking out the shops and supermarket on board. We also went outside onto the "sun" deck (notice the ferry headed in the opposite direction to Helsinki in the background):

About halfway through the voyage conditions started to deteriorate, and the ferry began to rock from side to side as it continued on its way to Tallinn:

Despite the short duration of the trip, there were people napping in the hallways, most likely long-distance truck drivers taking a break before the next legs of their long hauls:

It was snowing as we arrived in Tallinn, but it was only a short taxi ride from the ferry terminal to our next accommodations, the Old House Apartments, where we were given an apartment overlooking the Town Hall Square in the city's Old Town. After dropping off our things, we set out to explore our new surroundings.

To be continued...

The view from the bathroom of our apartment in Tallinn

Lights out...then on

I wish I could claim this is what I photographed at night in Lapland, but it's actually only a picture I took of a video presentation at the Arktikum museum

The highlight of our visit to Lapland (at least for my wife) almost didn't happen, but more on that later. Our first full day in Rovaniemi, capital of Finnish Lapland, began with breakfast at the Guesthouse Borealis:

Fortified, we walked from the guesthouse to the train station, where we boarded a bus that would take us to the Arctic Circle...and the "official" Santa Claus Village that has been built around it:

Santa is available for consultations all year round, and there's no cost to sit down and have a chat with Father Christmas (who was quite proficient in English). The meeting is even live-streamed on the Internet, but you're not allowed to photograph the moment. Instead, official photos of your visit begin at an outrageous €30...and we felt compelled to capture the moment and bring it home, of course:

My daughter visited the Santa Claus Post Office - several of her relatives can expect Christmas cards from Lapland later this year:

Proof that we crossed the Arctic Circle, the southernmost line at which the sun doesn't set on at least one day a year. Evidence as well that it was pretty damn cold on a late February morning - the thermometer reads -12° Celsius (10° Fahrenheit):

One small corner of the village is set aside in a half-hearted attempt at providing information on Lapland's indigenous Sámi people, such as this example of a hut used to shelter livestock from the region's notorious summer mosquitoes:

Beer and a reindeer burger with fries for lunch:

The girls feel some pride in the village. There were lots of Asian tourists everywhere we went in Finland and Estonia, but nowhere more so than at Santa Claus Village:

Just walking around Santa Claus Village is free of charge, but engaging in any of the activities on offer (going down the world's longest ice slide, taking a reindeer or sled-dog ride etc.) will cost you dearly. One of the more reasonably-priced things to do is to let your younger one ride around a course on a child-sized snowmobile. Amber was a little hesitant at first...:

...but quickly got the hang of things, meaning that if should we ever move to an area with significant snowfalls in the winter, I'm going to pestered into getting my daughter her own snowmobile. The man who set her up on the vehicle was a former Nordic combined athlete who had competed in World Cup events in Salt Lake City and Vancouver:

It's possible to stay in cottages and even igloos in Santa Claus Village, but to do so and partake in all the activities there would necessitate taking out a second mortgage. Fortunately, Amber is now at that age where Santa is only...you know what I'm getting at. So after having spent around five hours at the village, we took the bus back into Rovaniemi, had dinner at an Italian restaurant and returned to our guesthouse to await the bus that would take us to see the Northern Lights.

We were picked up at 7:45 that evening on a tour organized by Lapland Welcome. Despite the fact we were already bundled up, the tour organizers issued everyone jump suits, hats, gloves and woolen socks:

Suitably attired, everyone got on the bus (there were around 35 people on the tour) and off we drove into the countryside, with our final destination being a hilltop which is supposedly one of the best spots for getting a clear view of the aurora borealis. And there we waited...and waited...and waited. The conditions that evening were ideal for seeing the Northern Lights, but nature was refusing to cooperate. Eventually, most of us retreated to tents, where we sat around fires roasting sausages and drinking hot chocolate while our Romanian guide told us stories of life in Finland:

Eventually, it was time to get back on the bus and return to Rovaniemi. I was disappointed at missing the opportunity to see the aurora borealis, but it still felt good to be outside in the very cold night air (as the bus pulled back into town, it passed by an electronic thermometer reading minus 24° Celsius, or -11° Fahrenheit; our guide told us that the temperature had dropped to almost -40°C one night a couple of weeks before) and to see so many stars in the night sky (a first for Amber). And then it happened - soon after the bus began the drive back to the city, a couple of Japanese guys on board started yelling for the bus to stop. Which it did at the next clearing, whereupon everyone disembarked to see the Northern Lights. My one single photograph of the momentous event:

Three things in my defense: 1.) You need a professional camera to do the Northern Lights any justice; 2.) I didn't want to remember the aurora borealis as having seen it only through a viewfinder. After the shot, I put the camera away and just stood watching in awe. And 3.) this is pretty much how the lights looked. They were a dull, dirty green shade, shimmering like curtains billowing in the breeze. The whole show probably lasted less than ten minutes, but it was worth the long wait. Kudos to Lapland Welcome for extending the tour past the originally scheduled five-hours so that everyone could have the opportunity to witness the spectacle that is the aurora borealis. I've never felt more content getting back home and into bed at three-thirty in the morning.

And in a further break, we were joined on our tour by Donald Burghardt, a professional photographer from the Netherlands who frequently travels to Lapland to get shots of the Northern Lights. Burghardt maintains a website and a Facebook page that are both worth checking out. He's also a very nice man who was staying at the same guesthouse, and he graciously gave me permission to use some of his shots from our outing on my blog. These two were taken on the hill, with yours truly sitting in the snow in the bottom left corner of the first pic (all these photos can be found here):

And this is his photograph from when the aurora borealis finally made its appearance in the early morning hours:

The funny thing is that my poor-quality photo is more indicative of how the lights actually look (or at least the way they did on the morning of the 22nd of February). The professionals use special filters and experiment with apertures and f.stops to produce the stunning displays like the one above. Regardless of how you view the aurora borealis, however, it's truly a spectacular sight. Scratching another item off of the bucket list...

Lapping it up

Baltic Amber in the Great White Nordic

As it was a Monday and we would be returning on Wednesday, our hotel in Helsinki kindly let us keep our one large suitcase in their care for the two days that we would be up near the Arctic Circle, thus saving us a few Euros on baggage fees with Finnair. It was snowing that morning as we checked out - snow, in fact, would be a constant companion for the remainder of our trip to Finland and Estonia. Nevertheless, it wasn't too difficult walking to the train station in central Helsinki:

We did have to make a dash to the airport train, however, to get out of the snow:

Killing time Finnish-style at the airport, with a shot of caffeine and a pulla (a cardamon-flavored bun):

A reindeer pelt on sale at an airport gift shop. I seriously wanted to purchase one to use as a cover on the back seat of our Honda Accord, but my daughter and wife were opposed to this idea for some unfathomable reason:

The plane that would take us from Helsinki to Rovaniemi. I've taken off and landed in snowy conditions in the past, but this would be the first time I was in an airplane that to wait its turn to be de-iced on the runway before taking off:

Flying out of Helsinki on the 80-minute flight to Rovaniemi:

A minibus dropped us off at our accommodations, the family-run Guesthouse Borealis. It didn't look like much on the outside, but we had a nice self-contained apartment large enough for six, with its own kitchen and sauna:

Rovanimei (population: 61,000) is the capital of Finnish Lapland, the Nordic region that is home to the aurora borealis, the midnight sun, the Sámi peoples, reindeer and Santa Claus. Lapland is a vast area comprising 30% of Finland's land area but only 3% of the country's population. Rovaniemi serves as the region's main gateway, and the Arctic Circle is only a few kilometers from the city center. Needless to say, there was a lot of snow on the ground. Amber quickly adapted to conditions in Rovaniemi:

We spent the afternoon and early evening exploring the downtown area. Yaktrax proved to be a sound investment yet again:

Shu-E checks out a stand selling products made from reindeer antlers:

The Jätkänkynttilä Bridge spanning the frozen-over Kemijoki river:

The thermometer reads -7° Celsius (19° Fahrenheit) - this would the warmest it would get during our three days and two nights in Rovaniemi:

For dinner we went to Nili, a popular Finnish restaurant with a Lapland theme:

I began with the Lappish Blini (served with pearl onion, sour cream and codfish roe), following it with salmon and finishing off with an all-blueberry trio of ice cream, meringue and tartlet (not pictured). The bear roast was tempting, but the price was off-putting:

And beer, of course:

Back out into the crisp evening air and the walk back to the guesthouse:

Amber and I took turns using the sauna, with my daughter lasting a lot longer than I could in the steamy cubicle. When in Finland, Amber did much better than me in doing as the Finns: