EuroTrip - Day 8

The Day I met Santa Claus

Lapland (the northern state in Finland) is home of some of the best scenic places in Finland. Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, is a relatively modern town completely rebuilt in 1946 after being razed by the retreating Germans. It's a sleepy town 8km south of Arctic Circle marker (Napapiiri). It is also host to the 'official' Santa Claus Village.

Land of reindeer antlers and northern lights, Rovaniemi is the place to be in towards the end of year. Xmas is bound to be a grand festive occasion in the land of Santa. Unfortunately we reached in a time when its neither winter nor summer. To add to the our bad luck, it was a monday. Most of the tourist attractions are closed on monday in this part of world. And that's precisely the reason we could not see the famous Arktikum Museum.

After collecting information from the tourist information center, we headed straight to the river side. The river goes through the heart of the town and is one of the many water bodies that mark the landscape of this town. Morning joggers showered friendly smiles for us - the tourists. Will we, the people in my country, learn anything from them? It just does not cost anything to smile. But the warmth feeling that it gives is something I can not describe in words.

Our next stop was Santa's village. We took the Santa Express bus to reach there. It takes you around the river and towards the northern side of the town. Santa's villages is where he stays throughout the year. "St Nick, Santa's Village, Lapland, Finland" will take your mail from any part of the world to him. Every year Santa receives more than half a million letters from kids around the world. We saw lots of letters from India and Nepal too.

Our meeting with Santa Claus was a brief one where he promised us to come to India this Xmas. Then we had our picture taken with him. Business sense says it's a really good source of money while the heart says that they should have given it to the tourists as a memory. Somehow the world is a lot more commercialized than we can think of.

The reindeer farm is another major attraction here, but we decided to skip it as there is no sledding without the snow. Don't worry baby, we will come soon when there is snow and northern lights.

After seeing the Santa's post office and other places in the village (actually most other things are just cafe bars, souvenir shops and restaurants. Santa Park is closed at this time of the year). After buying some souvenirs and getting our passport stamped with Arctic circle seal, we headed back to town to see the Knife Museum in the old knife factory. The place does not resemble anything like a museum. Still it was a nice watch. Knife collectors would love this place. The lady there gave us a small gyan on her country and their life. People can be real friendly at times. Interestingly she knew a lot about us Indians from her small trip to the Land of Spices.

Sub sandwiches are a good option for vegetarians in any part of the world. Vegan culture makes it more easy for us vegetarians. In countries like Finland and Sweden the shopkeepers generally have a list which specifies the ingredients of various eatables on display. They are quite truthful if they are not sure about presence of egg etc. This really makes our life easy. We had a superb lunch at Sub. A tip for students - don't forget to ask for the student discount. Actually this applies everywhere. Keep trying to get some discounts. Most of the places here care a lot about the students.

As most other tourists attractions were closed for the day (in any case, most of the things here close by 6pm), we decided to do some random walking close to the river. There is also a beautiful church and the regional library on the way. Library has free internet, if anyone is interested. There are some exhibitions of art works also going on now. Arbit stuff but still very interesting.

Our next stop on the journey is Turku in southern part of the country. So after a quick dinner at the railway station, we boarded the train for Turku. Pissu and Kiddu are joining us there so its going to besome more fun.

One last thing, night trains in Finland have reserved sleeping beds if you want a comfortable sleep. Or else you can save some money by taking the seats where you don't need to pay anything if you are holding a EuRail Pass. People who buy 2nd class tickets get a seat number. Others like us can rely on the very low occupancy of these trains. Very comfortable seats in a warm and clean bogey is a nice way to catch some sleep when you travel on a shoestring budget. And then the train also offers a clean toilet for getting ready for the next day's activities.

There is a cute female sitting on the seat next to me. She is trying hard to keep herself awake and read the book she has bought recently. I too should go to my sleep now. Kal ka breakfast Turku ham mein karenge. Bbye for now. Good night.