Beyond the Arctic Circle

A little over a week ago - four friends and I traveled up north to Lapland - past the Arctic Circle. Out of the 5 of us, I was the only one who did not speak polish too! I come to Finland and constantly find myself surrounded by polish people! I keep thinking that I need to start learning Polish!
Our flight left at 5 30 in the morning - too early for buses! But, since there were 4 of us, the taxi was pretty cheep. The 5th person was taking another flight from the rest of us. We flew into Rovaniemi and headed to the city center. Our destination - the northest McDonalds in the world (also the official McDonalds of Santa Claus)! Although - it was closed! Yes - it was too early in the morning! We did see a giant snowman though - a real one too! (Unlike the North Saint Paul Mascot)
From there we went to Santa Claus Village - and met Santa too! Actually, we met him twice. Once when we got our picture taken with him and once more to get his autograph. He says hello by the way. He is there year round everyday of the year. And speaks many different languages; he spoke polish to my friends.
It was in the Santa Claus village that I was able to be in two places at once. Magical things DO happen within the Arctic Circle! OK, so it really was just straddling the Arctic Circle line, which was covered in snow! But still…
Oh and after I met Santa, I ate one of his reindeer on a pizza! Yum! I think it was Prancer.
From there we took a two hour bus ride to Pyha, which means holy in Finnish. Pyha is a ski resort village, which gave us many different things to do. We stayed in a cute little cottage that was within walking distance to nearly everything! Oh and it had a Sauna in it! Almost all Finnish cottages have saunas! They may not have running water, but they will have a sauna! It was my first time in a Finnish sauna too! I know - sad, right? I have been here for 2 months and I haven’t once been in a sauna! Well, I solved that problem!
That night, we took a walk, which we originally thought would be just a few kilometers - it ended up being 7 kilometers! Ah, but at the end there was a small café shop that we stopped at. And yes - we had to then walk back! Luckily it was a beautiful night out. We ended up walking about half way around a mountain (or more like a really big hill), and that was just one way! It was a very nice first day within the Arctic Circle.
Don't worry... there will be more coming later about the rest of my trip.
Until then - Moi Moi!

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