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Published: August 1st 2012
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While we feel a bit of sadness when packing the car to leave the Loma Vietonen area it is tempered by the fact that the rain has caught up with us - it is a drizzly cold morning reminescent of our Turku morning and we hope that maybe, just maybe, we can outrun it again this time going south.
Before leaving the area though we stop at a nearby bird tower - Finland is full of them and we already learned the Finnish name for it so we can stop whenever we see a sign pointing to lintutorni. The rain picks up and there are no birds to be seen so we move on to Rovaniemi the capital of the Finnish North and self proclaimed home of Santa Claus.
When we get close we find out that there are actually two Santa Claus related sites. We stop at Santa Park first which we discover is an amusement park which charges for entry. We do not have time to visit it in depth but walk to the entrance which is completely different than we expected - a barely lit tunnel excavated inside a mountain while sounds of wolfs howling play
all around us. It feels more creepy than cheery and we wonder if we didn't enter an alternate reality where Santa Claus is actually a bad guy similar to the animated science fiction series Futurama.
Moving on just a couple kilometers down the road is the second site, Santa Village, a sprawling shopping complex close to a rest area dedicated (mostly) to Santa Claus. The main features are the post office where letters written from around the world to Santa Claus are received and where you can send letters stamped in the Santa Claus office as well the Arctic Circle which is clearly marked throughout the complex. After taking some pictures and visiting a few of the stores and buying a few mementos we decide to move on.
It is actually quite past lunch time so we decide to try the local hamburger chain Hesburger. Even though we are tempted we do not eat the Arizona burger but go with the safer hamburger and cheeseburger menus (at least we assume that's what they are). For the first time we get a server that doesn't know English and of course the names of the burgers and long and complicated
to pronounce so hilarity ensues as we try to communicate. Finally we get our order through and receive the hamburgers - overall quality and presentation seemed to be similar to McDonalds to us.
And then it is off to the south. It is late already so we call the hotel to let them know we are late - they give us a pin number so we can enter the reception area and pick up an envelope with our hotel room cards.
On the road south we have multiple encounters with reindeers but then as we approach civilization the reindeer start to disappear and the speed cameras start to reappear. Also traffic start to pick up making it more difficult to make good time towards our hotel. On the way we stop a few times mostly near lakes to stretch our legs and take some nice pictures.
Last stop of the day is Kajaani where we visit the ruined castle on an island in the middle of the city. Once again we are grateful for the long days as we are really late with our visit around 9 PM but it still feels like midday with people fishing
and jogging in the park. Unexpectedly the ruins actually are used to support a modern bridge that we are passing as we try to find a parking spot. It is free to visit the ruins and it is a nice spot to spend 1/2h to explore the different nooks and crannies and also to view the ducks that frequent the area.
Arriving at our hotel in Kuopio late we discover that parking is at a premium in the parking lot with barely some space left. After lots of repositioning we finally make it, get our keys and crash in the beds almost without unpacking.
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