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Published: June 20th 2017
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My wife and I both yearn for adventure and we planned an unusual trip to Finland. For long, the aurora borealis had fascinated us and we wanted to experience this magical natural phenomenon. We were skeptical about planning this in the month of April. Regardless, we pulled the trigger and we planned the Finland trip.
We landed in Helsinki late at night and checked into an airport hotel since we were to fly to Rovaniemi the next afternoon.
The airport is rather small as you would expect. First thing you notice when you enter is a board that says “Santa’s Official Home Airport”. That sets the tone for the rest of Rovaniemi/Lapland visit. Rovaniemi is the official hometown of Santa Claus, and a vibrant modern city on the Arctic Circle. It’s quite magical in its own sense.
Since we went in April, it was almost at the end of winter and wasn't Spring yet. The peace and the serene arctic nature welcomes you
Santa Claus Village Rovaniemi is truly where the Santa Claus lives. The Santa Claus Village is indeed one of the most popular places and lives true to the imagination of adults
and children alike.
It’s rather unnecessary to say we immediately fell in love with Santa Claus Village and it’s whole spectacular surroundings. Although it’s a bit pricy but considering you have taken the pain to travel to northernmost part of the world and sort of once in a lifetime trip, don’t hesitate to spend for the experience that really matters.
While admittance to Santa Claus Home is free. It is forbidden to take any photos and they have a photographer over there who will take yur photo with Santa Claus. Since it was off-peak period, there weren’t a lot of people/tourists and they let us take a few photos inside. Santa is a nice man who has been working there for a long time. He speaks and says hello in all languages of the world. He also let us take videos wishing my niece and nephew a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Later that year during Christmas, we showed those videos to the kiddos and they were simply overjoyed at seeing the Santa Claus wishing them.
There’s also a Santa Claus post office right there with all the post cards that you can mail out to any
part of the world. Needless to say, we sent a few post cards to friends and family that they received just before Christmas.
The Arctic Circle passes by just there in the same village and they have pillars of the markings.
Aurora Borealis We signed up "aurora borealis adventure" with Lapland Safaris. Later that night, a guy picked us up and first stop is tour’s office. We dressed up (provided by them) into what seemed like 20 pounds of winter wear. We drove further north for about 2 hours into the mountains. We hiked for about 30 minutes and waited for the magic of Aurora Borealis. This is truly where YMMV and luckily after waiting endlessly for couple hours, they appeared (albeit faintly) and we were simply in awe of it. Photos don’t do any justice and hence we didn’t capture any.
For those who are new to Auroras, it's one of the most incredible natural phenomenon. This is because electrically charged particles from sun collide with gaseous particles (oxygen, nitrogen) in earth's atmosphere when they enter earth.
The tour guide had a little outpost there where we ended up having a few
sandwiches and coffee. Guess what, he carried with him a vegetarian sandwich for people like me. Then it was the drive back to Santa Claus Village.
Back to the Village for more adventure: Next day morning, we took the reindeer ride which is probably good for kids but not so much for adults but if you are in for an experience, go for it.
Next up was Husky Farm. This one we enjoyed the most, “Husky Ride”. We took the longer ride and it was quite an experience. A carriage pulled by the huskies. Don’t forget to wear your glasses and huskies throw a lot of snow at you as they run.
Helsinki We came back to Helsinki and slept. Next day morning, since this was our first time in the country, we went into full tourist mode. As it turns out, is an undeniably cool city.
We started off our visit with a stop in Senate Square, where many of Helsinki’s main attractions can be found, including the Helsinki Cathedral, the Government Palace and the University of Helsinki’s main building. The steep staircase leading up to the cathedral was a perfect spot to to stop and look around what the city had to offer.
The thing that struck us immediately was the art and design. It was unique in it’s own sense. I have no shame in admitting that when i imagined, Helsinki, I imagined it to be gray and boy was i wrong. I think there is a misconception because of the long winters and northern climate but it turned out to be bright and colorful. I feel like Helsinki is one of Europe’s best-kept secrets. It’s not overrun yet with tourists and still has a great local and creative vibe to it. It’s un-believably green. No wonder lumber and trees are their largest source of income.
The hotel concierge gave me an interesting tid-bit that Finnish people are among the top in the world for coffee consumption. The coffee aficionado i am, this of course meant a stop at local coffee shop.
While we are hooked on to visiting the top tourist spots, in that sense, Helsinki disappointed me a bit. There are no world famous structures or monuments to visit but the city has a vibe and charm. It’s laid back and we ended up doing things at our own pace and it turned out to be a good decision since Helsinki was the last of our 6 day Europe/Middle East trip. We ended up relaxing a bit.
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