Helsinki; Saturday, 29 July, 2006

lf I had thought the previous two mornings were early starts, they were nothing in comparison to Saturday. My alarm screeched into life at 5am and after staggering through the shower and getting dressed I wandered down to reception and had to get myself let out of the hotel. Then it was a brisk walk to the station where I picked up the Finnair bus to the airport. There I checked in for a flight to Rovaniemi.

Rovaniemi is the northern most international airport in Finland, the city is the capital of Finnish Lapland, and, more importantly, the airport is located at 66° 34’ 0” North or to put it less scientifically just north of the Artic Circle.

I got a taxi into the centre of Rovaniemi, which, thanks to the early start, was totally deserted as it was still only 9:30 on a Saturday morning. I wandered through the city centre for a while before reaching the church. The church itself is not particularly spectacular, though there are some interesting murals inside, but the whole city is remarkable for that fact that 60 years ago it was completely levelled by the retreating Germans, every building destroyed, the railway trashed and the roads impassable. Today you would assume that nothing had happened in the city as, apart from one small monument near the station, there are no reminders.

I walked back through the city centre, popping into the tourist information centre to see what there was to do in the city, before heading onto the Arktikum. This is a museum dedicated to the Artic, the Sami people who live across the region and to Rovaniemi itself. The museum is very interesting with lots of displays (all with English translations) and is a spectacular building itself stretching out along a glass arch towards the lake side.

After looking around the museum I walked back to the centre of town and caught the sightseeing train that goes round the city showing you the main sights. By the time it dropped me back in the city centre there was just enough time to walk to the bus station to catch the hourly bus to Santa’s Village. Not normally somewhere I would go, but as it is the site of the Arctic circle it was worth going out to.

So I found myself boarding a bus and asking for a “Single to the Artic Circle, Please” (and it’s not every day you get to say that!) The bus stops at Santa’s village which has to be one of Europe’s greatest tack-fests. I have never seen so many shops selling so much kitsch in such a small space before! However, running through the centre of the site is a large white line with the important sign painted on it, displaying itself to be 66° 32’ 35” or the Artic Circle, cue lots of pictures being taken of standing on circle, straddling circle etc. etc.

From the Artic circle it’s only about 2Km to the airport, and as I only had 90 minutes until I needed to check-in I decided it would probably be easier to walk there, rather than wait for the bus into town and come back out again. I got back to Helsinki at a little after 7pm and, after stopping back at the hotel to drop my stuff off, I headed out for some dinner.

By the time I had finished dinner it was rapidly approaching 11pm, and dusk (which is about as dark as it gets at this time of the year) was already in the sky. I decided to catch the ferry out to Suomenlinna, which runs until about 2am. The views from the ferry both heading out, and coming back as I stayed on it and came straight back, are spectacular with the strangest of lights in the sky making for some spectacular pictures.

I managed to catch the last tram of the evening back from the fish market back to the opera house and then walked the short distance back to the hotel and some much needed rest.