Crossing the Arctic Circle into Finnish Lapland
It was 6 o’clock in the morning. The sky was pitch black, but the streetlights illuminated the flurry of flakes that drifted silently through the crisp air. The streets were empty except for a few travelers who got off the train behind us.
Rovaniemi — the capital of Finnish Lapland and the official home of Santa Claus — welcomed us with a quiet, calm serenity, and we immediately felt it was exactly where we needed to be!
We walked about 20 minutes through the snow to our home for the day, Hostel Café Koti, where we dropped our bags in storage, ate a quick breakfast, and then made our way to a hotel down the street to meet a group for our first adventure: dog sledding!! Even though we had proper coats, hats, gloves, and boots, our guide made everyone in our small group of 7 wear a full zip-up suit, two layers of socks, and huge snow boots for the trip. It seemed like overkill at the time but we were grateful for the heavy duty gear when we actually got out to the field.
The van ride took about 45 minutes, and we drove through lush forests blanketed in snow the entire way. Think of a wintry postcard where all you see is white, and that was our view out the windows. It was, in a word, magical! We went out to a small property in the middle of the woods with a warming hut, the owner’s house, and — down a small hill — a huge clearing where they run the dogs. We each got a chance to run a lap as the driver and as the rider, but we honestly could have ridden around for hours. There’s something so peaceful about being pulled through a snowy forest…it’s hard to put into words. If you get the chance, take it!
After our turns were up, we ate lunch in the warming tent — sausages cooked over the fire, cookies, and warmed lingonberry juice. Then, being children at heart, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to sled down the small hill beside the hut and challenge the only actual child in the group to a snowball fight.
Our time with the dogs was short but definitely worth it!
We all piled back into the bus and drove back to Rovaniemi. Most of our group was going to visit Santa’s Village that night but we opted to stay in the town for the night to explore — and because we wanted to save our trip to the Village for early the next morning! We stopped for chocolate and coffee (because, duh), finally got to settle into our room at the hostel, and then found a much-anticipated steak and Tex-Mex style restaurant nearby. Because of the huge amount of energy it takes to run through and jump into the snow like children, we were starving! 😉
Back at the hostel, we booked a private sauna for a night of thawing and soothing our aching muscles, all in preparation for the most exciting morning of the trip…
Santa’s Village!
Y’all, this is the official home of Santa Claus and, yes, we were the first people in line to meet the big man himself!
What a dream! If you ever get a chance to go to Santa’s Village, do it…and make sure you get there right when it opens. Our morning was gloriously peaceful. The rest of our time there we spent walking the grounds, visiting the sled dogs, shopping, taking a reindeer ride, and basically just soaking up all the Christmas magic!
One of the must-dos in this village — especially when you have as many nieces and nephews as we do — is to write and send postcards. They get a special stamp from the North Pole and everything! If you need proof that joy and magic still exist in this world, this is the place to be. Now if only I could figure out how to be a full-time Christmas elf…
Alas, after some soul-warming lunch and taking dozens more photos, it was time to head back toward Rovaniemi. It wasn’t the saddest of goodbyes, though, because we had yet another epic Lapland adventure awaiting us. We checked out of our hostel and headed to our next home: The Arctic Glass Igloos.
The property is home to 30 glass igloos that offer an incredible chance to see the Northern Lights. They were also in the process of constructing a snow hotel on the property (complete with a snow-sauna). Unfortunately, for us, the weather was mostly cloudy the one night we were there so we only got a glimpse of wisps of the Northern Lights. But no regrets! I mean, the experience of staying in the middle of snowy-nowhere and waking to a gentle flurry of snow above us was totally worth it. We also had a blast building a sledding hill into the mound of snow right outside our igloo!
The next morning, we ate breakfast in the small on-site restaurant, took a few more runs down the sledding hill, handed off our sled to a little girl who had just arrived, and started the journey back to Rovaniemi. On our way, we stopped at Ounasvaara Ski Resort for some awesome cross-country skiing. Not only did they have a huge, flat area but they had elevated trails and bridges through the forest that were fun (and only slightly intimating) to go through. It was definitely the perfect activity to end our time in Rovaniemi!
Well, I guess technically that wasn’t our last activity in Rovaniemi. Just as we were in line to get burgers for our train ride back to Helsinki, I realized my phone was missing! We both freaked out, initially thinking I had been pick-pocketed, but then realized I had actually left it in the cab. Keep in mind, the phone itself wasn’t what we were most concerned about…it was the hundreds of photos we would have lost! Plus, we had just under an hour until our train was set to leave! Yikes. After several failed attempts to call the cab driver (who answered the first time but didn’t speak English so stopped answering) and then to get help at a hotel front desk, we went back to our original hostel and the nicest human ever called the cab driver and left messages in Finnish. While I waited at the hostel for the driver to call back, Gabriel managed to track down the cab company, sprinted to their office, talked them into opening their doors just as they were closing, and they got in contact with the driver. We recovered the phone, made a B-line for the train, and made it just in time. Whew!
Needless to say, we wished we could have spent a month in Finland. Scratch that, a year or two would be ideal! We knew we were going to love this winter wonderland, but we honestly had no idea how at-home our souls would feel here. I mean, just look at these smiles…
Until next time, beautiful Finland!
Big hugs,
Jules