Napapiiri

Here's our second and last video installment from Rovaniemi, this one from Santa's Village, where we did cross Napapiiri (the Arctic Circle) which you'll see as a line of blue lights strung across the plaza. Again, pardon my amateur filming, and we are experiencing some technical difficulties so these video entries may not appear too often! Technology is our friend - let's repeat that several times and it may become true. Any way - hope you enjoy these too.

A walk in Rovaniemi

First try here to load video - and it didn't want a merged version so here are separate, very amateur videos of our walk in Rovaniemi. It's my first attempt to use the camera and to film in Finland so sorry for the lack of polish, but I hope you enjoy actually following us around in Lapland.

Happy Holidays! Christmas peace has just been declared for all of Finland via a broadcast from the cathedral in Turku, and so we send along wishes of peace to everyone. We just returned from a short trip to Rovaniemi to experience the solstice up past the Arctic Circle where though the sun does not rise, light does bend up over the horizon in the atmosphere. Just over a hour north by air. So it wasn't completely dark as you can see in the picture from our hotel window at around 3pm, but it was a half hour later in the main square. We enjoyed dinner the first night in a Lapp Kota - a tent made of reindeer hides (inside the restaurant), and we did eat reindeer too - it's very nutritious meat and a vital industry for the Sami. (And it does not taste like chicken!) Odd that the temperatures were between 25-33F in the Arctic, while most of the northern US was frigid, but it was warmer than average, though with a noticeably deeper chill than in Helsinki. Two pages of pictures follow.

Here's Gerald at the wonderful Arktikum museum of Lapland science and art which we thoroughly enjoyed, me putting my hand into an elfin ice sculpture handprint, me waiting for the bus - next stop Arctic Circle! - and the Arctic Circle signpost in Santa's Village with a blue neon line running above the plaza along the circle.

Rovaniemi

Here are some pictures from our first visit to Rovaniemi and the Arctic Circle - Napapiiri. Street decor, Gerald at the Rovaniemi airport Arctic Circle signpost, and flying back toward the sun at around 3:30pm on our return.

Hybird Holidays

Red Apples
by Finnish Artist Helene Schjerfbeck

We combined our delayed Thanksgiving with the observance of Finland's Independence Day on December 6th and we have the leftovers to prove it. We had Gerald's American coworker join us, but I was a bit disappointed not to provide her with pumpkin pie. I had found one can of Libby's pumpkin last year but no luck this year. Oh well, Gerald's turkey was delicious, we were overwhelmed by various potato dishes, and a pear/lingonberry pie with plum ice cream did an admirable job as stand in for dessert. We once again watched the President's Ball on TV like most here do, so our hybrid-hybird holidays merged well enough. And the turkey pasta tonight wasn't horrible either.


Next up, we're having a short Finnish get-away just before Christmas, so I hope to have something unique to share afterward. Stay tuned!