Sinnetta to Rovaniemi

Unfortunately, no Northern Lights overnight as it snowed heavily instead. We were warm and toasty in our glass topped igloo, in fact it got too warm during the night but we were unable to adjust the thermostat and if we kept the little door open too long, an alarm went off, so we just had to deal with it.
Reasonable night’s sleep, leisurely start to the day and it was absolutely delicious wading through the snow to get to the main dining room for breakfast.

I keep hearing little bells tinkling and realize that it is SB’s Santa reindeer. Just as well she can’t open the battery compartment to put the batteries in or I’d be hearing ‘Jingle Bell Rock all day’. It’s bad enough that I’ve got it going around and around in my head already! Final packing complete and time to board the coach for what is about a 30 minute trip to Rovaneimi, our home for the next 2 nights. It is only 11 am and our rooms won’t be ready until at least 3pm, so we follow Kelli to the Arktikum Science Centre &Museum. We opt to head straight for the cafe and I get SB and me a hit chocolate each, which really touched the spot nicely. We had been walking in light snow, so it as nice to thaw out again before we went into the museum proper.

We then went into the museum and spent the next couple of hours wandering through the exhibits. There was so much information that you couldn’t possibly take it all in. Really well done.

It was now about 2pm so we met up with D &G again and wandered back to the main street where we had a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant that had a lunch buffet for 10.90 Euro. After our lunch, we then went to the main shopping centre and had a look around. There are a few stores we girls intend coming back to in the morning where we may end up doing some damage to our credit cards. There was still light snow, but we took our time wandering back to the hotel, arriving about 4ish. We were last to book in, so gathered up our cases which had been stored in the lobby from this morning, went to our room, peeled off the unnecessary clothing layers, SB put the kettle on and I had a much enjoyed Irish coffee while I made a start on the blog.

Some of our group are doing a night snow mobile optional ride tonight, but we had already booked our ride for tomorrow afternoon, so we get to rest up, put our feet up and enjoy the comfort of our lovely room until we meet for dinner with the rest of our group at 7. The quality of each of our hotels had been really good. Can’t speak highly enough of Bentours for what is included in their package tours. I think we are a bit spoilt by Kelli too, because as soon as there is free time on arrival at any new place, she offers an orientation walk, providing heaps of good ideas for venues to visit, things to see and dom plus good shopping hints and restaurant suggestions.
As a slight aside from my daily exploits, there hasn’t been specific mentions of the Butinskys, not because they have gone quiet, just that they have become the norm that inevitably they will seek out the table next to us and flap their ears and mouths. I’m a bit forlorn to admit, that I simply make a big sigh noise each time one of them interrupts our conversation and then switch off to whatever they have to say, which will always be about themselves. They are the Aussie equivalent of the brash Texans where no matter what you are talking about, they have done it better and more often. What is a bit sad is that no one ever goes and sits with them but I am not about to adopt them. The other three musketeers are doing a good enough job of being pleasant and inclusive with them. Heaven forbid I should start being nice to them too. It just isn’t in my nature! Please remember that I am the one with a t shirt that says, ‘I only look like I care’ and that was given to me by Captn D and Foggy...
Time for dinner in the restaurant. It was a three course set menu of tomato soup, beef with potatoes and beetroot, plus berry pie and cream. I think I have a cracked tooth, back lower left. It is making chewing difficult as every now I bite down on that tooth and it is immediate pain. It is just nuisance value, but off putting and with a bit of a sore throat happening, I’m feeling a bit miserable. I have suggested to SB that she is most welcome to trade me in, but at this stage I’m probably only worth a ceramic reindeer shaped little milk jug. (I’ve bought one of these for myself to bring out at princess tea parties).
Oh and while I think of it, apparently spell check not only changes numptiesto bum ties, but in yesterday’s blog attempting to tell you Kelli provided us with a shot of mint Vodka, spell check changed shit to shit! Naughty spell check.... I could go back and change it now, but as you are likely to have already read it, no point ( thanks to anonymous sis for advising me of same).
Now back to my day, the soup was lovely, had only some of the beef and no dessert, but as I had a big lunch, I mostt definitely was not hungry. Time to head back to our room, which has a feature wall of slatted timber in front of lights that keep changing from green, blue, yellow, orange, purple... to replicate the northern lights. Will try and get some photos tomorrow of it.
Time for bed, and as I pen these final lines for the day,SB is removing a fake fur blanket that is draped across the bottom of her bed. I had already folded my similar blanket up and put it in the cupboard. SBtells me that Amy from our group had earlier told her that she got a lot of static electricity from her blanket when she had socks on it. So just to make a point, SB rubs her hands back and forth across the fake fur and goes “ouch,ouch” from the static electricity. Then one more time for a final “ouch”, before she folds the bloody thing up and puts it out of harms way.
I am sooooo ready for lights out tonight!

Santa’s Village and Ice Hotel

Grrrrr. Another bad night’s sleep but that’s life. As we were getting ready this morning, SB announces, “ I’m going to have my shower now, Catherine”. When I asked her who she was calling Catherine, she said, “ You! Aren’t you Catherine Zeta Jones’ body double?” Well silly me. Ofcourse she mistook me for Catherine as I was dressed in my black thermal long johns and skivvy, just like CZJ in the movie ‘Entrapment’.
Off to breakfast and a late checkout, which gave SB and Foggy time to re’enact their scene from Titanic, which they originally attempted in Belfast.

We then head off on our way to Santa’s Village. SB is like an excited puppy! Mind you, I thought it was simply fabulous too. When we gfirst got their, Kelli decided we all needed a traditional drink, so we all had a shit of a mint vodka! Beautiful, but I think it has potential as a paint stripper.

We then all follow her to the end of the village where we have to book an optional tour to a reindeer farm in a couple of nights. There is a skidoo museum at the booking office so I have a quick wander through there. We have a snow mobile tour booked in a couple of days, so I’m already wondering what my chances of falling off that might be!

SB and I are then left to our own devices so have a great time checking out everything, however as it transpired, 3 hours wasn’t nearly long enough.

We hit the shops and SB simply went berserk. First stop was the Santa’s candy store. Not sure how much of our purchases will finally get to the intended recipients as we might need to taste test them beforehand! Next stop, the souvenir shops and there was no stopping SB. I found a Santa reindeer that had a note on its paw that said ‘push here’ so I did, and suddenly I have a singing reindeer jiving in my hands, giving a loud and very jolly version of Jingle Bell Rock. So, with that SB and I started dancing to the music and there was the potential for our very own flash mob as everyone else in the little shop stopped dead in their Tracks! SB decided then and there that she simply had to buy him. Similar excitement over all future purchases of which there were quite a few, ensued. We went into Santa’s office with the hope of meeting Santa personally but as we were running short on time, had to give it a miss as the queue was way too long. Similar thing in the post office where I was planning on sending some postcards to those whose addresses I knew, but way too many Japanese ahead of me in the line, so some of you have missed out on a card from Santa’s home in the Arctic Circle.
Way too soon, and it’s time to board the coach. Next stop is ata local shopping centre so that we can get a late lunch as it is already past 3 pm. I had a Subway roll and figured I was doing quire well with the order in Finnish when the lass behind the counter handed me a laminated menu in English to use as my attempt at asking for the 9 seed 6 inch roll wasn’t producing the desired outcome. Time for a wander through the store which was similar to Costco and a few more minor purchases. Then back on th3 coach on our way to our home for the night in an ice igloo!

Apologies that the photos are out of order but they download at different speed and then randomly attach themselves to the blog. Once in oursssigned igloos, we are in 28 and Captn D and Foggy are next door in 29. We have welcomedrinks planned in our cabin, so the occupants of 29 join us and we have a celebratory drink to our fabulous holiday. At some stage SB has lost one of the igloo provided scuff slippers, so Foggy assists her with finding it. Now not only do we have these two bum ties performing Titsnic at every opportunity, we now have a scene from a Cinderella to endure.
Then it’s time for dinner in the main dining room and it was the best 3 course meal I’ve had to date. Rich tomato soup with crusty baguette, chicken with wild rice and ratatouille, plus chocolate whiskey mud cake with ice cream. I gave SB my ice cream and she gave me her mud cake!
After dinner we went into the actual ice hotel which is made entirely of ice. Amazing!

Every piece of furniture is made of ice. You can book a room for overnight stays.there are no doors, only a curtain you pull across the entrance to the room. We were able to checkout everywhere inside as long as there wasn’t a close curtain. The rooms were really large and all different themes. Not sure my camera was able to pick out all the detail. We spoke to some women at dinner who had stayed in the rooms and they said it was freezing, even though they were in arctic condition sleeping bags and wrapped up like mummies. SB wants to stay there but no way would I even contemplate it.

Time to head back through the snow to our little igloo. We are hopeful of a call through the night that the Northern Lights willappear, but it is a slim chance due to the light snow already falling. What a great day we’ve had with unforgettable experiences.

Saariselka

The hotel is really quiet which is lovely, but I didn’t manage a good night sleep however nobody ever died from a poor night’s sleep. We have a lovely view from our room and little balcony at 7 in the morning.

Breakfast downstairs in our lodge and then straight over to Lapland Safaris office to get kitted out for the -30 degrees weather we will experience on our husky sled ride! Woo hoo. It took quite some time for everyone to get appropriately attired. I had 5 top layers, 3 pairs of socks and 3 pairs of pants plus 1 pair of gloves and 2 pairs of mittens. Had those wonderful little hand warmers inside my gloves so I was feeling very toasty. What we looked like was less desirable.

We all board a coach, which was no mean feat trying to lift each leg sufficiently high enough to clamber up the steps, and then an even sillier walk required to sideways walk down the aisle to eventually fall into a seat. Putting on the waist seat belt was a production as well, because gloves and mittens had to come off and then be put back on. However we all managed this with varying degrees of success. Once at the husky farm we are briefed on how to operate the sled. Well knock me down with a feather and call me Gloria, because I had assumed that we would be taken for a ride in a sled driven by someone who knew what they were doing!!!

Everyone had to pair up so that one was the driver and the other was the passenger. SB and I agreed to let SB drive first. I figured if we were going to have a disaster, then let’s get it over and done with. So off we headed with a skidoo in the lead, Foggy driving Captn D next, and us after them. It certainly was cold and my eye lashes were freezing, but the rest of me really was warm. SB did a great job and when we got to the half way point we changed positions so that SB was now bundled up in the sled and I’m in the driver seat, so to speak. You operate the brake by standing on the brake bar, which I was doing, but our dogs (6 of them) were so keen to take off that every now and then we would jolt forward a bit due to the dogs’ eagerness to get going. Who knew that I could have done with a few more kilos to hold them in check?

Anyway, just as we get underway, the dogs behind our sled are actually coming alongside me , and as we are a one lane track and meant to keep our sleds 5 metres apart, I’m yelling to whoever is behind me to put both feet on the brake. Finally I stopped as did the sled behind, even though their dogs were alongside us. What had happened was that when they changed positions , Amy the grand daughter became the passenger, and Margaret the grandma became driver. As soon as she went to get off the brake, rather than put each foot on the side sleds, she simply stepped back and the sled took off. Amy, Indiana Jones style clambered over the seat and stood on the brake herself when she realized yelling out to her grandma to slow down wasn’t producing any results!
But wait... there’s more. We then all took off again with grandma back in the passenger seat and Amy driving. Our lead dogs were consistently hugging the left of the track . The snow had been piled to each side of the track to form an embankment and clear marking of the snow track. We had to yell to each other to be heard, but I said to SB that I wished our lead dogs would run more in the middle of th3 track so that we weren’t always hugging the left embankment which was powdery snow. Very shortly after that as we were tracking along at a fair clip, we approached a bend, I saw the lead dogs way to the left in the powdery snow embankment and there automatically followed the sled and me so that we started tipping over to the right. I knew not to jump on the brake on corners but didn’t know how to keep the sled upright so in trying to put my body weight against the way we were tipping, I lost balance and as I knew I was about to fall off, I’m yelling at SB that I can’t keep it upright, I’m falling oooooooooooofffffff.
Plop, sideways full length in the snow embankment I go, with my runaway sled soon out of view! Getting up to a standing position wasn’t easy but I somehow managed it, and started hurrying in the direction I last saw the sled! Thankfully Amy was soon on scene so I got in the very front of their sled and they took off in pursuit of SB. Our lead fellow in the skidoo became aware of my unprogrammed departure from my sled and had stopped Foggy’s sled. Apparently when my dogs reached the rear of Foggy’s sled they automatically stopped and so when we pulled up SB had gotten out of the sled and was standing on the brakes. She hadn’t initially realized I’d come off the blasted thing. She knew the sled was tipping, but then it righted itself (probably when I fell off). Anyhow, the hardest thing was getting out of the front of Amy’s sled as I was squeezed in, in front of her grandma with my knees up to my neck and no way of standing up straight, so I did what I now had priors for, and I just trolled sideways out of the sled, straight into the snow! I’ve also perfected how to get up out of the snow without too many grunts and groans.
So with that little bit of excitement out of the way and no bones broken, just a slightly bruised ego, SB is back in the passenger seat and I’m back in the reigns to take us back to our starting point without any more dramatics.
This is the only time I’ve ever wished I had a Go Pro to capture the beautiful scenery of the forest we wove our way through, plus ofcourse my nosedive into the snow! I actually gave myself a 7 for it, as I didn’t jump up out of the snow and do the arms up in a V at the end, so I think I’m being fair in my scoring that my dismount needs some work...
Once back to our starting point and dogs tethered to their posts we are able to pat them. They are incredibly fit dogs and clearly well looked after.

We all then returned to a hut, with a very welcoming wood fire, where we could have coffee or hot berry juice. I opted for the berry juice which was lovely and helped warm up my insides. The only think really cold on me was my toes so lesson learnt. I need to get some toe warmers. We then had lunch provided which was a lovely vegetable and ground meat soup. Then a ham and cheese roll plus a cinnamon scroll. The owner of the husky farm (he calls himself a ‘musher’) came and spoke to us for almost an hour, answering all our questions. He had about 112 dogs at the moment. A pup can cost about 800 Euros, but a fully trained good lead dog can be worth thousands. He cited a friend who has recently bought a dog for 6,500 Euros and it will cost him about another 1,000 to transport it to him. The dogs work from about August to April and then they are rested. These dogs love to not only run, but to pull loads. The visit was a fabulous experience, even though I did fall off my sled. While we were having lunch the guy who had been in the skidoo with our sleds sought me out to make sure I was okay, and then sign some forms that I was uninjured. I think he was pleasantly surprised that I was so okay about it as he knew when he approached me out on the ride, I kept asking him if SB was ok as I had no idea how I was ever going to explain to the princesses back home how I had managed to lose her in Finland and that she was probably still sitting in the sled letting the dogs take her wherever they wanted, and she was having a ball! I apologised to him for my unscheduled dismount, which he thought was hilarious and is going to use in future!

But now it’s time to go and as we walk back to the coach, we see the afternoon dog sled tours heading back to base. This has been a great adventure sledding through arctic wilderness.

Back at the office to work out how to now get out of all the layers and then back to our hotel room for a much needed Irish coffee. We have sufficiently thawed out, so rug up again and head out for a walk to the local shopping centre, where we both buy warmer neck and head coverings because the nylon ones we are currently using to cover our mouth and nose is freezing as soon as it gets moisture from our breath on it in the icy wind! Note to self: if in future I ever head to the Arctic Circle and beyond, bring only woollen jumpers and head wear. Also bought a couple of souvenirs and then headed back to our room for a lovely hot chocolate.

SB is going to go snow shoe hiking with Kelli and Foggy for an hour or so. I initially said I would do it too, but I’m pooped and am a bit over getting really rugged up and going out in the freezing cold, to then tramp around in said freezing cold, to come back to a warm room and attempt to thaw out yet again. I’m sure the cold wind in my eyes all the time outdoors is making them tired too. Not planning a late night tonight, that’s for sure.
So while SB goes for her snow shoe hike in the forest I catch up on the blog and attempt to repack my suitcase in readiness for tomorrow’s departure. I even have time to do a bit of last minute washing to put in our cupboard dryer which is in our room. SB arrives back in the room, advising that she had a good time snow shoeing and didn’t fall over!
Time for dinner in the main restaurant and then back to the room to complete suitcase packing in readiness for our departure tomorrow morning. And then it’s time for bed.