The next day, we continued walking around the city, but now more purposefully, and the main attraction of Rovaniemi is santa claus villagehas been left by us for last.
Alvar Aalto
We started with a search for buildings made according to projects renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. I can’t say that I was impressed with his creations, but I really liked the library. I would probably live in such a library.
Santa Claus Village
After that, we still went to Santa’s village (you can read about our visit to the village on the day of arrival here). On this day we were its last visitors. Yes, we were a little late. Santa has a working day until five in the eveningand he’s not me, he doesn’t recycle. Fortunately, we made it.
To Santa us spent the elf. When I saw a huge gray-haired grandfather, I was speechless. Yes, it’s very exciting to take and meet Santa like that.. Even when you’re 23. I would even say, especially when you are 23. As a child, you believe in him, so meeting him is something for granted. But at 23, having stopped believing in this character many years ago, this is completely different. I probably would have stood in a stupor if Santa himself had not led the conversation and asked questions.
After chatting with him and taking a picture with the elf’s camera (You can’t take pictures with your equipment.), we said goodbye and, of course, could not resist buying postcards with our photos with Santa. We paid 20 euros for 5 postcards. What to do, I really wanted to take something as a keepsake.
Finnish kindness
After such an unusual audience, we again went to the city. Despite the fact that it was already around 7 pm (and we checked out at 12 noon), Pirrko gave us hot chocolate to drink, and we chatted with her for another couple of hours. I told her that I was collecting money (I mean collecting coins and banknotes) and asked her if she had any old Finnish stamps. Digging through the bins, Pirrko found the same old Finnish bill, checked the rate and changed it for me for the euro. This unique money cost me quite a bit. Its value was far less than its value to me. Therefore, I was satisfied.
Nightlife in Rovaniemi
Saying goodbye to Pirrko around 11 pm, we went with things to the city. There were no northern lights, and we went to a bar where they were showing hockey. No northern lights – I’ll watch hockey. Our flight was supposed to be around 6 am. We found out that the only minibus that travels from the city to the airport departs from the center an hour before the flight. So we had to pass somewhere around 6 hours. So we went to hang out. At first we couldn’t understand why all the local bars are only open until 2 am. But going into one of them (the one that worked the longest, namely until 3:00), we all understood – at midnight, all the Finns were drunk to such an extent that Russians get drunk only at 6 in the morning. We talked with some guys, drank a mug of expensive beer. This bar closed.
McDonald’s Rescue
At such moments McDonald’s always comes to the rescue. Nowhere to spend the night in an unfamiliar city – McDonald’s, you need the Internet – McDonald’s, you need to go to the toilet – McDonald’s. Anything but food 🙂 We came to the only McDonald’s in Rovaniemi, took a mug of coffee, and then I saw 2 guys who were in the same bar as us. When we got to know them, we learned that one is a FinAir pilot, and the other is a lawyer. They offered to drive us to the airport. As a result, we arrived at the airport in a cool Audi 🙂 Having loaded onto the plane, I fell asleep without waiting for takeoff.
This was our short trip to Lapland. Unfortunately, we did not see the northern lights, but otherwise it was a fairy tale 🙂
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Read about what you can see in Helsinki in 5 hours here.
