And the next morning it was my birthday. I always dreamed of meeting him in a place like Lapland.
Waking up around 10 am and having breakfast delicious Finnish foodWe went for a walk around the city. Or rather, the town. Even now I am writing all this and I remember Rovaniemi with incredible warmth. Naturally, the first thing we went to the main square (also said loudly) – Lordi square (of the same Finnish group that won Eurovision not so long ago).
There was nothing remarkable there, and we went to travel agencies (of which there are a lot) to find out when and how we can (if we can) see the northern lights. Unfortunately, all our yesterday’s fears were justified – forecasts did not promise anything good.
We met a Latvian at one of the travel agencies, who at one time was a rather successful volleyball player, but had lived in Finland for several years and worked as a guide. He offered to take us over 200 kilometers north of Rovaniemi. Allegedly, there the probability of seeing this doomsday is much higher. We agreed, despite the fact that this pleasure was wildly expensive. We agreed to meet at 10 pm not far from our house and went for a walk further.
By the way, in the morning I asked Pirrko to cook for us real finnish dinner (holiday, birthday after all). Naturally, no thanks. But regarding Finnish prices, dinner for 15 (if I’m not mistaken) euros did not seem expensive to us. The feast was planned at 7 pm, so we had a whole day to go for a walk.
I rode on a swing, took pictures with a snowman, rolled in the snow. Some people want to hug the sea, but I wanted to hug all the snow and the atmosphere of a quiet, cozy Finnish town. It is impossible to describe all the emotions that I experienced at that moment. This was great. Really wonderful.
Festive Finnish dinner
We returned home, and there a hot dinner was waiting for us. Main course – salmon with potatoes. And for dessert there was a home-made blueberry incredibly delicious cake with the name “Julia” laid out and candles. Pirrko kept us company at dinner and told us many interesting things from the life of the Finns. In general, it was very interesting to chat with her, she talked a lot about her family (she has as many as 7 children!!!) and about her life. Being in another country to communicate with a native is priceless. Museums, churches, monuments, etc., of course, are good, but communication with a local resident is much more useful and informative. At least for me.
Lapland. In search of the northern lights
Having talked enough, we went to meet our Latvian guide who suddenly appeared. The road to the place (namely, to the natural park) took about 3 hours. All this time we asked questions about the delights and complexities of life in Finland. At the same time, I looked around in the hope that what I so longed to see was about to appear. But alas.
Having reached that very park and walking between tall pines in complete darkness (fortunately, the sky was clear and a great many stars illuminated the space a little), we loaded back into the car – being outside at -25 at night is not very comfortable. We drove back.
I no longer wanted to talk, I just stared at the insanely beautiful sky with my eyes and prayed that it would be illuminated with green light. Turned back. And at one moment I saw an incomprehensible glow and asked to stop the car. In the direction from which we came, something strange was happening in the sky, very vaguely resembling the northern lights. But since our guide was not a guide at all, he could not say whether this was what I came to Rovaniemi for or not. Anya was sure that this was it, but doubts tormented me, and I said that I will not check the box next to the item “See the Northern Lights”. We returned home around 4 am. I still had one more day to close this item.
You can read about the continuation of our trip here.
If you want to order a comprehensive planning of your trip to Finland or, conversely, learn how to organize your own trips, then you are here 🙂
