Day 18: Santa Claus and the Arctic Circle

The morning started as expected on the train. A glance out of the window revealed autumnal forests while we enjoyed cocoa with our sleepy hushed pastries filled with berry jam and vanilla pudding. The bits of cardamom baked in proved to be slightly puzzling.

After breakfast, instead of activating the 'Nödbroms' (best Swedish word ever), we packed our things calmly. Unfortunately, our attempt at a morning shower failed halfway due to the water being too cold, but at least we can claim to have washed our hair in a moving train risking our lives. 😅

We finally arrived in Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, at quarter past eleven. Here, we had to wait for the bus for a while before it took us and a multitude of Asians to the Santa Claus Holiday Village, where we settled into our cottage.

The apartment is huge and has, in addition to a large bed, a television and a kitchenette, its own sauna in the bathroom. 😍

After unloading our luggage, we immediately headed to Santa Claus Village. We actually wanted to go straight to the reindeer, but they were busy with a photoshoot, so we visited Santa instead.

Joulupukki, as he is called in Finland, greeted us kindly, and one of his elves took a souvenir photo which we could later purchase as a digital version. We briefly talked to him about our trip and then, as newcomers to the Arctic Circle, we had to sing a song. We chose 'Oh Christmas Tree'. 😆

After this visit, we strolled through the countless souvenir shops before continuing our walk to the husky enclosure (admission was unfortunately too expensive) and tried again with the reindeer. They had finished their modeling gig, so we watched them relax and chew cud. A three-month-old orphaned reindeer that was raised with a bottle ate lichens from our hands, and we were allowed to pet it. We also learned some interesting facts about reindeer - for example, that their antlers get smaller every year after the age of 8-9.

Then we took another tour of the souvenir shops, visited a small Christmas exhibition and the Christmas village post office before treating ourselves to a reindeer burger with lingonberries for dinner - yeah, well, maybe a little macabre, but very tasty.

Now we're back in our cottage and the sauna is about to get hot, so we'll say goodbye for today and sweat a little bit above the Arctic Circle. Haha! 😂