7:26 a.m. on 29th of December: My train departed from Stuttgart into the direction of Frankfurt airport, where I was bound to board a plane to Helsinki. There, I arrived at 1:15 p.m. and soon after I met my brother at Helsinki’s main station. He was spending a semester abroad in a town close to the Finnish-Russian border. We planned to spend New Year’s Eve in Northern Finland. To get there, we booked a night train on the very same day of my arrival. As the train was supposed to leave in the evening, we had a bit of time to explore Helsinki’s city center. As it is comparatively small, my brother managed to show me quite a few of the major sights within the afternoon. Helsinki, only getting a very few hours of daylight during that time of the year, shone with its beautiful Christmas illuminations. Despite the darkness, the city was quite vivid, people enjoyed, e.g., a large ice skating area.
After an early dinner, we arrived back at the train station, where it was time to board a train to Rovaniemi, a town located directly at the Arctic Circle. The train arrived at the station and had many new, comfy-looking wagons. Looking for ours, we realized that our seats were located in one of the very few old wagons, probably in operation since decades. Even worse, we were at the very end of this wagon, barely able to move our backrest. The train ride was scheduled to take almost eleven hours and the thrill of anticipation did not last long looking at our seats. On the other hand though, we paid only 36€ per passenger. “The cheapest fare ever”, as a fellow traveller said. Eventually, we found a few hours of okay-ish sleep before arriving in the cold and dark Rovaniemi. While leaving the train, we encountered ice and snow already between the wagons and close to the doors of the train, to find even more outside. It was freezing, so we hurried to the office of our rental car company. From there, after a short supply run in a local supermarket, we headed further north to the town of Saariselkä. The drive lead us through endless plains and forests, seeing some lonesome houses and villages here and there. We also spotted a group of reindeer crossing the street, one of them almost slipping on the iced street. Fortunately, the tires of our car were equipped with spikes. Eventually, we arrived in Saariselkä after an approximately three hour drive through ice and snow.
Saariselkä itself is a holiday town and winter wonderland. After the hotel check-in we explored the surrounding area of our hotel. There, we found a shop where we rented cross-country skiing equipment. For both, my brother and myself, it was the very first time on ski – our performance was not elegant, but it was quite entertaining. As I had not really an idea how to stop, I just threw myself into the snow whenever needed. For the next day, December 31st, we planned to go on more great winter activities: a snowmobile and a dog sledding tour. Personally, I enjoyed the snowmobile experience more. Driving the powerful snowmobiles was fun and we encountered quite a few surreal looking landscapes. There was some sunlight despite being north of the Arctic Circle, but it only lasted a very limited time, with the sun always being quite close to the horizon. The time around noon was like a constant sunrise / sunset which made the experience even more beautiful. During the briefing for the dog sledding tour, a fellow traveler asked for a blanket for his kids as there was an icy wind. One of the tour guides answered: “Why? It’s just wind.” I believe that she really meant it – living there undoubtedly makes people tough. With the dog sleds we rode into the night. During the ride, my body felt like it will turn into an ice brick minute by minute.
Obviously, we hoped to see Aurora Polaris during our stay in Finland. Various websites told us that there was enough cosmic activity, but unfortunately the sky was too clouded. On New Year‘s Eve we drove out of Saariselkä to see if there was a spot somewhere free of clouds. While we could not find one, we were shocked how fast some locals drive on iced streets in pure darkness and with the wind carrying snow from roadside snowdrifts to cloud the view even more. There was nothing. No streetlights, no moonshine, absolutely nothing – expect the lights of our very own car, which mostly lighted up the snowflakes whirling in the air. Having an experience like that was quite exciting by itself. Back in town, we went to a bar and enjoyed wonderful fireworks at midnight.
On January 1st, it was time to leave Saariselkä, unfortunately. We drove back to Rovaniemi, where we dropped the car and stayed for two more nights. Rovaniemi, as mentioned located directly at the Arctic Circle, is the official home of Santa Claus. There, Santa Claus has a complete village. Arguably, things cannot get more touristy and commercial, but the village is somewhat charming. If you are in Rovaniemi, a visit to Santa Claus adds to the overarching experience. Other than that, there are interesting museums and quite a few bars and restaurants. In a temporary exhibition, we learned about the battles and the devastating retreat of Nazi Germany in this region. As it turned out, in a way, Nazi Germany is the main reason why Rovaniemi does not have charming old buildings anymore. As written in other posts, too, it is shocking to see the effects and the sad heritage of both World Wars across all of Europe. In my opinion, it is important to remember where we are coming from, in order to fully realize and appreciate the benefits of today’s freedom and multilateralism. The napkins in one of Rovaniemi’s restaurants were labelled accordingly: “86 400 seconds today. Enjoy every single one.” A simple wisdom and yet one which many people cannot afford, especially outside of Europe.
After two nights, we left Rovaniemi to head to the nearby Kemi by train. From there, we were supposed to take a night train to Helsinki. Kemi, located at the Gulf of Finland, is in winter also home to the world’s largest ice castle. Knowing that the ice castle was not yet open, I hoped to at least get a look at it. The construction was in progress, but unfortunately in an early stage. Also on other terms, we did not get warm with Kemi at all. It was a cold, windy day, there was basically no one else walking through the streets and the whole city just seemed to be completely lifeless. After a short while, before even finding the building site of the ice castle, when I felt thirsty, I noticed that the bottle of water I had brought in my backpack was already completely frozen. Quite possibly, we just went to the wrong spots, but we were tired of searching. Hence, we decided to leave early and take a train to Oulu. Our night train to Helsinki would pass this city as well, as it is located quite a bit more to the south. Oulu, a much bigger city, welcomed us with nice architecture and a much more vivid city life. Believe it or not, Oulu is home to the official air guitar world championship. Although this competition takes place in summer, it might say something general about the approach to life of Oulu’s inhabitants. Before heading back to the train station, we enjoyed a fabulous pizza in a vibrant Italian restaurant – the perfect treatment after hours of icy coldness.
Boarding the train to Helsinki, I was pretty sure that we had seats located in the exact same wagon as on our way to the north. This time though, a pleasant surprise awaited us: our seats were in the middle of the wagon, not face-to-face and it was possible to move the backrest a little. We found some sleep and arrived shortly before 7 a.m. at Helsinki’s main station. That early, almost everything was still closed. Eventually, we found a place for breakfast and, afterwards, boarded a boat to Suomenlinna, a history-charged fortress island. Next to see Suomenlinna’s many interesting sights and the general landscape, going out in the cold was rewarded with an atmospheric and stunning sunrise. Back in the city, we visited two major buildings not far from each other: Helsinki Cathedral and the Uspenski Cathedral, an orthodox cathedral. From there, we also saw some impressive ice breakers. Afterwards, my brother unfortunately had to head back to Eastern Finland. I had one more night on my own and decided to watch the latest James Bond movie in cinema. With less than six million inhabitants, international films are usually not localized.
With around -20 degree Celsius, my last day was the coldest day of the trip. I headed out of the hotel to walk from sight to sight. Especially for people interested in architecture and design, Helsinki has a lot to offer, e.g. , the Kamppi Chapel. At some point I became thirsty – just to find my carried-along bottle of water completely frozen, again! To warm up, I visited the wonderful Kiasma, a museum for contemporary art. In the afternoon, it was time to head back to the airport. The long Finnish night came to an end for me, and yet the cold darkness always felt enlightening. Helsinki and Finland were remembered well: Three years later, I returned for long summer days. Kiitos Suomi for the memories.
This blog post, an ode to the unknown, remembers a journey to Northern Finland in the winter of 2015/2016.
@sebel_tours 