This weekend we took our first family vacation since we've been in Finland. Once we found out we would be going to Finland for six months we started talking about heading north of the Arctic Circle and spending some time in Lapland. We promised the girls we would stay in an ice hotel and would see the REAL Santa. We didn't want to go until we were settled in Finland and this weekend was perfect for our trip.
We left Jyvaskyla on Saturday afternoon and drove north to Oulu. Rovaniemi is about a 7 hour drive so we decided to stay a night in Oulu (only 4 hours away) to shorten the driving trip. We walked around Oulu and stopped at the Cathedral, but it was locked so we really didn't get to do much there. We did stop by my favorite piece of art in front of Oulu's town hall. Along a wall are 32 small bronze statues made by Sanna Koivisto. "Passage of Time" is a depiction of Oulu's 400 year history shown through important people that contributed to the city's success.
On Sunday morning everyone was up and ready to go by 9:00 so that we could drive to Rovaniemi, about 3 hours away. We headed straight to Santa Claus Village! Unfortunately, when we got there the big guy was eating his lunch and we would have to wait a little while before we could se him. We decided to go see about doing some dog sledding while we waited. Tea absolutely loves dogs and has been looking forward to husky sledding for weeks and she was in heaven! We went through the gates to find many huskies in their own fenced in yards and Tea pet every single one, I think. She had a great time running back in forth in front of their yards and watching them chase her back and forth. One tried to steal her glove and another went after her hat through the fence and she thought it was hilarious!
After checking out and greeting every dog, we were able to hop on a dog sled. We all sat in one large sled with ten huskies pulling us. Talia, not exactly a fan of dogs, sat towards the back of the sled with Adam and Tea got to sit right in the front. I sat in front of Anne, Adam's sister, and we had a really cozy, fun, bumpy, ride. The dogs had to work hard to pull us up some hills but it was worth it to hear the screams of delight from the girls as we went back down the hills. The dogs took us on a five kilometer track and it took about 20 minutes and that was perfect for our family. We all loved it!!
After we got off the sled one of the women working with the huskies offered to take out one of the pups so Tea could pet her without the fence in the way. Tea was so excited and had a great time playing with Reilly, a three month old pup.
Once we had our fill of puppies we headed towards Santa's workshop to say hi. It was clear that at other times during the year there is a long wait to meet the man in the big red suit. There was a long corridor decorated with Christmas scenes from around the world to entertain people while they wait in line. Lucky for us we flew past those displays and were able to just walk right in and see Santa. There was no one in line in front of or behind us so we were able to talk to him for ten minutes! He asked the girls where they are from, how long they are in Finland and if they liked the presents he brought last year. He called Tea over and then told her he knows that sometimes she plays with her toys but forgets to clean them all up right away. The look on her face was PRICELESS! She couldn't believe he knew that! It was awesome. Talia was mostly silent and a little scared, but listened carefully to everything he was saying to Tea and told him she really liked his boots. Santa even had time to ask me what I was doing in Jyvaskyla and about the weather in Connecticut compared to Finland. It was so cool to have a leisurely visit with him. We took our picture with him and promised to write at Christmastime. We then made sure to take some pictures right at the Arctic Circle and felt ready to go to our next stop.
We drove about 30 minutes to the Arctic Snow Hotel where we would spend the night in a snow hotel room. After checking in we were given a brief tour of the hotel and instructions for sleeping. We were shown how to put the inner sleeping bag inside the outer bag and zip it up as tightly as possible so that we would be warm as we slept. We were also shown the warm room that would be open all night should we need to get some heat. The temperature inside our room was -1 Celsius, about 30 degrees Fahreheit. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing around the hotel and checking out the rooms. We got to try out some kicksleds (which I loved), fed some reindeer, and sat by a fire before we got all ready for bed. Below is a picture of our room and of me, Tea and Talia all snuggled up for bed.
We all slept pretty well! We weren't at all cold; those sleeping bags were quite warm once we scooted all the way in and had no exposed skin. It was definitely a fun experience and we were given certificates to prove we made it through the night in the snow hotel!
We once again hit the road by 10:00 and drove to Kemi. Each year they build a famous ice castle by the bay and we wanted to see it. It was well worth the drive. Each year the castle has a theme, and this year's was "Castle in a Castle" so it was a medieval theme. It was incredible! Just like the snow hotel, there is no internal structure holding it together; the entire building was made of ice and snow. The sculptures were beautiful. Here are some pictures.
We ate lunch in Kemi and then headed to our cabin where we would stay for the night. However, before deciding to turn in for the day we thought we would drive over the border into Sweden since we were only 15 miles from the border. A huge candy store, Candy World, was only about 25 minutes away so decided to check it out. Sweden is quite expensive so we didn't get much, but we can now say we've been there!
We made so many memories, got to do just about everything on our list (we still haven't seen the northern lights) and now can start planning for our next family adventure.