Kirsten Comes to Visit: Rovaniemi

My friend Noora told me about a Facebook group where people offer rides back and forth from Oulu and Rovaniemi. Kirsten and I knew we needed to go up there before she left, so Noora arranged a ride for us from a girl who was driving up there for work. We weren't quite sure how we would get back, but there was always bus or train, so we weren't too worried. Joe Smalzer (the American playing up there) let us stay at his apartment. We asked really last minute, as in, when we arrived to Rovaniemi, so we owe him big time! As you can tell we didn't really have our trip planned out, but it all worked out in the end. Plus, spontaneity is part of the fun, right?

So the girl we got a ride from dropped us off at a bus stop near the center of town. The only problem was the bus stop was literally a sign that had a picture of a bus hanging from a pole- that was it, there wasn't a bench or even a schedule, so we decided to walk down to the center. We went to McDonald's for wifi, but it wasn't working, so we found a cafe. What is with foreign McDonalds' wifi?  I swear whenever I need it, it doesn't work. But anyways, we were able to get a hold of Joe and he came and picked us up! 

Not only did Joe pick us up, but he took us to Santa's Village- Thanks Joe! We met Santa, fed reindeer, went on a reindeer sleigh ride, got passport stamps showing we had been to the Artic Circle, ran into Mormon Missionaries! (such a random place to run into them), and shopped for souvenirs.  

Lucky for us, there was a bus stop (with a bench and a schedule) right outside of Joe's apartment. The following morning, we waited there until a bus came, which was only about 20 minutes and off we went to Arktikum, a museum about Finnish Lapland and the Arctic Region. After, we took a bus to the center of town, where we caught another bus heading to Santa's Village. Yes, we went there two days in a row because it's the second happiest place on earth!