Arctic Circle!

My face was pressed firmly against the floor as I examined the control dials beneath the sauna. “There are two controls! One goes from one to six, the other from one to 30!” I was shouting to my sister from the ground as we tried to figure out how to turn on the sauna. For some reason the temperature control was installed very close to the floor. We were certainly doing something wrong. The pressure was on because this was the first time that I was responsible for running the sauna. If I’ve learned one thing in Finland, it should be how to operate a sauna. It sort of comes naturally to those Finns, who had always taken the lead in my other sauna experiences. After a series of trials and errors, we finally got it going… just like real Finnish people.

Right after she landed in Helsinki, Robin and I hopped on an overnight train up north to a town called Äkäslompolo, not far from Ylläs in the Arctic Circle. The Arctic Circle is the area of the earth that has at least one day with 24 hours of sun, and at least one day of complete darkness each year. The Arctic Circle locals seemed pretty relaxed. Several people stopped to talk to us or offered us rides, even though we were obviously outsiders. While the towns are small, life seemed to be pretty “normal.” The weather was lovely and there was lots of electricity, running water, a couple of restaurants, and grocery stores. There were some mosquitoes, but not nearly as many as the folks in Tampere prepared me for.

This picture was taken at midnight!

Ylläsjarvi is where we saw the first reindeer… just after eating reindeer for dinner. Reindeer with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce is a common dish in the area. The reindeer roam free, but they are tagged and owned by a reindeer farmer who harvests them when the time is right. While I had reindeer nightmares (believe it or not) before coming to Finland, it tastes delightful. Aaaand it’s good for you! Robin didn’t like it as much as I did. Maybe it takes a few months of living in Finland. First you learn to operate a sauna, and then you can enjoy the taste of reindeer! ‘Course, Robin kinda learned to operate the sauna already.

We headed back down south through Sweden. Our final stop was in Stockholm, a city that is intertwined with its surrounding bodies of both salt and fresh water. I was excited to go to Sweden because of the Vikings. They’re famous for conquering much of the northern world, and maybe even parts of Canada and the States. I was however, quite distraught when I found out that those Viking hats with two horns: they’re fake. The experts don’t think the Vikings actually wore hats like that. And I got the impression that the locals don’t think the hats are as cool as I think they are. It seemed like some people think they’re an annoying tourist gimmick. Oh well. My Viking hat visions were shattered. Robin and I had a wonderful time. I look forward to going back for World Water Week next month.

You can borrow bikes like these in Stockholm (as well as many European cities), if you need a quick way to get around.

This is an exhibit in the Nordic Museum of every day items used in Swedish and Nordic history.

These are a few shots from the ferry trip from Stockholm to Turku (Finland). We went through the Swedish and the Finnish archepelagos, with a brief stoppover on one of the Aland Islands.

Juhannus: Life is Good

Life is good. I'm happy. I feel great. I have lots of energy. Maybe I'll go for a run. It's four o'clock the morning. Maybe I should go to sleep. I can't decide: sleep or run? I'm hungry.

We just celebrated Midsummer (or Juhannus), which was convenient for us Seattleites because it closely aligns with the Summer Solstice celebrations down south. My biological clock told me that I was supposed to be celebrating. To me, Juhannus was a celebration of surviving the winter and welcoming the summer into my life. It also has religious significance. Most people vacate the cities and go out to their summer cottages in the countryside for Juhannus.

I did not do as the Finns do. I went to Helsinki for Juhannus, which is actually the biggest city in Finland. There aren’t many summer cottages in Helsinki proper. Everyone warned me "don't do it!" or "Helsinki is boring during Juhannus." I was planning to be in Helsinki anyway because my sister and I were meeting there before launching into the Arctic Circle, coincidentally the day after Juhannus.

Eric told me there was a bonfire celebration on Seurasaari, an island that you can drive to from Helsinki. Sounds exciting! Katherine, Rebecca, Eric and I hopped on the bus and off we were. We briefly had a conversation about eating kangaroo meat on the way there (not traditional Finnish cuisine, but a solid conversation topic, nonetheless). An Australian woman who seemed to be planted next to us (and our kangaroo conversation) revealed herself and confirmed Katherine’s prognosis: eating kangaroo meat is, in fact, not a good idea. So, on to the bonfires! We were excited because bonfires are always fun! There’s a primordial party instinct that comes out during bonfires… at least that’s what I thought.

It’s apparently an American party instinct. My favorite quote of the evening was from a five or six year old American (or maybe Canadian, but I think American) girl who looked around at the thousands of people blankly waiting for bonfire to start and then looked up at her dad and asked “Daddy, are these people excited for the bonfires?” I was wondering the same thing. We all show our excitement in different ways, I suppose.

Seurasaari has an open air museum of cottages from all over Finland that have been deconstructed, restored, transplanted, and reconstructed for our convenient viewing pleasure, right where Finland’s heart beats. They represent rural countryside life from the 18^th to 20^th century. There was a Finnish drama production about the Aland Islands, which was difficult to understand, with my limited Finnish. Since I had so much trouble with the dialogue, I was a little shocked when the lead grabbed the villain (maybe… it was hard to tell if he was good or bad) by his wrap-around trousers and untwirrled him down to his bare buns. Still no response from the crowd. However, it was an unexpected twist for me in what I thought was a production about Finnish history. But then it reminded me of the naked cyclist parade that was probably happening simultaneously in Seattle. Cool.

We spend at least 40 minutes watching a beautiful family of swans. I got some really good photos, but was perhaps too entertained by the swans when I was supposed to be partying it up at the bonfire. Anyway, I found Juhannus entertaining in a different way than I was expecting. It seems to happen a lot in the Finnish territory.

No semi-wild celebration is complete without a visit to the Alvar Aalto- designed Stockmann Bookstore. It sounds a little nerdy, but it's actually quite pleasant to hang out and people watch, plan your next trip, or find the best reindeer-blood recipe (if you're into that sort of thing). Aaaaaand If you're Rebecca's height, you have a perfect sized chin-rest to accommodate you during your people-watching endeavors.