Santa Claus Homeland, a trip to Lapland

Scandinavia to the Arctic Circle, the whole train. A one-month long journey through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Up to Rovaniemi, the city of Santa Claus, in the cold of northern Europe.

 

After a cold night spent in an armchair, we arrived in Turku. From there we leave immediately, again by train to Helsinki. Arrive in the capital in mid-morning there is a beautiful sun, but it strikes us to the diversity with the other Scandinavian capitals. E 'less beautiful, less elegant, less haphazard. The houses, buildings, are squared, monotonous: it seems closer to a Russian city, but is closer to Russia. Sleep inside the Olympic Stadium, which houses a hostel. Helsinki, ultimately, we do not like. We do not have 21 years, and there do not even go into pubs. The season is dead for tourism, there are few people around, and also struggling to find a restaurant.

After not even two days in Helsinki decided to leave for the north, towards our first objective: Rovaniemi, the Arctic Circle, the city of Santa Claus. It takes almost a day's train to arrive, including lakes, coniferous and a vast plain. We need to make a piece even by bus, by Kemi in Tomio, because the line is interrupted. When we get is a cold, hands you paste the iron if you are not careful. But the hostel is pretty hot. The next morning we leave for the Arctic Circle: Do not look now.

We reach the circle with a bus on which we first met, incredible but true, a guy who comes from Madagascar, who lives in this place forgotten by God but not Father Christmas, that line of Arctic Circle has its own village. So many pretty girls dressed in red we sell many souvenirs, but we also buy the certificate to have crossed the line pole. There is also a tower from which you can admire the view: on top of a pair of Torino.
Completed a visit back to Rovaniemi, it's time to go south.

Back to Helsinki via another day on the train, then we go to Turku and from there to the new ferry will return to Stockholm. This time we took the sleeper and the night passed in a decidedly different. Turku station of the usual pretty girls who sell fruit: the beautiful girls, in Scandinavia, is a constant. Not counting the nation ...