Lapland (Rovaniemi) Finland

Christmas celebration is never complete without Santa and his gifts, after waiting for Santa Clause for all these years last Christmas (2005) we decided to visit Santa at his place Lapland, Rovaniemi. A city located at the northern top of Finland. It attracts tourists because of its scenic beauty, Santa village, Sledge riding and lot's of winter and summer activities going on all through the year. You may be lucky enough to get the glimpse of northern lights too which makes the trip a pure success .Our three days trip consisted all the winter activities, that start from September and end by the next year march, there is sufficient snow for downhill skiing, Husky and reindeer ride.

We took an overnight train journey from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, the temperature in December is generally below -15 degrees Celsius whole city was covered with nearly 10 centimeters of thick snow layer, our resort was in the outer area around fifty kilometers from the city center, to around we hired a car for three days, the journey to our resort was a lifetime memorable experience, a line of trees bend with the heavy load of snow, fog all over gave us the feeling of being in Harry Potter's mystery land. Suddenly we found two reindeers standing on the road and looking at us, we stopped to have a good look at them slowly they moved away from road and we continued, our resort was in front of a frozen lake, our cottage was made in resemblance to Santa's hut equipped with modern utilities, it contained a fire place log stand, there was an old barn too near our cottage.

First day in Lapland was full of adventures, we experienced a Husky ride where a row of trained husky dog's pull a sledge on snow, then we went for Santa's favorite reindeer ride, a cart pulled by reindeer over the snow field gave a fascinating experience.
After an eventful day when we were sound asleep lost in dreams our resort manager called us at 2 A.M in the morning he told us that we can see the northern lights in the sky
We jumped from our beds and went out, we stood mesmerized watching lovely aurora borealis in the northern sky.

Next day was 25th Dec. It was Christmas and we were in Santa's village, even the thought enthralled us. By twelve P.M we were at Santa village. The lights, music and decoration was very enchanting there was a Santa post office where we watched the cloves wearing the well known long caps and working in their traditional way, post office had thousands of letters from children all over the world which were displayed in a separate room of post office. Then there was Santa's office where one can visit Santa through out the year, we went to meet Santa, and there we got badges a 'good girl badge' and 'a good boy badge'. The location of Santa village is over the ARCTIC CIRCLE there was a rope tied upon Santa's office to Santa's village signifying the arctic line. We also got certificates for crossing the Arctic Circle. A visit to Lapland is never complete if you haven't seen the Ice castle, So we went in, there everything was made up of ice whether it was a room, table, cloves, utensils, bed or a full cafeteria. Sipping coffee in an ice cafeteria was a unique experience.

The sunset and sunrise in Lapland are remarkable; as it is close to north cap sun rises only till particular degrees and sets quite early i.e. it is never on top, it is seen on horizon all the time.

Snow mobile and downhill skiing were the last days plans, we went for a snow mobile ride where we were provided with a special dress, gloves and helmets for security purposes, driving a snow mobile over a frozen lake was great experience, down hill skiing at the steep slopes was an exciting adventure too.

All together we had lots of fun but still can't get enough of it, going to Lapland is just like stepping into a fairyland but dreams do end and our ended too, we came back with exciting and happy memories.