Mojave
WKR
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2019
- Messages
- 2,168
So I first heard of Rovaneimi in Finland about 30 years ago. When I found out that the University of Alaska Fairbanks had a program with the University of Rovanemi to take classes there.
Europeans know that Santa Claus lives in Finland not the North Pole. I had not really heard this until about 15 years ago.
Eventually I found out more about it, and we finally got there this year.
So we rented a cabin on a lake, bought flights and a few months later we were sitting at the airport and picking up our rental car. A 4x4 Mercedes Benz Vito van.
We had 24 hours of usable light during the entire trip. Made for some strange moments when you would get up at 3 am to pee, and notice that our kids were standing outside on the swing tired but motivated to get out of the house.
We boated/landed 2 pike. Neither one was more than a couple of pounds. I had bigger pike unhook himself next to the dock. His head was about 5 inches across. Not huge. We lost a couple of other pike and a perch or Zander next to the boat.
Santa Claus village is good. I don't know that this is worth the trip unless your kids are super little. There is a Christmas amusement park called Santa Park that is only open in November and December. So we missed that.
We stayed in a really nice cabin about 60 KM from Rovaneimi. Included fishing, and a hot tub and sauna. Was great. We ate mostly grocery store food, but food in Finland even up there was cheaper than food in Norway. We made a similar but less glamorous version of this trip in 2018 to chase the Northern lights to Lillehammer Norway. I didn't have a lot of money back then for a trip, but we made it work. We were there from Dec 31-Jan 6th. This was a much better trip.
Good enough that we booked for Thanksgiving weekend of 2025.
Finish food is super, they cater to the gluten adverse.
Lakes everywhere kind of like Saskatchewan.
Women are pretty but nothing like Norway. I don't know how to explain it. They are very different.
I didn't take any photos of the candy stores that don't have my kids in them, but this is a big thing.
SWAG is just ok. There are a lot of T-shirts and hats, but they are pretty much all the same. Better than the Yukon way worse than Alaska.
People are kind and nice, and wonderful to be around.
So far not totally wrecked by the immigration problems that plague most of Europe.
Europeans know that Santa Claus lives in Finland not the North Pole. I had not really heard this until about 15 years ago.
Eventually I found out more about it, and we finally got there this year.
So we rented a cabin on a lake, bought flights and a few months later we were sitting at the airport and picking up our rental car. A 4x4 Mercedes Benz Vito van.
We had 24 hours of usable light during the entire trip. Made for some strange moments when you would get up at 3 am to pee, and notice that our kids were standing outside on the swing tired but motivated to get out of the house.
We boated/landed 2 pike. Neither one was more than a couple of pounds. I had bigger pike unhook himself next to the dock. His head was about 5 inches across. Not huge. We lost a couple of other pike and a perch or Zander next to the boat.
Santa Claus village is good. I don't know that this is worth the trip unless your kids are super little. There is a Christmas amusement park called Santa Park that is only open in November and December. So we missed that.
We stayed in a really nice cabin about 60 KM from Rovaneimi. Included fishing, and a hot tub and sauna. Was great. We ate mostly grocery store food, but food in Finland even up there was cheaper than food in Norway. We made a similar but less glamorous version of this trip in 2018 to chase the Northern lights to Lillehammer Norway. I didn't have a lot of money back then for a trip, but we made it work. We were there from Dec 31-Jan 6th. This was a much better trip.
Good enough that we booked for Thanksgiving weekend of 2025.
Finish food is super, they cater to the gluten adverse.
Lakes everywhere kind of like Saskatchewan.
Women are pretty but nothing like Norway. I don't know how to explain it. They are very different.
I didn't take any photos of the candy stores that don't have my kids in them, but this is a big thing.
SWAG is just ok. There are a lot of T-shirts and hats, but they are pretty much all the same. Better than the Yukon way worse than Alaska.
People are kind and nice, and wonderful to be around.
So far not totally wrecked by the immigration problems that plague most of Europe.
