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Saturday, October 23, 2004
Rovaniemi and the Arctic Circle
 My friend Olli invited me to go to Rovaniemi, where he's from, for a weekend. I immediately said yes! I was finally going to see Lapland with some snow (unlike the excursion time).
So there I was, in Santa Claus city, in the Arctic Circle surroudings...
Rovaniemi is a city of 50 000 people, so it's smaller than Oulu. By the time I visited it, it seemed like a sad and "grey" place. Maybe in the summer or in the middle of winter the city becomes prettier. One curiosity though: it is still the place where the northest McDonald's in the world is situated... (how interesting...)
On the first night, as soon as we arrived, we went to see the ski jumping towers close to the river. It was so dark and scary, but a fun experience for me. And going up that tower and looking down is quite impressive. The view from it leads to the city, and at nighttime it really is beautiful.
The next day we did the "mandatory" visit to Santa Claus and the Arctic Circle (which passes through the exact same latitude, making it a "two-in-one" tourist attraction). After I greeted old Santa, he asked me which city of Portugal I was from. I told him I was from Porto, and he replied by telling me that Rudolph, the reindeer, went there last summer to see the football matches... amazing :) A nice guy, I would say... Afterwards, I took the traditional picture with Santa and Olli's family, and they were kind enough to offer me a copy (kiitos). That was one of the best pictures I've ever seen taken in such short interval of time... Hyvä!
That evening, Olli and me went to a night club called Night Train. I saw a guy dancing that really looked like a portuguese, so I had to ask him: "Excuse me, where are you from?" Answer: "Swedish". Ahah, you really can't tell these days, can you?
Sunday afternoon: time to visit the Arktikum, the museum of Arctic life in Rovaniemi. I would recommend it, as I think it is one of the coolest museums I've ever been to. Lots of info and props from Sami culture, wildlife (reindeers, moose, etc), and even a mammut's real horn is in display. Many real-size figures and embalmed animals, and also a great use of multimedia-based information. Quite nice! Also, This was the day in which I traveled the northest ever, to Paula's grandparents house (somewhere 80 km north of Rovaniemi).
I would like to thank Olli and his family, as well as Paula, for the opportunity to have this wonderful and unforgettable weekend. Kiitos!
Posted at 09:21 pm by edcarpediem
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EDU IN OULU is a weblog about the stay of Eduardo Gouveia in Oulu for 4 months in the Fall 2004 as an exchange student under the Erasmus programme. It includes the relevant stories of this experience and it may be useful for those considering to go to Oulu as exchange students in the future. Please enjoy! :) To see some nice pictures about it, click below ;)
Any questions, anytime to:
edcarpediem@hotmail.com
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EDU IN OULU - 4 Months in Northern Heaven by Eduardo Gouveia - Porto, Portugal
