Scandinavian Trip - Day 4 - Rovaniemi Rides and Aurora Hunting

Today is for the kids and adults alike. A bunch of rides planned in the Santa Claus Village. We got up early and we kinda knew the routine by now. Scrubbed the car for a good 30 mins to get all the thin ice off the windshields and mirrors. Now that I am used to the driving a bit, I was able to enjoy the amazing scenery during the 30 min drive, from the arctic landscape to the beautiful hues donning the sky from blue to orange giving it a magical feel. 

We started off the day with the rides organised by Arctic Circle Snowmobile Park. As the name implies the first was a snow mobile ride. All the gear was provided by the firm and the guide was very helpful in explaining everything clearly. I have never driven a scooter before so was not sure what to expect. Also I had to adjust my headgear quite a bit to ensure my glasses doesn't get fogged up (and wipe it clean when it does). The snowmobile driving was incredibly physical with arm strength required to constantly counter the skid. It was an amazing experience though, with my wife riding with me and the kids being towed by the guide on his snowmobile. We criss-crossed the area for a good hour and half, with a break in between. I did have an annoying warning alarm going off intermittently, possibly due to the brake being a bit stuck due to the conditions. However it didn't dampen my enthusiasm and I quickly figured out a work around for the alarm by moving off the throttle just a bit. I managed to go upto 40kmph which definitely felt like a lot more! 

Next up was a 20 min ride to Reindeer Manor, where we had a Husky ride followed by a Reindeer ride. The Huskies were really cute and showed off their wild side. They seemed extremely impatient to get going and keep running! The children even got to pat the huskies who seemed to have gotten used to human affection and were docile during the encounter just like dogs. The Reindeer on the other hand couldn't care less and was just happy to walk along and get the ride done. We also got a feel of a Reindeer horn and learnt that they grow 2-3cm every day and sheds every year. It was extremely cold there about -20 degrees. However the Reindeer herders who were raised 500km north of Rovaniemi and have seen -52 degrees in their life, where the reindeers are also from, joked that it felt like summer to them! They also shared some other interesting facts like lynx and eagles preying on reindeer in addition to wolves and wolverine. There was also a tinge of sadness in his voice when he mentioned how the traditional bells worn in their belts while herding reindeers has become more of an ornament now. We had another overpriced and underwhelming tomato soup, glogi and hot chocolate at Reindeer Manor before heading back. 

We gave Mr. Santa a miss today as well to catch a quick break back at the apartment before the night aurora hunting trip. I am not sure if it's the weather, but it puts everyone into a deep sleep the minute they hit the bed. Thankfully we woke up just in time to catch the trip organised by Book Lapland. One interesting tidbit is that there are many legends around what caused auroras in the past, but my favorite one was that it was the fire fox rolling in the mountains and lighting the sky on fire! We were taken in a bus and got to see auroras in two different spots. The first one was on a frozen lake with a clear view of the sky in all directions. They took some photos of us with the aurora. The 2nd stop was on the side of a road, when they realised the auroras were good there. The soft fresh snow at the side of the road made me sink in until waist deep! While the auroras were more visually impressive, I ran into trouble with my camera so couldn't get it to capture them in their glorious detail, which saddened me a bit. I was so disappointed that I threw caution to the wind and tried to operate it with my bare hands at -23 degrees. After a few mins of trial and error, I had frozen numb fingers, cold feet and had lost one of my inner gloves. Needless to say, it was way too cold for the kids to enjoy. But it was thrilling nevertheless and the pictures and the celestial dance that the eye captures never gets erased! The hot coffee and cookie provided to us by the roadside is a mini experience of heaven in itself. I remember continuously willing myself to last just one more minute out in the open to capture some more images in my memory. At the end of it, there is just one word to describe the auroras - Wow! 

  

 

We came back shivering from the trip and I was extra careful on the drive back to the apartment as I couldn't feel my fingers or feet. Tonight's experience is something that will stay in our memories forever! 

Scandinavian Trip - Day 3 - Rovaniemi Santa Claus Village

The plan for today included visiting the Snowman World where we had complimentary tickets to, courtesy the stay at the Igloo, and then visiting the Santa Claus Village. 

We started off with a nice breakfast with a great vegan spread. I had requested for vegan options at breakfast as part of the booking but was surprised how seriously they took it. More than 75% of the items were vegan! It was much better than the dinner the night before. We gorged on everything we could and then checked out of the Igloo to make our way to the Santa Claus Village. Again, we had to spend a lot of time to scrub the car off ice and snow. Since it was brighter, the children joined in as well, all while having fun in the fresh snow all over the place. 

Santa Claus Village is very close to the airport so we made the trip there in about 45 mins, although the roads seemed very easy to drive. It helped that it was daytime as well, and there was a beautiful blue-green glow in the sky to show us a clear path ahead. We reached the Snowman World around 11am giving us a good 2.5 hours before lunch that we had booked there in the snow restaurant. 

The place was smaller than I had expected but packed a range of activities including snow slides, ice slides, ice bar, a snow labarynth, and ice skating ring that the children loved. The ice and snow carvings were beautiful to look at, while everyone tried their hands on ice skating, falling down quite a few times and having fun.  We drank some fruit juices in a ice glass in the ice bar, which was much more slippery than we expected. My daughter spilled the juice on the first try but got a free refill to enjoy her ice cold drink. They even had an ice dart competition nearby using the ice glass. 

  

   

We had lunch at the snow restaurant. We had ordered adult portions of the only 2 vege options they had - tomato soup and tofu pasta - but were disappointed seeing a very small portion arrive on our plates. We also had the traditional Finnish glorgi (non-alcoholic version, which I later realised is rare in these parts), which was like kashayam, a herbal concoction. We kinda developed a taste for it. 

   

After the Snowman world, we crossed over to the Santa Claus Village which has a range of Santa themed activities. It was too late to visit the Santa himself given the hours' long wait time and queue, so we chose the pose for pictures at the Arctic Circle, get a certificate for crossing the same and posted some cards from the Santa Claus post office to our friends and family. The atmosphere though was magical in the dark at 3pm and a chilling -7 degrees, we were finally getting the Christmas vibe at the official home town of Santa Claus! 

We drove back to the city to checkin to our apartment in a residential neighbourhood about 3km from the city centre. The apartment was well furnished, stocked and had everything we needed. We did take a while to figure out the washing machine, with the water inlet being a different valve to what we thought. With this being the place of stay for the next 4 nights, we finally offloaded all the suitcases and packed only the essentials for our trip tomorrow. I sent a courtesy message to the owner saying we have checked in, but after a while was pleasantly surprised when they texted back saying that the northern lights are on display. We quickly scrambled into our bare minimum winter clothing (which is actually a lot) and headed out. 

We were met with a beautiful dance of charged particles almost spanning half the night sky with a range of colours on display. Its actually much more vivid on camera pictures and videos than with naked eye. It was so mesmerising that I went out multiple times to take a look. It only lasted for about 15 mins but left a lasting impression. Coincidentally my daughter's classmate also saw the same dance over at Tromso, Norway and beamed us the pictures. The aurora seemed to be much better away from the city lights. But the view I got right in front of my apartment would be etched in my memory for a long time!

     

With dreams of more Santa Claus Village activities and aurora hunting planned for tomorrow,  we all went to sleep.

Scandinavian Trip - Day 2 - Rovaniemi Igloo

Today started with another 2 flights to reach our first real destination - Rovaniemi, bang on the arctic circle. Our FinnAir flights from Copenhagen to Helsinki and onto Rovaniemi were cosy yet comfortable, with leg room to accommodate the tall Finns making it luxurious to us Asians used to below-average leg space on the majority of airlines. 

The flights were about an hour each, but we had a 2.5 hour stopover in Helsinki. It was a nice time to roam around the airport and visit the supermarket, cafes and even the train station there. While it costs a bomb.like any other airport, the food was very tasty and filling. I had a huge Foccacia sandwich loaded with tomato and cheese. We also loaded up on a few snacks from the grocery in case nothing much is available in Rovaniemi at night. But the biggest surprise was the depth of the Helsinki train station, so deep that they had an opera playing on a giant tv screen to entertain people on the way down the escalator! Its probably the deepest escalator I have gone in. Helsinki airport is away from the city with a train ride taking about 32 mins. However we didnt have much time to explore the city. We had a wonderful relaxed breakfast of local open faced sandwiches and coffee. 

Approach to Rovaniemi is a snowy delight to the eyes, with the wintery landscape being imprinted in the mind. Snow covered trees and frozen lakes make up a lovely white backdrop. It was snowing lightly when we landed and the small airport was extremely crowded. We noticed that the winter clothing here were actually cheaper than ordering online in Singapore! 

Getting a rental car was straightforward, although I got a rude surprise when my bank card got declined. Thankfully I had a plan B using an alternate bank card, learning from my experience in NZ. However, getting the car around for picking up my family was anything but. I told them to wait at the entrance so I can get the car, but fell down a couple of times en route in the fresh snow, even though I had snow boots on! Once I reached the car, it was having a thick cover of snow and ice, so had to spend a lot of time to get those scraped off, especially the icicles which were difficult to get rid of. I had to learn the controls of the new car, with right hand side drive meaning most of the controls were reversed (including the order of drive and reverse gear!). However turn indicators for some reason were the same, so it definitely takes a bit of learning. I finally started the car and went around but couldn't find the airport entrance. I went round a few times and within that small distance and time, I went the wrong way and was politely reminded by other taxi drivers to do a U turn, I almost collided into a snow plough, and I had to reverse back out to ensure I dont get hammered by a turning bus. In the meantime I got about 5 missed calls from my worried family which didn't connect properly, so I had to rely on texting them whenever I could pull over. It was a nerve wracking initiation to winter driving for me. Finally I gave up and parked somewhere else and went to fetch my family. It was almost 1.5 hours since I had left them and my son was crying because he was worried something has happened to me!

The positive from the whole fiasco was that I learnt what I should watch out for before we hit the road with my family. It was a 45 min drive to the Arctic Igloo, our stay for the night. But it was a very focused drive for me, so much that my shoulder muscles started cramping. I had to catch a few minor slides along the way as we went through an accident zone with a van and car in a ditch, which reminded me how easy it is to make mistakes around here. 

The highways.were relatively easy to navigate but it's the side roads and the junctions that we need to be more careful about. I came in a bit too fast into one of the junctions and couldn't stop in time for the red light due to the longer stopping distance in snow, so I just crossed amber turning red. One of the side roads was very skiddy even at 40kmph. Again a reminder to be very watchful and all the YouTube videos made practical sense to me now. 

We finally reached the Igloos at around 4pm, which felt like midnight. We parked but didn't know which way to go! Thankfully an employee was passing by, and he offered to guide us to the reception, and even helped us with our luggage! We got our bearings once the reception provided us with a map of the place. We had booked dinner there (which was a wise choice as its in the middle of nowhere) and checked in to our glass igloo. It was a cosy space with 4 beds and a bath, with glass ceiling giving us a 360 degree view. It was also equipped with an aurora alarm, to alert us to the northern lights. Unfortunately the weather didnt play ball and we didnt get to see any. 

The buffet dinner was pricey but nice, with salads, fried rice and some veg options, along with desserts. We didnt have much appetite so that helped. After dinner, there was a guided tour of snow building and guess what - the guide was the same guy who had helped us out earlier. He explained all about construction using snow and ice, two materials I would have least expected to be very conducive to constructing things with. There was a nice video from the founders and how their college dream came true. They have just started construction of the famous Arctic Snow Hotel, which will open its doors in 5 days - yeah they build the entire thing from scratch in 5 days, every year! They will be even building a snow sauna, which is crazy whichever way you think about it. But they proudly showcase that as having all the states of water in play. It highlights the creativity of the Finns all while loving nature and championing sustainability. The guide even showed us the "freezer" where they stock ice blocks harvested from the frozen lakes nearby and left overs from previous years. Yes - they recycle ice from a year ago, although about 50% melts away in the interim. 

Finally we were back in our igloos and had a pretty deep sleep, so even if the alarm had gone off it would have been difficult for us to wake up and see it! 

Scandinavian Trip - Day 1 - Istanbul

As we were landing in Istanbul around 6am, we were treated to the beautiful view of the Black Sea to the right, Sea of Marmara to the left and the Bhosporous Strait splitting across the beautiful city of Istanbul, which also demarcates Europe from Asia. The 3 bridges and 2 undersea tunnels connecting the two continents reflect the tenuous link between the two, however the Turkish people embody the blend of Asia and Europe beautifully. While the country is technically secular, it has 99.8% Muslims. Their appearance is more European, while the way they behave with their family-first values is distinctly Asian. They had mosques everywhere (even one inside the airport) and even a prayer guide on the airplane, which reflects their strong belief.
			Formerly known as Constantinopolis, the famed capital of Eastern Rome, it was later taken over by he Ottoman empire who ruled for 500 years and left the current imprint. Istanbul is a wonderful blend of 3 continents, with the strong trade links with Africa (mainly Egypt and Morocco) blending into their cuisine and way of life as well. The Turks seemed to be very social people, as we could see people chatting for a long time on the flight with what appeared to be strangers.
The landing was smooth, but following that was a bit of a funny incident. Firstly, the passengers started speontaneously clapping which grew pretty loud, the likes of which I have only seen in Air Crash investigation when the pilots have just saved plenty of lives. Secondly, the airport is so huge that the pilot seemed to get lost a few times and he was undecided as we approached taxi junctions, and ended up swerving left and right. A bit like driving in a new area and not knowing which right to take because Google maps has them so close to each other.
			After breezing through Immigration (which was the case almost everywhere in this trip, given the Schengen visa zone), we stopped by a local cafe at the airport for a nice breakfast of sandwiches with feta cheese, pastries and Turkish tea. The quantity was quite filling. We had signed up for a 3.5 hour tour of Istanbul organised by Turkish Airlines, but since the airport is 40km away from the city, travel took up 2 hours of that. We went to the heart of the old city Sultanahmet, visiting the Egyptian Bazzar overlooking the famed peninsula from where the old empires ruled from.
			The guide took us to a 300 year old coffee shop for what he described as the best Turkish coffee, which was an unique blend of coffee with a dash of milk and a tangy juice and a sweet that we had to have it with. The waiter was surprised that my 12 year son drinks coffee! It was an unique experience but the taste is not for everyone - my son did not enjoy it but the rest did. There were a few cats and cute little kittens there as well, including a ferocious mother whom I couldn't convince to let me touch her kids.
			We had only 10 mins left for the Egyptian bazaar, so we hurriedly got a couple of must-get souvenirs - Egyptian sweets and Turkish Eye. However, we did make a mental list of things to browse through when we are back here in 2 weeks, and my eyes were firmly on the amazing variety of sweets, nuts, spices and cuisine.
			We crossed over to the other side of the road with a tramway to get to the peninsula photospot, which was a beautiful place to take in the merger of Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorous Strait, eyeing Asia on one side and Europe on the other. Within 5 mins we were ushered into the bus but not before we got swamped by street peddlers trying to sell cheap branded perfume knockoffs to the ladies.
			We had plenty of time to kill at the airport before our flight to Copenhagen, so we explored the biggest airport in Europe and the largest privately owned airport in the world with 6 active runways and 2 more being added. We were amazed to find buttermilk and huge crossaints along with plenty of Turkish delights.
We went to the Terrace thinking of a viewing area, but it turned out to be a smoking area. We went to the food court and had a hearty lunch at Sbarro, with pizza, pasta and soup. My son was starting to get the jet lag feeling then, so we didnt push the kids too much given we still had half a day left of our first day, thanks to the vagaries of time zone differences. The flight to Copenhagen was uneventful except for the nice Turkish food (again). We were stuck in the last row which isn't great but we tried to distract ourselves with movies and games. Thankfully the entertainment system worked in this flight!
On landing in Copenhagen, we immediately felt a difference, with the focus on children's artwork in the airport. It was almost as if we had waded into a kindergarten and immediately felt at ease. We had to deal with meticulous immigration officers who were even questioning my daughter (first in our queue) on the reason for travelling to Denmark, whether she has a return flight ticket etc. To her credit she answered all the questions confidently and breezed by the immigration, with myself following sheepishly saying I am her father and we are here as a family. However, I did get asked a few more questions before they were convinced enough to let me through. I also realised that they were using this opportunity to train a new officer so I waited patiently for the step by step instruction to be provided by the supervisor and executed by that officer.
			Our original plan in Copenhagen was to travel to the city and enjoy a nice dinner but with the flight being delayed, my son dozing off due to jet lag, the comfort of the hotel bed after a long journey, the constant drizzling rain at freezing temperatures and the early morning flight out meant we decided to call it an early night after a quick raid of the hotel cafe for some yoghurt and famed danish pastries. We stayed at the Comfort Hotel within the airport as our flight out was at 6am and it was the right call as we had to wake up at 2.30am to get ready and catch the flight.

Scandinavian Trip - Day 0 - Singapore

	Finally, we were off on the journey which had been in planning for 2 months and where a zillions things can go wrong. Instead I was determined to enjoy the experiences come what may. We had just got our spikes delivered 2 hours before our departure and we scrambled to pack and repack a couple of times to minimise hand carry while adhering to strict scandinavian airlines rules of having only 1 free checkin baggage per person.
	We realised on our way to the airport that we had forgotten to pack our swimwear for the Finnish sauna experience, so we may have to skip that recommended one. We desperately wanted an Indian dinner at the airport, but settled for a costly plant-based Burger King meal as our kids insisted. We realised on the flight that the Turkish food with its Indian and Egyptian spices were a lot more palatable with our tastes than we had hoped and enjoyed the meals on-board Turkish Airlines.
	The entertainment system in my seat was broken though and I made do with just an Avengers movie and sleeping through the rest of the 12 hour night flight. It was funny seeing jet lag in practice, with most of the passengers up around 6am Singapore time with the crew serving them breakfast (technically 1am Turkey time), with 5 hours of flight still to go. It was good timing as we saw the lights of Dubai glimmering below us.
	The flight trip also made me appreciate the geography and geo politics a bit more. Flight paths are often misleading because it is a 2D representation of a globe, with flights typically taking a direct straight line which shows up as a curved one on the screen. The flight flew through India and Pakistan (which are both amicable with Turkey) while carefully avoiding Syrian, Iran and Israeli airspace. It also flew for more than an hour east to West within Turkey showing how wide Turkey is.

Scandinavian Trip - Prologue

Both myself and my wife had 3 weeks off in December, so the time was ripe to plan a long haul trip. I thought it will be a great way to fulfil my childrens' dream of seeing fresh snow. I vividly remember the first time I felt snow flakes falling from the sky in the Italian Alps and carefully catching them with my glove tips. I wanted my children to feel the unbridled joy of that moment. We had been to New Zealand last year, where they saw snow bedded down as thin ice atop Mt Franz Josef. However it's time for the real deal!
I had been hesitant in planning this trip due to multiple factors, including uncertainty over location and timing of booking. I only started to plan this December vacation towards mid October, by which time all the prices for airfare, accommodation and activities had skyrocketed. However I felt this was the best year to travel given my son's national exam next year. So off we go!
Japan would have been a safe bet, but that could wait for later, as we can cover that within a week. That left us US east coast and Europe. Trump made things clearer by the US Government shutdown that crippled air services for a few weeks. Since we have already been to central Europe, we thought we will give the Scandinavian countries a visit this time.
		Planning this trip was a crazy time. Based on my initial analysis, it was clear that the package trip was the cheaper and much easier option, but the itinerary was fairly limited and didn't cover what we wanted, so my wife was insistent that she wanted it to be self planned. Plus it offers us an opportunity to visit her reclusive aunt in Sweden as well. Planning across 6 currencies, 3 timezones and 4 different languages was no joke. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, too many to recount here, but fair to say I lost a lot of money by opting for a bit more convenience along the way. I was wary of my SCB debit card not working half way through like my NZ Trip, so I spent almost a whole day with my bank trying to sort it out and they assured me that things with work (which it eventually didn't).
We also planned around a return trip to Copenhagen (given a tempting Turkish airlines offer for a stopover in Istanbul, which eventually proved more hectic and costly) and taking my wife's aunt for part of our trip (which eventually didn't happen). All of this meant we had to take 8 flights and 6 trains within 2 weeks!
Tracking transactions across 6 currencies meant that I had to rack up my brain to come up with a template that allows me to keep track of my expenses, which quickly ballooned out of control. With time running out, I kinda got fed up that I just focused on getting all the things in place for the trip instead of worrying about getting the best deal.
Talking to our family and friends also got in new scares, from driving in snow/ ice at night to wearing spikes for boots to carrying a car jump starter along. The last two were not required, but we couldn't take that chance. So, we had to scramble all the way to 2 hours before our flight to buy all the things needed. Squeezing the heap of winter clothes into the bags were a head scratcher as well, having to think about the varying temperatures and pack and repack according to the places we will visit (and this was just for days 1-2 of the trip where we go from 35 degrees and 8 degrees to 2 degrees to 0 degrees to -17 degrees in 5 locations across 4 different countries). While I am at it, I also tracked daylight in each of the locations and made it a point to enjoy our last dose of good sunshine on 8-Dec in Singapore.
This will be a trip of many firsts, including first time the kids have been to Europe, the first time they will see fresh snow as it falls from the sky,  our northern most trip, the first time we will be staying at a place that costs more than $1000 a night, the first time I will be driving on the right side of the road, in a foreign country, at night, relying on my headlights and wits and with free ranging arctic wildlife on the roads. Spending a day watching YouTube videos of cars crashing and skidding in snow might have been entertainment at some other point but it was harsh reality and practical tips now. To be honest, I would have avoided driving on this trip if our accommodation has been at the Santa Claus village or City center, which I couldn't get due to late planning.
Anyway, with a lot of things on my mind to just plan, execute the plan and keep my family safe, I don't think I might be personally able to enjoy this trip much. But let's see how it goes...