Trips

Mon., 9/28/15 – Helsinki to Rovaniemi to Ivalo, Finland
         We had a leisurely morning.  Our bus took us to the airport at 10:30.  We flew Norwegian Air to Rovaniemi.  Our plane did not leave until 1:30 so Eva arranged lunch for us at the Season’s Restaurant at the airport.  The meal was salmon and potato soup in fish broth. The 1 ½ hour flight was uneventful.
          Rovaniemi is on the Arctic Circle and to make the area into a tourist attraction – mostly for Japanese tourists – they built a Santa's Village at the Circle.  After pictures taken standing across the Circle we had 40 minutes to shop.  There were Christmas things, Arctic Circle and Lapland souvenirs, clothes, and dishes - the usual tourist trap things. 

Santa’s Village at Rovaniemi	Santa’s Village at Rovaniemi - Arctic Circle sign
Standing on the Arctic Circle	Arctic Circle Coordinates
Santa’s Village at Rovaniemi - interesting fence	Rainbow over Santa’s Village
Our Finnish bus	The 3 ¾-hour bus ride to Ivalo (pronounced E’ va-lo) was very scenic through birch and pine forests.  Trees have been clear cut and replanted.  There are farms with sheep and cows and fields with mown hay.  The hay bales here are called sleeping bags for sheep, troll marshmallows, or troll pillows because they are wrapped in white plastic.  There are many lakes.  We saw some wild reindeer in a hay field.          As we drove we saw more reindeer along the road.  They are stupid like deer and get spooked and run into the road.  Several cars have “kangaroo bars” on the front and heavy duty headlights to prevent car destruction from hitting a reindeer.  The reindeer above the Arctic Circle are all “owned” by someone, they are not wild.         On the way, we made a pit stop at a convenience store. Behind the store was an interesting group of tubs and wringers.  Apparently these are for people to use to wash and dry their carpets.  Drying racks were also included.
Tubs for washing rugs	Wringer for rugs
Scenery	Looks ready for anything - reindeer, moose, etc.
Our dinner was a buffet at the Ivalo Hotel.  It was the best food we have had yet.  The meat dishes were Verdache fish like smelts or reindeer meat in gravy with carrots.  The meat was tender and mild and very good tasting.             Our room at this hotel is a suite, complete with a private sauna.  We have a huge bed, a soft sofa and chair, a dining table with four chairs, and closets everywhere. Tues., 9/29/15 – Ivalo, Siida Museum, and Sami Village             Finland has about 188,000 lakes and innumerable islands.  We saw many of them as we drove one-half hour north to the Siida Museum of Sami Culture.             The Sami are the indigenous people of Northern Europe.  There are 100,000 left but only 50% of them live in the northern area.  The Sami have a unique flag with the colors of the four countries.  Besides reindeer herding they hunt moose, bear, and deer and fish for lake salmon, white fish, trout, and pike.  The woods up here also have lynx, wolverine, and ptarmigan.             The Siida Museum is located near the third largest lake in Finland, Lake Inari.  The shoreline is 7,000 miles long.  The museum presents and preserves the Sami culture.  The Sami live where there are eight months of winter and months of total darkness, but the reindeer are happy.  Each herder has a unique design of notches on the their animals’ ears, like a brand.  It identifies the owner.  The animals are rounded up and corralled twice a year – once to earmark calves and once to choose which ones will go to the slaughterhouse.  Sami flag
Ivalo - Hotel room - sauna!	Reindeer on the road
Siida Museum of Sami Culture	Siida Museum of Sami Culture
Marge and I went outside to walk through the exhibits of Sami houses (log cabins, soddies, and tepees), caches, and clever traps for bear, fox, reindeer, etc.         We ate lunch at the museum.  For 12.50 Euros ($14) we had salad, pasta with reindeer and tomato sauce, and mixed berries for dessert.  It was very good.  We have enjoyed all of the reindeer meat so far.	Siida Museum of Sami Culture - Outdoor exhibits
Siida Museum of Sami Culture - Outdoor exhibits- Wolverine trap
Siida Museum of Sami Culture - Outdoor exhibits - Reindeer pit
Back at the hotel, Eva gave us a slide and talk presentation about Norwegian trolls in preparation for entering Norway tomorrow.  It was a wonderfully entertaining presentation.  Trolls turn into a stone if they get in sunshine.  There are many kinds of trolls: man-eaters, the mother of a Swede is a Swedish troll, mountain, forest, sea, tree, under bridges, etc.  House trolls are responsible for eyeglasses found in a refrigerator, a lost remote, etc.  Trolls have big ears and nose and are dumb, but female trolls are intelligent.         Late afternoon we were driven to a Sami Village for dinner.  When we arrived we fed two reindeer handfuls of lichen, which is about all they eat. Next we had to lasso a fake reindeer in order to earn the right to eat reindeer for dinner.  For dinner we had soup, a reindeer patty, smoked reindeer cubes, mashed potatoes, lingonberries (instead of cranberry sauce) with cloudberry and fried cheese for dessert.  Then the young Russian herder told us more about reindeer and herding, and how it may take three years to train a reindeer to pull a sled.  His mother-in-law sang a Sami song.  The WC was an outhouse with a Styrofoam seat and lid over a heavy plastic bag!
Sami reindeer farm	Such cute white socks!
Sami reindeer farm	Sami reindeer farm
Sami reindeer farm - Our Sami hosts	Sami reindeer farm - Fancy outhouse
Sami reindeer farm - Fancy outhouse toilet seat

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