The trip to Santa's Village
Posted by Guano & Associates | Posted in | Posted on 6:49 PM
Sunday, after church, we drove from Luleå to Pajala. I offered a 10 kronor prize to the first person to see a reindeer and 100 kronor to the first to see a moose. It wasn't 15 minutes into the 2.5 hour drive before they saw the first reindeer.
Our first stop on the trip was in Överkallix; we could see the tall, dark grey church steeple from the highway and I had wanted to stop the several times I'd seen before. There was an open market that travels from city to city (like the carnival) that was closing up as we arrived. Not much to see, but a couple of photos in front of the church, the local kulture hus and the river.
We resumed the drive, saw plenty of reindeer and arrived at the Lapland River Hotel, having just missed dinner. The hotel is owned by a gentlemen named Per-Arne who is a local celebrity, having been THE bachelor in the Swedish version of The Bachelor. Oh, and by the way, the name of the show is Frusna män söker kärlek, or "Frozen men seek love". The hotel restaurant is known for gourmet food but we arrived too late, so ended up eating at the only place in town still open after 8pm on a Sunday: the Sibylla at the bus station. It's a lot like White Castle, a Taco Time, or a 7-11, nothing great. However, it's all that was available so we did just fine.
Slept in the hotel (which reminds me of Bruno's in Gerlach!) and had breakfast in the hotel. I checked in with the Northland's exploration office in Pajala and off we went. We made a loop past our proposed mine sites in Kaunisvaara and on to Kolari on the Finland side of the border. We stopped at a gas station for a potty break and to look at souvenirs. We then pushed on towards Roveniemi with a stop on the wrong side of the bridge to figure out where we were. Finally decided that Santa's Village was actually in a place called Artic Circle and the map wasn't just referring to a general mapping device.
Arriving, it was mainly a village of gift shops and tourist traps but we were hungry. Had lunch at the restaurant (Kathy had reindeer with mashed potatoes and ligon berries) and began the exploration. Stopped in at Santa's Post Office to mail some post cards (with postmarks from Santa's Workshop), went through a creepy Pirates-of-the-Caribean goes to the North Pole exhibit only to realize it's a forced way to get you to pose for a photo with Santa. I figured if it was good enough for Bam Margera, it was good enough for me (his photo is on the wall!). They were starting to get on my nerves though after having paid for the Santa photo AND the museum guide, they decided to offer us a video documentary of the time in the crystal cave and talking to Santa. Total cost? Only 25 euros! We declined!
Spent most of the rest of the day looking at gift shop and tourist crap. Got in the car and drove south to Haparanda and on the way back to Luleå. A good way to spend a couple of days.
My favorite things about the Arctic Circle are the fry sauce and the lime rickys.