*** DAY COUNT: 1 VVVVVVVV LONG ONE... ***
HO-HO-HO! Everyone!
ROVANIEMI (FINLAND): Lost me cow watch when I first arrived
in Finland and had been lost in time since. Someone up
there forgot to switch off the lights in the Arctic
Circle, so I had to wear eyeshades to pretend it's
night when I THINK it's night, while my roommate, a
Finnish student, was burning the midnight SUN
studying for her University entrance exams. Queer.
* Rovaniemi's Arktikum museum on the left & yah, I stayed up till midnight to shoot this!
But they still operate winter hours here. My grand
plan to have Big Mac breakfast at
the Northernmost
MacDonalds 
was thus foiled, though I did catch dinner
there. Strangely it tasted the same as a Mac anywhere.
Stranger still, my hottest day was visiting
the Arctic Marker 
at a sweltering 28ºC! And
no, there was NO snow. Half-expected Santa to be
sitting in the sauna instead but he had on a
lighter version of the red suit (summer version??)
so that he could have his TRADEMARKED image taken with
sotong tourists like moi who happy-happy take then
discovered I had to pay an extortion to the sneaky elf
who refused to tell me the price earlier 
But Santa had a
nice quaint house with super BIG books. He also said he
went to Singaland before and commented on our monsoon
weather. Forgot to ask him he how when he can't find chimneys
in our HDB flats? BTW, I couldn't help but take a second look
at the chimneys in Rovaniemi but they didn't look any
bigger than usual, hm..
Had a lot of fun at the Santa Post Office 
writing
postcards 
Sorry folks, wanted to send to all of you
but in this Internet age, I could only remember a couple of
snail mail addies (that included my own). The good news
is that you can still write to Santa cos I saw a neat
stack of letters there from Singapore!
Bye Bye Santa and weather had been distinctly gloomy since 
Trained to Kemi, then bus-ed to Tornio-Haparanda
where I strolled across the Finland-Sweden border with
nary a soul in sight, then bus-ed again to Lulea to
connect to my train to Kiruna. Highlight of day: Cute Swedish
bus driver aka Jude Law lookalike 
KIRUNA (SWEDEN): Ice Hotel place except it had melted into the
river aready 
But they had a minus 5ºC warehouse with some ice
sculptures and a really cool Ice-Bar where one could order
Vodka in Ice, instead of Ice in Vodka. No ice kacang though.
Learned the evils of the iron mine industry here when I
visited a museum (Samegården) on the indigenious nomadic Sámi
people who were persecuted by the Whites, then the
'saintliness' of the same mining company from another
museum (Hjalmar Lundbohmsgården) from the Whites' perspective - build hospitals,
schools (even a housewives' school!), etc, better than government.
That was all in the past but I hear today they may be
moving the whole of Kiruna on account of the
expanding mines, evil company I say.
Meanwhile, whole Sweden
celebrates (in relief) that their players finally managed to put
the ball behind the goalie after some 2 World Cup matches. Poor
Paraguay.
ABISKO NATIONAL PARK: Dreadful weather but
most inspiring scenery - winding crayon canyons,
gorgeous river, beautiful alpine moss, flowers and
shrubs, I wished I had a couple of days
here instead of a couple of hours, sigh.
NORWAY:
The Finns & Swedes with their Very Very Flat lands must be
quite jealous of the Norwegians. Straight on cue
after the icy landscape on the Sweden-Norway border, the
high mountains, steep valleys and deep green rivers rolled out
in abundance. The Vikings had apparently raided all the dramatic mountains
and stunning peaks and hid a veritable store of them at
the LOFOTEN ISLANDS.
It took me one helluva
rollicking boat ride to get from Narvik (on the mainland) to Lofoten in
awful awful weather but even with the fog, I could see
that it was a "British Museum" of magnificent craggy
peaks in all shapes and sizes set against beautiful
shorelines and picturesque traditional fishing
villages. Hadn't seen such starkly stunning scenery
since the
Scottish Highlands.
That said, the weather was crappy. Visted some
museums at Kabelvåg and its beautiful wooden church,
bus-ed thru Reine - a photographer's
paradise of mostly red houses set against mirror
lakes and spectacular glacier-carved mountains and voted only the most scenic
place in Norway (I think Norwegians are too
modest),
ferried to Vinstad - a stunning Fjord view on one side
& a stunning Beach view on the other (but not much
else to do in the terrible weather),
and stayed at Å
(pronounced 'O' & cod liver oil place) in one of its many traditional red
houses by the sea.
On the afternoon I sailed off from Lofoten,
the fog lifted and the sun finally emerged in its full glory to send me
off. Mont Blanc deja vu, groan.
Goodbye to the Land of the Midnight Sun, hiding in
clouds or otherwise. Oh I actually missed the Night
so that the long days could properly end. Heading to the
south next, and hopefully more SUN that SETS..
| * Interesting church structures & interiors at Kiruna & Lofoten.
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Comments
wee nee
Enjoyed reading about yr recent Europe trip and the picts... the flowers, the scenery...please load more! France has never been one of my "must go" list of European countries but now, i changed my mind. I will constantly visit to see new paintings (which by the way, are great) and your other travel updates.
claudine
Am TOTALLY impressed by the number of towns you got to and this not a driving holiday!! Just reading the French names makes me want to be there, let alone your great travelogue! As for the French, believe me there are nice ones ...
ah choon
really really enjoy your travelblog. very funny + brings back the memories of backpacking Paris ...
yvonne
i had an enjoyable time reading your travel updates twice and particularly the photos ! am sure u had a great time and ur photos brought back memories of my trip to stockholm, copenhagen and oslo for me. =)
Sze Chiung
Hi Yen,
After 6 yrs, I accidentally came across your website again. In 2002, I left a message in your guestbook after seeing your Rockies pics. Just gone thru your journal of France & Scandinavia. Very entertaining, very nice pics. Wish I could travel that long like you! Was this your last trip?
Other europe stories:
Gaudi - Barcelona's Famous Son &
Charming Geneva.
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