Visiting Rovaniemi and Chatting with Santa

So last weekend our journey took my friend Christin and me way up north, behind the vast forest lands and far away from proper civilization - until we even crossed the Arctic Circle and officially set foot on polar grounds. Though, it was not what you would expect - no icy desert with some reindeers and bears here and there (we were there in the middle of September after all, which meant that we just missed the first snow fall by being a couple of days too early)

The night we spent in Rovaniemi, capital city of Finnish Lapland, with two locals, close to the centre, meaning only about 15 minutes to walk. Even if Rovaniemi is considered a city, (the northernmost of Finland actually), there's no comparison to any other I've been visiting so far, excluding Vaasa.

So, even if we did not have any snow, there was sure some beautiful autumn landscape and trees in all kinds of warm colours. - like this:

Also, we could not catch a glimpse of the northern lights, since the sky was all filled with rainy clouds. Well, after all, we saw them at the Arktikum. There was a darkened cinema-like room inside the museum where you could lie down on pillows and look up to the ceiling and observe northern lights "secondhand". :P
They also showed to tales of how people explained the existance of this phenomenon. First and probably most well-known one says that it's a fox running across the sky, swining his tale and through that enlightening the sky. Another one claims that it's the dead playing football with the skull of a walrus. Watch it here:

We even met a German-Finnish guy who used to work at the Arktikum sometime and we ended up getting in for free, personal guide included ;D thanks, Philipp!

Last, but not least, we took a bus to Santa Claus Village, where we bought some postcards from the elves, enjoyed the strange feeling of listening to Christmas songs in September and met the one and only Santa Claus himself in his office, having some nice talk in German, though we did not end up sitting on his lap :P

what's new and in progress ;)

Hej ni!

I've spend all week keenly watching children's movies in Swedish together with my notebook and pen. ;) it's quite amazing how much I can understand solely from the other languages I'm already able to speak, though it's much much easier if I also have the subtitles to read while listening to how the words are being said.
- by the way, did you see this new Disney Version of "'Rapunzel"? If not, take some minutes and watch it - it's awesome and well worth being seen. :)

The language course is going on, though now my German Au Pair friend decided that she won't be coming anymore, but concentrate fully on learning Finnish instead, but no worries, for as always and wherever I go in this nordic country, I found another German girl to talk to and help each other with mastering the Finnish instructions on learning Swedish xD anyways it's still sad that in the end we couldn't pull through together, as we planned to, so good luck and all the best for learning Finnish, Christin! :)

Today is the first day that feels kinda cold here up north. These last days it was quite fresh during the day, but in the late afternoon the sun always tended to warm up the area again and rise the temperatures over 20°C...just hoping that snow's not coming yet ;)

Lately I've also found these Danish cookies at "Tiger", one great store to find anything you would not expect to buy when going shopping xD

...it reads "These butter cookise are from Denmark, a small country full of fairytales, kings and queens...and a rather large export of bacon. Our queen lives in a castle guarded by soldiers wearing bearskin hats. The queen loves her sausage dogs, and they love Danish butter cookies for breakfast...I imagine. I also imagine how the vikings would eat cookies in the afternoon. I eat mine in the evening with a nice glass of cold milk...enjoy yours - as you like"

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Last weekend I wanted to go to Tracon 8, one of Finland's bigger conventions, held in Tampere-talo, but since I did not reserve a ticket one month ahead, it was sold out by the time I arrived. In the evening, however, I gave it another try, as I wanted to attend the after-party and Overworld's first-time-playing-in-Finland gig --> and, YESS, I got in! ;D I went alone, so I started talking to some girls that seemed sympathetic and set myself a challenge with that - for I talked to them in Finnish only. After one and a half hour we came to talk about our homes and one of the girls asked if I'm coming from a swedish-speaking part of Finland, because of my accent.

GODDAMNIT, I'M SO PROUD OF NOT BEING ASSUMED AS A FOREIGNER ANYMORE, BUT A FINN FROM A SWEDISH-SPEAKING PART OF THIS CO'UNTRY! :D :D

...and with that I made new friends and got to know some people from Tampere, Helsinki and Espoo, of which some belonged to 2 bands I've already been hearing from. :) Jenlayn and Karmia - check them out!

Overworld's show itself was really great! I've already been hearing how amazing it would be beforehand and my expectations were all fulfilled. I got carried away with the beat and ended up quite exhausted after all the dancing, singing and headbanging.

(can you find me here? ;) )

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Wanna hear what's coming up next? 

- Going to Rovaniemi, cross the Arctic Circle and meet Santa Claus. ;)

That's the plan for the following weekend. This morning I met with Christin at the library to plan our trip and check the books for advices, sights and stuff to do. Now, I'm all into travelling xD looking forward so much to getting to know a new area and taking one step closer to the north pole. 

...about a mökki and new goals (:

Lately I've been going with my host family to their cottage on the northern coast of Näsijärvi. - My first "mökki"-visit ever :DD and it was so beautiful *-* I had my own little house, which was not more than a big bedroom, but so cosy and nice. We played with the kids, took lots of photos, had barbecue with the german speaking neighbours and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

...and there's some new achievements in my life as well: 2 days ago I've been driving a car in Finland for the first time! :D I have to take the kids to their hobby activities sometimes when the parents are on business trips, therefore it became a new challenge. Everything went well though and anyways I don't have to drive through the centre, so it's quite easy.
...but wait, there's more: I've been signing in to a Swedish course in addition to my Finnish one - YAY!!! :D it's really fun and as a person having German as a mothertongue, some words seem quite funny being written down in Swedish, but being spoken everything just sounds so cool! :D the only difficulty is that the course itself is being held in Finnish, which makes proper understanding of each detail rather difficult sometimes. - but I'll manage! plus I have a Swedish-speaking friend in Austria as well whom I can gladly ask all the time if I need some help :3 Tack så mycket, Tanja!!