Rovaniemi Revisited

By Elizabeth Johnstone

“Next time with northern lights!” 

Those were the last words of my previous article on the capital of Finnish Lapland.  My failure to see the “foxfires” in January 2013 was an excuse to replicate the trip in January 2014.  I flew with Finnair from London via Helsinki. As the City Hotel was unavailable, I booked four nights in the Sokos Vaakuna where I had stayed before.

The weather was cold, even by arctic standards.  On the first evening, the temperature was -20 C, dipping to -25 C and below for the rest of the weekend.

Dressing for the cold is an art and a science. Thick socks and stout footwear are essential and I personally find Wintertrax grippers absolutely indispensable.  I wore long underwear, regular trousers and ski trousers (who knew that Lidl sold such things?) Moving upwards, more thermal underwear, regular clothes and a top-of-the-range Land’s End jacket.  I am not a fan of hats, but suffer agonisingly from cold ears in all weathers, so I used “round-the-head” Land’s End ear protectors.  Some passers-by looked aghast, thinking I was suicidally bare-headed, when the ear protectors were just hidden by my hair.  My expensive John Lewis microfibre and fleece gloves were not really up to the job, even with silk liners, so I treated myself to a pair of reindeer skin mittens, much more appropriate. One unattractive feature of the extreme cold is that it freezes the breath entering your nose.  Many people wrap a scarf around the lower part of the face but I found that a disposable surgical face mask was more hygienic.  Next time, though, I will take a bigger supply, as a mask got sodden in an hour or so outside.

It was so cold that I prioritised indoor activities. On the Friday, I mooched around the shops in the morning then visited the home of a Mensan friend for lunch.  These enjoyable occasions always throw up some cultural observations.  The lady of the house prepared a tasty “makaronilaatikko” which I would describe as a “pasta bake”.  This is a national institution, served with tomato ketchup.  “Laatikko” means “box”, as in “postilaatikko”. Macaroni box?  An analogy might be “casserole”, which can be both the dish and its contents.

I bought a combi-ticket for the three major museums.  First was the Pilke forestry centre where they say “See the wood for the trees”.  Everything you ever needed to know about timber, trees and forestry, in an elegant building designed to showcase wood.  Lots of hands-on activities.  Every young child in Rovaniemi has been here with a clipboard and a worksheet.

Northern Lights projection in the Arktikum

On the same site is the Arktikum, the jewel in the ice queen’s crown.  Fascinating information about the current status of the Arctic with a northern lights display which you view from a lying position.  The Arktikum also contains the Provincial Museum of Lapland with its stunning examples of Sámi workmanship. Films and other materials show the tumultuous history of the Second World War in Finland and its aftermath.

Back in the hotel, I watched some winter sports (or rather “sports”) on television until dinner time.  I had the pleasure of meeting another Mensan friend in the Fransmanni Restaurant in my hotel.  For my starter, they put together a platter of “reindeer treats” including melt-in–the mouth fillet and various accompaniments. 

Next day, I completed my museum tour at Korundi, the modern art museum and cultural complex.  My favourite exhibit was “Lemminkäinen's Mother”, an 1897 Romantic nationalist painting by Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela.  It depicts a scene from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic.  Our hero has been killed, his body chopped up and thrown in the river.  His mother has sewn the pieces back together again.  She is waiting for a bee, the messenger of the gods, bearing honey which will bring her son back to life.  Music lovers will recognise this event from Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen Suite.

Quite enough culture for one day. Lunch was a savoury waffle with the (other) beautiful people at Café & Bar 21, followed by a white tea and macaron at Choco Deli.  After the obligatory break for winter sports on television, we met up again at my friend’s house for a “raclette” supper party. This involves individual grill pans filled with various savoury bits and pieces over which cheese is melted.  Delicious, and great fun.  Another wonderful evening.

A fine, clear Sunday morning (-27 C) was a good opportunity for a scenic walk beside the mighty Ounas river, frozen over except for a patch of open water under the bridge.  A pleasant man of about my own age asked me if I was Finnish and said he wanted to show me something.  Let me re-phrase that.  He had spotted something of interest on the frozen river and lent me his binoculars.  I couldn’t make it out, but he insisted that it was an animal and traced out the word “saukko” in the snow for me.  I pantomimed my thanks (although I did manage to say “the country is beautiful” = “maa on kaunis”) and walked up onto the bridge.  There I saw a group of photographers with long lens cameras. They knew there was something worth snapping.  We could see an animal diving into the water and rolling on its back in the snow.  “Ah, saukko!” I said knowledgeably, and the photographers beamed and nodded.  I can barely tell a dog from a cat, so I wasn’t sure what cute mammal this was.  Back at the hotel, the receptionist looked up the word and explained it was an otter.  These popular visitors to Rovaniemi had even featured on the evening news.

We spent a pleasant afternoon gossiping in the Coffee House then I had the pleasure of being invited to my friend’s parents’ house.  It is always fascinating to see inside a home in another country.  After a light supper and cup of tea there was much mutual demonstrating of knitting projects and I left with two beautifully handmade pairs of socks for indoor wear.  I had spent some time earlier in the knitting wool department of the local department store. The Finns are resourceful and capable.  It is entirely in character for the ladies to create practical and decorative knitwear out of the substantial yarn which is needed in the cold weather.  There is even a specific Rovaniemi technique for knitting multi-coloured mittens, where the main colour is worked in the round and the pattern colours are arranged on a single long needle.  Well beyond my area of expertise!

Rye bread

Next morning, I shopped for fresh rye bread and had a last look at the “saukko” on the river before heading for the airport.  It was snowing lightly, and for the first time in my life I saw a snowplough clearing the runway from which my plane was due to take off. The return flights went smoothly – including the nerve-shredding 35 minute transfer in Helsinki – and I arrived home some seven and a half hours after taking off in Rovaniemi.

Once again, I enjoyed the legendary hospitality of arctic Mensans, several of whom I now count as personal friends. Indeed, it felt as though we had just run into each other after a week or so, not a whole year.

What about the northern lights?  I had always understood that they were caused by a fox brushing his tail as he ran through the sky.  I now know that they could also be caused by ancestral spirits kicking a walrus skull around the firmament.  On the first evening, I saw some orange and green plumes which changed shape and faded as I watched, possibly the remnants of earlier activity It certainly wasn’t the magnificent display which I had hoped for.  In fact, I read a news story on the BBC website explaining that the sun had been uncharacteristically quiet recently.  Just my luck!  However, this is not entirely a bad thing.  I will simply have to go back and hope for a better performance.

Next time, with more northern lights!

First published in VISA 114 (April 2014)