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| My first Finnish train ride! |
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| It was really early and dark ;) |
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Just about two weeks after settling in at my new home, I set off on an adventure with some new found friends from HK and US, Natalie, Suki, Mun, Margaret, Cherry, Benny Wong and Angela, to the Laplands, north of Finland, somewhere within the Arctic circle!
Rovaniemi, is where Santa lives, yes, the one and only Santa claus!! (My Finnish friend told me that Santa used to visit the kids in Finland when he was young)
Like an overly excited kid, I headed to the Laplands for a trip with many first times ;)
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| Naughty Finnish kid on the train just couldn't stop running about |
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| After a 2hr+ train ride, we finally reached our destination!!! |
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| The train station felt like Oulu actually..... still peaceful, quiet and snow clad! |
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| JUST LOOK AT THE AMOUNT OF SNOW! Blogging about this from Sunny Singapore made me miss the snow so much :( |
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| Maybe that's a really old train |
Upon arrival, we hopped onto a bus that took us to the Santa Claus village!!
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| AWWWW EVEN THE BUS STOP SIGN IS SO CUTE! |
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| Suki with one of santa's elves! |
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| Just having a picnic here ;) |
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| Beauty lies in the peacefulness that this little town exudes |
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| I always found such ice Popsicles pretty! |
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| Giant ICE KACHANG!!!!! |
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| FOR ME??? *inserts oh-stop-it-you meme* |
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| Santa employed us to help him send his gifts |
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| THE ARCTIC CIRCLE LINE!!! (ok this isn't the real one but the real out outside has been buried with a thick layer of snow) |
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| This is santa's HOUSE!!!! OMG I FINALLY GOT TO FULFILL A CHILDHOOD DREAM! AHAHAHAH Oh but a photo with that old man costs like 25euros :O:O Santa said that he's there every single day, even during summer and that he eats porridge everyday. Oh, Santa can speak Canto :O |
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| This is so expensive that the 8 of us shared one photo! I have no idea where it is now..... |
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| COOL AYE??? Too bad I didn't have a chance to go there in Summer!! AHAHA but experiencing Summer in Helsinki was quite an eye opening experience (literately and figuratively.......because it was too bight the entire day, the sun never really sets, it remains at the horizon for like an hour or two, there isn't total darkness at all) |
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| GIANT SNOWMAN!!!!! |
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| AWWWW LOOK AT THE CUTE KIDS AND THEIR SLEDGE!!! |
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| MY VERY FIRST REINDEER!! :D:D |
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| Sneaked into some warm hut for some warmth! (it was -20 something outside, pretty similar to Oulu just that the wind was stronger) |
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| Reindeer furs serve as pretty good insulation |
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| MY FIRST REINDEER SLEDGE RIDE! |
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| HEHEHE although it was a short 400m, it was still quite an experience ;) I MEAN, how many people can get to ride on a reindeer sledge like santa? |
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| Our guide ;) Cool Lappish costume, right? |
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| that's right, a jumpshot in every city |
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| OMG, can you believe Santa's post office actually exists? |
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| You can even post letters/postcards from here! THE BEST PART IS, every letter/postcard gets a special stamp! Oh, and one can actually choose to have it posted for next christmas! Guess what, i sent a postcard to myself for christmas this year HAHAHAH goes something like "dear Tiffany.............................with lots of love, Tiffany" #foreveralone |
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| Because I didn't have enough time, I only sent a few postcards to some close friends and family |
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| This is how the special chop looks like ;) One can only get it from one place in the entire world!! |
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| Kids from all over the world send letters to Santa and here is where it ends up! There are so many that you can actually buy some of the letters to support UNICEF! :) I'm glad to know that this fantasy is still very much alive ;) As a kid, did you send letters to santa? |
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| THE LONGEST LETTER EVERRRRRRRRR! |
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| Letters are being sort according to their country of origin |
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| GUESS WHAT I FOUND! |
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| I tried reindeer meat for the first time! Reindeer meat tastes like beef but smells like mutton! |
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| AWWW CUTE AYE! |
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| MOOMIN is like the iconic Finnish cartoon character of all time ;) They were the most popular things before angry bird came about |
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| Santa claus village at nightfall looks just as beautiful |
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| It's almost like xmas never ends.... |
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| This is the entrance to the ice bar and museum but we didn't have time to visit |
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| We had golden rex buffet for dinner ;) AHAHHA it's like the local pizza/pasta/soup/salad buffet! |
The very next day we set out early to visit all the attractions in town ;)
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| This is the famous church in that town |
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| LOOK AT HOW DEEP THE SNOW WAS!!! I lost my camera lens cap somewhere there :( |
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| THE MOST NORTHERN MCDONALD'S IN THE WORLD!!! |
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| (L to R) Benny wong, Natalie, Cherry, Mun, Suki, Margaret, Angela |
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| GUESS WHAT I SAW AT THE ARCTIC MUSEUM? |
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| Yes, one can see northern lights any time |
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| Fancy a fox? |
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| This is how it should look like typically |
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| LOOKS SO REAL RIGHT? |
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| There was an exhibition on climate change and I find this person's suggestion pretty funny |
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| I was kinda missing green tea :( |
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| Salmon wrap!! |
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| New york cheesecake (can't remember the taste but i guess it wasn't too bad) |
After lunch we walked some 579834732982miles to the ski slopes!!
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| YES WE FINALLY REACHED |
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| CHECK OUT THE SKI SLOPES!!! I SKIED ON THEM ;) AHAHAH JUST KIDDING, I ONLY WENT ON A BEGINNER'S SLOPE ;) |
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OMG I SKIED FOR THE FIRST TIME!! I MISS SKIING SO BADLY :(((
Don't be fooled by the lighting, it was actually still pretty early, like say 5pm? |
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| Snow boarding/skiing equipments |
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| A warm cup of hot chocolate tasted heavenly after an afternoon of skiing ;) |
Towards the end of the long winter in Finland, I remember saying I felt that I had seen enough snow to last a lifetime but looking at these pictures now really makes me want to take back my words. One can never get enough of snow and winter activities!! I miss Finland so much :(
Minä rakastan Suomi! <3
Labels: Finland, Laplands, Rovaniemi
