Rovaniemi was full of nature which one could come across only in Lapland. Luckily we were there when the Jutajaiset festival was on and it was actually the last day – 4th July. A Folklore Festival with World Music… so we had Finnish, Europeans, Africans and Asians amongst the performers.
Post a quiet soothing walk across the Ounaskaki River which passes through Rovaniemi overlooked by the Ounasvaara peak, we crossed the CANDLE BRIDGE to reach the venue for the festival. Luckily the finale of the evening – a Finnish Band Piirpauke was left and we decided to go for it. Had a kick-ass pizza at Valde – Mari, studded with reindeer meat and then were witness to amongst the best music for a long time. With Ghanaians joining the impromptu Jugalbandi with Piirpauke, it just proved one point – music builds relations very strongly. The music still rings in my years. The same day we visited ARKTIKUM – an encyclopedia on the Arctic Circle – quite an experiential tour.
The next 2 days were a wildlife toast, the Ranua Wildlife park which had the polar bears, musk ox, brown bears, wolverines and the snowy owl (finally saw a park without lion, tigers and elephants) and the Reindeer Park Safari which was the actual place where we crossed 66.32 latitude – THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.
The reindeers were against our assumptions extremely noble guys, clean and furry and even WHITE – one in 1000 is white and we saw 2.
But the cheery on the cake was the husky dog Safari, ferocious looking cute canines. The customary visit to the Santa Claus village filled in the itinerary. With Lapland done the definition of Finland was complete – a large forest with a 1000 beautiful lakes and rivers and a few inhabitants. A truly different experience…
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