Northen North Scandinavia

Okay, so I have been back for almost two weeks, and still no update. I know, I am a slacker. Weather here has started to get warm again, just when I was thinking summer was over. The whole of July was rain 90% of the time, so this week has been perfect.

So, the trip north went very smooth, considering the absence of any planing. All that was set was the rout, and train and ferry tickets. After a brief day of sight seeing in Helsinki, we put the car on a train and headed towards Lapland. Its a nice way to travel as you get a whole nights rest and awake in the morning already in Rovaniemi. It would have been even better if I had made reservations when I was supposed to and we didn't have to share the cabin. Anyway, we arrived and unloaded the car and then proceeded to drive and drive and drive.

First was Finnish Lapland. We stopped at the touristy arctic circle village where santa lives to take the normal picture before heading north to Urho Kekkonen National Park (Koilliskaira), where we had a pleasant walk among bogs, German WW2 bunkers, and mosquitoes, climaxing with the normal beer and makkara at the laavu, or lean-to.

We then continued up to Norway the next day to see Nordkapp. We knew going in that it was a bit of a tourist trap, but regardless the vegetation and landscape were very unique. And we were north of everyone in Europe, which is also kinda cool. Then down to Tromsø were we had an day hiking the hills over viewing the city before starting a long drive down to Stockholm to catch the ferry to Helsinki, stopping for walks along the way.

That's the compact version. There was almost an adventure when twice we were dead certain that we would not find an open gas station. But alas, we never had to walk. There were also Reindeer. Lots of them. They are all domestic, having been extinct from the wild for many years. They are free roaming herds, but just as dumb as cattle. Even knowing this going in it was exciting to see the first few by the road. But the excitement died fast as they start to appear more often in the road with little intention to move. A similar experience were the tunnels. The first 3 mile long tunnel was exciting. The 50th was a little overkill.

But it was a great trip, and we covered alot of ground in just a week. We had the sun up with us at all hours of the day, and depending on our latitude, a red sky for about 3 or 4 hours in the morning.

So check out the pictures. I played with the new feature in Picasa that lets you map photos, so if you want to be geeky you can view them in google earth. Here is a short cut. Im geeky.