8th Nov (Mon) - Rovaniemi, Lapland

I finally got a slot for the husky sled today :) At first, the agency wouldn't let me sign on 'coz i was the only one on their waiting list. But just soon after I got off the phone with them, they called back saying that another person had just signed on as well. Yippee!!!

But before I headed over to the huskies, the agency brought me and the others over to a Reindeer farm as well, where I got up close and personal with the reindeers.





The farm owner mentioned that majority of the reindeers were still in the forests and had not been herded back to the farm just yet. Thus, we only saw about 10 reindeers in the farm itself. And she did add on that most farmers would not tell you how many reindeers they own in total as that would be the same as you telling someone how much money you have in your account.



After a brief conversation on why one of the reindeers seemed to have injured its horns (see pix above - which turned out that the reindeers had to break off their horns now and then to facilitate the growth and it would be rather painless for them), I decided to brave the following questions:

Q1) Were the reindeers here bred for meat or mainly for sledding?
The answer was mainly for meat and some for sledding. And the slaughtering would take place only once a year, during autumn (more or less 6 months after the reindeers gave birth to little calves). But there's a quota set by the association/ authorities on how many they could slaughter each season, so that there was proper population control.

So if you happen to consume reindeer meat in say spring or summer, those have been frozen for quite some time since the slaughter in Autumn.

Q2) Were old reindeers the ones which got slaughtered?
Answer: On the contrary, about 70% of the reindeers slaughtered were the 6-month old calves.

When I heard this, I felt damn guilty about my previous reindeer meal... I would have felt better if she had said it was mainly the old reindeers...

Anywayz, after a brief stay in the cottage to warm up, we headed over to the husky place. The huskies got all excited and started barking and howling non-stop. We took some time to go around the cages to greet and pet some of the dogs (there were more than 150 of them and we couldn't possibly greet all), while the staff hurried along to prepare the summer sled.



I was quite surprised to find that these sledding huskies were a lot smaller than the domestic husky and there was a wide variety as well. They didn't necessarily take on the grey-white fur. Wow~ The staff explained that these huskies in particular were bred mainly for speed and performance (they were sledding dogs after all), and not for looks.







Once the sled was ready, the dogs latched to the sled were super hyper - as if they were trying to say "Let's get going NOW!". Hahahaha.



The summer sled alone weighed about 150 kg. If we add on 2 passengers plus one driver, the average total weight would usually come up to at least 250kg. And all it took was 10 huskies to get it moving. Wow~



When we first took off, I could really feel the excitement and acceleration from the dogs. But soon, they would switch to a constant gear and the average travelling speed (whilst carrying us in the summer sled) would be about 60 -70km/ hour. WOW~ Yah. I'm a country pumpkin. I couldn't help being fascinated by how these small dogs could pull off such a thing. I'm amazed.



After the short ride, we went inside to a fireplace to warm up before heading out to greet the husky puppies! They were super shy and kept running away to their mommy or the trainer when I (and the other fellow tourists) tried to approach them. So cute~ Hahahha.



Soon after, it was time for me to head back to the guesthouse and finish up my packing - 'coz I had to leave for Helsinki (and then take a plane to Oslo) in the evening.

Having visited the reindeer farm and getting the answers that got me feeling all guilty, I kept deliberating on whether I should still have the traditional Sauteed Reindeer for dinner. In the end, I decided to go for it but at the same time, telling myself that it would be the final time I would consume reindeer meat.



My verdict? I personally felt that it was an acquired taste. Not that it wasn't nice. It was just that it tasted rather different. Somehow the texture reminded me of a very well done slice of beef, but yet retained a distinct strong taste. If you were one that found lamb has a distinct strong taste, that's probably it. Not that reindeer meat and lamb tasted the same, just that each has such a distinct strong taste that some people might find it hard to accept.

After a hearty dinner, I boarded the VR overnight train for a 12 hour journey to Helsinki. I was kinda surprised when I opened the door to my bunk. There was a personal toilet in there! In addition, there was a shower facility within that same toilet as well, complete with nice, clean towels. And this was just 2nd class cabin! Hmmmm... EUROSTAR should really take cues from VR and start revamping their facilities.



And to end off my adventures in Rovaniemi, here are some additional random pix taken during my stay:

7th Nov (Sun) - Rovaniemi, Lapland

PRELUDE

Friday - I should've checked the map of Finland/ Lapland before I went on board the plane. Coz I'd thought that Tampere was part of Rovaniemi when it was in fact a different city altogether. So when the plane made a pitstop at Tampere airport to pick up more passengers, I alighted the plane and happily (plus unknowingly) went out of the customs and stopped for a toilet break. It was in the toilet that I heard my name being mentioned over the airport PA system and was asked to proceed to security control asap. Thank god I was still in the airport and ran over asap. The airport staff were pretty amused, especially the air stewardess who was at the door, greeting me for the 2nd time when I boarded the plane again. Phew! What a close shave.

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The average day time temperature was about -7 to -10.5 degrees. Night time ranged from -11 to -15. Still bearable for now except my face felt frozen. Well, kind of. Just exaggerating it a little.

It happened to be a holiday yesterday, so almost all shops were closed. So I decided to visit the Artikum and to understand more about the Sami culture and the arctic circle. That was how I got to know that the word "Arctic" actually derived from a Greek word. And it meant the "land of the great bear" as the constellation of the great bear could always been seen in the north.



As for today, I took the Santa Express bus 8 from the train station (see pix below - which happened to be less than 200m from the guesthouse I'm staying in) and went straight for the so-called "official" Santa Claus Village, situated right in the Arctic Circle.



Well for starters, I could have gotten the Arctic Circle stamp on my passport and/or have the official certificate to show that I was at the Arctic Circle. But since there was a bunch of Japanese tourists queuing for it, I decided to come back later instead (which I didn't in the end).





The Santa Claus Post Office was kinda cool. The staff were dressed like adult elves and there were displays of letters to Santa from kids all over the world, including one super long one which the staff had to roll up into a scroll and put it on display as well. Most of the letters from kids were like "I've been good this year...blah blah blah". But there were some that asked really sensible and cute questions like "how many helpers do you have", "don't you ever go for a holiday", "were your helpers really elves" and etc.





Though I didn't send a letter to Santa nor did I purchase a request for Santa's letter (which cost about 7 euros), I did get my hands on some postcards from the post office, get them stamped and posted them back to my address in SG. I would love to get more postcards but they were rather expensive - like 2 SGD per card. So I got limited choice but to settle for only a handful. Lesson learned. Next time, bring your own postcards and just buy the stamps and get them posted from the post office.



Next stop, the Santa Claus' office - which turned out to be just a small studio which you could take a picture with Mr. Santa Claus. There were several options for you to choose what output you want, either it was a postcard set of 5, or photo saved in a Sony thumbdrive or a large print out. Since the large printout was the "cheapest" of them all, I opted for that. And yet, it still cost me 25 Euros. No kidding. This would be the one and final time I would ever take a photo with any Santa Claus.





After wandering around Santa Claus Village for some time, I decided to head back to the guesthouse and retire for the night.