Finland

After a couple of days at home I took the train to Duesseldorf airport, where I checked in for my flight to Oulu via Helsinki. The flight with Finnair’s Embraer 170 to Helsinki was almost full, and took about 2 hours and 20 minutes. The sun was already setting when we landed and it took a while until we got a bus and were transferred to the terminal. It was -7 degrees here – brrrr!
Finnair is actually Santa's Official Airline. I saw a MD11 and an A340-300 with the special livery, but it was already dark, so I couldn't take any photos. There is a nice one on Airliners.net - click here to see it.
I just walked into the building and my connection gate was next door. Boarding had already started, and I walked straight down to the bus again. The bus was absolutely full and reminded me of the pictures of Tokyo’s subway. They had a couple of buses, but thought they really must fill this one to the rim (standing there with open doors for at least 15 minutes in the cold), and then have only about 5 passengers on the next bus. Finnair has no allocated seating on domestic flights, so boarding was a bit chaotic. But since I was among the last few passengers on the bus, I was among the first off as well, and was second on board, i.e. had free choice of seats. I chose seat 1A at the front of the plane. The flight was fully booked and cramped. Even on the short 50 minute hop we got a sandwich and drinks, and not much later we landed in Oulu, where I walked off the plane (I only had carry-on luggage) and took a cab to the Holiday Inn. I checked in and since it was dark and cold I stayed in, wrote the first blog and had an early night – at least that was what I thought. But later Harvey (from Canada) knocked at the door and we chatted until 1am!

Next morning I got up early and enjoyed the nice breakfast. I also saw Pat again, met Emma, Jackie, Dieter, etc – many people I knew from e-mails but never met in person. After breakfast we shared a couple of taxis to the university and the Polar Tourism Conference started. Here as well I saw people again, and met many new ones. The conference was good and interesting, although I realised that I was not the only one who almost dozed off occasionally. Too many delegates with jet-lag! We had dinner at the greenhouses of the university, which was quite neat. This time I really had an early night, while some were going out partying…

The next day was almost as the first – breakfast, shuttle to the university, conference… We headed back to the hotel and shortly after that tried to find a restaurant for dinner. We were 11 and since it is close to Christmas it was a hard task for the Finnish colleagues to find a restaurant. Eventually, after many calls, they had one in walking distance, and we made our way through the cold. The restaurant was called Lasarett, because it was in a former military hospital. But it was really nice, and the food was excellent. Many of us had the “Oulu meal”, a really yummy 3-course dinner with local food. The main was a salmon steak…

The next day we had to get up even earlier, since our bus left already at 7:30am. We made our way through Finland’s winter wonderland up north to Rovaniemi. Here, we stopped at the Arktikum, which is an arctic museum and research center. After lunch at the restaurant there, we got a brief presentation on the center and then had about an hour to walk around and discover the Arktikum in our own time. Interesting the striking architecture with the long “glass tunnel”.

no comment ;-)

We then went further north, where we visited the home of Santa! Santa village is right on the Arctic Circle and offers everything around Santa and Christmas. Of course, many souvenir shops with Xmas stuff, reindeer rides, Santa’s post shop, and – most important – Santa! You could queue and got a photo taken with him. We did not join the queue, but could see him on a video screen, how he posed for photos with the many people… An amazing tourist trap, but quite interesting and fun to see. Certainly additional material for classes…;-)

me standing on the Arctic Circle

From there our bus drove us to Ruka, where the organisers had a special treat for us: The FIS Nordic World Cup. Tonight was the first competition of ski jumping, and we got tickets! We first briefly visited the press centre. About 400 media delegates were at this event. And then we went to the ski jump and could watch the competition. Of course, every time a Finnish guy was jumping, the crowd roared and the audience was a sea of blue and white flags. And believe it or not: I am writing this in the airport lounge while waiting for my flight, and just this moment Michael Uhrman (Germany) sat down next to me – he was one of the competitors last night!!! The whole German DSV team is on a flight to Munich, leaving just before mine. What a coincidence! During the break we had some food in the staff tent and then watched the second part.

the press room

And once again it is already the last morning. We could sleep a bit longer and breakfast was between 8 and 9am. After that we walked over to the National Park Visitor Center where we got a presentation again, and watched a short movie about Oulanga National Park and the Russian national park just across the border. We actually were in walking distance to the Russian border. While the rest of the group went to a waterfall/rapids nearby, Pirkko had to drive me back to Kuusamo, because I had to catch an earlier flight from Oulu. From Kuusamo I took a scheduled bus, and three hours later was back in Oulu, where I took a cab to the airport and checked in. I was quite early for my flight, and wonder if I would have made it had I stayed with the group…

the research station

The flight was quick and my connection in Helsinki was delayed quite a bit. I was wondering whether I was able to catch a train from Duesseldorf back home after arrival past 11pm. But no problem, I just had to change trains twice and was home sooner than I expected. And within the day I had an almost 30 degrees change in temperature, from -16.5 in Finland to +12 in Germany! Another great leg of this trip. I truly enjoyed the time in Finland, catching up with people, and the wonderful excursion. The ski jumping certainly was a wonderful experience and a highlight. And of course, I was happy to see lots of snow again, and have it nice and cold. In that respect, I do miss Canada!