This is the van we all piled in so that Matti could take us to an array of places.
Our first architectural stop of the day was the Rovaniemi airport
A fireplace inside an airport??!!
See - Santa frequents here!
This sculpture was across the street
Then we went to Santa Claus Village! Matti worked on the design of this complex before Santa came to town and he was rather disappointed (to the point of voicing disgust) at how this planned community of designer and artisans had turned into a run-down shopping mall for tourists.
The line. We officially crossed it!
Very random but cool sewing machine I found in the hallway
This building has Santa inside!
We walked over ice (plastic), bridges, and hills while hearing strange scary noises all to get to Santa's workshop and to find a huge line. We decided actually meeting him was overrated so turned around at that point.
The classic and historical arctic circle sign!
Sally took her local paper further north than it's ever been so now she can be published!
I had to get my picture with the sign too
After Santa Claus village we were starving (no one ate breakfast b/c we were planning on brunch as part of Design Week). We went to the same bar where the social activities had been the night before, but it was such a success that they did not have enough food for us.
This is Emilia snapping away photos of the event - she was wonderfully fun
This is the bar. Very yummy hot chocolate!
After we found some lunch (at Martina's which is apparently a chain here in Finland with quite fun food and the amazing sweet pepper rings), Matti took us to see a house he designed. See how the light streams in through the angled ceiling?
We think she's the birthday girl, there was a party planned for after we left. Such, such cute girls.
Matti is talking about the design and showing us photos while the man who built the house (the owner) stood by and offered pictures. I think the lady with the pink flower in her hair is his daughter and the cute little girls' mother.
In house sauna
Nicely lit stairs
Kenny did a magic trick for the girls. The younger one thought he was really cool. The older girl just pulled the coin that he made "disappear" out from his shirt sleeve.
The lady of the house offered us treats - orange juice, apple juice, and little chocolate wafer cookie bites. At some point soon I will be splurging and buying myself some of those waver cookies!
Isn't she just darling???
After touring the house, Matti took us back to Hotel Santa Claus and a lot of my classmates changed into ski clothes. Although I would've loved to go skiing, there was only about 2 hours of daylight left so I decided to spend that time walking around Rovaniemi at a more leisurely pace and seeing if anything was still open from Design Week. I ended up finding 2 pairs of earrings that I really liked and buying my first souvenirs for myself from this adventure. Then I went to the grocery store and bought some snacks for the train ride back to Helsinki and finally found my way to a coffee shop for a very tasty chai latte.
The kids called me when they got back to the hotel so I met up with them for dinner. I ordered two appetizers as my meal: escargot and some tomato bruschetta. Both were excellent, but garlic laden. Their taxi back from the ski resort had been quite inexpensive so with the freezing cold and all our bags we decided to share a taxi - 12 euros split 8 ways is very very affordable. We got on the train and I knit a few rounds before starting to feel sleepy. I laid down planning on a 20 minute nap and before I knew it my clock read 01:00 so I decided it was pajama time.
According to the train ticket, we should arrive at 8:36 so Sally and I got ready and when the train stopped we got but didn't see anyone else leaving the train. I started walking quickly in an attempt to see something familiar because this did not look like the Central Train Station. Thankfully, Sally trusted her instincts and called to me that this wasn't Helsinki and starting frantically to get back on the train. After trying about 10 times, the door finally opened. If worse had come to worse, a nice Finn explained that we could've taken any other train into Helsinki....but I'm quite glad it didn't come to that.
We got into the train station, I hopped on the 3B tram and rode it right to the front of our apartment. Just as I walked into the door of our apartment my paper bag ripped all the way down and my clothes tumbled out - perfect timing. Despite needing to do a ton of laundry, it was somehow very nice to pick my clothes out of a closet and drawers instead of a packed bag. Sally and I both got ready for the day, ate some breakfast/lunch food, and headed out on our regular trek to Otaniemi (sp? the city which hosts Aalto University) for studio.
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