Leaving them all behind...

21st March:

Arktikum Museum: The museum exhibits the Lappish lifestyle in the past. Marina guaranteed that this wasn’t a normal boring museum, but I still can’t find a “wow” factor in it. Guess I am really not a museum person after all...

City at Night: Went to explore the city at night. Not much people on the street. Most of the shops had closed, leaving only hotels and some eating places.

Decided to walk to the frozen river side. Wanted to get a night pic. of the bridge we drove by this morning (Left pic.) Felt that there was this guy following me while I was walking through a dark alley (Need to walk through the alley to get to the river...No choice...sigh...). Tried to cross the street TWICE to avoid him but he kept following me. In the end, I just stopped at a small junction and turned back to stare at him. He looked at me, turned and walked in the opposite direction...Don’t know what he doing la...bleah...

Anyway, the river side was freezing cold. Fingers almost drop while fiddling with the camera. Can’t wear gloves when handling the camera. And pictures were more important than fingers...hah =P

Hungarian friends: Performers from Hungary, and were in Rovaniemi for the Hungarian Culture Week. I usually had breakfast with them, as we were living in the same guesthouse. Always talked to Abigail (their translator) and another Hungarian girl who could converse in English.

Went for a Hungarian movie (With English sub-title of course!!!) screened tonight with these people. It was sort of an official event of the cultural week as the director (A guy who was surprisingly young) of the movie was there too.

After the movie, we continued to the Tuspu Pub to support the Valter Blues Band (Hungarian band) performance. Everyone was staring at me when I entered the pub. (Always get this kind of stares even when travelling in the city here, but never did back in England) Guess either not many Chinese had taken part in their nightlife over here, or they didn’t see a Chinese before...bleah...Anyway, had fun watching the locals cheering and dancing to the Chicago Blues music. And whatever racial / international / language awkwardness barrier always broke down over a pint of beer...hah...Beer is also an universal language =P

22nd March:

Woke up early today. Saila had allowed me to try the sauna facilities for free...Woohoo!!! My first sauna experience. Sitting alone naked there with a towel, singing loudly like nobody business. Like those gangster boss in the H.K. movies...haha...Kept pouring water into the pile of heated wood thingy. Like to hear the hissing sound...hah...The feeling was damn shiok la...Didn’t really sweat that much ever since I left Singapore. And a cold shower after that was really superb...

City in the day: Went to explore the city after breakfast. Discovered there are actually 2 Chinese restaurants here. Not keen on trying them. No point eating Chinese food when we had all the authentic Chinese food back home anyway.

Went back to the frozen river side. Kinda love this place. Discovered that the icy surface was melting slowly. It was the ending phase of winter after all. Wondered if we were the last group of people who managed to ride on this frozen river this year...

Northest Macdonald’s in the World: Ever wonder how the northest Macdonald outlet looks like? This is the only Macdonald outlet here, and is the northest outlet on earth according to the Macdonald website. Kinda silly ya...haha...I am pretty sure there are other fast food outlets located further north than this one…But anyway, still worth a visit :)

Ranua Zoo: Decided to visit the zoo at Ranua (Another “ulu” place, 80km from Rovaniemi) as my train was only at 9pm. The zoo claims that they display winter animals in their true habitats. Didn’t realize it was really a bad decision to make this visit from the start.

Most of the animals were sleeping, probably due to the cold weather...bleah...And there were not many tourists there. Probably less than 10 people in the whole zoo when I was there. Despite thinking that Mandai Zoo is much better than this one, touring in a snowy zoo was still a pretty cool experience. And their polar bear and brown bear’s enclosures were damn freaking huge. Think those were the main attractions of the zoo.

But that’s not the point of the bad decision. I didn’t realize the zoo actually closes at 4pm. (Which zoo closes at 4pm?!?!?!) And my returning bus to Rovaniemi was only at 5.40pm. As there wasn’t any indoor area around after the zoo closed, I was there waiting at the bus stop (Bottom-left pic...A damn memorable place...) alone with no proper thermal attire. Jumping around, dancing around, singing around, playing with the camera...doing everything I could just to ignore the cold. And that freaking bus was late!!! It came only at 5.55pm...Dammit!!! Almost freeze to death at this place...

Left Rovaniemi at 9pm on a night train...

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Maybe I will return someday...
Maybe...