After Our Little Tavastia Adventure, I Ventured Northwards Towards Rovaniemi On An 11 Hour Bus Ride.
After our little Tavastia adventure, I ventured northwards towards Rovaniemi on an 11 hour bus ride. Yes that’s right, 11 hours. And every minute of it was beautiful, except that I came woefully underprepared under the assumption that the driver would make occasional stops and let us off to top up on food and water.

I survived, anyhow, and so we move forward with The Finland Chronicles Part 2: Lapland
(Disclaimer: anyone on here who also has me on socials knows how much I loved this place and posted about it, so I promise this is the last you’ll hear of it from me…at least for a couple months)

So I arrived at around 7 in the evening, and the city is surprisingly quite walkable (barring the moments you're wheeling around a suitcase in the snow). This was a little plaza right around the corner from my guesthouse and I fell in love right away. Look how cute it is!



My first full day in Rovaniemi was a bit slower because there was laundry to be done and very few machines to go around between the guests, so I did set off a bit late. Mind you, at that point in January the sun would rise close to 11 am and set close to 2 pm so we'd get 2.5 hours of sunlight MAX. The above image is the neighborhood around my guesthouse close to 4 pm. Night. Nevertheless, I made the most of it and visited the Arktikum Museum, which is beautiful architecturally but also provides the public with interesting exhibits on the history, culture, flora and fauna of Finnish Lapland, as well as the impacts of climate change on the region. I didn't get any particularly noteworthy pictures except for one of a giant amethyst (Does anyone else think Abigail from Stardew Valley would've loved this place?) and a modern twist on the traditional clothing of the Sámi, the indigenous people of Lapland.




Afterwards, I caught a bus to the Santa Claus Village, which yes, is quite the tourist trap, but is so completely and utterly cute, and if I had to live somewhere that looked this magical (preferably sans tourists) I would not complain. A lot of shops, restaurants, and activity points in the village close quite early, so I didn't get to partake in activities like petting Santa's reindeer, but I enjoyed browsing the remaining open shops, having a quick dinner and visiting the spot in the village that marks the point of entry into the Arctic Circle.


The next day was my last full day in Rovaniemi, so to start I went on a tour I'd booked to visit Korouoma Nature Reserve, which is over an hour and half's drive away from Rovaniemi. Walking through this place filled me with a sense of happiness that I hadn't felt in a long time, it was like I'd suddenly found myself in Narnia. I feel like experiencing the rugged yet ethereal beauty of the nature firsthand also really helped me understand the mindset a lot of my favorite Scandinavian/Nordic artists, so I edited some snippets of our hike to the opening notes of "Crown" by Danish artist Myrkur.


And yeah, here's me posing on a little bridge (sidenote: those snow pants are not the most aesthetic, but when I tell you that winter gear is EXPENSIVE...these guys were so reasonably priced and they did their job well in the near -30 temps we were experiencing every day, so for that I salute them).

There are many beautiful frozen waterfalls as well as stalactities all around the reserve, but the most famous one is Charlie Brown, which preserves the beautiful blue shade of the water in the dead of winter. Having seen the main points of interest, our guide led us to a campsite, where he provided us with some tea and ginger biscuits, and grilled some sausages over a fire. I can't remember the last time I'd ever been so content.



Later that evening I set out for the last activity of my brief visit to Lapland: Aurora Hunting. The guides drove the various groups some distance outside of Rovaniemi to a spot with minimal light pollution and clearer skies, and proceeded to prepare us a meal of (yet again) grilled sausage, but also salmon and potato soup, and hot blueberry juice (which I loved). Upon realizing that the first spot would not render us any results in our hunt, they drove us to a second location, near a frozen lake, where several more groups had gathered.

I was about to give up hope, and my guide had come to call me back to the car, but luckily I had run into my guide from the hike earlier in the day (who also does Aurora tours) and he pointed out a glimmer in the sky off in the distance. So I snapped this picture. Something I learned on this tour is that oftentimes you do not see the Aurora Borealis the way your camera does, and while it is possible to get crazy lightshows, those usually happen further north of places like Rovaniemi, where the magnetic field is even stronger. So it's not my best picture, and I didn't really have time to mount my phone on my little tripod (I also could have brought a better camera, tbf) but I'm glad to have had the opportunity nevertheless, and hopefully this is not the last time Miss Aurora and I meet!
Another thing to note is that Aurora tours have become very popular, and because all these different companies try to maximize how many people they bring along with them, it can feel like a very impersonal, crowded and rushed experience. I'm sure there are private tours you can take, where you can take your time scouting different spots and taking photos, but they very likely cost a pretty penny. Nevertheless, I'm once again glad I had the opportunity and here's to next time.

And just like that it was time to leave. I was sad, but my eyelashes certainly weren't. I hopped on a bus back to Helsinki, this time better prepared for the journey ahead, but with an ache in my heart for what I was leaving behind. Lapland, I will return. Who knows, perhaps in summer.

And to conclude this chapter, here’s a little Rovaniemi haul (does not include the Reindeer chips and Reindeer jerky that I consumed on the spot after purchasing).
Until next time!
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I have been so absent from tumblr! In my defense, I just got home from a whirlwind almost two weeks in Finland, where I initially traveled to fulfill a long-held dream of mine to see Ville Valo perform at Tavastia on New Year’s.
On that note, I present to you The Finland Chronicles Part 1: New Year’s Eve


Scoping out the area the day before we queued up.


Looking back, I really don’t know how we were in line for as long as we were in those temperatures, even with food and bathroom breaks, and the occasional escape into Kamppi station (right across the street) when the cold got to be too much. But I couldn’t have asked for better people to queue up with and look, we even met Sampo and Juho, who were as sweet as could be.




Had a nice time hanging out once we were inside the club (despite the occasional belligerent in the crowd). Mandatory pics of the famous ceiling Heartagram and hey, what’s that on my ring finger?

One of the ways Ville has most impacted me outside of his own music, has been his impeccable taste and willingness to dispense valuable knowledge to us all. Zetra is one of those discoveries. I first heard their cover of “Beauty Has Her Way” at the Lisbon show in February 2023, as part of a playlist Ville compiled in the break between Kælan Mikla’s set and his, and it made me feel like my soul was leaving my body (and now it's my blog's header, haha). So getting to see them live almost a year after the fact felt like a full circle moment. After the Tavastia show, I’d have to say my current favorite song by them is “Float.”



Then the owner of Tavastia gave a very emotional speech (someone in the crowd told us he is retiring this year) counted down to 2024 with us, and sprayed the audience with champagne. Followed by The Man, The Myth, The Legend. There’s really not too much I can say, other than the usual. Ville and the band were perfect that night, they gave us two encores, and we got to hear Gone With The Sin and Killing Loneliness live once more (due to Tumblr’s limits on videos I had a difficult choice to make, so here’s a snippet of Killing Loneliness).


And then, just like that, the show and the year of Neon Noir were over. My voice was already going when I got to Finland, but I happily sacrificed what was left of it at the altar of Tavastia. I realize how immensely lucky I am for scoring tickets to a gig like this, which I know is a dream for so many. Here’s to hoping the tradition continues (it’s been more than hinted that it will) and thank you Ville for starting and ending the year with us 🩷
Stay tuned for more.

Gonna tell my kids this was Barbie and Ken.
Ville Valo and Cristina Scabbia for Sonic Seducer Magazine, 2005. All credit to the photographer

It’s been a while 🥀