The Arctic Circle - Our First Audible of the Trip

Our original plan was to take a quick trip to St. Petersburg, taking advantage of the ability to spend 72 hours in Russia visa-free if coming via overnight ferry from Helsinki. However, as Russia/US relations became more and more strained by the day, we decided that going there without a visa might be more trouble than it was worth and we'd save St. Petersburg for our epic Russia/Ukraine trip (estimated date: 2044). Instead, we made a last minute decision to head up to northern Finland to try to see the Northern Lights.

We took the overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, a town right on the Arctic Circle, to test our luck. Mike was very impressed with the train.

Alexis, not so much.

So, Rovaniemi has two major seasons: it is very popular in the winter for all things Santa / Northern Lights / skiing / igloo hotels, etc. and also in the summer for the "midnight sun." Let's just say that for the rest of the year, there's not much to do - at least during the day.

Wait - take that back - there is the world's (second) northernmost McDonald's, which is obviously worth a visit all year round. Though it's still touted as the northernmost, we learned Russia has recently opened one a bit further north.

We stayed in a little cabin at the base of a ski mountain, where the only other occupants were a few ski jumpers training on the mountain.

While not much by way of formal activities, we managed to fill our days with some hiking, attempting to ride bikes, and trying out the local cuisine - most notably, reindeer!

Nice views hiking on the ski mountains - could have been convinced we were in New England:

Biking alone was hard enough for us. Clearly, taking pictures at the same time is way too much to ask. Not captured: Mike riding off the bike path at least 5 times in this process:

Suppose that should be surprsing to no one.

Nevertheless, we did finally make it to our destination (well maybe not exactly where we planned, but at least there was a table) for lunch:

As for the main event, we forced ourselves to stay up WAY past our bedtime (and the 10 PM sunset) to see the lights. We (at least Alexis) layered on pretty much every item of clothing in our packs, grabbed our headlamps and a bottle of Jameson. Standard Northern Lights hunting attire, we presumed.

We figured our best bet was to venture up the ski mountain and spent the next few hours staring up into the sky.

Despite two attempts, the conditions weren't quite right and we failed to see any real activity. And of course, after 1,600 km and two 10-hour train rides to chase the Northern Lights, we heard the following week that they were visible over Dublin. Regardless, while obviously we would have loved to see a show, the whole excursion was pretty unforgettable and was certainly an adventure.