So with the new plan of stopping in Ivalo, Sunday morning I packed my bags and headed to the bus station.
Enroute to Ivalo
There was a Swedish woman who was also concerned she might take the wrong bus, but it turned up on time and in the right bay, to our relief. Not normally worth mentioning – I managed to board and grab the front seat with a great view out the windscreen – which proved very handy for photos.
I thought reindeer were meant to fly?
We travelled past lakes and through forests – the scenery in Finland is fantastic. Everything seems so clean, so fresh. I was also hanging out for some reindeer sightings, and was not disappointed – especially towards the end of the six or so hours, when a small herd of reindeer ran across the road in front of the bus. Emergency brakes and a small skid, I managed to keep steady and get a couple of shots off in time.
Delicious Rudolph for dinner
Hotel Kultahippu in Ivalo was very nice, with its own restaurant. It was It occured to me that it’d been ages since I’d been in a hotel, and it was with some smugness that I’d found their twin rooms were the same price as a single. Done! After exploring the one main street of the town and eyeing up the food options (basically fast food, or supermarket) I found that the restaurant in the hotel served reindeer. I thought I may give it a second chance, and it was the right choice, as this was cheaper and was realllly realllly good food. Tasty Rudolph successfully located and devoured!
Daylight, at midnight!
Finally, I had one more attraction for the evening to check out. At midnight I took my camera outdoors and took a photo of the midnight sun. To be fair at that moment the sun was behind clouds, but it still looked like midafternoon all around me, and the mind could not understand that almost every other day of my life, at this time of day it was normally dark. And for the first time in over 11 000 days for me, the sun would not be setting.
This got me thinking – I’d be quite keen to experience a midday night, now, and already leads to tentative thoughts about Greeland or Iceland…or both…but wow it’d be cold….
If you enjoyed this post, I’d really appreciate you clicking ‘Like’, tweeting it or sharing on your favourite social media site.
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
