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Today I headed to Finland's world famous Santa Claus Village [2]. Despite all the hype, it was a remarkably decent tourist attraction, provided you skimmed the thirty or so souvenir shops crammed into the entrance building. For a free attraction there were quite a few things to see. The main points of interest were the Santa Claus Office, Santa Claus' Post Office, and importantly, the Arctic Circle border.

Inside the main office you can stand in line to meet Santa, and also get your picture taken with him. While quite pricey ($40 AUD) I decided this would make a nice souvenir for the family (see below). Santa appeared proficient in quite a number of languages, this was not surprising as I later found out that the village saw over half a million tourists just one month prior (if memory serves correctly). I did however feel a tad sorry for the old chap, being camera flashed a couple thousand times a day must be quite draining.

Next I wandered over to the post office, where I sent home the photo along with a postcard. Inside the office was a blackboard which said that Santa has received about 11.8 million letters so far, from 195 countries; and that during peak season he can receive about 32,000 a day.

Probably the best part was getting to stand at the Arctic Circle border. While largely symbolic (the actual line varies over time), it was still pretty cool for my first in 'the Arctic'. I knew however that in a month's time I was to venture much further north than Rovaniemi.

On the way home I met a group of French Canadian exchange students. Studying design engineering and management, they were a surprisingly receptive bunch. They had the interesting idea of getting each person they met to write an entry in their travel diary. I wrote something about it being my lifelong mission to track down Santa and thank him for all the crappy presents I had received over the years. Before hopping off we agreed to meet up later that evening for a drink.

 Back at the hostel I met a nice girl from The Netherlands. She was having some difficulty getting into the room with her key, after helping her unlock the door I stayed and chatted for a few minutes. A little later I invited her share some dinner with me, seeing as it was my last night and I was cooking up everything I had. She was to join me for a drink with the Canadians, but jet lag was clearly taking its toll, and she opted out later on.

I ventured out a bit later to meet with the French Canadians. With a large number of night time establishments, I could see why Rovaniemi is considered the 'capital of Lapland'. As we would discover, beers in Finland were remarkably pricey, with a single jug going for 25€ ($40 AUD). Given we all had early starts, we called it a night after the one round. Still, it was nice to spend an evening with some friendly folk.

Me and Santa Claus

Arctic Circle Border

Santa Claus Office