Winter Wonderland in Rovaniemi
We were gobbling up all those delicious croissants as much as we could before leaving to board our train from Helsinki to a town up north in Lapland called Rovaniemi. It hadn’t snowed so far in Helsinki, although it was windy and temperature was just dancing around the fringes of zero.
And then there we were, sitting in the train admiring how Finland looks, when everything outside the train turned into black and white. There was snow throughout our way and it felt as if it was reflecting peace. Just seeing a white sheet all around made me calmer. There was something about the colors popping out of this monochrome as well whenever they did — they were like popcorns of happiness dancing in an otherwise stable cooker. All of this was still comparable to what I had seen in the movies because we had not stepped out of the train yet.
It was a journey close to 9 hours and traveling for that long in a combination of latitude and season like this meant losing daylight hours. When it ended, it was dark all around and we were loaded in clothes which didn’t give us the chance to feel the air. It was -18°C. We headed straight to our rented apartments and geared up for what was probably the biggest highlight of the trip — Northern Lights.
There was a lot of anticipation in the moments before we left. We started looking for a spot from where we could see the lights, all this while sitting in a minibus, and that meant going to the forests away from the city lights and pollution. We went to places upto -26°C. The feeling of just being around this much snow and being able to play with it, and also the pride and wonder about the fact that our bodies were able to tolerate this temperature was amazing.
Sometimes, you dream about something happening in a particular way and when it doesn’t happen, it’s disappointing. It makes you focus too much on the result you desired for and you lose your moments with the other happening things around you. So I don’t know what it was, maybe I was just tired, but when we did not see the lights, it didn’t turn out to be as big a deal as I would have imagined it to be, had I somehow looked into the future and saw what was going to happen that night. So off we went back into the winter wonderland, all the sadness having faded away in an aesthete’s heart.
Our next destination was the Santa Claus Village. This is the morning I let myself breathe in the extremely cool air around me and it was like magic. It sort of slowed down the rhythm inside my body as if it was trying to tell me to stop and appreciate it. This village was so far the most wondrous treat for my eyes. It was so pretty that I kept losing my way inside it, mesmerized by everything. We crossed the Arctic Circle, which didn’t make much of a difference in the surroundings because it couldn’t possibly get better, but now I can happily wear that on a T-shirt.
Followed by a visit to the Santa, we went for a Husky ride. The huskies were so coordinated and disciplined. They knew their ways around. They kept running through the snow, huffing to the point where it felt like they were barking out of excitement. The ride was dreamy, covering paths with snow wrapped up on everything as if nothing existed without it.
Days were shorter here, so there was not much time to see things in daylight, so we used to wake up early to catch these experiences. Our last day in this town, we went for snow mobiling. We went through what seemed like a frozen lake and then entered forests. On our way back, it was snowing and it resulted into the most thrilling and wonderful experience. I remember having this feeling, while riding the snow mobile and looking at the abundance of white, that this moment is perfect and if given a choice, I’d want to keep living this. I had sort of reached that place where my mind was happy in a peaceful manner, much more stable than an excited one.
It was my first snowfall and I hadn’t realised earlier that I loved snow so much. Sometimes, you go to a place as a tourist and it takes you to a different state of mind where you forget about your normal life. That also makes you blind towards the normal lives of the locals and their challenges. All you see is the beauty around you. What you forget is that beauty is a dynamic concept. It has a very short life and what seems so beautiful to you now has the power to make you feel depressed as well when you get used to it. It only thrives through constant changes. But then this is the place with the happiest people on the planet. What are they doing so well that we haven’t thought about? What if this winter wonderland is a special kind of beautiful — the one that doesn’t need to change to keep its charm and make you feel at peace, happy and at home?
I write all this on my way back through the same train. There’s no snowfall today. I’m not able to touch the snow, only see it from the inside and the snow around has not faded yet, but I realise it will, today or tomorrow or when this trip ends. But will I feel the same peace when I go back home? I hope Santa is listening.
PS. Many thanks to the ‘When In City’ group who came up with this itinerary and helped us enjoy these moments while they focused on organizing them.
