Lapland

YorkiePud_3

By the way .. if you get to the Post Office in the Santa Village, have them stamp your passport with the official North Pole stamp!!

Avalon_Fantasy

chuckles... I was reading Yorkiepuds post and I was remembering the first time we went so many years ago..
My memories as follows:
Arrived at airport for rather cheesy ill dressed father christmas silly tunes and more *FUN* than you could rattle sleigh-bells too...
Eee gads..................
Suffered flight of exceedingly merry cosmos staff (personally I would have stuck them on the wings but I`m led to believe this is not cricket..L)
However..................................

OMG.. now this is where you either write in droves and say what BS or just read and have a wee smile.. seriously as I describe then so did it occur in all honesty.
There was an announcement on this dire flight that we were approaching our final? destination.. anyway.. I looked out of the window in the hopes of NOT attracting tha Happy cosmos rep.. and for some reason my eyes caught sight of twinkling lights..

Ok, so not so odd you will say, but I fly all over, have done so for years and I suspect I`ve wracked up gazzilions of frequent flier miles..I had never seen anything like this particular phenomenon.
There in the sky (not the ground nor a reflection) was the most bizarre sight, all twinkling like a castle in the sky it really was quite extraordinary.. having been back a load of times since then I have never seen the like again...
I cant say what it was except that it did rather look like the old faerie stories.. ok so now Ive sent my credabilty down the pipe I`l add more...

Curiosor and curiosor "Said Alice"..well there we were at the hotel, cant remember which this time it was so long ago, anyway, Father Christmas and Elves turn up and do the gift giving ect, my son was 4 then.. (hes almost 19 now so you can see how long ago it was..L)

Anyway, we as a family dashed out to go and wave goodbye ..so FC gets on his sleigh, the reindeer are all sparkly it was so very pretty, the elves caught hold of the back of the sleigh began singing suomi christmas songs and with a crisp 'crack ' of the reigns FC was off..........

We followed for a bit listening to the fantastic sound of jingling sleigh-bells and really lovely singing voices... we were the last ones left following..the pine trees looked perfect in the moonlight and all of a sudden there was silence..no bells, no songs only our footsteps..Father Christmas, entourage, bells and music had vanished into thin air!

It really was quite magical, and something I havent bothered to try to explain, I`m sure someone will give a try but quite frankly some memories be they easily explained away or not are not something I fancy being explained..
It was fun, it was magical it was the perfect thing despite the cosmos stuff (ugh) hence my return to Lapland over the many years..

Things like.. December time, the sun comes up around 11 am ish, sun sets around 1 or 2 pm ish.. hence you get around 2 to 3 hours of so called daylight, then its that wonderful opaque light that draws in as the day grows longer.. as you walk passed houses, there are 'snow lights' sunk into the snow to show the way to peoples doors, the snowlights give an almost ethereal glow to sparkling glitter snow.

The snow glitters more, I`m sure of it than here in the UK.
The snow is so powdery that it doesnt form snowballs in many places, you have to add water..you pick up handfuls of snow and it just filters through your gloves like fine powder..
Go get a finnish shower... stand beneath a tree and have someone bash the trunk.......
Its very funny when the snow showers down on you!

inspector_monkfish

Can you see the Northern Lights in Rovaniemi ?

Avalon_Fantasy

Yes you can see them, however will you see them is the question?
For the most part the rule of thumb is clear nights after 2 or 3 of those from October onwards you should see the arc or ribbons of light fluctuations..quite faint at first then a bit clearer and then going faint again, sometimes there is another showing, it really is dependant on atmospheric conditions at the time.
I would say this, that if you wish to see them by yourself which obviously you can do, try to find somewhere where there is no light pollution, ie street lights..
Start looking from the mid evening.. for the best chance to see..say from 9pm-ish

inspector_monkfish

Avalon_Fantasy wrote: »

Yes you can see them, however will you see them is the question?
For the most part the rule of thumb is clear nights after 2 or 3 of those from October onwards you should see the arc or ribbons of light fluctuations..quite faint at first then a bit clearer and then going faint again, sometimes there is another showing, it really is dependant on atmospheric conditions at the time.
I would say this, that if you wish to see them by yourself which obviously you can do, try to find somewhere where there is no light pollution, ie street lights..
Start looking from the mid evening.. for the best chance to see..say from 9pm-ish

Thanks for that.

I was just wondering if there was less chance/no chance of seeing the lights in Rovaniemi as it is in south lalpland, compared to going further north to Levi.

But i'm assuming from your reply, it really makes no difference where you are, just depends on weather conditions at the time. ie. clear skies, little cloud.

poe.tuesday

the more north you go the better chance there is of seeing them but there are never any assurances

inspector_monkfish

poe.tuesday wrote: »

the more north you go the better chance there is of seeing them but there are never any assurances

thanks poe.

so i shouldn't let that cloud my decision?

just that i have seen a good offer for roveniemi, and a slightly more expensive offer in levi

roveniemi suits better for dates, but mrs monkfish really wants to see northern lights

so i guess we could be equally disappointed or pleased at both locations?

Avalon_Fantasy

You can see the lights even in Helsinki, albeit very dimly, although I`m sure I saw some images from years back where they had a brilliant showing..but thats rare from what I have heard!
As with all things the farther up you go the better, the less light from homes and towns is better ect ect..
Oh something you might be interested in perhaps if you dont see them or feel the weather or time is prohibative, have you heard of the 'Arktikum'? its a museum thats very hard to miss, its shape is rather interesting .. a corridor of glass.. and its down by the river, it has a lot of information about the Sami people... Lapp culture ect. but I digress, they did have a light show that would show you what it was like.. of course this is second best obviously.

poe.tuesday

inspector_monkfish wrote: »

thanks poe.

so i shouldn't let that cloud my decision?

just that i have seen a good offer for roveniemi, and a slightly more expensive offer in levi

roveniemi suits better for dates, but mrs monkfish really wants to see northern lights

so i guess we could be equally disappointed or pleased at both locations?

given that there are never any assurances on seeing the northern lights I would not let this be the deciding factor on where you go - given that you have found a good deal, it suits you then go for it - you know it makes sence ;-)

then, when you have fallen in love with lapland you can go and get a cheapy deal for a week in the new year to saariselka and hopefully see the lights then :cool:

inspector_monkfish

aarrgghhh - deals have all gone !! :mad: