We spent the last three nights of August in Rovaniemi. It was my fourth time there, the last time being twenty-one years ago, yet Mark’s first time. On the walk to our hostel we visited the Aalto Centre. The whole place seemed to be under construction (not a surprise on this trip) and we wondered if we would be able to go into any of the buildings at all. The first building we saw was Lappia Hall and some people did go in and come out. I could see from the posted hours that the place would close at 4 p.m., so we were lucky to make it in time to have a look around. We walked around the ground floor and saw the displays and read about the history of the hall and Aalto’s life. Although the upstairs was roped off, we saw a few people come downstairs so we hopped over the velvet rope to have a look for ourselves. No one stopped us. It was a pleasant waiting area with café for theatergoers. We continued to look around and I wanted to see what the stage looked like. I opened the door that led to the balcony seating and was surprised to see a play in full dress rehearsal. We made not a sound and didn’t disturb the performance. That explained where all those mysterious voices were emanating from.
We talked to two employees at the cashiers desk by the gift shop and I shared my memories of the city and Mark talked about his love of architecture and Aalto. It did not escape me when we entered Lappia that the City Library, located next door, was fenced off. We wondered about the work project and when the buildings might reopen. We heard good news: the library was scheduled to reopen on Monday morning, which was the day we were flying back to Helsinki. Mark and I planned to get down there as soon as it reopened to have a look around. Since these were Aalto buildings (as were the ones in the centre square in Seinäjoki) and were therefore protected historical structures, any renovations had to conform to strict regulations and that often leads to delays.
Outside the Rovaniemi City Library on Friday, August 29. You can see some of the fencing that surrounded the place during the renovation. We would be allowed inside on Monday morning when the place reopened.
Rovaniemi City Hall renovation will be completed in December 2026
We headed up Rovakatu and along Pekankatu to Hostel Café Koti. It was a stylish café on the ground floor which we had to wend through with our luggage to get to the guest accommodation wing. During our time here, after we checked in, we rarely entered or exited through the café doors and used the guest-only entrance. The temperature in the vestibule there was stifling hot. Why was only that small area of the café/hostel so boiling in temperature? It was a race to tap your card to enter the second set of doors before you melted from the heatwave.
Our room faced the roundabout at Valtakatu and we enjoyed watching the cute motorized vehicles as they negotiated the tricky crossing manoeuvres at the roundabout while making deliveries. We experienced the hottest temperatures in Rovaniemi (as in Hanko), thus in the northernmost and southernmost destinations on this trip. Although by late August we fortunately didn’t need to coat ourselves in bug spray, I got a red nose because I didn’t wear sunscreen. We ate dinner at a Japanese buffet at Ozaki Teppanyaki in the Sampokeskus mall. I enjoyed this meal as I was starving and the food was really good. We walked to the Jätkänkynttilä (Lumberjack’s candle) bridge after:
The Jätkänkynttilä bridge is behind us, on photos taken the following afternoon
On our first night we walked around the city and found Arktikum, where I visited in 2002. We planned to go there tomorrow. On this trip we did a lot of walking, so I enjoyed the free sauna the hostel offered from 6-7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It was the perfect environment to relax, then have a coffee afterward in our room, before we headed out to dinner.
What I didn’t notice when I was last here in 2004, but which stunned me on this visit by its garish commercialism, was the exploitation of “Santa” in the names of hotels, restaurants and other businesses which clearly had no connection to the jolly red elf whatsoever. Santa Claus Village did exist 21 years ago but it seems now that Santa has invaded every aspect of the commercial centre. The Finnish name for Santa is joulupukki, yet I rarely saw this term, since the Santa places were clearly geared towards tourists. Although I love Christmas and start my decorating and preparations early, I have no interest in seeing Santa Claus Village–even with its unbelievable free admission (surely there must be ways to gouge the tourists of their euros once you get there)–in August. Souvenir stores in Rovaniemi are full of Christmas decorations, cards and other Christmas paraphernalia. I was rolling my eyes at the overpriced snow globes, which I am sure could be found at any Dollarama for one-tenth of the price. Since I have a particular fondness for the Finnish representation of joulupukki with his extremely long and narrow beard and trimless and sometimes sleeveless red coat, I bought four postcards of him (one of which shows joulupukki with a Sami reindeer herder) which I will display around my home this Christmas.
On Saturday morning we headed to Arktikum, which was a pleasant sight with the sun beating down on it from both the outside as well as the inside since on my last visit to the museum it was in January 2002 and the place was covered in snow.
Just before going into Arktikum on Saturday, August 30. We stored our backpacks and rollerblades in the free lockers.
Mark standing at the start of the long glass “thermometer” of Arktikum
When I reread my post about my first visit to Arktikum, I regretted not having had enough time to see the exhibit on Petsamo. This time I did see it at length, but it was the last exhibit I saw. The problem with the museum layout is that visitors don’t know what is being shown when they go through the exhibit doors. Yes, there is a map of the two floors which is how I knew the Petsamo exhibit was there in the first place, but once you’re standing in the thermometer hallways (upper and lower levels) you have no idea what’s behind each doorway unless you’ve memorized the floor plan. There were no signs or standing posters. The nameless doors led to a lot of unnecessary retracing of steps. I kept on reentering rooms I had seen before. I knew there was a Petsamo exhibit and I was determined to find it, and I told Mark later that if I hadn’t, I would have gone back to the front desk to ask where it was.
In my report from 2002, I wrote that the language of the exhibits was in four languages: Finnish, English, Swedish and Tunturi Sami. The latter two languages were no longer included.
Note at the bottom right of this screen the only other language choice to view it in is Finnish.
Mark at the Ounaskoski railway bridge during the afternoon of August 30
We wanted a Lapp dinner on Saturday evening so I researched some spots and the best choice, for menu items as well as price, ended up conveniently being in a restaurant around the corner from our hostel, the English-named Arctic Restaurant. I ordered the traditional sautéed reindeer main course.
On the following day, our last full day in Rovaniemi, I decided to check out the supposed second-hand bookstore located on the grounds of Lapin yliopisto. I was not expecting to shop there at all, since it was operated out of someone’s apartment and you had to schedule an appointment to visit it, and I had received no reply from the proprietor. Nevertheless I thought it would be interesting to walk through the university campus.
The bookstore was located in an apartment in this building
I ate my lunch in front of one university building then walked along Väylätie to Oijustie. I crossed the train tracks then headed along Ratakatu, where I met Mark at the train station. From there we embarked on an Aalto architectural walk which felt more like an Aalto wild goose chase because Mark wasn’t entirely sure where the Korkalovaara apartment buildings, which he wanted to see, even were. I was getting quite tired from the walk and we parted when we reached Kiveliöntie. Mark had his rollerblades but was not wearing them (I helped him by carrying one of them) but without me he could put them on and continue to explore in his search for these elusive two- and four-storey apartment buildings.
Mondrianish apartment buildings seen after turning onto Koskikatu from Kiveliöntie
We ate dinner at Curry Masala which specialized in Indian and Nepali cuisine.
The green northern lights effect projected onto the Arctic Light Hotel, taken at 9:24 p.m. on our last night in Rovaniemi
We were flying back to Helsinki on Monday yet wanted to see the library on its reopening. We waited outside for about ten minutes and a small crowd soon gathered.
Inside the Rovaniemi City Library just minutes after it opened. There was a shelf of games including this Finnish edition of Scrabble. The L and O are worth two points, the P is worth four and the B eight.
The shelves housing the Sámi collection (both sides). I took many photographs of books I was interested in, Fortunately, the book I was interested in the most, A Grammar of Skolt Saami by Timothy Feist is available in PDF format for free on-line. I downloaded it once I got home as I researched the titles I photographed:
We easily found the bus stop that would take us to the airport. This would be my first time at the Rovaniemi airport. All my other trips to Rovaniemi had been by train. I had taken one domestic Finnish flight before, from Helsinki to Ivalo (return) in 2007.
Waiting at Rovaniemi Airport