We made a quick exit from our ill-fated, mosquito invested camp spot
and headed east towards the border with Finland. This involved a
ferry crossing over a lake (free again, thank you Swedish government)
that we managed to miss by only a minute.
This meant the race was on. Will Marea be able to cook up a super,
hearty omlette for breakfast in less than half an hour!!! Of course
she could :-) Breakfast was served just was the ferry gates were
opening. The next race was could Daniel eat his omlette in the 7
minutes it took for the ferry to cross before he had to drive off.
Again, easy - done with a minute to spare!!
We arrived at Övertorneá, again found all our left over Swedish money,
including the 50 kroner in Marea's back pocket, spent it on gas and
headed over the bridge to Finland!!
We couldn't come all the way fand ignore the big red jolly fat man!!
So first stop in Finland was Santa Claus' official office in
Napapiiri. This is the place where all your letters to Santa go -
just on the Arctic circle. We were even lucky enough to go into
Santa's office and meet the man himself!! He was of course a very
nice man, but I did have to correct him and tell him he wouldn't visit
Tahiti before New Zealand when doing his Christmas rounds as Tahiti is
on the wrong side of the international dateline. He said he'll have
to check his Reindeer Navigation System. We also got to play with the
switches that make rain, thunder and lightning (if there were any 4th
of July thunder storms around the world at about 5.30 pm - you can
blame Marea!!).
Visiting the jolly fat man was just what the doctor ordered for these
poor sleep deprived travellers. Whilst we mostly keep good humor, lack
of sleep, persistent buzzing and itchy ankles can bring on some
temporary irrritable grumps. Usually food is a good tonic but visiting
Santa was heart lifting and fun too.
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