Arctic Circle – July 28, 2012

Oulu

After parking we head to Kauppatori Market Square where you can buy fresh strawberries, all types of fish, shrimps, and crabs. At the market you find stands cooking up Finnish meatballs and lots of fresh fish.

Market

We stop at one of the stands and we get a meat plate full of meatballs, sausages, chicken, and garlic potatoes. We also get 2 fish plates with garlic salmon, herrings, garlic potatoes, and tartar sauce. The stand owners tell us not to eat outside because of the seagulls. The gulls dive down and attack people who are eating. There is no way I’m sharing my food with the seagulls so I insisted that we eat under the tent.

After lunch we go into the indoor market to try the strawberry cream cake. The strawberries are local to this area of Finland and we hear they are delicious. The rumors are true, the cake is really good. I want more.

After the cake we hit the road to Rovaneimi, the official residence of Santa Clause.

Going to see Santa

We arrive in Rovaneimi and we go straight to see Santa Clause’s village in the Arctic Circle. Santa Clause lives in Rovaneimi… but he’s not there. We look around but there’s no trace of Santa, I bet he is checking on his elves in the North Pole.

Next we head to Nili where they serve traditional Lapland dishes. We arrive at the restaurant and try to go inside but the door won’t open so I start knocking on the door. Finally after lots of knocking a lady opens the door and I say, “Are y’all open?” The lady replies, “No. we are only open if a lot of people are here to eat, normally we close around 9:00 p.m.” The lady then closed the door so I took a look next door at a Tex Mex restaurant. The Tex-Mex restaurant is full and the Lapland restaurant is empty. We decided to go next door to the Tex Mex place where I get the “burning burger” with red chilli peppers all over it. Of course, the burger is no match for a real life Texan like myself, who eats peppers for desert. But the burger is still pretty good for the Arctic Circle. Good Night.