Friday 18th: Getting to Kolari, hotel at Yllasjarvi, snowboarding

[ 54 pictures taken today. Here they all are: https://picasaweb.google.com/110144623598348247797/20110218?authkey=Gv1sRgCPOvo_Tw3Z3sXg# ]

When I woke up at about 7 or 8 the other guy I was sharing the cabin with was still there. We were supposed to arrive in Kolari at 10:20 or so, so I guessed then that Oulu, where he was getting off, must be reasonably close to Kolari. But he told me that the train was late by maybe two hours. Later, I think I must have misunderstood him because it was a fair bit later than that when we actually arrived. Oulu is actually roughly in the middle of Helsinki and Kolari, so this meant that we still had a long way to go on the train! We got to Oulu at about 8, and then I had the whole cabin to myself.

I ate my honey covered peanuts, cashews, and water. The scenery outside was amazing. Endless forest, covered in snow. Occasionally some wooden houses or huts. Sometimes a big frozen lake with a wooden village next to it.

This is some of what I saw of Oulu as we went past.

Another train opposite us, waiting at a station. Some underneath sections are frozen.

A train station building at a smaller village.

Sometimes the train would stop for long sections of time, in the middle of forest for some reason unknown to me.

A few times I tried to ask the ticket inspector how long it would be to Kolari, or what the name of the last station was. But he spoke very little english. Once, when I asked while in the passageway, he led me down to a cabin where the people inside knew some English and could translate for me.

We finally arrived at about 2:30. Four hours late! But it is understandable due to the weather.

The place where my hotel lies is something like 30km from Kolari. Kolari is just a small town of about 3800 people. According to the internet, there was supposed to be regular busses from the train station to the ski resorts where I was staying. I was really hoping this would be true. Luckily it was.

The bus was 11.5 euro. The driver spoke just a little english. He asked where I was going, to make sure I got to the right place. I tried to say the name of the town, Yllasjarvi, but I didn't have the right pronounciation. (I think that the Y is said like a U, and you have to roll the tongue a bit for the 'r' ) Luckily I had it written on paper, so I showed him. Apparently I was actually going to Saaga hotel. Yllasjarvi is 5km away from that.

The bus stopped right at the hotel. It was a reasonably big one, so several people got off there. I got checked into the hotel and went to my room. It was really nice.

I'm on the third floor. Out the window there is a balcony and a nice view.

This is the view from the stairs down to reception. This is inside behind glass, so it's nice and warm.

I would normally stay at a hostel, but there are no hostels up here. So I just stayed one night in this hotel before heading back. It was about 80 euros per night I think.

It was about 3:30 by this time. It looked like the sun was going down but I was keen to try and do some things here. I originally had thought I'd have quite a bit of time here today, but the train being late affected that. Going down the stairs, an English guy told me he thought there'd be about 1 hour of sunlight left. At the reception desk they said that it stays light until about 6, with the dusk light. But they also said that the temperature drops about 10 degrees once the sun goes down, and that I should probably wait until tomorrow to be doing outside stuff. Since I was heading back tomorrow, I had to ignore her suggestion.

The big skiing hill and hire places are very close to the hotel. The hotel is at the base of the mountain, as demonstrated by the stairs photo above. I went and hired a snowboard. I thought snowboarding would be reasonably easy. It really wasn't. Going down is quite easy, but speed increases quickly and then stopping is a big problem. My method of stopping was to try and put the board sideways a bit, then lose control and fall over. It's fairly effective.

Looking up the mountain to all the other slopes.

Imminent-action shot.

I only hired the board for an hour due to the oncoming very cold weather. I was getting fairly frustrated with the snowboarding and that I didn't pay for a lift pass. The guy at the hire shop said there was a free lift I could use, but it was really short, so each time I got to the top I had to spend a long time strapping myself into the board again and it was annoying. So, after a whiel I returned the board.

Me feeling a little pleased to be rid of the death board.

There were at least two pizza shops up here in this small resort. I think that Finnish people really love pizza. I do too, so this is good. I stopped in at Tikka Pizza. I got a margherrita pizza. In finland they seem to make the dough for each individual order, so that it is nice and fresh.

Often they force you to eat in the style of knife and fork by not cutting it into slices.

After that, I went to my hotel and had the first shower I'd had since the morning I left. Very much appreciated. I used their internet facilities, and later had a swim in their swimming pool and used their spa. (I packed swimming board shorts just for this) Before getting into the pool, there were signs saying I should have a shower first in the showers provided in the changing room. While doing that, there were several guys from the sauna romping around completely naked. Crazy european people.

It was a little strange to be swimming in the arctic circle. There was a bit of a window where you could see outside all the snow.

I was hopeful to see the northern lights. This is one of the best places to see them from, and it is a good time of year to see them. But unfortunately there was lots of cloud in the sky and a full moon so I didn't see anything. I will need to come back someday to see it.