Subject: Arctic trip

By Luu Nguyen, CPMT Fellow, while on Fullbright Fellowship for Packaging in Helsinki

Well, I took a 2-day trip past the Arctic Circle this Christmas and made it
back in one piece.

- Fly Helsinki to Kemi (located beneath the Arctic Circle, on the Gulf of
Bothnia): The plane landed in blinding snow, howling wind, and -20C
weather. Walking from the plane to the arrival gate was quite a
challenge. It was only about 100 m away, but it was tough to walk without
being blown sideways. My first thought was that with this weather, I will
be spending the whole 2-day vacation watching TV in the hotel
room. Luckily, the weather cleared up the next day for the boat cruise.
- Snowmobile: I was the only tourist on Saturday 12/21, so I got the
guide's full attention. I had several layers of clothes on: thermal
underwear, regular shirt, thick sweater, arctic bunny suit, crash helmet,
goggles, heavy scarfs, and mittens. It was about -15C in the morning, but
when I zoomed on the frozen river at 50 km/h, the wind chill must be in the
-50C. Even though the driving handles of the snowmobile were heated, my
fingers got numb within 30 min. Gripping the accelerator was painful on
the return trip at night when the temperature dropped even
further. Driving on the river bed and seeing the sun (on the way out) and
moon (on the return trip) on the horizon was quite a sight. Near the
Arctic Circle, the sun and the moon do not rise higher than the
horizon. And with the long winter nights, we get only a few hours of
daylight each day. 10 am looked the same as 10 pm: Dark. Without the
snow to reflect light, it would look even bleaker.
- Ice breaker cruise: It was quite a treat to see the ship running full
steam, crunching 1 m thick ice as if it were made of rice paper. The ship
can in theory crunch over 8 m thick ice. This year, the ice is "thin"
(only a few meters) due to "warmer" weather than normal. It was "only"
-16C, but the boat was going fast and the wind chill did not help. When
the ice crystals hit the face, it feels like being sandblasted. The boat
stopped about 1 hr from shore to allow passengers to change to arctic
survival gear and jump into the water. It was freaking cold. I was told
that last year, some of these guys jump in without the survival
gear. After the dip, they ran back to the boat to warm up in the
sauna. One has to be born here to consider that sort of thing as fun.
- Train ride from Kemi to Rovaniemi: 1 hr train ride through the
postcard-worthy snowy landscape.
- Rovaniemi: Located just a few miles below the Arctic Circle. There
were too many tourists (Europeans, Russians, and Japanese) this time of the
year. They came by bus loads. Things were handled like a production
shop. One batch of tourists leaves, the next set arrives and get ready for
all the tours and safaris, and so on.
- Lapp ceremony: This is the official ceremony offered by the Lapps
(inhabitants of Lapland) to those who crossed the Arctic Circle. They
stuck a reindeer horn on your head, mumbled something (supposedly to ward
off evil). Afterwards, they stuck fingers into the ashes of a burning fire and
wiped the ashes on everybody's forehead. This is supposed to bring good
luck. Reindeer milk was offered as a token of hospitality.
- More snowmobile ride: The gear from this second safari outfit was
lousier than the first one. My goggles kept on fogging up while driving
the snowmobile. I had to remove the mitten from my left hand to clean the
condensation quite often while driving to keep up with the convoy. The
hand went numb quite rapidly several times. Luckily, with the batch of old
and young tourists, the snowmobile convoy traveled at a relatively slow
pace, between 20 to 30 km/h. It was quite a sight to see the convoy of
some 20 to 30 snowmobiles stretch out on the ice. Kids were pulled in big
sleds.
- Aurora Borealis: I walked outside along the
river bed, away from the city lights. The temperature was about -30C
without the wind. Hands went numb in a matter of seconds without
gloves. It was dark but I did not see any Northern Lights,
unfortunately. The only ones that I saw were displayed in the Arktikum,
the Arctic Museum. The interesting fact I learned from the museum was that
in this climate, one needs to eat at least 4500 calories/day to survive,
and that the Lapps eat raw freshly killed reindeer and whale meat. The
museum had quite a number of displays, including histories of several of
the earlier expeditions to the North Pole and how they packed.
- Reindeer racing: I got in a sled pulled by a reindeer around a track
and obtained my reindeer driver license - "valid for 5 years." This will
be a useful reminder the next time I am stuck in traffic on 101.
- Reindeer meat: This is what happened to reindeers that don't do well at
performance reviews time. I had it three times so far in Finland. The Finnish
reindeer dish consisted of boiled meat slapped on top of a mountain of
wheat of potato ringed with wild berry sauce. Definitely not TV Food
Gourmet material. My last dinner in Rovaniemi was a regular burger at
McDonald. I have now eaten at McDonalds across most of Europe and Asia,
and can certify that McDonald excels at consistency - providing the same
"bad" food everywhere. No wonder that they are trying to spice up the menu.
- I skipped the visit to Santa Claus Park and the ice fishing, and also
decided against the husky "driving license." I did not feel like arguing
with a bunch of wolf-like dogs in -30C weather on whether they should turn
left or right. I skipped also a trip to the Northern tip of Finland, which
was recommended by people at school.

It was a good experience. Worth a visit to find out what it feels like
being thermally cycled down below -40C. Worth a second visit if one truly
likes winter sports and the feel of being a popsicle.