Posted by jukkahoo
"Look, the SUN!"
Levi was a very nice place to visit. Hullu Poro is apparently the place to be, but we managed just to visit the restaurant and eek! at the prices on the Menu. Valkea vaadin was more agreeable (and Hehku was even better), though a lot could be said about the size of the dessert I got. (Where's the photo, Jaakko?) The lamb was succulent. We missed Teemu Selänne and his cronies at Hullu Poro, but I managed to spot Nolla-Kojo at plane on the way back home.
Lots of snow and surprisingly decent weather for the whole of the week. It was cold when we landed in Kittilä International Airport (-17C), but after that it was mostly -2 to -10. Naturally the coldest days were also the days when I mostly ventured away from our cottage. As I was skiless, I was happy just to loiter around the house and take an occasional trek to downtown Levi. Seriously expensive beer here.
And it was dark. Sun supposedly came up around 10AM, but mostly it was far too cloudy to see any of it. Around 2PM it was almost dark again. Taru drove us to the top of mount Levi at the penultimate day and lo! and behold! - there it was, the sun - setting behind the mighty trees of British Colum... horizon, colouring the beautifully white vista of frozen North into a la(r)ger-than-life picture of Lapin Kulta -ad. It was muy caliente.
I enjoyed the trip. Sari was pretty extatic. Managed to read a few books (Oisin McGann: Gods and their Machines - good juvenile, Adam Roberts: Polystom - weird, but good, Liz Williams: Banner of Souls - Damned good!) and even to wrote down something maybe worth my while.
The best thing about the whole of trip was the stupefyingly out-of-mundane-existance one gets when you spend enough time in an environment where most of the things that you take for granted every day just suddenly cease to be there for you. Not that Levi (or is it really Sirkka?) is that out of touch from the Real World; they have a Hesburger and a netcafé and a spa etc. I just decided to have a private Jäniksen vuosi -experience for the heck of it.
And now my throat is troubling me, I'm running a mild fever and the hospital decided to delight me with a blood sample/CATscan for tomorrow/Wednesday. Sweet Saturnalia to you, too!
Comments