Our trip to far far north Arctic Circle - Finland 2022 (27 September to 6 October 2022)

 27 September 2022 to 28 September 2022

After much planning and considerations, we are flying to Finland. We were supposed to go Finland in June/July but the air tickets were so expensive (SGD3k per pax) for Finnair economy that we decided that it is not worth it man. 

I took half day leave to settle some work before I went senja to pack. With our recent experience for Greece trip, we were definitely more organised. It’s good that Jianhui helped to bring most of the stuff back from Teck Whye to Senja. It’s tiring to pack but at least we are definitely more efficient this time round. 

After packing, we went to Lot 1 for Yakun coffee. Then we went back to Teck Whye for home-cooked food. We rested a while and took other stuff for the trip to bring back home. That’s the problem when most of the stuff are at Teck Whye. 

Then we finally completed our packing. And Lexuan finally slept around 10pm, just when we were about to go airport. At least she managed to take half an hour nap since it’s going to be long night. 

There are quite a lot of cabs so we managed to get a cab quite easily at the opposite bus stop. We reached airport (Terminal 1) about 11.15pm. 

At this time, there was a long queue. We did self check in and deposit our bags. We had supper + teh peng at Wang. Then we went in to all the way in. Don’t know why they always seem to allocate a gate at the far end to us. Since then, it was a long wait. While waiting, we went to toilet a few times and they kept on washing different toilets at this time. 

About 1.40am, we can finally board. Luckily, it was a smooth boarding process for this 2.40am flight. 

Qatar plane is definitely ready for World Cup as their pillows are about world cup and the kids’ toys too! With my talent in sleeping while taking off, I fell asleep quite quickly. Lexuan must be so tired that she slept too. 

They served us snacks and the banana muffin was really nice! After this, I fell asleep again until we had breakfast at Singapore time 9am. 

This flight seems faster (even though it was 8hrs+). I managed to watch Jurassic park movie which wasn’t very nice. We finally touched down Doha time 5.25am (Singapore time 10.25am). We landed somewhere near Gate C and walked towards Gate A. We took photo with the iconic yellow bear. The airport seems very crowded with a lot of people. Still not a lot of shops for shopping. 

We bought KFC (3 pieces chicken meal). Then I went to buy my World Cup soccer ball and Argentina key chain. I wanna buy Brazil or England but don’t have. We also bought a big bag of sweets (Chupa chips, mentos and fruit Tella) for lexuan. Think the big bag of sweets can last her for 3 months. 

Then we walked all the way back to Gate C93. With 3 hours+ transit but time seems to pass by so quickly. After going toilet one last time before boarding, it was already 7.50am. We took the escalator down and realised that we needed to take bus to board plane. We queued with the rest before one of the staff saw us and served us first. We boarded the plane around 8.25am for 8.50am flight. 

We got to eat again at doha time 10.25am. It seems like we are just eating non stop. I am not a fan of flight meal but Qatar meal is always nice! I ate beef with mashed potato. The mashed potato is nice! And I like it they they always serve with fruits as it is so refreshing to eat fruits on plane. 

This flight seems to be long. I ended up watching 2 cartoons, Bad Guys and Sing 2! Both movies are not bad! I like sing 2 especially there’s a scene which particular strikes me in my heart. The Koala in the movie was being told them he was not good enough by the talent hunter. He was disappointed and sad that he wanted to give up his dreams of getting his team to perform In a big theatre. His friend told him in the movie that we should never let someone you don’t even know say that you are not good enough. It’s so true, is it it? A lot of times, there are distractors around you, telling you that you are not good enough. We just got to believe in ourselves and fight for our dreams. 

Lexuan finally slept for about 2-3 hours by lying on me after complaining the flight is too long. Somehow, I also find this leg so long. 

Finally we touched down local time at 3.36pm. And so we finally landed at a new country. The airport looks so new, totally not what I am expecting. Toilets are nice too! Jianhui says it smells so IKEA. 

There was a long queue at the customs somehow. At least we are not rushing for time as we are staying at Hilton airport hotel. So excited to see that there are many other things to eat and there’s moomin shop + supermarket! 

The weather is really cold! Probably less than 10 degrees and it is raining. Even our natural heater, Lexuan is complaining that it’s cold!! We checked in our Hilton hotel around 5pm. It’s a nice room with extra bed for lexuan! The toilet floor is warm! It comes with bathtub too! 

We finally got to wash up after almost 24hrs surviving outside. We then walked over to have dinner. We bought a burger and fries, beer + apple juice + brownies for dinner. Burger is not that good haha. Maybe we should have tried the meatballs instead. We shopped for a while at the supermarket before we went back room. 

We were so tired that 3 of us slept at 8pm. 

29 September 2022

We woke up local time 6.30am. We washed up then we went Helsinki market for breakfast. I ordered Croissant and Americano and the Cold ham & salami burger. I finally got mood to shop and I bought quite a lot of moomin souvenir! Then we went back to the room. 

Lexuan is happily playing in the room. Jianhui went to get our car. Today seems like a gloomy, wet cold day as it kept on raining. After jianhui collected our car, it’s almost time to check out. 

Somehow, I really think Jianhui is so talented and a natural in driving. After not driving for so long, he has no problems driving any car overseas! It’s left hand drive somemore. I will need a lot of time to get used to the car and to left hand drive for sure. Haha. 

It’s a short drive to our 2nd hotel, Holiday Inn hotel. We were early and they allow us to check in early! Yeah! They have private parking lot at fee. The room is smaller than Hilton Airport hotel but it is still decent though somehow the pillow cases a bit smelly. Haha. We only have a king size bed so tonight 3 of us got to squeeze on the beds. The kids can play the toys at the lobby and this makes Lexuan very happy. Especially they have this table football so she is happy. 

We made it just in time for their lunch as their lunch time ending at 1.30pm. We had Pasta carbonara, fries, beer. We got the fruits and beef from the salad bar. The beef is not bad and Lexuan loves the whipped cream with fruits. Haha. 

After resting a while, we decided to take metro to city, 2 stops away. It was raining heavily so we got to borrow 2 umbrellas from the hotel. It’s quite a short walk to the metro. The train tickets cost us EUR5.6 for 2 Adult, Free for child under 7 years old. As usual, the moment we are waiting for train, Lexuan says she wants to go back. Haha. She didn’t take nap yet so naturally she is tired. We told her it’s only 2 stops and so she agreed to go with us. We took the train to Rautatuentori station. 

It was still raining and Lexuan also kept on saying she wants to go back hotel. So we quickly found a cafe to rest. At least she’s happy with her snacks. I quickly went Hard Rock Cafe to buy some shirts for my in-laws. Then we took train back to our hotel. 

We washed up and Jianhui cooked Maggie mee for lexuan. It’s early but we were ready to sleep at 7pm+ haha. 

Ended up we kept on waking up and amazed that we still got so much time to sleep. Haha. 

30 September 2022 

I woke up at 5am and decided to blog our trip. So I am pretty much to date. 

We decided to have buffet breakfast at our hotel! And the food is amazing! Love the croissant and mushrooms so much. Haha. We also tried Karelian Pies. Karelian pies are the traditional pasties of the Karelia region but well known all across Finland. It’s a rice crust filled with originally barley, potato, or buckwheat, but rice is the most common variation for the filling nowadays. 

Lexuan love playing at the playing area, especially the table football. After breakfast, we went back to the room first. Then we walked to metro. The weather seems to be better today. Today, we took 3 stops to Helsingin Yliopisto station. We walked to Helsinki Cathedral and senate square and managed to take some photos before it started raining again.

Lexuan kept on saying that she wanted to go back to the hotel. We had to bribe her with snickers bar.

Then we took train back to Rautatientori station (where we alighted yesterday). Jianhui had to carry her on his shoulders to Esplanadi Botanic Gardens. It was still raining when we were there. 

I managed to go Marimekko to do some shopping. Marimekko is a Finnish design company famous for its original prints and colors. It is commonly to see vivid colors and patterns with circles and stripes in Marimekko design. The shop didn’t sell

The shoes that my sis wanted. I was interested in their super small and light umbrella but it cost EUR50!

Then we walked back to station. Lexuan

bought her candy mix at the station there so this makes her a happy girl. When we reached our station, we finally see clear blue sky. 

We asked for late checkout at additional EUR10 per hour. So we could rest a bit in the hotel. Lexuan fell asleep from 1pm to 1.45pm. 

Then we checked out about 2pm.

We drove to McDonald’s for lunch. Our order took a while to come until we kinda rushing for time. We also went to the nearby supermarket to buy water and snacks just in case we got nothing to eat at Hanko. This turns out to be a good decision. 

So It’s about 114km to Hanko which takes about 1.5hrs without stopping. When we reached the town, we noticed that there weren’t a lot of cars or people. It’s relatively a quiet town. 

We reached the accommodation at around 5.30pm. Our place looks quite ulu with construction nearby.

And the best part is, the owner gave us “clues” to get our keys.

Solve this: 

Find a sunshade and there is a key box on the wall. Input the code 4125

Door code of the B stair is 6084

The problem is we cannot find the key box. After searching for a while, we finally found the key box and we input the code 4125. The box opens up and we retrieve the room key. 🤣

The room is nice with 2 beds. So Lexuan is excited to sleep with me on the other bed. After putting our things, we went to the school to collect race bib. Seems like it is a local race with not many participants. We are probably the only asians or Singaporeans. 

Then we decided to go back room since most shops seem closed and the town is so quiet. We ate Maggie mee and snacks for dinner. 

We slept around 9pm and I must say I had a good sleep. 

1 October 2022

We woke up early and went out to see Sunrise and had a short walk along the harbour? It’s cold in the morning. We also went to the Look out point near our accommodation. 

Then we drove to have breakfast at Stranden Bar & kitchen. We ordered their sandwiches, pies and tarts. Overall, the food is nice. Lexuan loves her Strawberry juice too. I would say it’s a nice place for breakfast. 

Then we went back to the room to relax. Jianhui got to get ready for half marathon at 1pm. He tested his Uniqlo heat tech pants and it seems comfortable to run. So this will be his attire - Tino yellow running tee, uniqlo pants and arm sleeves. 

He drove to the race site while we get ready to walk out to main road to cheer for him and the runners for the first 1km. Lexuan was excited to cheer for the runners and daddy! She also kinda knows how to walk back to our hotel by herself. 

I made hard boiled egg + milk for Lexuan. I also did 30 mins tabata in the room by watching Sylvia’s YouTube video. Jianhui constantly updated me of his progress with photos and distance markers. It’s good that he brought phone along! Though I would really love to be able to run with him. 

So proud and happy that he completed his first half marathon race in 2022 and first time in Finland! Haha. I wonder how he handles the stress of being our driver and preparing for a race. I remember when I went for Chicago marathon, I was feeling stressed and nervous before my race. To the point that I cannot really enjoy much until I completed the race. Hope that I can step up to be the driver and help to share the load. 💪🏻💪🏻

Lexuan didn’t want to sleep as she wanted to welcome her daddy back! So she finally fell asleep when Jianhui went to shower. Then it is snacking time for us haha. 

We went to supermarket about 5pm

And we actually spent EUR60! Lexuan was happily shopping as there was as a kid trolley for her to push. Then it’s dinner time! From the trip advisor review, we went to Hanko Brewing company as it has 4.9 rating. But, it turns out that they only serving beer with no food. So we went to the other end restaurant, Bravas with water view. 

We ordered Quesadilla with Salsa, Burger  (beef steak) comes with sweet potato, kids meal’s fried chicken and fries. The food is nice actually! We also ordered Cocktail - south side which is sweet and refreshing! Jianhui had his beer as usual. 

This pretty sums up our day and we need to go back to pack again.

We slept around 9pm… not too bad since we still have 8hrs of sleep given that we need to wake up 5am the next day. 

2 October 2022 

I didnt sleep well at all… maybe because I know that we had to wake up early for the early flight. I remember I dreamt of my family but cannot remember the details. For breakfast, we had egg, avocado and coffee. Lexuan also woke up early. 

We left about 6.40am and Lexuan was crying as she misses the rocks she picked up from the roads. She cried non stop and was really upset. Oh well. What can we do? We can’t possibly bring the rocks back right? 

Overall, the streets were well lit with street lights. Oh ya, Jianhui shared with me that in Finland, car headlights must always be on even daylight. This is something I didn’t know man. 

We stopped by to pump petrol and bought burger + doughnut at Mcdonald’s. Lexuan loves the doughnut. Don’t know why but we were taking longer than expected to reach airport. So we had to rush to airport. 

We had to find carpark P3B and it was quite difficult to find it. After circling for a while, we finally found it. Jianhui quickly returned the car keys and then we proceeded to do self check in. Jianhui did the self check in and it was a breeze. We are banana and drank milk before we entered the customs. 

There was no queue at security. We quickly walked to Gate 18. Near this gate, there’s a shop selling gourmet hotdog. It looks yummy! We ordered BIG hotdog and it’s nice! Lexuan also ate pink doughnut with small little marshamallows. She loves it. Haha. 

I also bought a cute Reindeer soft toy who is looking at me so cute that I got to buy it. I also bought ice cream for lexuan. Then it’s time for boarding. They do the boarding by group and if it is not your group to board, the gate will not open. We are in the last group to board the plane. 

We had to walk to the small air craft. It’s really a small plane and it’s a full flight. We can put our handcarry back bag at the bottom of our seat. I was surprised that they got serve us drinks. We tried the blueberry juice which I find it not bad. 

It’s a 1hr45mins flight and I am so glad that Lexuan managed to sleep for half an hour. When we touched down, rovaniemi was Raining and foggy. It was so foggy that I Didn’t even know that we were landing until I saw we were so close to the ground. 

By the time jianhui went to check our car and set up things, everybody from our flight has left. So this airport got no food or any shops outside de. Haha. 

We drove 3.5km to our accommodation, Glass Resort which was at Santa Claus village. The Glass Resort is so nice! Love the design and the loft unit (with 2 single beds on top). It comes with private hot tub and sauna too! Damn shiok la! It’s about SGD600+ per night. But if you check the price for winter period, it costs almost double of this price! 

We tried the hot tub and it was damn shiok! Initially, you will find the water too hot but you will eventually get used to it. Lexuan loves it too! Ours has the jets and can change colours too! 

After showering, we drove out to McDonald’s. Lexuan had her favourite doughnut again. We walked over to the 

K supermarket opposite the road to buy the essential food. 

Then we drove back. The Santa Claus souvenir shop is still open but Santa Claus has knocked off at 5pm. Haha. I took a look at the souvenir to have an idea of what to buy then we went back to our room. I know i wanna get the famous Nordic gnome dolls. So there are Tomte dolls that stand, sit, and ones that guard the front door.

Jianhui cooked Maggie mee + salmon for us! Today got extra ingredients! I was surprised that Lexuan likes Salmon too! 

We Slept around 9pm+ and I had quite a good sleep. For tonight, 3 of us sleeping together on the sofa bed. 

3 October 2022

Happy 39th Birthday to me! The last birthday before I reach the big 4! At this age, I am feeling very loved and blessed! I don’t ask for more but I just wish that people around me can be in good health and be happy always! 

We had Breakfast at Glass Resort Restaurant. Today’s weather looks good! So happy! Finally we get to see some clear blue sky. We decided that it would be good if we could check out at 2pm instead. So we were happy to be able to do Late check out 2pm for EUR45! 

We went back to our room and Lexuan was excited to play the hot tub. I managed to open it by myself. Haha. It was really nice to do this! 

Then of course it’s time to meet the Santa! This is off peak so there is no queue. We can write a message to Santa. And the photo with Santa cost us EUR35. I think when you are there you just will spend the money for the photo. I started my shopping spree and I bought quite a lot of 

souvenir! Hehe. I don’t dare to check my bills yet. Haha. 

As we need to go toilet, we decided to go back room first and then come back. I bought postcards to mail back home. Haha. The international stamp cost EUR2.25 but the stamps are really nice! I would have wanted to send more postcards if I got the time. Haha. 

Oh ya, we found the place where people can see us live on YouTube. So I told my family to look out for us. Haha. They did some screenshot of us. We also took some photos at the Arctic circle line. 

We went back to pack and checked out at 2pm. We can only find one restaurant that is open, Santa Salmon place. It is really a small place which only allows at most 10 people inside? And it sells only salmon. It cost EUR25. And the guy grills the salmon using something like fireplace. The salmon is huge and really yummy. Lexuan loves it too! 

Then we needed to find toilet. We finally realized the toilets are at Santa place there. When walking past the souvenir shop, I saw the reflective moomin that i wanted! And they also stock up the princess Barbie dolls! At first Lexuan wanted Elsa then changed to Ariel… I managed to convince Lexuan to get rapunzel instead (as it is cheaper and the Ariel has not legs which means that we cannot buy clothes for her to change?). So she’s a happy girl as earlier on she was crying badly because she didn’t get any toys.) Personally, I think our rapunzel doll is very pretty too! 

It was a short drive to Riverside luxury suites. It Is a Super nice apartment meant for 5 adults as we have 2 toilets, 1 shower room and 3 rooms (2 single beds in 2 rooms and 1 queen size bed). It faces the 

kemijoki river which is a super nice view! It comes with washing machine and dryer too! Oh ya, seems like people here like to use dishwasher as I see it in almost all accommodation. And I love their mugs and bowls, printed with reindeer print! So cute and nice! It somehow makes my coffee taste nicer. Talking about this, even their toilet paper is printed with prints! Haha. The best part of this place is, there is a Playground! Lexuan is so happy that she asked to play at the playground once we checked in. 

Then we headed to S supermarket, hoping to find the biscuits that we like but we didn’t manage to find. We also cannot find 

girl girl’s Halloween eyeball jelly. Maybe those are exclusive in Helsinki? 

We drove to locate one restaurant but it was closed. Haha. So we drove back. Anyway, I was feeling super tired by now. My body seems to be following Singapore timing as it is about 10pm singapore time. 

Jianhui cooked us the Korean Maggie mee with our Maggie mee’s MsG. Anyway, we aren’t that hungry from the super big salmon also. By the way, do you know 

Finland's tap water is among the highest quality in the world? It is safe to drink so we cooked our Maggie mee with the tap water since we bought sparkling water by mistake.

We had a good shower as the shower room is huge. There are 2 shower heads so basically 2 people can shower together though I think most people won’t do it. 

Lexuan slept at 8.15pm while Jianhui and I enjoyed the beer we bought! 

4 October 2022 

I had quite a good sleep though I kept on going toilet due to the beer before we slept. Lexuan woke me up about 5am and I went to her room to sleep with her. Then it’s morning. 

For breakfast, we had avocado and drank coffee, our kopi gao Siew dai. Then we got ready to go to the zoo. 

Ranua zoo is about 84km away and opens at 10am. It’s situated at a quiet and ulu place so it’s impossible for you to go if you don’t go on package tour or drive. 

The tickets cost us EUR60+ for 3 of us. So expensive right? And it’s really cold to walk outdoors. We need gloves if not our hands will be frozen. No wonder I see a lot of people wearing head scarf, thick jacket and gloves. Smart choice I must say. 

We saw many different kinds of owls (snowy owl), eagles, wild boar, fox, bear and reindeer. Somehow, the polar bear is hiding somewhere. We were out walking about 45 mins and we cannot stand the cold anymore until we wanted to go back. Lexuan was so tired that she asked her daddy to carry her on his shoulders. 

So we went back to cafe at the entrance there. We bought an Adult burger (comes with fries and drink) which cost EUR13. Lexuan also had her rainbow ice cream and her favourite strawberry juice. After this, we were ready to make our one hour drive back. 

We de tour to K supermarket but it’s really small so we ended up at S supermarket. Lexuan finally found her Halloween eyeballs. We bought 2 bottles of mineral water which turns out to be sparkling water (again). 

It’s home sweet home to our accommodation and it’s nice to just relax there and listening to songs. And so we decided to relax in our nice and cosy accommodation. 

We settled dinner in the room. Think we are ready to go back singapore now. It’s going to be a long day to fly from Rovaniemi to Helsinki; Helsinki to Doha and Doha to Singapore! By the time we were back in Singapore, it’s already 6 October 3pm+.

I am definitely not looking forward to our flights back home tomorrow! Jia you! 

5 October 2022 to 6 October 2022

Today is flight day! I woke up at 5.40am. I remember having a weird dream in which I forgot to rent a gown for my wedding day! Haha. In my dream, I have to scramble to look for make up artist too. Haha. What a weird dream.  

We had croissant + coffee. Quite a Nice breakfast before we fly. We left our nice accommodation about 7.15am. There is no rush since it’s only 8 minute drive to the airport. I guess the locals will go only go airport an hour plus in advance for such domestic flight. Checking in is a breeze. 

When we cleared the customs, we were told to pour away our hot water as it’s only allowed for kids under 2 years old. This is the first time we were been told to pour away our hot water meant for Lexuan’s milk. Oh well, what can we do? Lexuan can do with her milk but I think it’s more like a comfort drink for her especially we will be flying and being out for more than 24hrs. 

Inside this airport, there’s quite a big souvenir shop. So if you still wanna buy more souvenirs, you can get it here as well as there are a couple of nice gifts over here. In fact, I think this shop is operated by the same company as Santa village. I bought a nice coaster and luggage tag. 

Soon we can board the plane. Now I know the blueberry juice (from Nordic kitchen) served on Finnair is very nice. We tried buying blueberry juice from the supermarket but it wasn’t nice. Oh ya, they use Marimekko serviette on Finnair too! 

This is a bigger plane and the flight time

Is about 1hr. So we touched down about 10.30am. It’s amazing how fast they offload the luggage as we would get our luggage so fast. 

We had lunch at Burger King. Jianhui went to reccee the counter and noticed that there were a lot of Thai people queuing for our flight. We were worried so we also went to queue just in case. Luckily, they cleared the queue very quickly. We needed to do SG arrival online health declaration card and they also needed to check our vaccination status. We loitered outside for a while before we cleared the customs ar 2pm for our 5.20pm flight. 

We had plenty of time so we took our time to relax. We bought salmon soup and enjoyed our soup at the the 2nd level of Pier Zero. The salmon soup is nice! I like it! 

So happy to see another moomin shop inside the department hall! There are quite a lot of nice shops to shops in the airport actually. We slowly walked to gate 42 and as what we have expected, there were a lot of people at the boarding area. 

So happy to take the first leg of our flights back home. Though I think I would prefer to take direct flight back next time if I come Finland… 

Once we are on flight, they served us drinks and pretzels snacks. As for dinner, we had dinner which wasn’t that nice. I watched kungfu panda to kill time. For this leg, We slept about 2hours. We touched down Doha just before midnight. 

For transfer in Doha, we had to clear customs again so we must always remember that we cannot bring the water down the plane as we would have to throw it away after all. 

For this transit, we don’t have much time. So it’s good that we did our shopping when we fly to Finland last week. We ate KFC for snacks then we made our way to Gate 40. And we needed to take bus again. They gave us priority because of Lexuan. So we are like the first few to board the plane. 

It’s 2.35am flight so we are prepared to sleep. For this 8hrs+ flight, we slept about 4-5 hours. I watched 2 cartoons - Turning red and Encanto. Both not bad and good to waste time. 

The sandwiches were really nice but I didn’t like the normal meals (chicken teriyaki and rice / beef and mashed potato). Can’t believe it that we are finally reaching Singapore after being out since yesterday 7am+.

We touched down 4pm. The queue at customs is so slow. Oh well. Lucky I am not going back to work tomorrow. By now, I have having a bad headache and feeling giddy. 

Home sweet home. Happy to be home! And I really miss home cooked food and jap food! 

Overall, it was a great trip! It has been a while since we landed on a totally new country. I like Finland as it is peaceful and quiet. The airport looks new and all our accommodation looks nice too! Santa village is amazing! I would love to be back there during Christmas period (without the crowd though). It was a fulfilling time spent with Jianhui and Lexuan. I can see that Lexuan enjoyed herself a lot too! At her age now, she can remember things and I heard her sharing her stories with ah gong and ah Ma. 

As for now, I need to rest. Feeling so tired and sleepy. 

Good night!