(no subject)

[andrew_jorgensen]

It is 1:45 in the morning in Ivalo, Finland, 300 km north of the Arctic Circle and ten days past the solstice; I've lost track of the sun as the northern horizon is obscured by trees and clouds but I've grown to accept that it's just never going to get dark. The south of Finland was shockingly green. We flew in over lightly undulating fields a brilliant shade of green. Not jade, or emerald, or malachite; the best analogy from my experience would be pond scum. Not the most appealing of associations but perhaps I'm talking about the expensive pond scum you buy from Tricker's for your ornamental pond. The land is largely flat -- we had to get a hundred klicks north of Rovaniemi before seeing anything like a hill -- and the borders of the lakes are more fractally arbitrary than a permanently rounded edge. I suspect that much of what we overflew was spongey. Bright green, full of lakes, infested with biting insects: I think I now understand why the Finns liked Minnesota so much. Up here there's a little more orange mixed into the green, a little more heathery. And the flora feels like the Sierra Nevadas without being all that far above sea level.

My attitude changed from "Oooh, Lapland! I sure do hope we see some reindeer" to "Get out of the god-damned road, you god-damned speedbumps" in about thirty minutes. They're everywhere. Down near Rovaniemi they're tagged and molting, but up here where it's on the whole chillier, they're less motley, and seem to be roaming free in herds of eight to fourteen. I have yet to see any dead along the side of the road, but I suspect that's due to some stereotypical fastidiousness I have just invented from whole air and imputed to the Finns without cause than to any shyness on the part of the reindeer.

Comments

[c-mantix.livejournal.com]

So, reindeer are to Lapland as kangaroos are to Australia?

It's interesting that the flora has the feel of that of the Sierra Nevada. It rather keeps you from a state of dépaysement total despite being half a world away...

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

I once drove north-south for the length of Australia. We had to change rental cars at one point, and we asked the agent about taking the interior route rather than the coastal road we were on. He said that it was almost certain that we'd hit a roo "and lose a headlight or your radio." We didn't consider this too scary, as we figured we only needed one headlight, and we never listened to the radio anyway. But we were perplexed as to how hitting a kangaroo would damage specifically the radio. Would it just pop out of the dashboard? "Yeah, we hit a kangaroo. We would have been fine except that the stereo hit me in the face." It was only later that we realized he meant the radiator.

[c-mantix.livejournal.com]

It was only later that we realized he meant the radiator.

Mwahaha! Just a wee, little pitfall of English as lingua franca!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

angeyja said you were posting from Finland, and I am a great big Finnophile, and the main character of my novel tells people he's going to Ivalo, but actually he's going to Inari. Do you mind if I friend you to read what else you have to say about your trip? (No reciprocity necessarily implied.)

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

I don't mind at all, though I can't promise much further posting; it all depends on where I can access the internet over the next two days before I leave for St. Petersburg.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Of course enjoying your travel is more important than posting for me about it, but that's a pretty cool icon.

[dherblay.livejournal.com]

And if I may pry, why would anyone claim to be going to Ivalo instead of admitting that he's going to Inari? Is Inari seen as too embarrassingly touristy? Is the nightlife in Ivalo so much hipper? (What I saw of it involved accordions.) Is it just the I thing?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Because I write fantasy novels rather than straight-up historicals, so he doesn't admit he's going to Inari so that nobody guesses he's involved with the secret cabal of Finnish witches. But they're roughly the same direction from Helsinki.