- Travel on the Rail -

Part 7

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There is Santa Claus's house in Rovaniemi. Though we have not been invited and even have no presents for him, we are visiting there. It took about 20 minutes to get there by bus, from the bus stop behind the bus station near the train station. This is just on the border of the Arctic Circle.

Getting into the wide log cabin, we first found a sign board with greetings written in several languages, of course also with "Yokoso!" of Japanese. In the house, there are lots of souvenir stores, and I like walking around such a place. We were spending time looking at something like post cards, reindeer's meats, and so on.

The post office is in it, and if we post a letter here, we can get a postmark specially made by Santa Claus Village. I decided to write postcards with drinking coffee here with the company. I wrote 10 postcards here. It cost a lot, I noticed. But, it is OK! I will never come here again, maybe.

Then, Sant appeared, with the tinkle of a bell! We shook hands with him, had him put a sticker on our sweaters, and even could take pictures with him. For my thanks for him, I will invite him to my home at this Christmas. But actually, he is just on the staff of the post office. Oh, would it be good not showing you the trick?

We found a notebook to write down an address and a name. Writing them, we will be able to get a present at this Christmas. It seems to be for children, but naturally I wrote. Looking around here, lots of letters for Santa written by chidren all over the world are exhibited on the wall, with ones from Japan. Oh, how many languages can Santa speak?

We left Santa's house and went back to the town with reindeer's meats and furs as my souvenirs. We will get on the night train starting for Helsinki at 6:00 pm today. As having much time, we went to the library, 5 minutes on foot from the bus stop. We can listen to their libraries of records here. After thinking about what to listen, I chose "Finlandia" by Sibelius because I was just in Finland. Going to the reception with the record I chose and pointing to my seat, then I received headphones there and the record was played. I only needed to put the connector of the headphones into the jack on my seat. I sat on the sofa deeply and closed my eyes, listening to the musical masterpiece without thinking anything. I, however, was not used to listening to any classic musics, so was invited to fall asleep before I knew...

The express train for Helsinki starting at 18:00 has more than 10 cars, with seat cars and sleepers of the first and second class each, and also a diner. Taking as a comfortable seat as before, the train left the station, and I began eating sandwiches with the reindeer's meats I bought today. That is all of my today's supper. All I can do after it is a sleep.

I was awakened in the midnight again, by an argument between two men. I did not think that people here sang or hollered in a night train. I was dissapointed a little.

Just at eight o'clock in the morning, we arrived at Helsinki station. It is still dim, but commuter trains came one after another and lots of people from the trains went away out of the station quickly. We walk through the station house with a high roof as well, and we were supprised when we looked back! The station looks like a musium.

Arrived at Helsinki Station	Helsinki Station

"Well, what shall we do about the baggages?"
Thinking for a moment, after all, we decided to leave them lockers at the port. We are taking a ship tonight.

Tuomiokirkko and a tram

Walking for 20 minutes and leaving our baggages lockers, we, getting light, went first to Kouppatori, which was an open-air market. Vegitable stores, flower stores and so on are here, but they still look sleepy. We found a stand with a sign of "+20C" on a kettle. It was not so cold, but we were swallowed into the stand belching steam. We were hungry so bought coffee and donuts.

After that, we went to Tuomiokirkko. This is a symbolic building in this city. We came into it, and were washed our heart by its solemnity. In front of the church, it is a square called Senaatintori. A tram passed through over there. It matches well.

Well, I have to think about the flight back to Japan now. It may be better for me to reconfirm my reservation here. If I do not, my reservation will be canceled. We managed to find Aeroflot's office and went into it, in which the rumor had it that KGB's cameras were hidden. Two women are sitting at their desk.

"Can I reconfirm my reservation, please?"
"Sure!"
She received my ticket and typed something into her PC. Then, she got the ticket back to me with a smile soon.
"Well, I can feel easy now!"
However, behind her smile, some terrible fact was hidden. I did not know it then...

We ate lunch at the restaurant of Helsinki University. It may be a best meal after the ones we had for days. After that. we spent our time at the musium and the department store. "Stockmann", the biggest store in Helsinki, is in the center of the shopping street. It was so crowded that I lost signt of the companion there. Going to the port alone, then he showed up soon.

Now, we are going from here to Stockholm in Sweden. The ship we are getting on is "Silvia Regina" by Silja Line, with a displacement of 26,000 tons, a seating capasity of 2,000, and a parking capasity of 500 cars. It is like a hotel floating on the sea with a restaurants, bar, disco, and sauna. We can take it by free! It is a magic of "Eurail Pass".

"Well, why don't we enjoy tonight?"
Our hearts are light, but the purses are light also. After all, only a sauna and beds of all facilities were used by us. Also, for our dinner, we only had bread and ham bought in Helsinki.

The ship is sailing on Baltic Sea in the night, with the rich and the poor.

To be continued

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