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Friday, May 1, 2009

Day 6, Finland, Inari & Ivalo

There is plenty to do in Inari, although at first glance it appears to be in the middle of no where, look at a few of the tourist sites for Inari and you will find plenty of sports, Lapland activities, visits to Reindeer farms, felt making businesses and an artists trail that you can follow by yourself around to various local artists studios. However Inari may be most famous for the Sami Siida Museum so that is what we went to see. The Truth is I preferred the more intimate Sami Museum in Kirona, Sweden, but this one is on a level with international museums. It is full of technical, 3D, arty displays, with a sound track of a babbling brook, and then Sami ritual singing in the background. There is also an impressive display of Sami art. You can spend about an hour here, and there is also a cafe.


After this we took the bus back to Ivalo, where we waited for the flight to Helsinki. While in Ivalo we eat in the Hotel Kultahippu, highly recommended, intimate, dark wood, pub/restaurant. Then the biggest tip I can give you for Ivalo: If you are coming from the Kultahippu Hotel, in the direction of the main road, you will see on your right a sign for Playmobile, outside a shop that sells souvenirs, toys and other odds and ends. This is a cheap shop for souvenirs,but the gems are all in the basement. Once in the shop, you will see some stairs going down, there you will find a jumble sale of items, ranging from clothes to souvenirs. The prices here are much lower than upstairs, it really is a bargain basement. So rummage around, you are sure to find something. We saw reindeer antlers for 1 Euro, compared to about 15E in other places.

There is no bus service from Ivalo to the Ivalo airport so it is necessary to take a taxi - 17km, cost approximately 17 Euro).We flew Finair at 18:25 (170.45Euro), and arrived in Helsinki at 19:55. From the Helsinki Vantaa airport we took a bus to the centre(3.5 Euro), and the Hotel Glo is walking distance from the central bus terminal.

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