Day 48 Part 1

Day 48 Part A "Arctic Circle"
-Sunday 15th August
Looked out the window this morning. Nice and sunny! Shorts and t-shirt for me. Forgot to put my jacket in my backpack. Nearly froze when we stepped out. "It's bound to warm up," I thought.
By the time we got to the Arctic Circle, the wind had picked up as well. They had to lever me off the warm No. 8 bus!! Smug Debbie remembered her jacket (see videos below). Anyway, as you can see, I got to stand on the actual line while pretending not to be cold. A couple of weeks ago we had no idea we would be here - another victory for macer_random_tours.com
I spotted an open fire in a type of teepee (they must have had some sort of history here) and my survival instincts had me in there like a flash. I was prepared to pay anything for the fire, the gritty lappish coffee and hot smoked salmon.
The owner took to us (poor Aussies a long way from home) and is going to set his wife the challenge of tracing my Finnish family history. Only charged us half price for the magnificent salmon!! .....Yes!!!
By the way, the Arctic Circle really is a white line - see the photo for proof! AND, just like the maps, it's even labelled!
Debbie was repeatedly tugging at my chilly shirt. "Can we see Santa yet?"
Yes...this is the REAL Santa's REAL home!! Here, you can visit Santa every day of the week .....don't know what happened to his reindeer....there were only huskies, reindeer grills and canned reindeer meat!!
Santa's house has elves who sell you things and work in the special post office.
The dark passageway to Santa's room was a bit freaky. Disturbing sound effects, giant ice cube bridges and a gigantic swinging pendulum had Debbie white knuckled.
An elf took us in to see Santa who was like all your favourite grandfathers rolled into one. The REAL Santa is the BEST!!!
I was impressed that you weren't having to put your hands in your pockets (all this was free) but, alas, Debbie did get a head of steam in the knicknakky shops!