Day 643 - Jokkmokk, Sweden
Or, “River’s Curve” in Lule Sámi
Hot tea in our bellies and a promise from Vladimir that he would send us some cool reindeer pictures and videos (see the gallery below), we piled back into our little rent-a-car and began our drive south to Jokkmokk, Sweden, a small town, well known as an important center of the Sami people.
A light snow began to fall, and once again, we were enveloped in blankets of white, surrounded by broad, lakes and endless miles of pine forest. The sky glowered, and an umbrella of black clouds hung above like a shroud above us. With each mile, the snow gathered force, and as beautiful as it was, driving became treacherous. Four hours later it was black as pitch as we wound along the Gulf of Finland and crossed the border back into Sweden
If the occasional road signposts we saw were any indication, this part of the world is important to the Sami people (who, my DNA tells me, are my distant genetic cousins on my mother's side), but I couldn't find much evidence of it. There is pride among these original peoples of Finland and Sweden, but many are marginalized or have forsaken, or been forced to forsake, their old Sami ways.
Once we made it to Jokkmokk though, more evidence of these folks began to surface. It's not a large town and as we pulled into our charming little hotel, it all looked like a Christmas fairy-tale, complete with a lovely steepled church surrounded by candle-lit luminaria. That, the Sami Museum, and the annual Sami/Lapland Fair and the town’s beautiful church are the main draws for Jokkmokk.
After dropping our bags at our charming hotel (Hotel Akerlund), we found Krog Lokal, a nearby restaurant -- excellent food, great service -- and sat by the big window taking in the solitude and snow. Turns out the woman that runs it is from California. Check our Vagabond Recommendations for more Finnish suggestions. Cyn and I quickly grew to love the serenity of this place.
The next morning, before we headed out to make our way to Helsinki, we walked among the snowy, frigid streets and explored the small frozen lake which was being prepared for young skaters and walked again over to the church and the museum.
Unfortunately we had arrived over the weekend and the museum was closed. The best I could manage was a picture in the snow of what a Sami house looked like. We were sorry to miss it, but it was time to roll if we were going to unload our rent-a-car and hop the night train to Helsinki ...
