Ive met the real Santa and guess what - He's Finnish!

In my last blog I mentioned how Finland claims to be the home location for Santa.  That would be Ravaniemi.  This is the 5th time Ive crossed the Arctic circle on foot in the 3rd country.  Its also the second Santa home Ive visited.

This was the first time I really can recall being incredibly giddy while visiting a santa.  Santa's at malls have NOTHING on this guy.  There was something that was totally real about this man and the atmosphere and the beard and the clothing - it was all superb.

Oddly enough, I have now met 3 people who are terrified of Santa.  Tuija and her sister do not like Santa and refused to get within 10 feet of him.  Maybe terrified is the wrong word, but they didn't want anything to do with him.  They were however, very encouraging of me.  So much so that I got photos and video (if I can ever get the web site to work) of my visit with Santa.  The entire conversation was recorded.

My first impression of Santa was "Holy crap your shoes and socks rock!"  That is what made this Santa the best Ive ever met.

This place was very cool.  Open 364 days of the year, everyone can come and talk to Santa for free.  Santa, I think speaks 5 languages at least.  His elvish helpers are from around the world...I thought the elf I met was Russian, but Tuija says likely not.  I haven't met many Finnish people so maybe he's just got what I would equate to a Russian accent but he's really Finnish and I just can't tell.  No matter, I like to believe he was Russian - and tall, very unelvish.

Diagram explaining how Santa slows down the Earth's rotation
in order to make his deliveries.