When I woke up Lødingen there was a fresh blanket of snow on the ground and it was still lightly falling from dull, gray skies. My clear skies of the night before were gone and I had a sneaking feeling it wasn't just in Lødingen. Looking at the weather online showed that it wasn't totally cloudy in Tromso just yet, but radar and forecasts told me it was coming. I was still a few hours away and it would likely be there when I was and would be staying for a few days. I was disappointed, but I had already done what I'd set out to do---I'd seen the aurora and I hadn't needed to drive all the way to Tromso.
Looking at the map and the time I had left I was pretty sure I could make it to Helsinki with a little time to wander around before catching an overnight ferry to Stockholm. I could just go straight back to Stockholm and chill out for a day, but I had hoped to at least catch a glimpse of Finland on my trip. After a little it of hemming and hawing I was set for Helsinki. It would be about 14 hours of driving after having just finished roughly 20 hours, but hopefully worth it. The trip would have me driving along the northern parts of Norway and Sweden into central Finland. It was easily the shortest day I'd had since getting here, making it the longest night in so many ways.
Turning inland from the fjords of the coast meant the roads were less winding and slightly wider most of the way, but it also brought colder weather. I drove across roads of solid ice, but packed hard with snow so they were actually easier to drive on than any of the winters roads before. The idea of driving 80mph on these roads was mind numbing, but if I didn't I'd have been flattened by the giant trucks with massive headlights (Scandinavians are all about being able to see). There were times when I was ahead of the clouds coming in. At one point I could see the moon about to rise over the mountains and wanted to take a picture. I had been standing out in the 10F cold waiting for it to crest the peak only to be thwarted by an incoming cloud. The coldest I knew for certain it got during the drive was just a few degrees above 0---the coldest I've ever personally experienced. It is, to put it mildly, really fucking cold.
The hours dragged on and the clouds finally won out over the skies, dashing any little hope I'd had for chancing a last glimpse of aurora before getting too far south. The cloud cover erased all signs of the beautiful world were just outside the ring of my headlights (which sucked, even without comparing them to the massive headlights mounted on the front or tops of just about everyone else's car). At that point it became just another blitzkrieg of a drive hardly worth noting...if it weren't for the fact that it just wouldn't end.
I drove until around 10pm or so before I started looking for a place to stop. Whether it was luck or just a difference in the region, I couldn't find a damn thing that was open by the time I'd gotten into Finland. What wasn't closed for the winter season didn't seem to stay open past 9pm, and many were much earlier than that. I would see signs for lodging only to find time after time they were closed. A few had signs with numbers you could call after hours, but with no cell service I never got to test just how late they were willing to accommodate. I finally came across a small city, called Oulu, that seemed to have a very active Saturday nightlife, but the only hotels I could find that were nearly full and wanted far too much for the priciest rooms.
I drove on for another half hour or so and gave in and tried to catch and hour or two of rest at a 24 hour gas station but I couldn't relax or get comfortable enough. I gave up on giving up and drove on, trying again and again only to find places closed. I reached a point where I was afraid to go on. Concentrating on driving was getting difficult and I was getting a headache from squinting. At another gas station I managed to fall asleep for a little over an hour. I don't know what woke up, but it woke me with a start and I was confused and disoriented. Long hours, short days, and sleep deprivation had gotten to me and I had a mild panic attack. It took me a few minutes to calm down and remember where I was and realize that nothing was wrong, but sleep was over.
I drove on until dawn when I came across the biggest city I've ran across in Finland so far, Jyväskylä. I found my old friend, the McDonalds, and hopped on their wifi to find some place to stay. The first two hotels that popped up were reasonably priced in the city center. I figured they would be easy to get to and headed into the city center. I found both of them with no problem as they were practically across the street from one another. What I couldn't find was a place to park. I drove round and round the confusing blocks, finding myself on roads that randomly ended in pedestrian streets. I could find the parking garage for one of the hotels but no way in and nowhere to park to get registered. The other hotel I couldn't even find the garage despite the signs pointing to it. I couldn't even see where to enter the hotel even if I knew what I was doing. I'd like to blame it on sleep deprivation, but I fear I'm just not smart enough for Finland. I ended up back at McDonald's and on their wifi until I found a decent place that wasn't in the city center and could see the parking lot in the pictures. Finally, after nearly 24 hours on the road I found a place to sleep. The long night was over.
Despite how tired I was I only slept 5 or 6 hours. I laid there debating what to do next. Roll over and sleep more, get up and finish the drive to Helsinki, or find food and just spend the whole night here in Jyväskylä. I once again consulted the weather and found that it was raining in Helsinki, and the more I thought it about it the less keen I was on hopping back into the car even if it was only 3 or 4 hours. So I've decided to stay the night where I am---after all I do have the room for the night. I'll head into Helsinki tomorrow with a couple hours before I have to be at the terminal for the overnight entry to Stockholm. Not how I wanted to end the vacation, but I thought it was better than forcing something I wasn't really feeling.
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