(Untitled)

[dherblay]

It is 1:45 in the morning in Ivalo, Finland, 300 km north of the Arctic Circle and ten days past the solstice; I've lost track of the sun as the northern horizon is obscured by trees and clouds but I've grown to accept that it's just never going to get dark. The south of Finland was shockingly green. We flew in over lightly undulating fields a

Comments

[mrissa]

angeyja said you were posting from Finland, and I am a great big Finnophile, and the main character of my novel tells people he's going to Ivalo, but actually he's going to Inari. Do you mind if I friend you to read what else you have to say about your trip? (No reciprocity necessarily implied.)

[dherblay]

I don't mind at all, though I can't promise much further posting; it all depends on where I can access the internet over the next two days before I leave for St. Petersburg.

[mrissa]

Of course enjoying your travel is more important than posting for me about it, but that's a pretty cool icon.

[dherblay]

And if I may pry, why would anyone claim to be going to Ivalo instead of admitting that he's going to Inari? Is Inari seen as too embarrassingly touristy? Is the nightlife in Ivalo so much hipper? (What I saw of it involved accordions.) Is it just the I thing?

[mrissa]

Because I write fantasy novels rather than straight-up historicals, so he doesn't admit he's going to Inari so that nobody guesses he's involved with the secret cabal of Finnish witches. But they're roughly the same direction from Helsinki.