Some nights a hostel bunk, while others at an airport bench.

A Midnight Sun Worth the Wait

“An airport express that never ran, a hike into mosquito season, summer solstice timing paid off.”

The flight to Rovaniemi left Helsinki at seven, short enough that I barely settled into the Finnair seat before we were already descending, and by twenty past eight I was back on solid, familiar ground. Second time in this town, second time inside the Arctic Circle. The first was two days before Christmas in 2023, all snow and dark four o'clock afternoons, Santa Claus Village lit up like something out of a postcard, a night spent inside an actual ice hotel. This time there would be no dark at all, which I still could not quite picture.