The alarm was set reasonably early but as usual, when we are here in Venejärvi, it's hard to get out of bed. After putting the alarm on snooze a couple of times, we finally dragged ourselves out of bed.

We needed to be up early too, this wasn’t just a run of the mill day when time wasn’t so important. We had to get from the depths of the Lappish forest, way up inside the Arctic Circle, to Helsinki. This journey was the first leg of a very long southbound journey that would eventually take us back home to New Zealand.

First things, first, apart from a final visit to the outside toilet, was to put the last of stuff in the suitcase and close it. With everything packed we made our way down from the cottage to the main house for some breakfast. As usual, it wasn’t quick either - coffee, cakes, porridge, breads, meat and cheese can never be eaten quickly.

After breakfast, we loaded up the car, said our goodbyes to Grandma and Tarja, and then started the drive south to Kemi. The route out of Venejärvi takes you through Sieppijärvi, so we stopped in at Maria’s other Grandma for coffee. We should have known that you can’t just have coffee when you visit a Finnish home but instead of just some biscuits, fresh waffles were the call of the day. And heaps of them, literally, the plate was being filled with fresh ones as quickly as we ate them. Smothered in jam and cream, they were divine.

Having eaten way too many waffles, we said our goodbyes and rolled out the door to the car. We were now on the way to Kemi. It wasn’t too bad a drive although the further we drove south the darker it seemed to get. It was probably due to having less snow; moonlight reflecting off white snow has a remarkable effect on the overall brightness.

Once we were in the apartment, Maria gave Joonas a call to check he was still going to drive us to the train station… and he had forgotten. It was Saturday evening and he’s had a few beers already so it was plan B. Pentti was in Oulu, 2 hours away, but on his back way back. Fingers crossed.

We had been watching the online status of the train and at first it seemed to be delayed by a couple of hours then it seemed to have made up some time. Pentti made it back to Kemi in good time and took us to the train station, only to find out the train hadn’t actually made up as much time as they predicted. We had no choice though but to take all our luggage out the car and wait on the cold, windy platform.

In the end the train was only 30 minutes late and we did a bit of a shuttle run to get all our bags onto the train, and then up the stairs to our cabin. Yep, these trains are double decker and pretty flash too. Our cabin had bunk beds and a private toilet and shower, pretty impressive for a train.

It was close to midnight by the time we got settled but there was time enough for a beer and tube of Pringles before bed. David, as he said, only brought one beer but it was a monster can. A whole litre of beer in one can!

The beds were incredibly comfy and with the gentle sway of the train, it wasn’t long before we were sound asleep.