Short two day trip to eastern Finland (Ruka)

I heard that Mack Dawg had a crew (Jakkoo, Lauri, Ettala and Heikki) filming in Ruka. It was close enough to me to get in the car and drive the 400km to go check it out.

I´ve never really been on a film shoot without working before. So it felt good to leave the cameras behind (well actually they are in San Diego).

I did manage to take a couple of shots with the little camera.

Last time I was in northern Finland was on my first film trip after starting Robot Food. That was in November 2000, I think. Damn, over seven years ago...



There were like 50 Porsche´s at a hotel in Rovaniemi. Kind of unexpected. Germans and japanese people were driving them. Oh, and the finns claim Santa Claus live here in Rovaniemi. They have a huge Santa Land here... but we all know Santa is from Sweden.

Ruka, or part of it. It was 0 degrees this day, which is like 20-30 degrees warmer than normal.


I actually did a google image search for "terska" the other day... I was shocked when my face showed up.


Jaakko, Eero and Rasmus checking out some new edit of this music video Jaakko did for Lordi.


Heikki riding backwards. X-treme.


Larry with his 5 o´clock shadow.., I mean 5 week shadow.

If you don´t a have pin to use your visa in a cash machine you´re sorta screwed in Finland, at least in Lapland.
Went to a store to buy some finnish candy and Gin pre mixed drinks. I bought candy and alcohol for like €80 but they only accepted finnish visa cards. Not stoked. This was after I tried to fill up my car with gas in Ruka for over an hour. But the pre pay gas stations they had there only took finnsih visa cards too. After 45 min of asking around a resturant was kind enough to give me some cash from my card. Isn´t it 2008? Did Neil Armstrong not land on the moon 40 years ago?

On my way home I wanted to burn some cd´s to listen to. But I was out of luck. Looks like the finns likes to burn cd´s. Not that I could buy them anyway. The store didn´t accept foreign visa cards.


Look at what I could have taken home... Of course the gas station 10 meters away didn´t reject my card after dumping 80 liters of gas into the car. That would have been a sweet scene.


Had to try shopping for the Gin pre mixed long drinks again. They are really tasty. This is my 2nd attempt. But no, Alco (the govt liquor store) didn´t accept foreign visa cards either. Although they had a visa logo on the door. Pretty inconvenient.
Had to go to another restaurant for some cash back on the card.

AmEx knows.

What did I learn from this trip?

Ruka looks like a fun mtn. Would love to come here in the spring when the roads aren´t death traps.
Watching a film session without having to work was refreshing.
Bring cash next time.
Oh and recordable cd´s.

I did stop at Ikea in Haparanda on the way home. Bought some stuff for the parents and ate two €0.50 hot dogs.
And yes they take visa. I mean it´s Sweden!



Now back to work. I have a deadline for some rally car edits on Monday... And my local mtn Kåbdalis will have so much pow tomorrow. Damn.

Hope all is well with ya´ll.