We've finally come to rest after an eventful journey. Everyone was mightily relieved to land safely even if it was the wrong airport. It took about two hours to sort out busses to get us to Ivalo and they gave us meal vouchers for 32 euro. With this amount we were able to purchase one bottle of water, one bottle of fizzy flavoured orange juice, one tiny carton of milk and two sandwiches. That's a staggering price for what we got but we weren't in a position to negotiate! I wandered through a revolving door to the baggage hall but didn't realise I had left a secure zone till I tried to get back to the arrivals hall and the revolving door stopped much to the surprise of a Japanese woman who was heading in the opposite direction. Luckily it started again once I stepped back from the sensors designed to prevent egress. Now I was trapped and Gill had no idea where I had gone as she was queuing for our sandwiches. There was nothing for it but to walk around to the departures entrance and get back that way. I hadn't bargained for a long line of people waiting to have their bags x-rayed. I pleaded with a security man who let me go to the front of the queue. I had to put my small carry on bag through the scanner but to my dismay it was selected for further examination. I had a half bottle of water and that was confiscated. I tried explaining I was not flying but the withering look from the agent made me decide that silence and acquiescence was the wisest option. I was nervous that Gill would be frantically looking for me but I was now truly trapped as the agent insisted the bag had to be rescanned minus offending water bottle. Again there were frowns and she asked me to empty the bag completely. It transpired I had more suspicious items in the form of little plastic hand warming pouches filed with liquid. Luckily she agreed to let me keep these. I must have been giving off all the wrong nervous signals as she then decided to swab the bag to see if I had any drugs. Finally she let me go and I rushed to find Gill who was so annoyed at the inflated price of the airport cafe that she had no idea I had gone missing. We got in the bus and set off on the 250 km journey to Ivalo. The roads were covered with compacted snow and we drove through endless forests with hardly any habitation. We reached the airport not long after 1 am. One of the Finnair ground staff accompanied the bus to make sure everyone got to their destination. They had arranged taxis at a stopping off point to get about a dozen passengers to a ski resort. He also kindly rang the airport to see if anyone from Hertz would be there. To my amazement, the man from Hertz had come back to the airport to sort out our car for us. Picking up a car at that time of the morning after a 12 hour journey was not what I had planned! Driving in the dark on the 'wrong' side of the road, on snow, on unfamiliar roads was an added unwelcome bonus but we had no choice. We had to drive 150kms and I'm pleased to say the drive was without incident and we arrived just after 2.30 am. I had contacted the hotel and they had left our room key taped to the door of the hotel. We were in a block to the side overlooking the river. We fell into bed, glad to have finally got to out destination. I went out on our balcony the this morning and could see the river cutting a path through the snow. The water sounder loud in the silence. I had forgotten how thick snow deadens all sound. We had a good breakfast and set off to find the local supermarket where we stocked up for the next two days. Today, for the first time in my life, the sun never rose. It only got light around 9 am and by 3 pm it was dark. At midday it was not that bright..more like dusk. It's very disconcerting and I'm not sure what effect it's going to have. I guess we just have to get used to six hour days!