Northern Europe: From Rovaniemi to Kiruna via Pello

It was a travelling day for us. We requested the hotel front desk to organise a cab to bring us to the Rovaniemi bus station as public bus service hasn't start yet then, €30.10. The plan was to take the 10am bus to Pello, Finland (€22 per person), walked over to Pello, Sweden and continue on another bus ride (SEK 358 per person) to Kiruna. The stop on Pello (Finland) is Pellon Kirkko and the stop over at Sweden side is Pellohallen. 

Please remember that there is an hour difference between Sweden and Finland, with Finland an hour ahead. 

This is the Rovaniemi bus station that we went to get us to Pello, Finland. The 'platforms' were out in the open. There were 2 staffs in the station but they don't sell tickets, appears to be manning some parcels counters. 

So we were on the look out for our bus, once a bus pulled into 'platform' 2, we walked out to the bus. Payment was to the bus driver via credit card. We told the bus driver that we wanted to cross over to Sweden at Pello and if he could let us know when to get off. He very kindly told us that he would drop us off at the bridge. We were the only 3 passengers in the bus, all the way from Rovaniemi to Pello.

View was great along the way but it was raining so not great for photos. 

We were dropped off at the bridge and we walked over to Pellonhallen - which is a supermarket. 

We arrived in Pello, Finland at about 11:30am (Finland time) and our nex bus wasn't till 12:45pm (Sweden time). The bus stop in Sweden side is across the road from a supermarket (ICA Pellohallen), and this is very important because there is a cafe area. We bought some food from the fridge and they heated it up for us, there were also coffee/tea on sale. It was a machine coffee but hot beverage in a heated supermarket in a small town when one is waiting for a bus is a luxury. Also there is a public toilet around the corner of the supermarket. 

We initially stood outside the supermarket while waiting for the bus when it was close to the bus arrival time because it was warmer. The supermarket staffs were super kind and one of them came out to let us know that we needed to stand at the bus stop, else the bus will not stop. 

See that sign on the left? That's the bus stop

By the time we arrived in Kiruna, it was evening at around 4:35pm. We stayed a night in Kiruna as there is no more transport to get to Abisko where we wanted to get to. 

Side note: It felt like the winter views were black and white painting.