Ivalo is a small town with a population of around 4,000 but it passes for a big town in this part of the world. They even have an airport, probably the farthest northern airport in the EU. I walked Ivalo each morning and once in the afternoon. There wasn’t a lot to see but I thought I would include a post anyway. Each time I walked the town, I passed a dozen or so people. No one ever spoke to me. The Finns are evidently a quiet people and don’t make small talk. The town was pretty much destroyed by the retreating German troops in 1944-1945 but they have rebuilt it.

Ivalo does get tourists though. In winter, the area has downhill and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, husky and reindeer sled rides, ice fishing, and northern lights sighting. In summer they have hiking and trekking, canoeing, fishing, mountain biking, gold panning, and more.

The busiest place in town from my little experience was what you can see in the first photo. Ivalo must be a huge boating community. I’m not sure what the smoke stack in the background is for but probably some industry.

The church in the second photo just seemed like a good representative photo for Ivalo. It looked pretty simple but nice.

With not much to see on the main street, I veered off into some small, quiet neighborhoods along the Ivalo River. You can see one in the third photo. How quiet was it? Check out the giant rabbit crossing the street in the back of the road. It was huge.

I saw a school on one walk and went in to check it out. The highlight was the football (soccer) field which you can see in the fourth photo. I wasn’t too surprised by the fake turf, with all long cold snowy winters that they have in Ivalo.

But as I walked down the field, I finally noticed the basketball hoop mounted above the soccer goal. Now that was a new one for me. It was a combination soccer and basketball field, something you don’t see every day.

If the NBA ever gets a player from Ivalo, we’ll know where he started out.