I lurrve travelling out of Arlanda*. Like the rest of Stockholm, the place is not crowded at all. Every place and every counter is mapped and boards placed at strategic positions, so that even simpletons like me won’t feel lost. For an airport, it is amazingly quiet, the stillness broken only by an occasional announcement that you don’t leave your bags unattended.
I e-checked-in on Saturday night, for a Sunday evening flight, walked straight to the check-in counter, dropped off the check-in luggage, and proceeded straight to the boarding counter. What takes 3 hours in India, takes less than an hour here! (Let me reiterate that Sweden is what it is today because of it's sparse population. The less the people, the easier to govern!)

Btw, you might want to fly Blue1 if you are travelling within Finland. Apart from competitive prices, they actually serve complimentary drinks.

I have to mention that my trip from Stockholm to Rovaniemi has been the most 'calmful' (if that is even a word) of trips. Having thot that my flight was on Sunday at 10:00, I had rushed and finished off everything only to discover that it was at 18:35. I relaxed the whole Sunday morning and noon just sleeping and watching ‘Friends’, followed thru with my timetable without a hitch! The only time I got agitated was at Helsinki when I was waiting to take the bus from the Vantaa airport to the railway station. The website I looked up said that it was only 15 minutes into the city center from the airport. But a girl at the bus stop said that it might take 30-45 minutes. I panicked. It was 21.00, the bus was at 21.35 and my train to Rovaniemi was at 22.30. I risked it, waited and took the bus, tho many a time, I was tempted to take a taxi. The bus thankfully dropped me off at 22.05 at the railway station3.
Some good to know info about travel in Helsinki (especially from the airport):
- Airport buses to certain hotels are free. Check with your hotel when travelling.
- There are many comfortable, deluxe airport buses that charge you just €5 to go into the city.
- Alternatively, you can take Bus 615, straight to the railway station. Tickets can be purchased at the vending machine at the bus stop or from the bus driver for €3.80. It’s a half-hour trip from the airport to the railway station and non-airport travel is not allowed on board this bus.

Good stuff. Obviously Helsinki isn’t a large city given that the airport is so close to the city center and ya, no traffic snarls.

The longest wait, however was at Rovaniemi, where I had to wait from 10.50 – 13.20 before my bus to Ranua came by. My host stayed in a village called Saari Käma (ya, sounds like the raga doesn’t it?) and there was no bus into there until then L

Some more good to know info:
Rovaniemi’s railway station is really small. There are no payphones, refreshment stalls or ‘pressbyran’ inside. There was only one plugpoint at the station and it was nowhere near a seat. So you can’t stay long on your laptop! And except for a restaurant, I didn’t see any shops nearby. Be adequately equipped.
I didn’t feel as lost as I thot I will be. As soon as I got off, I saw a lot of young Japanese tourists. Most of them seemed just out college.
As I write this sitting at the railway station, I’m the only non-staff around. Sigh! The place emptied out about half hour earlier. 20 minutes after my train arrived.

*the biggest airport in Stockholm