Birthday Musings

First of all - HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEATHER AND JOHN (if you are reading this)

Second, sorry that I haven't been updating this as much as I should be. BUT nothing exciting is happening. I finished work on Friday and have spent the weekend hanging out around the house. I am planning to hang in this area for the week, but will try to do some day trips. Next week is camping and the week after I will definitly have cool pics up of travelling and then it's home sweet home. So, I don't have any cool pics now, but hopefully in a few days.

Entertainment

This is one of my fav pics so far, but the truth be told.. . I just put it there to get your attention. Something got my attention and I just can't stop thinking about it and laughing, if you want to know what it was, click here.

Conserve Paper

Ah! I saw something very distressing today. Lapland is known for it's forest - and consequently like Canada, they are also known for their lumber and other tradeable, marketable tree based products. So, I guess what I saw today is death row for trees, this area stretches out for kilometers and kilometers, and it looks just like this the whole way. In the middle of the piles of trees (which are huge by the way, probably at least 20 feet) are train tracks, these trees are waiting for the train that will take them to Helsinki, to the pulp factory and will turn them into paper.
See these little matchsticks - they are HUGE trees, they just look tiny cause there are so many of them. This whole area smells like sawdust and you can see stacks of trees, birch, pine and cedar seem to be the most common (that I could identify anyway).
so please, conserve paper! or the reindeers will have no forests to play in and we will have no air to breathe.

Here I go again!

Well, it is coming to the end of this Finland adventure (1 month today and I will be on an airplane back to Kanada). So, I'm doing a bunch of cheesy touristy stuff with Heli, and it's been fun. Today there was some sort of Christmas festival in town . . . and we went to join in the fun! Heli insisted that I pet the reindeer, touch it's antlers and get my picture taken with it, all of which I did. But somehow, the picture with the kid in it was cuter to put up here. The reindeer was kinda one of the strangest things I'd ever seen. I felt like I should have been on candid camera or something. The antelers looked HUGE and like they were made of fun fur (kinda felt that way too) but apparently this is just the way they grow the reindeer in Lapland.

Me and Santa! Now this is a picture I couldn't not put up! I had to chase Santa cause he wanted to get out of the sun. Sorry big guy, I needed a picture to show my mom!
So here are Heli and I all bundled up ready for our "boat cruise" - which turned out to be in a long boat, essentially a large a canoe. haha. But it was fun, and interesting to see the city from a different angle.
A picture of the candle light bridge from the water.

And that's all folks, I'm not sure what kinda mischief I will get into shortly. But next week is my last week of placement (woo hoo!) and I'm hoping that I will have time to visit, up north to the Finland / Russia / Norway border areas - there's lots of nice hiking there; Tampere, Turku (there's a castle there) and maybe if I can find an english kayaking course I might spend a day on the water around helsinki but that is not definite yet. I'd also like to see Stockholm and Copenhagen, but I have big dreams and a little wallet, so we'll see what becomes of all this.

Until next time . . .

Photos

For some reason, I couldn't add these to my last post. But that's ok, cause they aren't as touristy anyway. At the arboritum that I walk past everyday on the way to work, there is this mother duck who has had babies. I have been trying to get a picture of them (they are growing so fast!) they are so cute and fuzzy. I snapped this one quickly on the way to the bus to the arctic circle yesterday. But it's hard to show how cute and little and fuzzy they are . . . I think there are 5 of them in this mess of duckling fuzz picture.

This is my favorite Finland picture so far. I love the way the sky is reflected in the water. I think I'm going to get out and try to take some more pictures today.

Adventure at the Arctic Circle

Heli and I spent the day at the official "arctic circle" line. . . it was filled with annoying Christmas music and over priced tourist shops, . . . but we still managed to have some fun despite all of this. Heli's favorite souvenier were these stuffed lambs - I'm still not really sure why.
My new friends ;)
George W. Bush Nesting Doll, haha, and that's all I really have to say about that. I contemplated buying one for the sheer humour of it - but I couldn't live with myself if I did.
One of the million Santa's because Santa is Finnish you know. This picture was taken after I missed the bus home, and was wandering around the forest.
Yup, that's right, I said wandering around the forest, "santa clause forest" at that.

Me! at the arctic circle (but I think that much is obvious)
Distances and directions to everywhere, except Canada :(
My new elf friend. . . . but for some reason the lady at the tourist information office told me that I was an adult and I had missed my chance to go to elf school. She didn't even ask me for id - just assumed I was an adult! biggest insult of my life ;)
And there was definitly a toss up among souveniers, but I think I would rather bring this one home than a George W. Bush one . . . but I'm sure you'll be happy to know, it is still at the store :)

Going to see Santa

For those of you who don't know shame on you! Santa Claus is from Finland (and apparently everyone knows this). Click here to hear the "real" story of Santa Claus Well I haven't had much to post about lately, so I thought that this story may be interesting to some of you. I'm planning on going to see the big guy in red and take some heinously touristy pictures on the line on the road that says "arctic circle", so I'll try to put those up later on the weekend for you! Talk to you all soon.

Perspective is Everything

The other day at work, a woman was asking me about Canada, she really wants to come and visit. Things like what season, what places she wanted to know (she also wants to drive across Canada in a week - I tried to explain that's not much of a vacation, she would be driving the whole time!) She was telling me about a recent trip to the US, and she couldnt' believe she was in America. As a little girl she had read stories and dreamed about this fantasy place, AMERICA, and she was so excited that she finally went to see this unknown but much talked about place. I was thinking about how it is the same with Europe, we all talk about europe and love european fashion and it is almost expected that you will go visit sometime in your late teens/early twenties. The funniest part of our conversation must have been when she told me "it must be easy to travel when you live in Canada, you are in the centre of everything!"

haha, I guess she forgot about the oceans on 3 sides of our country!

Back to Reality

Well vacation is over, time to do all that laundry and stuff that you don't seem to worry about while you are on vacation. I just thought I would post some pictures of my modern laundry room ;) I'm not even sure how to work some of these machines, or what they are for, but hey, at least they are free!

Helsinki Sucks

So, Caleb almost had me convinced that Helsinki isn't so bad, I mean look at the beautiful scenary.
This is the hostel where I stayed, the old olympic stadium from like 1952 (I think). They had the summer games here, it was kinda a cool place.
Reasons helsinki sucks - # 1 - Sky. 4:30 AM!! Obviously, I was not sleeping.

Reasons Helsinki Sucks # 2 - beautiful dresses. I can't afford :(
Umm, I think something is wrong with this noodle bar? (ok, that was bad, way too obvious!)
Smelling or eating, smellilng or eating, I couldn't decide.
Reasons Helsinki sucks # 3 - I kissed an angry donkey statue - and I think it made him angrier.

Although, the free jazz concerts everyday were a redeeming quality of Helsinki. I taped this because Caleb couldn't make it,k it's just a taste. It would have been great, had there not been snow flurries earlier in the morning (YES, that's right, SNOW - JULY 3 - :( Helsinki sucks))

Adventures with Caleb

My first sunset in Finland . . . it actually went down all the way. The next day was really dark and dreary, so I'm not sure if that's the reason that it looked like the sun actually set, or if the sun did actually set.
hahha, some art I found and I couldn't NOT take a picture. Too atonomatically (I don't know) correct naked people riding a polar bear through a forest of bear bottles.
Oh and did I mention that there was a drunk pig? hahaha, hilarious.

So, Caleb came to relieve my boredom, allow me to chatter endlessly in English (sorry, Caleb) and try to convince me that Helsinki/Finland is not all that bad, these were the results of his efforts. And he taught me how to take pictures of myself! (and that's it's ok to try 100 times before you get the right one, I'm not sure if this IS the right one, but I got too lazy to look through them all again).

Estonia

now that's what I call a castle, complete with dragon and everything (actually interestingly enough, it's the city hall in Tallinn)

Ah, souvenier shopping . . . too bad everything is at least 200 ek, ($20) . . . I"m poor! Hence, taking pictures of souveniers instead of bringing them home.


Bored at the ferry port.

doorway
church
flowers
yes - that sign does say, "alcoholics happy hour", know anyone who would like to attend?
crazy man

Latvia # 2

More photos of Riga - Latvia. Just because it is the most beautiful place in the world, and I couldn't resist posting more ;) Our lady of freedom - the three stars represent the 3 provinces in latvia.

Most dissappointing castle ever! You can't even go inside, because it is where the president of Latvia lives - I think he needs to take up a new residence somewhere, maybe purchase a new condo with a view of the sea.
Some old building. I had a tourist map with 20 sights to see, adn I saw them all, but at some point I started getting confused between what was an actual "sight to see" a landmark and what was just a beautiful old building.
Peaceful, beautiful, courtyard garden, I would have definitly spent some time here if I could get past the wrought iron fence ;)