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We arrived home today at about 12:30 A.M. Eastern. It was a long day... over 24 hours in transit from Nina's house. We are sad and glad to be back. Now just have to back post about 100 pictures. Keep checking here for more great pics of Finland!

Homeward bound

We are leaving out from the hotel in about 19 minutes. Now we have about 23 hours of travel until we reach GSO. It is going to be a long day...

Farewell Finland...

last day in finland

we are starting our last day in finland. currently christa and i are sitting around in a busniss center at our hotel waiting to get last minute confirmation of our flight plans for tomorrow. later this morning we are headed out to see a fortress on one of the islands surrounding helsinki. pics to come.

Tin Tin Tango

hungry and in need of some nourishment, we decided to find a local cafe where we could get some decent sandwitches. what we found, with the help of the hotel coneseur, was the Tin Tin Tango cafe & bar. A nice little shop serving some awesome sandwitches and croisants... as well as beer and some sort of holiday drink with nuts, berries, and insane amounts of vodka.

Don't mess with Texas

Sometimes there are things so big that they can't be contained... even by thousands of miles of water. Here, in the heart of Helsinki, we found a little part of Texas.

helsinki... again

We just got off the train from Jyväskylä to Helsinki. the train station is in the heart of the city and is the end of the line for all trains headed this direction. we will be spending the rest of the afternoon touring the city and shopping for last-minute souvenirs.

Train to Helsinki

The train ride to Helsinki was fun and relaxing... mostly. We had a lot of luggage, and carrying it up and down flights of stairs and through crowded rail cars wasn't fun, but did teach me that I should pack less or work-out more. In any case, Christa snapped a lot of photos on the way. (pics to come)

A sad farewell...

We left Nina, Janne, and the kids today. Nina drove us to the travel center in Jyväskylä and we had a tear-filled parting followed by a long train ride to Helsinki. We will miss our friends dearly.

Returning home...

We finished the last section of our tour to Lapland and arrived to a warm welcome home from Janne and the kids. Little Jimi just kept saying "Itti, Itti" (mommy mommy!). After some food and talk, we finished packing and lay down for our last night in Muurame.

Bells

Nina stopped for a short break at a small restaurant that just happend to be a small museum of bells. They had a few hundred bells ranging in size from hundreds of pounds to the size of a small thimble. Christa practically froze to death trying to get good pics. (pics to come).

A view of the frozen sea...

Today we awoke to snow falling heavily in Olou. After a quick breakfast, we headed out to see the frozen sea. (pics to come) After enjoying the view, we saddled up and headed out of Lapland.

Arctic Circle

After a day and a half of travel, we finally made it to the Arctic Circle! To celebrate, we all got our picture taken in front of an Arctic Circle sign... and a 20-foot tall snow-man!

Nina "Double-Dog-Dared" Ryan to take off his two coats, hat, and gloves for a picture at the Arctic circle in the dead of winter. Of course there was no way to avoid the Double-Dog-Dare. So here you go!

I wasn't pointing at the Arctic circle sign... my arm was frozen!

Seriously... this monster snowman was about 6 meters high.

Santa Park

We visitied Santa Park in Roviname. It is located under a mountain - one has to travel through a long corridor cut in the stone to reach Santa Claus. We found him to be quite the guy. At first we were quite stunned upon meeting him as the elves tricked us into thinking that Santa was only speaking Russian this day. Nina was initialy devastated at the news as she had driven us all the way to the arctic circle in order to have an audience with a guy that even she could not speak to. Eventually the little elf girl could not take it any-more and revealed that indeed Santa could speak English and Finnish. Santa mysteriously knew that we had traveled from North Carolina, that we had a dog named Otto, and knew all the towns in Finnland to which we had travelled. It was fun. :)

Negative 15

The big question we knew we would get when we got back to The States was "Was it cold?" Yep! And here is proof - check the reading on the thermometer... NEGATIVE 15!

Frozen Smiles

We stopped by a small park on the way up to take some pictures and stretch our legs. It was quite chilly... we snapped these picures and jumped back in the car. If our smiles look a bit strained, it was due to our lips being frozen to the front of our teeth!

Reindeer Roadkill

While driving through Lapland we saw several reindeer. They are tagged as they are hearded & semi-domesticated. Some were clever and sniffed out grass from under the snow. Others were roadkill waiting to happen.

Lapland

Today we headed out to travel through Lapland. Lapland is the large norther territory of Finland. Like the rest of the country, it has lots of trees, lakes, and snow. One thing it has unique is Reindeer, Arctic Circle, and Santa Claus.

Happy New Year!

The new year has started in Finland! (7 hours ahead of you East Coasters! & 11 hours ahead of my dear Hawaiian friends!) Ha!

It went off with a bang here. Unlike NC, anyone can buy big rockets here. So come new years, the whole city lights up with fireworks from nearly every house. Janne & Nina got a pack of the big ones and we blasted them into the air. The kids also had fun with their sparkels, bottle rockets, and cherry bombs.

Cold

Everyone has wanted to know how cold it is here.... so far, not bad. The temperature hasn't fallen too much below freezing on any day and the weather has been quite nice. Every now and then the wind will pick up and you can get a bit chilled. Not a problem though, just bundle up!

Late night update

I finally got a spare moment in which to blog. The last few days have been quite fun. I'll back-post the pictures. :)

Friends!

Christa and Nina enjoying a tour of the neighborhood.

Vacationing!

Hockey!

Janne & Jonas took Ryan and I to a hockey game tonight. It was a blast. Both teams played hard and the game had to go into overtime and then into a shoot-out. Although the home team did not win, it was still fun. We got to see some good hits and great skating & shooting. Oh, and we had some Finnish sausage that is traditional to have at the games.

Jimi!

No one can resist getting their picture made with Jimi!

Lake Walking

We took a short walk to one of the over 180 THOUSAND lakes here in Finland. The view was beautiful. Janne was kind enough to show us how to walk on water!

Turkish Chicken and Finnish Beer!

After a long day of touring around Helsinki, Ryan managed to find us a great restaraunt where we got some Turkish chicken kabobs and some Finish beer. Delicious!

Stockman

At the far end of the park is Stockman, the largest store in the city. All the storefront windows were decorated for Christmas!

Park Statue

Right next to the harbor is a park which extends perhaps 6 blocks into the city. This statue in the park faces the harbor.

Harbor Fountain

There were many fountains and statues throughout the city. This one by the Harbor was one of my favorites. The little seals looked like they were having a blast.

Cathedral

This Lutheran Cathedral is centrally located in Helsinki. It sits atop a hill perhaps 50 feet above a large square with a marvelous fountain. We visited the church and took a few photos of the interior. I was able to convince a Finish couple to take a picture of the three of us in front of the fountain.

morning fun

managed to sleep some last night. christa & I had some breakfast this
morning. it was great - salmon, fruit, crosiants, & english tea.
(Ryan was still sleeping) we got back to room and I proceeded to blow
out a circuit and break a hair dryer using the wrong voltage
converter! it is cold & wet, but we are headed out to explore the
city. hopefully get some good pics!!! I'll share them if I can get
to an internet cafe. :)

phones...

note: when dialing out of finland, you must dial 990 first!

helsinki

we arrived in helsinki a few hours ago. took a taxi to the hotel. it
is right on the water. we walked around near the hotel and shopped a
bit. ryan is beat as he has not slept any. christa and I were able
to get some shut-eye on the flight.. but we will all be retiring
early tonight. :)

plane has arrived!

our plane has arrived. all they have to do is clean it, load it, and
feul it! we ran into some flight attendants that said it would be
around 7 before we would board... this is probably the last update
for the day. I'll post again when we arrive in Brussels!

mechanical issues

our plane has been delayed due to a "mechanical issue". at this time
we are scheduled to leave DC at 6:30... and arrive at 7:45 am in
Brussels. ..sure hope we can make our connecting flight at Brussles.
(on the bright side, we had some pizza that was not too bad.) - SCR

in route...

We made it to DC... will be leaving for Brussels in about 2 hrs.

Hyvää Joulua! Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a very wonderful Christmas!!!

Big Map of Finland

This is the best map I have found so far of Finland. If you click on it you will get the larger version with ledgible city names.

State Department Info

The U.S. State Department has this nifty map as well as a plethora of other information on Finland.

Leaving in 5 days...

We will be headed for Finland in 5 days! My intent is to get the blog looking pretty before then. And while on the trip, post as frequently as I can. We won't be taking a laptop, so will be limited to the computer at our friend's house, Internet cafes, and my cell phone. Hopefully I can post a ton of pictures.

Flag of Finland

The Finish flag is pretty simple. Just a blue cross on a white field. Very streamlined and well... Finish! This particular one has the crest in the center.