Lapland, Finland - I love it!

Here are few tasters from a trip to Lapland in Northern Finland. The sun does not come up at all above the horizon while we are here. The joy is that the famous blue moment lasts for all the short day - and it is just like Fazer Blue chocolate.

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Roads in Finland can be dark and snowy, and we have the street lights only at the exits.

One can have fun also on the road

We also have a place called II, written with two I's

And they have a place called Hamina, which is another town in South-East corner

This is from Tornio at 2:04 pm

At the slopes at 11 am

The lights are needed all day long

Hot chocolate was decently priced, 2.40 Eur from a proper cup

The Christmas market was small but nice. This at around 4 pm.

This guy needed to cover his truck properly and had it running all the time. -25 C.

Tuikku -restaurant at the top of one of the fells was needed.

It also came with a view. Just for clarity, it is frozen snow at the terrace ceiling

I love this!

...more to come later...

Do you believe in Santa - Uskotko Joulupukkiin?

I do - Minä uskon!

And so do some others - Niin uskoo jotkut muutkin

Told you - Niinpä... 

Be aware of the fake ones - varo halpoja kopiota ;o) 

And then the Vermont-fact that can easily turned into over 99.99% of people and the rest 0.01%, the Finns.

A Winter Statistic I promised earlier;

98 % of Americans say "Oh shit!" before going in the ditch on a slippery road. 
The other 2% are from Vermont and they say "Hold my beer and watch this!". 

Ho-ho-ho, Merry Christmas - Hyvää Joulua!

Winter Road

Today I had to take a road trip like I have not had since early 2003. I left home at 7 pm to drive ~160 kilometers, about 100 miles, while it was snowing and roads were icy. Temp was about -14 C which only made it a bit difficult to wipe the windscreen.

At summer time the speed limit is 120 km/h while this morning it was dropped down to 80 km/h. Pretty slow but I was on time in Turku for the meeting.

At the end of day - when the sun had gone down again - I headed back and was lucky to drive on a clean road half way but then the snow came again. Tired driver, darkness, snow, ice... Not that fun to drive for a long time. Well, soon I have somewhat 1000 kilometers to do but that is another story.

It was much more fun on Sunday eve to play with the car on empty roads :o) I had in BRU a car with electronic hand break which didn't enable playing on snow (the few times we had it or at ski trips), but the current temp car has got the normal, manual break so playing is back on the list.

Anyways, when I got home I felt like going to the corner of the sofa but luckily I was forced to make a 10 minute walk outside.

It was cold again, perhaps -13 C or so but it did the job and I was fresh again.

3 nights to go!

Markkinahumu kunniaan!

Löysin hyvän kirjoituksen joulumarkkinoista. Olen kirjoittajan kanssa samaa mieltä että jonkunlainen potku Suomen markkinoilta puuttuu, mahdollisesti tavarakeskeisyyden ja kalliinpuoleisten hintojen kautta...

Vähän enemmän tapahtumahässäkkää, ruoka-juomapuolta sekä erikoistumista - ja hinnoitelkaa kohtuudella niin tavara liikkuu! Vastaus ei kuitenkaan ole viinassa, sillä Keski-Euroopassa ei kukaan markkinoilla ota jurreja vaan ihmiset viihtyvät ja viettävät aikaa.

Hauskaa Joulunaikaa - 4 yötä :o)

The joy of winter

Good morning?

No, read further...

This morning started with -18C and when the sun finally came up around 9:30 (exact time 18 Dec in Helsinki 9:23) the day became beautiful.

Today I had to go out from the office and I noticed that I have driven the "new" car for almost 3 weeks and only today noticed that I don't have sunglasses in the car. No wonder, since I said quite long time ago that next time I will be leaving the office at daylight, it will be February-March or so... Pitch black again when I left around 5 pm.

Today was the last day of fall term in our kids' old school in Brussels. Or was supposed to be but they decided to close the school since the whole of Brussels was in chaos.They got about 15 cm of snow and all hell breaks loose. Biggest part of the problem is that the Belge are not equipped to handle the situation but are still so hard headed that they head to the traffic and think they can manage it with the slick tires in their cars.

Few years back the winter lasted for half a day but that morning was pretty funny. On our way to the school I was having fun with the proper winter tires under my PanzerWagen, but again the Belge were in a wrong place at a wrong time. In the middle of one hill there was a car sideways blocking the road both ways. After waiting for a while in a queue S goes and asks what's going on and the typical Belge reply is "we are waiting for the salt truck to come".

Well, someone coming from the Nordic would have pushed the car aside but not the Belge. This reminds me of a joke my dear cousin from Vermont sent about slippery roads. Gotta find it and share it with you..

The first winter we were in Brussels, the phone rang one morning at around 0630 and it was one of the moms who passed on the message that the school was closed "because of the snow". Well, that enables us to sleep longer but still you gotta go and take a look how much snow there is. 2 cm, max an inch!

Gotta say it was hilarious for us but the kids were happy. That will never happen in Finland, no matter if it is -30C for 2 weeks (which happened when we had our highschool graduation exams).

Back to presense.

Luckily the sun only goes down around 3:30 (exact time 18 Dec in Helsinki 3:14) in the afternoon. However, as you can see form the picture taken today 2:30 early afternoon it is no wonder why we Finns are what we are ;o)

Fomral length of the day 5 hours 50 minutes.

Just wait until we get up to Lapland where the sun does not get up at all in about 6 weeks!!!

Winter Day

I wanted to share some winter pictures with you. Past days it has been between -10C and -15C, which equals to about 5 to 15 Farenheits. We also have had some snow, just few inches but enough to have fun with pulkka - sleigh as well as to enjoy the icy roads with a car. I love both!

Skiing is still to come, latest on 27th.

Here we go...

Backyard in the evening - that comes quite early. ~1530.

These pics have been taken around the noon time.

Backyard elf

Backyard patio glass becomes art

Rose bushes waiting for the moment they can bloom again

Home alley, again around noon

Bushes, apparently related to George

Roses

More roses

We have been sliding down from this rock and having a break on the tree with the kids already almost 10 years ago

Pine

Icy road around noon

Birches and a pine on the left

Birch and a bit bigger X-mas tree spurce

Icy fence, don't kiss it

G.W.Bush

Have a nice winter!!!

PS 7 nights to go

Back to home town politics

Something new about our home town politics: Mayor of our home town Espoo has got the highest salary (15.453 Eur / month incl. benefits) out of all mayors in Finland.

She earns even more then our Prime Minister (13.950 Eur / month + benefits...), which on the other hand might not be the best thing considering the integrity of the Prime Minister. Person in that position should earn enough not to be involved with any potential corruption cases.  Finns know what has been on the news recently...

12 nights to go

12 nights to go and then it's Christmas!


I know some of you do not believe in Santa and think Christmas is only for kids, but you should think again. There is so much fun magic going on at Christmas time that you should not even try to find rational explanations.

In case you didn't know, the real Santa comes from Finland. His secret village is placed at Korvatunturi, "Ear Fell", up north in Lapland. You can check out more from here.

Now you know more.

In 12 nights, Santa will pack his sleigh and harness his magic reindeers, and head towards all the children - and adults - who still believe in Christmas magic.

If you wish to act as Santa's helper and send greetings to one of the believers, click here.

Be nice, one of the Santa's helpers might be watching you and will let Santa know...

Hyvää 92. Itsenäisyyspäivää - It is Finland's 92nd Independence Day!

Today is the 92nd Independence Day for Finland.

The topic of independence has been in the past weeks on top more then normally, since on November 30th exactly 70 years ago Soviet Union attacked Finland without declearing a war and so calle Winter War was started. Only recently the Russian authorities admitted that the events that happened just before the attack was a fraud arranged by the Soviet government.

What happened that in the border village of Mainila the Soviet troops started an artillery activity, that is shot with heavy guns, towards their own people. And of course they tried to put the blaim on Finnish troops to justify the planned attack.

I am greatful to all the people who contributed 70 years ago to enable us to have the status we have today! Otherwise we would have ended up like Baltic countries...

When Finland decleared independent from Russia at 1917 it was not all clear at once. Soon after that we ended up having a civil war, where the "Reds" wanted us to continue hand-in-hand with Russia / Soviet Union - that was in the turbulence with the revolution - and the "Whites" that were driving Finland's independence.

The war itself was at some levels cruel and 1% of the population was killed. Today it feels fairly small numbers, ~30.000, of which about half died at the prison camps.

Why that many?
There was huge famine (lack of food) among the people outside the camps, and hence the prisoners were getting even less. Also diseases were spreading in poor hygiene conditions.

Back to today;
I am happy to have the right to choose and decide myself. Some say that we have lost part of our independence via European Union.

Partly true perhaps, but mainly in some areas where we also gain good things. Be it in union of countries, marriage, friendships or what have you, it is always about giving and getting. As long as both/all sides are happy and in a long run gaining more then giving, all is good. Even today.

The weather is still in November mood, wet and grey.

Just like few days ago at the Helsinki Airport. The airport control tower far back on left side. Also note the wind bag against the sky next to the light post in the middle. This was the brightest moment all week, clouds running fast above us and some light at the horizon...

Tonight we shall enjoy some great food and entertain us by wathcing the President's reception that is broadcasted live. You would not believe some of the dresses and hair styles you see - but they are real and some are even proud of them.

100

PS I crossed 100 posting landmark. Let's see if I ever get the 2nd full ;o)

Lahden Kulta

While living outside of Finland, "Lapin Kulta" -beer, Lapland's Gold, strengthened it's position as my favorite beer from Finland.

This was not due to the taste, since I can tell you most of the beers are almost the same. Plain, simple lager. If you want to have something a bit different, the price can easily be doubled.

And what is the brewery planning to do?

Finish the production up north in Lapland and move it to south, town of Lahti. Like our main newspaper Helsingin Sanomat suggested, I guess we shall change the name into "Lahden Kulta" - Lahti's Gold.

Helsingin Sanomat 11.10.09

 

If this happens, Lapin Kulta is off of my favorite list - except when I talk to you aliens ;o) This is what you get when multi-national breweries take over and loose the touch with the origin.

Same thing was in Belgium when e.g. Hoegaarden beer was not produced any more in town of Hoegaarden. Bad image mistake for the locals but good for the business economics of scale.

Sorry Carlos, just my humble opinion about my favorite beer (one of many). 

OK, I still love Hoegaarden!

I Love Espoo - but not all things about it!

Well, it seems we have a whiner in our neighbourhood who is upset since he is not invited to some specific Independence Day reception of our beloved mayor. He claims he has never been so badly hurt and sais rightfully that it can not be about the few Euros that his coffee and cake would cost.

Spot on!!!

What did I say about the kids again? Well, I did not highlight the mimimal cost it creates. Use the city facilities and give the kids some juice and biscuits - it is not about the food...

This guy was so much focused on himself, that he also forgot to ask why some participants are invited avec, instead of using the capacity for the people who have been actually involved.

Apparently this particular humble knight in the article has dedicated himself to improve life in our current neighbourhood of Olari, Espoo. Fantastic, but I can't see the development when I walk around here...

Well, there is on the right side a writing about suspicion of corruption regarding our mayor. This naturally has got nothing to do with the story above ;o) 

Can't help myself;
Both yesterday and today I was looking outside in the afternoon and both times had to check the time. It was 2pm and it was fairly dark - even the street lights were on. Well, the Helsinki Airport lights were on the whole day, perhaps to help the striking people to see the light in the tunnel they selected to go to. 


My humble personal view is that they are digging themselves into similar situation as the paper industry workers in Finland were getting into via their strikes few years ago. Today several paper mills have been shut down and productions moved to other countries. 


Despite of all this;
Stink Positive!