Finland, Part 3

Will try to get some photos of Anna and I up asap.

We went to Helsinki last Friday, including the malls, the subway, the arts centre, the government buildings (ancient Greek looking), the cathedral and Vantaa. Vantaa is the district of Helsinki where most films depicting Russia are filmed due to the inheirent dangers of actually filming in Russia.

On the weekend we had church and all the much extended socialising that surrounds it, including the visit of a Finnish friend of Anna's from studying in Russia. Quite a contrast from Finland it seems. On Monday we dropped Anna's brother Kalle off in Tampere. The rest of the week was made up of getting my berrings of Huittenin by exploration, watching movies and the olympics and accepting the invites of the many dinner outings made at church.

Yesterday, was the end of year like -last day of school in Finland. This as I found out involved many leavers dressed up as things such as Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Fairies, Princesses and the ever so witty nazi ss soldier, getting driven through the town in large flat deck trucks making as much noise as possible and throwing lollies at everyone they see. Sort of similar to the kinda thing You might find happening on the strip at 12.00 Friday night.

Last night Anna and I went to Pori, a small city on th Finnish coast. Not really too much to report on it other than really big (as in 10 rugby fields big) copper factories, a beautiful river running through the city and a WW2 era 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun sitting on top of one of the buildings in the central city. Nobody really seemed to know why.

A map of Finland. Huittenin (where I'm staying with Anna) is about 3/4 of the way from Helsinki to Pori.



Finland on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland, the Runeberg cake at the bottom of the article was enjoyed by both me and Anna, on the 5th Feb, Runebergs day.

Over and out

J

Finland, Part 2.

Whislt it's cold here, it's also welcoming, Anna's family are very friendly (I think Anna did a lot of ground work here, including most of the town) and her brother (Kalle) and sister (Liisa) are fluent in English. However there has been definately one thing I missed about Finland. This week I am staying with Annas uncle (Seppo) and aunty (Anne). So far we have visited the KKKmart (yes that is its name), the Turkish kebab place (with Anna for lunch) and Annas church (included in the package was one of those look pretty while the entire congregation turns to look at You moments).

Tommorrow, Anna, Seppo (one of the people I am staying with) and I are going 3 hours south to Helsinke for the day. Seppo is running a job training day of some description (His English is only a little better than my Finnish, but we're both learning), whilst Anna and I are going to get up to shopping and any other ideas we come up with. I think my fashion sence will be made a little more Eurocentric, which is probably a good thing.

How is NZ?

J

Finland

I am here. It is cold here, like -25 degrees.
I'm starting to get used to it, You just have to wear lots of clothes and try to keep moving. On the plus side most of the houses are warm with underfloor heating and fires, some houses/buildings are even underground for insulation.
My flights were pretty good in the end, despite the fact that I almost fell asleep at Singapore airport (had to wait there 5 hours), I bidded my time walking up and down the airport to stay awake (38 mins walk from end to end). 33 hours later, I made it to Huittinen, where I'm staying.

Yesterday, some F18 hornets were flying overhead on practice missions.

More later, with pictures.

J