Nallikari Camping Oulu

Today we took a cruise through an archipelago of twenty thousand islands to Aland Finland. It was an early start so we had a huge buffet breakfast on board followed by another as much as you can eat lunch. The scenery is magnificent as well! There is free internet connection on board , handy, as we cannot access it out in the woods!!

... Superior Double Room. Initially the reservation was for 10 nights but we later decided to shorten the planned stay by a couple of nights just to give us more room to plan the rest of the trip (we can always book extra nights in Seoul should we decide to stay there longer). (to be continued if I'm happy with this travel blog service...)

1. Weaving the Incantation 2. A Servant 3. Born From Fire 4. Towards and Against 5. The Smoke 6. Better Unborn 7. Veil of Sin (Ei ennen soitettu, ikinä) 8. Silver Bride 9. Two Moon 10. Cares 11. In the Beginning 12. Silent Waters 13. Alone ----- 14. The Way 15. House of Sleep 16. Black Winter Day 

... on almost every street, and it's flat enough that you don't really need more than one gear! Today I went a little further afield and took the train to Kemi, then a bus to Tornio. Tornio is a little town on the Finland/Sweden border - famous mainly for being on the Finland/Sweden border. I set off from the bus stop to wander around, and quickly found the tourist info center and got myself a map. Crossing the border to Sweden was easy - just walked ...

... further away from the smoking room and the door that slammed at every stop. I would have got up and moved, but I was tired and didn't feel like carting my heavy suitcase around to find something better. Now I'm safely in Oulu, in the comfort of my cousin's apartment. I'm just about to head out to explore the city a bit. I was hoping the weather would clear up, but so far no such luck. at least it's not raining at the moment!

this year, the big field trip for our program was to participate in the northern research forum, an open meeting aimed at encouraging greater dialogue among various stakeholders on pressing northern issues, to share ideas and research, and to promote innovative thinking. the first day started with meeting Conan O'Brian! kidding... kind of. For those who don't watch conan, check out http ...

I took quite a few pictures of snow and sunrises/sunsets- the sun rose around 10:30am and set at around 3:00 pm- not too many hours of daylight. But it was still quite light in the evenings because of the reflection of the snow, especially if it was cloudy.