Best Western Hotel Apollo Oulu

Introduced to downtown with a drunk guy urinating in the middle of main street at 4PM alongside his patient friends....with the unsurprised locals passing by. Had a good time being shoved all over the place on a Saturday night in the chilly city with great nightlife. <br><br>So all you get here is a picture taken at 3AM or so, almost as bright as day.<br>

... It was thoughtful of her when she suggested rice because her husband came from an island near Australia/ New Zealand and he could not fathom the lack of rice in Finland and she had been cooking rice for him. =)<br><br>Lady at counter (train)<br><br>I tried to get onto the overnight train to Tampere and the girl at the counter was new to the job and friendly (3 wks' worth of experience) . I am her first Eurail pass customer, she claimed! Haha! So ...

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 

... 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!

... the winding aisles, admiring everything but purchasing nothing. Thank goodness America is blessed with these posh super stores because it was hard to leave empty handed! Before leaving the store, we ate at the IKEA café, I had yummy vegetarian ratatouille and Kyle had a big plate of Swedish meatballs. Very tasty and fresh, also the cheapest meal we've had at about $6 a plate. We got back on the highway and headed toward Oulu, Finland. Oulu turned out to be a cute city ...

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 ate and we relaxed before Laura went to ask people but it seems everyone was going down to Helsinki. So it ended up with us going along the highway to pull our thumb up and its a car doing simply some km north who took us through the country road. Which anyway, I didnt found bad as I had a solution to continue our way out of the main road and avoid Jyvaskyla. And it worked, with another lift we got back to a service station next to Äänekoski ...

Hello all! Glad I found this travelogue site, what a handy way to keep you all updated and post some pictures from my trip. 3 more days til I leave to Helsinki, and a week later from there to Switzerland! Can't wait... But before that I have to get all my essays written and school stuff done - hard work!!