Herttua Hotel Eastern Finland

... then hopped a ferry (there are only 21 remaining in Finland to cross the many lakes) and slunk down shrinking roads to the house. It's situated on the shore of a beautiful, glass-smooth lake with some swampy marshes and thick birch forests. Without their leaves, they look like big white bones sticking up from the ground, foreboding and strangely red at certain times of day. The bedrock is often visible above the earth, as well as large stones left ...

... spacious and well equipped. Food at the cafeteria was very decent as well. The group of foreigners I was with was composed of people from the US., Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Poland and Russia. We were all suppose to speak Finnish among ourselves, even when not at school, but everyone instead took the opportunity to speak English and party every night. One ...

Huomenna pitäis tulla passi viisumien kanssa. Sitten pitäs hypätä Sergein kyytiin ja kohti Pietaria. Hmmm, pitäis vielä pakata loput tavarat (salmiakit on jo pakattu). Pakkaaminen onkin vähän hankalaa. Oma 45 litran rinkka alkaa olla aika täynnä, tuliaisille ei jää kyllä paljoa tilaa..no minkäs teet. Vielä kerkee käydä saunassa ja syödä vähän puolukkapuuroa.

... worth the responsibility it brings? And what is health, anyway? How is it defined? Maybe you take some point in your life when you thought things were well and take it for the standard, then defining future situations by comparison to it. But let's assume a person who has never actually been healthy, what standard will she adopt? Will she understand health through comparison with other people's lives? Will she then be fooled by other people trying to look and ...

The rental guy told me a huge storm was coming this way in the afternoon. Not the thing you want when riding a bike, so decided to go back to my 'old' wild campspot and shelter in the men's changingroom for the night! Perfect size to fit my tent! With some candles and my I-pod music system it even turned into a ...

... what to take with me (in a kayak you are traveling even more light, cos there is really not that much space!), I am off on my motorbike, wearing my open summer shoes, no jacket, gloves, without helmet (he says the police are his friends...) and a peddle strapped to the bike!!! Looking like a plane on wheels I manage to get to the lake shore unharmed, no police ticket and with peddle! Finding my nr14 kayak, getting everything packing inside, parking the motorbike ...

... much so that I decided to go on a kayak trip myself for about 3 days. Called the rental place and no problem to have kayak for tomorrow. Great! Viewing Suomi from the water. The couple also told me about a free campingplace by the lake, close to the rental company. How good to share info! But cannot leave Savonlinna without visiting the Linna (Fortress) of course! The city center is ...

At this point it's all about preparations. How do you apply for a Social Security card? Who files your tax report after you're done with the program? What are the best ways to lose your visa status? Where have all the cheap flights gone? Have you filled and signed all the necessary forms? Yeah. Here we go again. I was at the visa interview on some weeks ago. Armed guards and such. For a second I was sure that the ...

Most cultural events begin at 7 pm, and the fall season's first opera at the Mussorgsky was true to form...the lighting on the dramatic sets, the conductor's awesome direction to cast and orchestra...all gave a cohesiveness to the evening...but I did notice a few yawns from the orchestra members (somehow obtained a seat in the first row!) before the last french horn note sounded at 10:45...a real full evening of Russian...

Used my new metro card to get to Place Vosstaniya...final goal the restaurant "My Mother-in-Law's House" or some-such name...the only problem is that we chose the wrong exit from the metro and had to retrace our steps across the large square...but finally were able to enjoy blintzes slathered with sour cream and jam...as much topping as we wanted. They had many different salads and hot dishes...but when the corn-on-the-cob came out, I had to have that too--for breakfast, yet (it isn't ...