Holiday Club Oulu Hotel

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>

... of a scholarship dangling temptingly. So I went to the train station to get to Jyvasvla in a last minute change of plan because the coordinator at Tampere told me about another programme at the Uni of J so I thought why not go there and take a look. But the train got delayed 2-3 times and before I knew it, the train for Oulu was already on the track ready to depart. Maybe it is the hand of fate so I decided the plan to go Jyvasvla because the Uni ...

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 

... a clue which way I was supposed to be headed I wouldn't have been in as much of a panic about missing my stop. no worries though, some friendly Finns on the bus nicely pointed out the correct stop. (which was fairly obviously a train station once we got there, lol). The train to Oulu was fine - I found a seat, stretched out and slept intermittently for the next 9 1/2 hours. in retrospect, would have been better to get a ...

... to Lulea, but with a nice sandy beach and recreation area. We stayed there in two cabins, walking distance to the beach. As the sun almost set, we gathered on the beach enjoying the slight breeze and sparkling waves. The sun hovered over the horizon, giving us what seemed like an eternal sunset of blushing tangerine. In the morning we went to Oulu's center square to enjoy a lively farmer's market. We saw fresh produce, baked goods, vendors frying up potatoes, long ...

... t stay to listen to the rest of the discussions and presentations... it seems that there is never enough time to listen, especially when it is most needed. still, in many ways finland has got it going on as far as being environmentally and socially conscious and progressive, and it was really interesting to hear a president speaking who really seemed like she knew what she was saying... ;)

... at the back watching the redondant Finnish landscape. We arrived finally early in Ouly directly at her friend place and then relaxed there, used the computer and cooked. The rest of the evening consisted of talk, me on the Internet and Laura and her friends getting drunk... which they did quite late while I went to sleep (late as well but still less...) --------------------------------- August 2 I still did got a good sleep and most of the day has been ...

... it. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement, we were devastated and for some time we just stood in shock in the spot where the bus had been, desperately holding back tears. We retraced our steps back to the apartment in complete silence (very unusual!) and sulked while going through the "if only's". After lunch we decided we had to do something. So we picked ourselves up, put all our layers back on, and went to make a snow man! We messed about in the freshly ...