Sokos Vaakuna Rovaniemi

... na sklepie z pamiatkami, czy to taki z Mikolajem, czy ogolnymi z Finlandii. Prawdopodobnie zima na turystow zceka wiecej atrakcji - w koncu lato to czas kiedy elfy produkuja prezenty a Mikolaj odpoczywa :/ Bylismy wiec na poczcie, w ktorej w skrzyniach lezaly listy wysylane pzrez dzieci do ...

... without stopping...and besides the 'goods to declare' and 'no goods to declare' queues, there was no real border control or anything...and that meant I didn't get my passport stamped! Dammit.

We stopped at Santa's Village today, from his home on the arctic circle. It was all a bit weird, the inside of the free tour felt more like it should have been a haunted house, and outsdie it felt like an abandoned theme ...

... rvil, sobib üldisesse teemasse. Satun põdrarände keskmesse. Põdrad on ikka täielikult tuimad tegelased ja longivad rahulikult mööda teed. Vaat on veel solvunudki, kui peavad auto möödalaskmiseks korra teepeenrale astuma. Rovaniemi lähistele jõuan muidugi hirm-vara. Kõlgutan siis pöörijoonel istudes mõnda aega jalgu, söön kanasalatit, joon kohvi, vaatan läbi akna rändavaid pilvi (pilved on siin kuidagi käegakatsutavad) ja loen hr Stewarti rännakutest läbi ...

... similar to the high level bridge in edmonton. behind it glowing in the dark sky was the church tower. i was overcome by a feeling of present embodied actuality, as though i really was a living human map pin on this almost incomprehensibly real globe of a world spinning. as much as this bridge may look like the high level, you are in northern finland, not edmonton, the church reminded me. europe, even if rovaniemi is missing ...

... night, finns are all about the autogrilli's, basically little greasy fast food joints, which stay open until 4 or 5am most nights to catch the post-bar croud (bars close at 4am here). some are drive in style, some you can stand inside, but none have tables inside, only picnic tables outside. Which can be pretty cold in -20something finnish winter nights, but people, including me, still sit at them, fingers going numb ...

... fold laundry, per say. It is what the HAVING of that time allows me - space. Space to think, really think things through in their own time, rather than in the hurried small scraps of time that I manage to squeeze into my day in Canada. There is so much more freedom to create my own schedule and find my own rhythm here. Because it is so much more self-motivated and driven, I think the Finnish education system sets up the possibility of real learning much better than the more ...

it is so good to be back. although i can still understand basically nothing (but i can kind of count to 100 if i really try!) i felt a wave of happiness when i stepped on the finnair plane and heard my first finnish for 4 months. somehow in the twisted way that life works, it felt like home. in many ways, life moves at a slower, calmer, more peaceful pace in rovaniemi than in other places ...

... to give me a plastic blanket to eventually cover my new tent in case of rain to be sure to keep it waterproof. It was really great of him and he has been really all wonderful for all my stay. I wish I could have speak some finnish with him... Then it was waiting for the mail... important to me as I had forget my towel in Oulu and it was being post and logically it was due today. It arrive, packed the towel ...

... finland in the fall, at least for a few more months... i received one of these "You know you've been in Finland too long, when..." emails the other day, here are the points that i related to after 5 or so months... 1. You rummage through your plastic bag collection to see which ones you should keep to take to the store and which can be sacrificed to garbage. (but then, i always did this, didn't i? i also rummage through the recycle bins ...

well, i have been here for over a week now, and am finally starting my travelogue... after a 40 hour journey, i arrived in rovaniemi, by train from helsinki, at 8am last wednesday. i was awake for most of the train trip (thus began a week of completely wacky time schedule, of being awake at night and tired during the day!), and a beautiful sunrise over the very canadian-looking forest greeted me. rovaniemi is a beautiful town/city (pop. 35,000), and as soon as i ...