Summer Hotel Oppimestari 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>

... to a virtual table-tennis game by a little kid. With each win of his, he would pull face at me, thrust his fist into the action and sneered. Naturally, I thrashed him although he did win one game. It was just quite amusing but when his mother came and collect him later, it was not that defiant look that accompanied his wins but that folorn look of longing as he waved me goodbye. So sweet... =)<br><br>Dinner was a huge plate of seafood salad ...

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 

... through the maze that is London Heathrow airport. The Finnair flight was excellent - better food, roomier seat, and a much friendlier flight crew. it was also a shorter flight and there was no movie, but I managed get in a quick snooze. When I got into Helsinki it was dark and rainy. booo.... I waited for the very punctual bus to take me to the train station and hopped on board. If only I could have read the street signs, or ...

... grannies with push carts, and man dressed as He-Man. Afterwards, we drive out of the city and visited the Williamsburg of Finland, aka Turkansaari open-air Museum. This gave us a chance to experience Finland in its colonial years. We practiced walking on stilts, saw recreations of early homes, settlements, and such. This only set us back 1 Euro each. Before heading back to Sweden, we stopped in downtown Oulu to do some wandering and shopping. I bought some fabric at ...

... 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... ;)

... easy to catch a ride and fast as Laura went to ask some people and a mid-age couple took us some km further to another tank station next to Orivesi... then we waited and got some drink and while Laura went away to survey the trucker, I pulled my thumb to a russian car coming over and he stopped... I tried to explain that we were two and yelled at Laura who came running and we jumped on the car. With them we had our ride all the way to Jyvaskyla as they ...

Maaret came to stay a few nights at Steve and Judy's, and on the 30th they took us downtown to see the market, and the Oulu state church. Then in the evening we went visiting at Paul and Hannah Haataja's house. Their girls had fun wearing out Maaret and I with games of hide and seek =).