Back to Reality

This is what I left behind in Florida

Sorry I have been  negligent in updating the blog, but I have been home in the U.S. for the past four weeks. Just got back Jan. 13, and what did I return to?? Snow! And this time, it's not melting!




A few weeks ago, I was enjoying the sun and warmth in Florida with Kristen and Scott. We had a great time at Universal Studios and Hollywood Studios at Disney World. If you want to see the pictures, here is the link:

https://plus.google.com/photos/103069509757300719995/albums/5693507889794996385?authkey=CPP3opbEo9zzew

I messed up my lower back right before I flew back to Finland. I was trying to lug a ping pong table up the driveway for the Kidney Foundation to pick up. Well, it fell over, and I tried to drag it up the rest of the way. I heard something crack, and it wasn't pleasant! After all that, the Kidney Foundation guys said they don't take ping pong tables! At least one of the guys helped me drag it back down the driveway.

And this is what I came back to in Finland!

Then, I had to deal with 24 hours of travel time to get back to Rauma: Charlotte to Philadelphia, Philly to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Helsinki. Then I had a lovely 4-hour bus ride to Rauma. Three days later, my body clock still isn't in sync. The older I get, the harder it is to adjust to these different time zone changes.



Even though it is snowing, I forced myself to go for a walk today, and it definitely helped my mental state, even though it didn't help my lower back. The ducks are still there, huddled in a small part of the canal that isn't frozen over. Of course, I had to go buy a loaf of bread and feed them. They went nuts! They were even snipping at one another to get out of the way. Now I'm sure I'm not the only person who feeds them, but they sure acted like they hadn't had a meal in days.

The ducks waiting for some free bread

 

Here's a link to the rest of the snow pictures I took today:

https://plus.google.com/photos/103069509757300719995/albums/5698226008494346881?authkey=CJ_K5bTIyJOgVw

Rauma Christmas Market

Rauma Christmas Market

Rauma Christmas Market

Turns out Rauma does have a better Christmas market than I thought. Tom had to work today (Saturday), so I walked to town, and I just happened to run into the market going on alongside the canal. There was lots of the same old stuff: smoked salmon, breads and cakes, woven baskets, fur rugs and lots of gloves and mittens. I found a cute vest for Cali for Christmas -- bought it from a guy from Estonia.

Check out the fur rugs

What it looks like at 11 a.m.

We are getting less than six hours of daylight. It is really interesting how the sun sits so low on the horizon. I took this photo at 11 a.m. And, as you can tell from the market photos, no snow right now. We've had snow, but it keeps melting. I wonder if there's even going to be a white Christmas here this year.

Holiday fun in Rauma

Slush in Old Town

 

We have finally been getting snow for the past week or so, but even though it has snowed almost every day, the temperature also gets above freezing, so it mostly turns to slush. Friday was the worst day -- the wind was gusting up to 31 mph, and the snow was blowing sideways -- I really thought we were in for a blizzard. But then it all turned to slush, which is really nasty to walk around in.

We had two pretty fun holiday parties over the weekend. The Areva party was Friday in this huge nightclub that we didn't know existed in Rauma. The food was good -- they had two whole roast pigs and good side items. Had to laugh at the DJ's music selections -- mostly '80s U.S. pop songs, with a few '70s songs thrown in for good measure. It was entertaining.

U.S. expat holiday dinner

 

On Saturday, a group of the U.S. expats got together for dinner at a local restaurant. That was a nice evening, but also sad as some of them are moving back home soon. I know they will want to come back and visit, though! (Riiiigghtt!)

Counting the days until we come home for Christmas! And I just planned a trip to  Brussels for the end of February -- and my friend Kim is going to fly over from the U.S. and meet me there! Then, I'll fly to Washington to spend a few days with Kristen -- we're hoping to get tours of the White House and Capitol this visit.

More pictures at this link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/103069509757300719995/WinterAndHolidayParties?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCI7FmPH8rdKUlwE&feat=directlink


Happy holidays to everyone!

It's December!

Really tall tree at the Turku Cathedral

 

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday back home in Concord. The bad thing was one week just wasn't long enough! We were very thankful to see Kristen and Scott, my parents and other relatives. Just sorry I didn't get to see any of my Concord friends -- will make up for that over Christmas when I am home for three weeks!

In all our years of travel, we have never had our luggage lost. Until this trip. Well, it wasn't lost exactly, just sent to the wrong country. When we landed back in Turku last Monday, our luggage didn't come with us. Instead, it went to Stockholm. To the credit of Scandinavian Airlines, they flew our luggage on the next plane to Turku, then an airline employee drove the hour to Rauma to deliver our bags to our apartment that night. So, it really wasn't a big deal.

Turku Christmas Market

 On Saturday, I drove to Turku to the annual Christmas Market. The market wasn't as good as the one I went to in Copenhagen. I hope the one in Helsinki is better. I actually did more shopping at my favorite Stockmann's Department Store. Love that place! Got some great furry earmuffs, among a few other things.

 We are getting about six hours of daylight. The sun rises just before 9:30 a.m. and sets around 3:30 p.m. It is really weird. It makes you want to stay in bed longer, because it just doesn't seem like morning. The afternoon darkness doesn't bother me that much -- yet, anyway. And the forecast this week is calling for snow showers every day -- although it was sunny today. We'll see.When it does finally snow -- and I know it will! -- I will post some photos.

Looking forward to the Areva Christmas party this Friday and the U.S. expats party this Saturday!

What's a Christmas market without sausages?

Copenhagen

Nyhavn - the most photographed spot in Copenhagen

 

Copenhagen is a terrific city! I had a great time and want to go back! I flew from Turku to Copenhagen on Tuesday and returned on Thursday -- just in time to start packing for our trip home to the U.S. on Saturday.

At the Ice Bar in Copenhagen

 

It was easy to take the train from the airport to downtown, then it was a short walk to my hotel, First Hotel Twenty-Seven. Had a tiny room, but it was fine, nice view, fairly quiet. The coolest part was the Ice Bar next door. Every January, they create a new bar with ice brought in from the Arctic Circle. It's a complete room, and everything is made of ice -- the walls, a chandelier, decorations, the bar itself, even the glasses you drink out of. They made me put on this ridiculous parka-poncho and gloves, because the temperature inside the bar is -5 Centigrade (that's 23 Fahrenheit). I had one drink, took some photos, and that was plenty of time for me to stay in there. I was joking with the bartender that -5 C will be balmy compared to what the temperature can get to in Finland in the middle of winter!

Tivoli Gardens

One of my favorite things about Copenhagen was visiting Tivoli Gardens, the fantastic park built in the 1800s. Apparently, Tivoli was the inspiration for Walt Disney to create Disneyland. The park was beautifully decorated for Christmas (I went during the evening) and there was a very nice Christmas market going on. I had the best steak I've had in Europe in a restaurant in the park.

I must have walked at LEAST 50 miles during the day on Wednesday. I hit as many historical places and shopped as much as I could before I literally collapsed back in the hotel. There is a pedestrian-only shopping area called the Stroget, and I really enjoyed walking around there.

If you want to see all the pictures I took in Copenhagen, here's the link:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/103069509757300719995/albums/5675974391876791265

Can't wait to come home and see everyone!





 


 

Ready for Winter

Our lovely winter studded tires

We are ready for winter! This morning, I took the car to the tire hotel, where they took off the summer tires and put on the studded winter tires. They stow our summer tires there -- that's why they call it the tire hotel. It took less than 10 minutes for the guy to change the tires, and I really didn't notice much difference when I drove the car back to the apartment.

We also purchased a shovel and long brush/scraper to keep in the car. We've heard stories from others who have returned from flights home to find their car buried in snow at the airport, being unable to get into the garage (we have a one-car garage space across the street from our apartment) because of overnight snow storms, and walking to the parking lot at the power plant after work to discover that the car is covered in ice.


Sounds like great fun, huh? Meanwhile, you wouldn't know winter is coming here, yet -- the weather is still very nice. Mostly sunny and in the 40s.

Baked goods we didn't need

We went grocery shopping at the big Prisma Saturday, and a group of very nice ladies were selling the most beautiful baked goods to raise money for their sons' hockey team to travel to Toronto next May. So of course, we bought 40 Euros worth of stuff that we didn't need. But Tom took it all to work today, so it's good to get it out of the apartment.

I am flying to Copenhagen tomorrow and will return Thursday. Then we are coming home on Saturday for a week -- yay! Once again, it's a roundabout route to get home -- Turku to Stockholm; Stockholm to Chicago, and Chicago to Charlotte. We have a 3-1/2 hour layover in Chicago, so that will give us plenty to time to find a restaurant and enjoy a decent American-style hamburger!

Tallinn and Helsinki

Old Town Tallinn

Tom and I took a nice weekend trip to Tallinn, Estonia, and Helsinki this weekend. We drove to Helsinki Friday evening and spent the night at the Radisson Blu Seaside, near the port in Helsinki. The next morning, we took the Tallink Silja ferry "Star" to Tallinn, which is 50 miles across the Baltic.

Old Town -- see Shrek bottom right?

Estonia has had a turbulent history. Like Finland, the country was ruled by Sweden, then Russia (from 1710 to 1918), then gained independence after WWI. They couldn't hold on, however, and when the Soviets expanded their territory during WWII, they took over Estonia for the next 50 years. Estonia joined the European Union in 2004.

The town has two markedly different parts -- the famous medieval Old Town, which dates back to the 13th century, and the new part of town, which has just come into being in the last 10 years or so (according to our tour guide). We stayed in the new part of town at the extremely modern 30-story skyscraper, the Swissotel, and it was very nice.

We took a combination bus and walking tour, since this was our first time in Tallinn. The bus part went outside of town, to various sights, including the famous Song Festival Grounds, where Estonians gather for a songfest every five years and which also hosts concerts. It is an important place in terms of Estonia's fight for independence, because in 1988, 300,000 Estonians gathered at these grounds to sing patriotic songs since they didn't have weapons or suitable means to fight the Soviets. In 1989, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians made a 360-mile-long human chain to protest Soviet rule. As the USSR was falling apart, these three countries were finally able to assert independence and hold elections. 

Dragons guard Old Town Hall

Russian influence is still around, most notably in the concrete apartment buildings the Soviets built to house Russians they shipped in to Tallinn. There also are ornate buildings, such as the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Old Town and the Kadriorg Palace, which Peter the Great built for his wife Catherine.

Anyway, it's a very interesting city, both the old and new parts, and we certainly didn't have enough time to explore it all. Guess we'll have to go back!

We took the ferry "Superstar" back to Helsinki on Sunday, and spent a couple hours walking around and checking out the casino before heading back to Rauma.

I'm going to fly to Copenhagen, Denmark, next week for a few days, and I can't wait to go to the Christmas Market at the famous Tivoli Gardens!


If you want to see more pictures from Tallinn and Helsinki, here's the link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/103069509757300719995/TallinnAndHelsinki1111?authkey=Gv1sRgCLOs8KqNwfGJ9wE