Winter in Finland

Actually the winter in Finland has not looked like the image here that I took a couple of weeks ago. The winter of 2007 in Finland has really been mild. When I say mild, I mean in Helsinki it is 33 to 34 degrees and raining instead of snowing.

Boo to the rain.

We have seen some snow but most days it has been cloudy and rainy. It has slowly started to get warm with temperatures in the upper 30's but just a few weeks ago it got cold, below freezing and it snowed. One thing that is definitely different in Finland, is when it snows there are NO snow days. Kids still have to go to school, buses still run, cars get around fine because of snow tires. So here is my track through the snow on my way to work.

This is a shot of where Tram 6 picks me up in front of our apartment. It takes me down Bulevardi to where Bus 42 will take me on to work.

Here is what it looks like at the bus stop near my work.
And here is a picture of my work building, KONE.

A Finnish lady, I work with, told me she is mad at the snow because it wasn't here for her when she needed it a couple of months ago. It might sound like a funny thing to say, but I can relate and agree with her. In Helsinki, they didn't have a white Christmas and it was rather dark. The whole of winter has been really dark as the sun rises after 10:00 and sets around 3:30 pm and there isn't any snow to reflect the light which can help make things look bright. So it has really been a dark and dead looking since mid October.

I remember when we first got to Finland in February 2007. There was lots of snow but it was also really cold. It was my first time to experience -20 C temperatures and what it meant to be properly dressed for the winter: wool socks, spikes on boot heels, scarfs, hats, gloves and dressing with several layers before the coat is put on. By the way, I had none of these items when we arrived, but Greg quickly took me to the Finnish sports stores to stock up on these items.

It didn't seem like we had been here long before Greg actually expected me to walk around outside in this winter weather. You would think that because he is from Australia that he likes warm weather too and would be just as scared to venture outside, but NO. He loves it when it is cold and even talks about how crisp cool days are his favorite. Shhh, I think the heat in OZ must of fried his brain a little or maybe it was one too many bites of bread with Vegemite.

A couple of weeks after being here Greg wanted me to see Suomenlinna. We walked down to the harbor (yes walked) and jumped on a ferry. It was pretty cool (literally and figuratively) sitting on the deck of the ferry watching it as it made its way crushing up through the ice to take us to the small island 15 minutes from Helsinki. See that white stuff behind Greg and I, well that is ice instead of water!

Suomenlinna Fortress Island was built late 18th century to protect Swedish Kingdom from Russian Empire. The fortress was lost to Russia (along with the whole of Finland) in 1809, when a confusing order made the Swedish soldiers to give a retreat order instead of engage. Doh! hehe silly Swedes.
At early 19th century, when Helsinki became capital of the new Grand-Duchy of Finland and the capital was being built, most of the workers lived on this island. There are a few hundred people who still live on the island and it looks like a great place for kids to grow up. Well, not from a parent's point of view, but from a child's point of view. As there are cannons and bunkers and old places carved out of the hill to hide in. Here is what it looks like during the summer. In 1991, it was included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

I never associated swans and ice before I came to Finland, but here they are enjoying walking on water.

In Easter 2007, Greg had two friends from Australia come to Finland, Craig and Katie. They joined us in Kuopio a city 5 hours north-east from Helsinki. This is where Greg's Finnish family lives and they were very excited to see Greg...oops I mean us.
They have a lovely home out in the country side of Kuopio. Raili, the Finnish mother, decided she would teach us to cross-country ski on the frozen lake right by their home. Here we all are (I am in the baby blue outfit) trying to learn to ski .

We also made it to Puijo hill, which is a famous landmark of Kuopio, and the ridge of Puijo is among the most popular recreation areas of the city. There was some downhill ski event, where people made ski items (for example, someone had a small house on skis). They would push these items down the hill to see if they made it in one piece and which one made it in the quickest time. At the end of the event you heat sausages over a grill and drink champagne out of plastic champagne flutes. Wasn't too bad, I just wished the Finns served bread with the sausage instead of just a stick... it would make it a lot more filling and less messy.
Here we are sipping champagne and freezing our bums off. Ahh, nothing like drinking champagne with a mitten on.

Here is a cute little girl all dressed up for downhill skiing and has wings to boot! I wonder if those wings help her get more hang time??

At the end of a hard day of skiing and eating sausages, we made it back to the Finnish Family's place for dinner and a relaxing sauna.
I even experienced my first Avanto, which is ice swimming. A hole is made in the ice of a frozen lake or sea and you jump in after a sauna and swim around a little.

See that house in the background? Well, that is their sauna. See that hole in the ice? Yep, that is the hole that I jumped in for my ice swimming. Greg was proud of himself for cutting it out of the ice and I was proud of myself for getting in at all! Greg talked about avanto like it was no big deal, so I didn't believe him when he said it was a real nice experience. The Australian girl, Katie and I looked at each other like heck no! Her man, Craig, gave it a shot and talked on and on about how wonderful it made him feel. He said that it made your body tingle and you felt clear headed and relaxed. I thought if it makes you feel so great, maybe I will give it a shot. And you know what? It did make my body tingle and any stress I was carrying around in my head disappeared. Probably because my brain was shocked quickly into thinking 'Holy crap, you just jumped in a hole through the ice, are you crazy or something'??!