07 January, 2009

Findland 芬兰 1208

X'Mas in Finland, cold but not so bad, it was not less than -5ºC through out our trip.

Just like the weather, my impression of the Finnish People is that they are also very cold.

Just when people told me that the pictures I took in my last 2 trips to Canadian Rockies and Bhutan were very nice, the pictures I took in this trip to Finland were a disappointment, blamed it on the cold weather.

This is not the only disappointment, the optional tour for Ice Breaker Cruise was cancelled and also no Northern Lights seen, again, blamed it on the weather.

The tour to Tallinn, capital of Estonia was also cancelled, this time blamed it to not enough time.

Anyway, not all were negative, I crossed the Artice Circle, rode a snow mobile, a reindeer sledge & a dog sledge, drank in an Ice bar, all of these were my first time.



X'Mas scene in Porvoo town, 50km east of Helsinki.


Every house was decorated for X'Mas.


Beautiful scene of wooden houses by the river of Provoo.


Central Station of Helsinki


2 men carry lanterns standing by the entrance of Helsinki Central Station.


Shopping Centre in the city of Helsinki.


Igoo (snow house) in Saariselka.


Snowmobile


Snow scene of Lappland from a window.


Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi.


Santa Claus Office in the building behind me. His job is too take photo with tourists at 25 euro per photo. The blue line hanging in the air marks the boundary line of Artic Circle.


Just to indicate how far it is from here to Singapore, 9394km.


Helsinki Cathedral in Senate Square.

Esplanade Park of Helsinki.
X'Mas eve in Turku, the oldest city in Finland.