Over the weekend I was able to experience lots of Finnish culture, including eating moose, reindeer, home-smoked salmon, delicious pastries and drinks. I loved visiting the cities of Tampere and Helsinki and seeing the many still-frozen lakes and forests of trees and hiking and cooking sausages and meatballs on the lake-side campfire.
Iida's family were so welcoming and gave me many gifts, including some knitten socks and mittens from her grandmother. While at her grandmother's, we also had a go in the sauna, which is a weekly occurrence for most Finns. It was so hot I could only handle a few minutes in there and completely understood the common practice of jumping in freezing lakes or snow afterwards! Iida pulled out all the stops for me while in Finland, including meeting the Finnish Prime Minister!
 |
| Iida and her mum and dad |
 |
| Where they live on the map! |
 |
| Iida and her cute dog Benny |
 |
| Iida's brother and dad |
 |
| Enjoying what was left of the snow |
 |
| Looking out over Tampere |
 |
| Tampere Cathedral |
 |
| Beautiful wings on high |
 |
| The Wounded Angel - a famous Finnish painting |
 |
| Smoked reindeer and cheese soup |
 |
| Some of the nice houses of Tampere |
 |
| Iida's grandmother's sauna |
 |
| Knitted by the hand of a Finnish grandmother |
 |
| Said Finnish grandmother |
 |
| Fake bear cave! |
 |
| The Hame castle of Hameenlinna |
 |
| Iida with her dad at his motor cycle club |
 |
| More Finnish food - home made blueberry pie |
 |
| Pulla |
 |
| The smoke house in Iida's backyard |
 |
| Delicious home-smoked salmon and mushroom sauce |
 |
| Architecture in Helsinki |
 |
| Helsinki Cathedral |
 |
| Temppeliaukio Church (The rock church) |
 |
| Monument to Finnish composer Sibelius |
 |
| Ads for the upcoming election |
Only two weeks of my time here left!
Love to all
xo
P.S. See my earlier post on Wales if you missed it below...
No comments:
Post a Comment