Helsinki vs Sodankylä

1. I found out that -26'C in DRY Sodankylä feels BETTER than -13'C in MORE MOIST Helsinki (esp. when it's windy, too). Why? Because in Helsinki it felt that the cold air just seeped inside my jackets straight into my bones. Even R2 said it was cold!!! So I'd rather have cold weather in Sodankylä 'coz at least the coldness stays "outside" your body provided that you have enough layers of clothing.

1st pic: There are some Christmas lights left in Helsinki.

2. One thing I forgot about the big cities is the travel time to go from one place to another (plus the cost to travel from one place to another). Here in Sodankylä whenever I have to go "downtown", it takes but a few minutes (either walking or by bike) he he he he...

3. LOVE the fact that there are so many bookstores in Helsinki with an incredible collection of books (including English books) HA HA HA HA HA...whereas in Sodankylä there's only ONE small bookstore. Ahem.

2nd pic: More Christmas lights downtown Helsinki.

4. In Helsinki, everywhere you hear English and different languages spoken daily, whereas in Sodankylä you'll hear mostly only Finnish. They're definitely two different worlds apart!

5. Went to two museums in Helsinki (Kiasma Art Museum and Tennispalatsi Museum). In Kiasma they displayed contemporary art and we felt that many of them were way too contemporary for us ha ha ha...but we were both SO impressed with one particular art form.

This art form is located in one corner of the huge display room. The corner is VERY dark and it's an L-shaped. So from outside, you can't see anything but a plaque stating the title of the art form, the artist, etc. Anyway, the title of the art is: Foam. Then you have to walk inside the L-shaped corner (which is REALLY dark - I had such an ominous feeling when I entered) and then about 2 metres ahead of you there's a huge screen. When I entered the site, the screen showed a round-like figure (which is actually a red balloon) and some foam (like when you've spread some foam to shave a guy) and then you notice someone starting to shave that round-like figure, but before you realize what it's about, the balloon pops out (obviously) with a LOUD bang! I was SO shocked ha ha ha ha ha...so I told R2 about it and told him to go see it. And he was also SHOCKED by the loud bang HI HI HI HI HI...

We both agreed that it was the best display in the whole museum, though we also like two others. The other one is a gorgeous picture which I can't describe (believe me, it's just GORGEOUS!) and the other one is a replica of a WAVE. It's SUPER cool! :-D

In Tennispalatsi Museum there are two displays, but we went only to one of them. It displayed mostly Russian paintings. I LOVE many of them, though I found that there were too many melancholic faces portrayed there. In some pics they look SO real (like photos instead of paintings) so that we had to get as close as a few centimetres away to find out whether they were paintings or photos HA HA HA HA HA HA...We just had to make sure!!! ;-D

3rd pic: Light display which changes colour every errr...few minutes or so?

6. We also went to watch Avatar 3D movie in Helsinki, but alas...something horrible happened. My eyes couldn't take them. The special effect of the movie was such (hard to explain, but those who've seen it must understand what I'm talking about) that 10 minutes into the movie, I started feeling dizzy and SUPER nauseous already! I had to shut my eyes for almost the rest of the movie (which was about 2,5 hours long, imagine that!) so that I wouldn't puke. Note: Even R2 said that in some scenes he felt a bit dizzy 'coz of the way the movie was made.

I wanted to go to the toilet to puke, but we were sitting in the middle of the row and I didn't want to bother other people. So the only trick I could do was just shut my eyes - the nausea subsided only after 45 minutes of doing this, can you imagine that? It felt like a HORRIBLE case of sea-sickness. Ugh!!!

I wonder if anybody has experienced something like this? Or am I just the weird one out?

7. What did I buy in Helsinki? One Finnish novel on a discount (only €2), one Finnish Exercise book, and some chocolate he he he he he...

4th pic: The Indian food we had at Tandoor Resto in Salomonkatu (near the Tennispalatsi Cinema). We had lunch buffet for €8.50 each - the red meat is chicken and that's the BEST thing ever! ;-D

OK, I'll blog-hop either later today or the day after today 'coz I'll be busy tomorrow. My new passport is done and the Indo Embassy employee even sent it to our hotel the same day, can you believe it? I'm REALLY impressed and thankful for their help! ;-D But tomorrow I have to go to the police station to move my residence permit to the new passport and I need to cook and clean up the apartment, as well.

Trip to Rovaniemi

The trip to Rovaniemi went smooth. As usual, Sleepyhead Me even managed to take a short nap in the car HUE HE HE HE HE...

However, I didn't expect the day to be HOT HOT HOT!!! In the morning the temperature was -17'C, so I was dressed accordingly. We went to Kelujärvi to have lunch together with the kids, then we left to Rovaniemi at around 12.30 pm. By then the temperature came up to only -1'C. I should've taken off some layers of clothes since we wouldn't be outside too much, but I didn't do it. So in the car I was ROASTED by the HOT sun. It was such a cloudless day that the sun was really scorching for me. It was also blinding me and making my throat SO SO SO SO dry!!!

Gladly I managed to sleep for a bit hi hi hi...thus the trip didn't feel too long. I took off my shoes and my leg warmers in the car, but I couldn't have taken off my woolen shorts that I had put on over my regular long john he he he...

When we arrived in downtown Rovaniemi, we went straight to the malls. That day was also a graduation day for some students there, so they were dressed up in different costumes. Here's a picture of astronauts in downtown Rovanemi he he he...



And art lovers, can you please explain to me what this is?!?!?!?!?!?! For the life of me, I can't imagine what this looks like hmmm...



And here are some more pics of downtown Rovaniemi...













Then we went to a Pizza Buffet restaurant where we could eat anything we wanted with one price only. It was OK. After that we went to another shopping mall and I found a T-shirt on a discount (it was only €5), so I bought it. Arttu also found a big bundle of Donald Duck on a discount. Yes, he's a HUGE fan of Donald Duck (in Finnish he's called Aku Ankka - Ankka = Duck. Funnily enough, in Indonesian the word "aku" means "I" or "me"). Arttu was SO HAPPY to get that book he he he he...After all, he doesn't really like window shopping HA HA HA HA...Gladly he could tag along with the nephews while my sis-in-law and I went to women's clothes stores he he he...

Here's a pic of the bookstore.



After that we had to go to the train station. It was the first time I ever went to that train station. Here are some pictures.







The last picture is Arttu near the parking lot of the train station.



I must say that going to Rovaniemi felt like going back to "civilization" again ha ha ha ha...Because there were FAR MANY more people and cars there. I don't know what I'm going to feel when I'm back in Indo. I'm a bit apprehensive that I'll be SHOCKED by the amount of traffic and people and traffic jam there he he he...

Oh well...I'll blog-hop tomorrow, OK? Now I'm a bit tired and I still have homework to do and I need to prepare myself for the upcoming test. ;-D