Gold Rush

The trip to the Gold Museum went fine, though it was COOOOOLLLLDDDD since the area had SO MUCH snow still for some reason. We arrived at the wrong end of the museum at first, but then we managed to go to the right one HA HA HA HA...The firm who organizes our course paid for the taxi rent and the entrance fee, so we didn't have to pay a thing. We arrived there at around 10 am and there was a guide who explained many things to us in Finnish.

The museum also boasts many different pictures and mining tools from different countries as well as the copies of the big gold nuggets found in some areas in the world. The biggest gold nugget found accidentally in Australia is called "Welcome Stranger". Do you know how heavy it is? It's 72 kg. *GRIN*

OK, now let me just share some pics with you, shall we?

First pic: This is the information board about Tankavaara Gold Museum.


Second pic: The woman on the right is our guide. Our teacher's the one with purple pipo (woolen hat).


Third pic: Me, a friend, and our teacher. ;-D


Fourth pic: Me again. ;-D


Fifth pic: One of the tools that the miners used back then.


Sixth pic: One of the paintings on the wall.


Seventh pic: Look at the B/W picture next to my female friend. The dark "dots" you see there are PEOPLE climbing up to the mountain post. They each had to bring around 800 kg of tools and equipment and food and clothes to the post as beyond the mountain was a harsh, uninhabited place. And the wooden sled in the picture is the miniature of the sled they used to carry their stuff up the mountain. Click on the picture to see a larger version of it. ;-D


These three pictures below were taken when the guide showed us how to pan the gold. In summer, guests can pan their own gold outside for a price. Since it was still cold, the guide just showed us how to do it inside the museum. Well, I don't think you can get much gold even if you try panning it outside, anyway he he he he...probably just tiny gold "dust" just like in the third picture below.




Can you see the gold "dust"????? Click on the pic to enlarge he he...


This pic below is the replica of the school near the mine in the old days.


Surprisingly enough, after the tour was over inside the Gold Museum, we went outside and found this outdoor museum. There are some replicas of buildings from several gold rush centres around the world.




This one below is a house made of bottles HA HA HA HA HA...


Then we also visited a Stone Museum which was located very near the Stone Museum. The Stone Museum building was VERY cold, though. Here I found very interesting shapes of stones.

Look at the below pic. There's this "mushroom-looking stone" there he he he...CUTE!!!


And look at this beauty!!! ^___________________________^


And here I am with MY HUGE diamonds HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...*wink*




As a souvenir, I bought this bottle of gold flakes. It cost me €6, but hey, it looks VERY nice, don't you think so?


While we were waiting for the taxi to come pick us up, we found a reindeer in captivity near that area, so we ventured closer to it as I had never had a good close-up picture of a reindeer before.


LUCKILY for us, the reindeer came even CLOSER to us!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!! My Thai friend threw some bread to it and it ate the bread HA HA HA HA HA...Apparently they eat just about everything! Geez...

I have another classmate whose hubby's a reindeer man and she's got many reindeer. She said that two reindeer of hers LOVED DOG FOOD!!! The dog was obviously mad since the reindeer ate his food, but what could he do? After all, he was MUCH smaller than the reindeer HA HA HA HA HA...





And I managed to capture a short video clip of this reindeer HE HE HE HE HE...