a Finnish twist: Happy Holiday - Part 2: From Joensuu to Lapland and back again

....Holidays Continued....

14:45 Joensuu sunset. Jan 1

Scott and I returned to Joensuu on Dec 29. Our long train ride from Helsinki was mostly in the daylight, so we managed to see most of the countryside along the tracks. It was the most crowded train that I have ever been on in Finland and we had huge bags to contend with. I managed to borrow a student card from a fellow international student, so both Scott and I travelled for half-price (32€ each). On Finnish trains, each passenger is assigned a seat and these seat assignments are strictly adhered to (it is the systeemi). The seats are set in pairs on either side of the aisle running down the centre of the car. Typically, each person is assigned a seat for themselves and there is an empty seat beside them for coats, bags, etc....unless the train is busy. Half the car faces forwards, the others face backwards, and at the midpoint 4 people get to face each other on either side of the aisle. Scott and I were assigned to 2 of the 4 seats that face each other. I assumed (without checking) that our seats were both at the window facing each other...so we sat down by the window and settled in for the long ride.

Lining up along the river to watch the fireworks...

At the very first stop, and elderly lady (with no English) pointed at me...and then to her ticket...and then to me again....then looked at her ticket....apparently I was in her spot. She was very nice and spoke to me (in Finnish) and apologized (in Finnish) and, once settled, started to talk about the weather (in Finnish). It was at that point when I gave up on smiling and nodding and told her that I really didn't speak Finnish. The elderly lady's arrival also complicated matters because we all had huge bags (hers was on wheels) that would not fit into the overhead compartment. So we had mounds of baggage piled around us as the train rolled away from the first stop. Eventually, the conductor came by and indicated to the elderly lady that she could move across the aisle to the seats where only 1 of 4 was currently occupied. She declined. At another stop about an hour into the trip, a "young lady" (my age, maybe a bit younger) came up and told Scott that he was in her seat...hmm...things seemed a bit odd. So...(finally - I should have done this sooner)...I re-checked our tickets. It turns out that I sat us down on the wrong side of the aisle...AND...we were supposed to be sitting beside each other, not across. After yet another awkward baggage and seat shuffle, we were finally seated in the correct place and our bags were stored out of the way. phew. That was a little embarrassing.

Very very cool ice formations. They were frozen together so you could walk out onto them. I was pretty hesitant to do this (they look broken before you even go on them), but other people clearly were...ultimately I didn't fall in!

Finally, I was home again...time to catch up with friends! We spent the next couple of days around Joensuu going for coffee, walks, beers...generally relaxing and catching up on laundry and vegetable consumption. Most of the days were absolutely beautiful...-10, sunny (well...somewhat sunny), and no wind. There was some fresh snow for New Years' so we started out the new year with a fresh feeling. For New Years' Eve, we went to a friends house quite near to mine, then watched the fireworks at midnight from the bridge near my house. It was supposed to be a potluck party, but seeing how it was hosted by a Spanish, the dinner invitation was for 9pm. A bit too late for me...for dinner at least. So we had some food at home, baked an epic gingerbread house (for the potluck) then headed out. Scott was the main chemist, engineer, and landscape architect for our gingerbread property, while I focused on construction. In the end, there was a house, 4 trees, a sauna, an outhouse, a log pile, 3 men (the same size as the house), a firewood pile, and....of course...a feller-buncher (harvester)!!!

Hyvää Uutta Vuotta!! Happy New Year!

The theory for decorating the gingerbread house was that we would take the required icing and candies to the party where it could be a group contribution. First, we went to one of the fantastic candy stores here in Joensuu that has bins and bins and bins of different candies and chocolates. Just take a paper bag and a scoop and you are set to take as much of whatever you would like. It's dangerous. We each filled a bag for home decoration. There was a surprisingly low rate of attrition on the candy bowl prior to decoration...in the end, there were still enough candies left to produce this house:

Gingerbread house of epic-ness!!

New Years day we went for a long walk, but by January 2 we were getting bored of being around Joensuu. So...we booked a trip to Lapland...for the next day! Scott found that you get a 20% discount on the cottage-booking website if you book 24 hours or less in advance...so he found a cottage and booked it for the rest of the week. I found the cheapest car rental in Joensuu...and January 3 we were off!!

Bare Birches

Well...it wasn't quite that simple...we had to finish laundry, go grocery shopping, find a printer to print of the invoice, go to the bank to pay the invoice...and pick up the car. Then drive 9 hours. Pickup the key. Drive another hour...and finally we were there. That was a looong day! There was a bit of stress on the day too because we had to be at the gas station in Sodankylä to pick up the key before it closed at 9pm. And we couldn't leave Joensuu until after I had done the banking, BUT the bank didn't open until 10am! The weather was less than spectacular, so the driving was slooow (nice for sitting at home, but not nice for driving). We got lost twice, which wasn't bad considering we made the trip without a mapbook of any kind. I wrote down some directions from GoogleMaps, but there were insufficient when it came to changing highways in the middle of cities. We finally made it to the gas station to pick up the key with 20 minutes to spare.

In the cottage looking out....

We spent the rest of the week enjoying what we could of the very short days (2 hours of daylight) and enjoying the sauna even more! We spent many hours playing card games, but discovered that we really didn't know very many card games! It was a bit sad actually as we have both spent sooo many hours playing cards in our lives, but couldn't get beyond Euchre, Crazy-8, and Black Jack.

Lappish koivu (birch). They just have soo much character!! plus, with the snowfall...and Sininenhetki ("Blue Moment")

On our long drive home, we stopped at Rovaniemi where we visited the Arctic Circle, Santa's village, and the K-City Market. We went to the grocery store (K-City Market) to pick up some reindeer meat (Poronlihaa) for stew and a few snacks for the rest of the drive...back to Joensuu...