Hehe... Long time since I've updated.. I went to Estonia during the weekend and came back from Santa Claus land this morning..

Pictures! :D

Bleh, nothing much to see in Estonia..
Moving on..

On the train to Rovaniemi, where Santa Village is. The train ride took 11 hours and I bought a bed ticket so I could sleep soundly hehe.

I was there early and had to wait for the bus to Santa Village. So I drank some coffee in a restaurant and looked at their menu. Wonder how it tastes like. Heard it's not nice.

Kay, I've reached! I think the time was slightly before 10.

This is the passageway to the room where Santa sits all day doing nothing but make idle talk and take pictures with visitors. He is such an ass I asked how many days does he work a year and he refused to answer my question as 'not-santa'. Get what I mean? I tried asking other questions and he answered them as if he was really Santa. Well...... And he stinks of b.o. That coat must be really warm. Ah, anyway, I did take a picture with him.

Poor quality cos I used my cam to take a picture of the photo which I bought from the 'elf'. Who was fully convinced that he is a real elf. His elf-beard is REAL. And elf-beards aren't very nice looking.

Letters from kids to Santa. Don't be fooled by him anymore, kids!

And the line where the land starts to belong to the Artic Circle. Pretty cool..

A map depicting the imaginery line of the Artic Circle. It's like the top 1/4 of the globe. The whole 1/4 area is the Artic Circle. Yea, something like that. The Artic Circle line is halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.

Then I went to the Ranua Zoo!! Or the Wildlife Park. The people there used the terms exchangeably and I was pretty confused as to where I was at. The bus said Zoo but the entrance sign said Wildlife Park.

On the bus. In the distance you might be able to catch a glimpse of the ski slopes.

At the beginning of the trail

I hate owls!!! I was traumatised by a story I read when I was a kid. An evil owl bit off a squirrel's tail. Argh!! Fcking scary click to enlarge and look at it's evil eyes.

Polar Bears! Can you spot them in this huge ass enclosure??

The Polar Bear enclosure is to the right and to the left, miles and miles of forest.

Bambi!

Reindeer. I took the picture of the one with the largest horns I could find.

Hi!

Took a walk around the city of Rovaniemi.

One of the many nice houses overlooking the lake in the previous picture.

Okay, so many pictures! Gonna go to Nuukiso National Park tomorrow, last day of shopping on Saturday, visit to my aunt's on Sunday... And from Monday to Wednesday I'll be in Sweden! AND FINALLY, I'll be taking the flight back on THURSDAY. Ah I can't wait.........

Ciaoz!

I went to Porvoo, an old town about 45 mins from the Helsinki city center. Not much to see cept for some wooden houses. The church was under renovation. Too bad.




My lil cousin went fishing with his dad and caught this fish by himself! How cute :)
I'm so proud of him.

I went to Suomenlinna. An island about 15 minutes away from the harbor. It used to be a sea fortress and all that.

Not much of a view from the ferry. And I did not go to the upper deck where everyone was cos of the scorching sun. I have tanned sufficiently so that I MUST take precautions when I'm outdoors.






Nothing going on there.. Just plenty of these stone buildings and walls.. Can get creepy at times cos some of the walkways are pretty deserted.

And this is the sauna in the basement of my uncle's house.


This is the balcony of my room. Haha lousy pictures I know.

i need the innocence and the eyes of a child

This place is getting worse by each day, same goes for the people here.
I wanna go home or just anywhere else but here.

Going to Estonia this weekend and Lapland (Santa Claus village) next week.
Clement you'll get your santa claus photo!!!

Tired Feet

Today I walked for about 1.5 hours to get to the island I wanted to visit. The distance was like walking from my house to YioChuKang. My flip flops look so worn out only after wearing them like thrice. And with all the walking I've done the past few days, my leg muscles are pretty sore. Imagine walking at least 6 hours at a stretch for everyday. In flip flops. Or nice shoes. Without proper foot support. Blisters galore!

Okay enough talk. Here are the pictures.

The Sibelius monument commemorating the composer Jean Sibelius. Surprise surprise, I've heard his Violin Concerto.



On my way to the open air museum, Seurasaari. These ducks got balls, they ain't afraid of humans!

Creepy inside the old houses. But I like the smell of the wood, reminds me of my childhood days when I stayed at my grandparents house during the holidays. My grandparents have since passed away and the land on which the house stood on has been sold.
At the entrance of these houses, there will be someone sitting there, engaged in some sort of 'traditional' activity. Like sewing, cross stitch, reading some worn, antique book. These people were dressed in 'traditional' wear and I was impressed at the effort they put in in guaranteeing an experience as authentic as possible.




And this is the freaking restroom!!!! Fcking stinky! There's no water and visitors have to scoop some dry stuff to throw into the toilet after finishing their business. This stupid dry stuff doesn't remove the fcking stench of urea like water does but I had to use the toilet badly so I went in with tissue over my nose and mouth. So much for the experience of authenticity!!!! And of cos I took pictures for memories. As bad as those in China.

Realized that my soles were dirt black from walking.



Lovely house with some plant eating it up.

Celica gen6??