Roadtripping Lapland or Good news and Bad news
I’m excited about our road trip to Lapland when I walk over to my friend’s flat. The first thing he tells me is that we have good and we have bad news. The good news is that the car we rented, which he picked up the night before, works, the bad…
Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring!
Bright colors, wearing T-shirts, sitting outside even it’s still a bit chilly to catch the first sunshine, new flowers coming up… springtime! A few years ago I spent this time of year in Finland. It was gorgeous to see the snow melt and the flowers come up. We would go…
Winter in Lapland
We’d planned a day of winter activities in Finnish lapland. I went to the big house to ask where we could find something fun to do, but unfortunately there was nobody home who spoke English. We drove to a petrol station near the Norwegian border. There was a supermarket as…
Roving around Rovaniemi
The Arktikum museum in Rovaniemi, Finland, deserves more time than I could give it. Being on a time limit I felt like I had to rush through the exhibits. The different sections of the museum showed a lot about living in the arctic. There was a replica of an old Sami…
Driving into winter wonderland
I was on a road trip through Lapland (Finland) with 9 fellow students. Driving into Oulu we immediately noticed a foul smell entering the car. It must have been one of the many factories, or the combination of them. One of our crew really wanted to find the university for…
Pedal power: Ruissalo
In the Netherlands I own three bicycles. I use them to go to work, to go to the shops or to visit friends. It’s my main mode of transportation. While travelling I don’t often get the chance to go on a bike ride and when I do, it can get…
Turku’s treasures
Turku is a city in the South-West of Finland, located by the sea and close to the Turku archipelago. In the city center you find a beautiful river which is a perfect place to chill out on a sunny day. You can walk along the riverbank, all the way to Turku castle.…
Rich as a tsar
Just outside St. Petersburg, past the industrial area, lies Pushkin where the Catherine palace is. As soon as I got off the bus people were trying to sell me things, but there was no time for that. A tour of the palace was waiting. The front of the palace had…
Riga’s tales
When I was in Riga spring and winter were competing. There were sunny days where the snow started melting and the streets were covered in a mixture of snow and big puddles of brown water. Winter didn’t give in and just added some new snow and a fresh wind that…
The advantages of living in a freezer
There are a lot of reasons not to visit certain countries in winter. Yes it is cold and there isn’t much sun. But during my time in Finland I discovered winter has many beautiful aspects as well. Even if you look beyond the obvious; snowboarding, skiing, white Christmas, hot chocolate.…