It's a beautiful world.

Among all the places we have been to in this trip, Helsinki is the city not as charm as the other cities but it's the most friendly one. It has the best tourists signs. Everyone speaks English and friendly. Everything is similar to Australia. It's a small city but easy access to everything. Actually I should say easy access to everywhere. It's a 2 hours train trip to Saint Petersburg. It's few hours from Estonia by cruise and it's an overnight trip to Sweden. I m so jealous of the Finnish. Coz it takes at least 6 hours for us to get out of Australia! Helsinki has a bit of everything. You can see a Russian style building on one side of the road then you see some European style building on the other side. The constant changes of the senceary makes this city very interesting. The wooden red house in northern Finland are so cute! It may be one of the coldest place in the world but people are so warm and friendly that make you want to stay here forever. 

Russia is a crazily beautiful. Unfortunately the weather wasn't that good when we were there but the grey sky gave it another kind of beauty. I have to say the Russia are a bit cold compare to Finnish. But our metro tour guide was wonderful. Our landlord in Moscow was amazingly nice and helpful. Walking in Moscow and Saint Petersburg were never boring. It's like you are walking in a live museum. It's amazing. A romantic day dreamer like me can spend years wonder around this city and never get bored. Looking at the buildings around you and the people around give you unlimited imagination. Ideas were bursting in my head that I worry I will have a heart attack. All the giant beautiful buildings with bright colors and detailed decoration. It must takes a lot of effort to maintain the history of the cities. I love Russia. This is the second time I visited this country and once again it won my heart. I m jealous of the children of Russia. I m jealous they are given the opportunities to grow up with the history. We saw lots of children in the Winter Palace. They can go to the museum for free. I saw them doing live drawings in front of an old painting. How lucky they are! 

We haven't spent enough time in China, Sweden and Estonia. But all these countries have such strong characters we will never forget. 

Sweden was the only country has that multicultural feeling similar to Australia. It's a vibrant country. We can feel the energy coming from everywhere. People are riding a bike. People are shopping. People having a good time in the restaurant. The energy of the city just shock you in the face! We would like to spend more time in Sweden next time. It's a beautiful country.

I m amazed with all the bad stories we have heard about traveling in Russia and Europe and nothing happened to us.We have only experienced some scam in China. It's not even seriously at all.  We were safed. We haven't had any bad experience with people. I guess the world isn't too bad after all. As long as you travel with care and respect. You can still have an amazing experience like ours. I love traveling. I love overseas. Without all these difference experiences we will never know how good our home is. 

On our way to Rovaniemi Airport

After we met the husky dogs we went to the airport straight away. It supposed to be 3 and a half hour drive but it turns out to be 6 hours!

Before we left the hotel people already told us there's some heavy snow between Inari and Rovaniemi but it didn't really bother us when we "heard" about it.

An hour later the snow was so bad that we couldn't see the road at all. We don't know where's our lane and where's the edge! Then Satu's words came to our head "it's easier to drive when it's minus 7" and that's absolutely right! Iain was so freaked out at that time coz the car was a bit out of control sometimes! When we were closer to Rovaniemi airport, the temperature is just at zero degree and the road was so slippery! Crazy! Iain kept saying to me we won't make it to the airport on time! I was too scared to say anything!

When we finally got to the airport it was half an hour before departure. We ran for our lives to the check in counter! Thank god we made it! 

It's a crazy day! 6 hours heavy snow drive! Then an hour fly to Helsinki and when we touched down I realized I left my folder, which was full of our travel documets, at the airport check in counter!!

Oh my god!!! We travelled to everywhere around the world from south to east to west to north from flight to car to train to cruise! I never lost anything until today, almost the last stop of our travel, I lost the whole folder!!!! I was going to leave it but it also has our passport and mirage certificate copies in it so we paid 140 Euro to get it same day courier back to us  at Helsinki !!

140 Euro!!! That's much more expensive than our flight tickets TOGETHER! I was so angry with myself ! 

So we spent another hour at the airport dealing with all the shit at the same time I was so worry we are going to be miss out hostel booking! As I didn't put a late check it notes with the booking, it will be cancelled if we turn up later than 6pm! What the hell... The taxi was stuck in traffic for a bit and I was completely stress out! I was so mad with myself for everything! But thank God again we made it just before 6pm!

Amazing adventure part 2

As we were heading back to the hotel from Norway Satu haven't given up on the northern lights yet. But whenever we saw the the northern lights it's either no where to stop the car or the trees are too tall to take photo. 

When we finally got the chance the northern lights were a bit blur coz of the cloud. However we had a chance to see all the beautiful stars upon us. There were so many of them. So beautiful. For the first time in my life I wished the time can stop. 

Anyway at this breath taking moment Satu's phone rang. It was our hotel. They wanted to know if she has returned us back to the hotel yet! I m not joking! We were famous Aussie couples in northern Finland!  But I wished Satu could say "nah we kept them as hostages to make sausages coz they can't pay the bill." Hahahhaha

We finally got back to the hotel at 1am. A 6 hours tour.... From northern lights to reindeers to sausages to crazy driving in the snow.

The next day we have to head back to Rovaniemi airport in the morning.  But before we went to the airport we went to visit the sled dogs at the dog farm. It's still part of the tour from yesterday!! So our adventure continued at this beautiful lake side dog farm. 

There were some beautiful horses there as well. You know when you see those red wooden horse at ikea? They always painted them with hair on the horses' neck? The horses in the sancadavian area are actually look like that!! I thought people were making things up!

The horses there can survie in extream cold weather. And same as the husky dogs. It's amazing to see these animals here. I wonder how they can cope with the cold. Satu told us yesterday there are bears around this area as will but they are all sleeping in winter. They slept so deep that the female bears didn't even know they gave birth! 

The husky dogs were so crazy! When they saw us they got all excited and jumping up and down! Most of the dogs were taller than me when they jumped so I really freaked out! They are all so smart and beautiful. The guy worked there explained to us the smartest dogs ( usually 2) will be the the leader of the pack and when the snow is deeper they will be leading the team to do all the running and huskysafari.  

It's so nice to talk to people who works there. What a nice job too. I mean what else do you want? Both sides of the house are around the lake, in summer you train the dog and in winter you get them out for husky safari. 

People in Inari are nice. They talked to you as if you were their friends. There was no commercial no fakeness in there. Everyone is so calm and polite. And because of all these people, they made you wanted to come back. We stayed there for 3 nights and we weren't bored at all. We thought oh a small towns like this we must find something else to do. It turned out we quite enjoyed our time there. You felt like  you can just look at the lake and watched the days went by. We went for a drive around the lake to take some photos. We went for a walk in the snow. Everything was so peaceful. If life can be this simple sometimes that would be nice.

Amazing adventure

The story continues with the tour guide that sat down at our table without even asking who we are.

Satu is not only our tour guide but also the owner of another hotel in Inari. She is Finland oboriginal so she knows the area very well. She is very funny, nice and chatty. Once she sat down with us she talked about everything! She talked about the tour of course, then where she went to study in US, then the demanding Chinese tourists and northern lights and even my favourtie cartoon Moonmin.

Anyway she picked us up from the hotel at 7pm. Once we got into her car she took off her hat and said "oh it's so hot!" And I was like seriously? It's minus 4 outside! She told us we may not see the northern lights tonight coz it's very cloudy and it's going to snow. So she decided to bring us to even further north! Hang on! Does that mean we are going to North Pole? Nah. We are just going to Norway! Hahah 

So in that 2 hours drive we not only searching for northern lights but also talked about Finland, Australia and Hong Kong. Sometimes I wish I know Hong Kong better coz all I know about Hong Kong now is what to eat and there are lots of people from China. If I know Hong Kon better than we have much more to talk about. 

When we started driving, Satu told us Finland can be as cold as minus 50! And usually the snow is like 6 meters deep. Holy crap! 6 meters are like 4 of me tall. So if we come here in the middle of winter Iain may suddenly lost me coz I fall into 6 meters deep snow! We have no chance to live here at all coz we don't even bother to cut  our lawns!! Imagine if we never clear the snow outside our house? We better off just sleep in for the whole winter!

Satu also told us the cars in Finland are built to cope with cold wether. The petrol won't freeze up to minus 35. So I asked her does people still need to work or go to school when it's minus 38? She said yes people still need to work but children may not be able to go to school coz the car won't start! OMG... In Hong Kong we dont go to school when it's plus 38 degree! 

Satu told us it's much easier to drive in minus 38 than 0 degree coz it's less slippery and when she's telling us why she was only driving with one hand. Or NO HAND! God bless her! I almost have a heart attack when we were flying on the ice! But anyway you have to trust the person behind the wheel when you are in the middle of a snow forest! When Iain was asking her what else do we have to pay attention when driving on snow she was like oh it's quit easy when it's not icy and suddenly she said in winter the cold makes your skin very dry you have to put lots of moisturizers! Oh... Maybe having dry skin is worse than driving on slippery ice....

So 2 hour later we finally arrived our first stop - her cousin's house! Yes we were visiting some unknown cousin in the northern Finland. Unknown cousin has a reindeer farm there and their little boy Is just about to feed to the deers so he is waiting for us to show us how to feed deers. He is such a funny young man! Before we arrived, he kept callig Satu and asked her to hurry up coz he wants to go to bed. When we were finally there, he shown us how to feed the deers and he told us how tired he was coz he was gathering the deers all day.

It's just crazy isn't it? We suppose to see northern lights but we came all the way here to feed the deers! And the deers arnt even hungry! 

Anyway, the owner of the house invited us to go inside and have a cup of tea and something to eat. It's amazing to go inside the most traditional Finnish house. Well I should say Sami (Finland oboriginal) actually coz Satu is a full on Sami. 

When we walked inside the house the first thing we saw was this giant reindeer head hanging on the wall on top of the piano. That's crazy! Why do you want to do that? As if you are hanging your favourtie deer's head at home? I can't really understand the concepts of it but anyway that's the way they live here!

They also invited us to have some sausages but we have to BBQ the sausage ourselves! How weird is that??? Don't get me wrong. We totally enjoy the warm welcome from this family and we think it's fantastic! Nothing can be more special than this! But can you imagine 2 Aussies having sausages barbecue in far north Finland at 10pm?? 

It's an amazing night. We had such a wonderful time with this family. We talked about travel, people, animals and culture. That makes the whole visit so special because we were treated like an old friend not some strangers from Australia. At that point I thought to myself it's ok if we don't seethe northern lights tonight coz this home visit is special enough.

You know when you travel, the cities mean nothing to you if you are only a traveller there. It makes such a big difference if you know somebody there. As if you will be back next time and you will see them again as old friend.

Our adventure coninued by driving a bit further west to Norway! I can't believe we actually drove to Norway! We were planned to go there ourselves and do some local sight seeing but the snow were too heavy so we cancelled it. 

By the time we came back from Norway it's like eleven o'clock already so we thought that's it right? But no! The trip is not ended yet!

To be continued.

We are totally famous

Totally famous in northern Finland. We bought a necklace from a local jeweler yesterday. When we told them we are from Australia, people were like "seriously? You come all the way to here?" 

We went the suppermarket at night and saw the same lady at the jewerly shop again and she told us she told everyone about us!! It's a town of 150 people. So that means EVERYONE knows that we are from Australia. 

Today we were having a drink at the hotel bar and someone came to our table and "hello I m your tour guide tonight." We were like Oh really??? Do you know who we are??? But it turns out she really know who we are and I think the whole town does!!!!

Green lights

We have a 5 hours northern lights show last night just right outside our window. It's amazing. The actual lights are white. More like a cloud. But under the camera it's green and a bit orange. It's unreal. We are very lucky that the weather condition was good enough for us last night. Coz this is how te town looks like this morning.

We came all the way from Australia to this little town in northern Finland. Hoping we will have a chance to catch the northern lights. This town will always mean something to me and I will always miss it.