Sami Yoik at the Reindeer Farm
The second of my edited Lapland videos, this is a Sami woman who's singing a traditional Yoik at the Reindeer Farm near Inari. Thanks to Matze for the audio track, the microphone on my camera isn't the best.
Lapland Movie
As promised, i've put together my video clips from the Lapland trip into this short movie. Myself, Irada, Matze and Mario are featured, most of the clips are from my camera, some from Matze's too.
Last day in Finland – saying goodbye
The worst thing about Erasmus is that it has to come to an end eventually. Today is my last full day in Finland, and after having an amazing time here for the last four months, I have to say goodbye to all the wonderful friends i've made, pack my things and get ready to go.
It's hard to sum up all my feelings on this day in one post, but of course its a mixture of sadness for the friends i'll have to leave behind, nostalgia for all the great memories I have of Finland, excitement at returning to Ireland and seeing all my old friends again, and a little bit of stress for getting 2 flights and trains etc on Monday!
It will be hard to leave behind the winter wonderland that Helsinki is at the moment, but Ireland is my home, and it's time I went back to reality - after the best four months of my life.
To everyone I have met here, and shared great times with: I love you all, i'll never forget you, and I hope very much to see you again one day. If you come to Ireland my door is always open, all you need to do is ask.
Have a very merry Christmas, a happy 2010, and best of luck to you all in the future.
Christmas time in Helsinki – Colder than your freezer
Candles in the snow giving off a very nice glow
I had my final exam yesterday morning, in Java and J2ME. Apart from a few small parts of assignments I have left to do, college is over for the year! To celebrate, last night we had the very last Timpurinkujan dinner of 2009:
Sauna Bar
- Estonian Black Sausage, Cabbage and Jam
- Korean rice and spicy sauce with Beef and Onion, wrapped in Lettuce
- Finnish Karelian Pastries with Salmon
- Irish Potato Wedges
- French Potato Swirls
- Spanish Paella
- Italian Crepes
- German Almond Cake
- Finnish Glögi mixed with Estonian Vanha Tallinn to finish.
- I hope I didn't forget anything!
We also had a load of candles sitting in the snow outside, which made for a very nice evening, especially when I became the barman in the sauna, serving Glögi to everyone. Great memories 
Clock at Sello - very cold
Today is the coldest day of the year in Helsinki so far, according to the weather forecast it was -22ºC this morning, but the clock at Sello was only showing -16.5ºC. pfft, thats nothing.
7 Days of Night, and now back to frosty Helsinki
Snowmobiles - the most awesome form of transport
The final day of the Lapland trip (Saturday) was spent at the Saariselka outdoor centre, southwest of Inari, up in the higher hills of lapland. We started off the morning with an hour-long snowmobile safari - it was incredible! There's no feeling better than speeding along at full throttle on a huge snowmobile, high in the arctic, in the middle of december, at 80km/hour. Everyone needs to do it once!
Skiing was after lunch in the fairly small ski resort they have, it's about 15 runs, and only a few of which are relatively easy beginner ones, so having dislocated my shoulder the last time I skied, 6 years ago, I didn't want to push my luck too far! It was great fun, and the view from the top of the lifts was truly spectacular, you can see the northern plains stretching away for a hundred kilometres, with patches of forest and snowfields dispersed evenly all around.
The weather forecast tells me it was -16ºC when I took this
Today has been the coldest day of the year so far in Helsinki, and to celebrate, myself and Olivier were invited in to our friend Mirka's high school to join their english conversation class. We participated in a roleplay scenario, tried to translate some newspaper articles, and talked to the class a little bit about ourselves. Always interesting to meet real Finns in a situation like that, as usual the girls I spoke to were amazed that I liked Finland so much, and were very impressed that we'd been to Lapland, seen the independence day parade, etc etc.
The temperatures now are even colder than any day we were in Inari or Norway last week - but up in Lapland the temperatures dropped in one day from around -6ºC to currently -26ºC, and i'm honestly quite glad we got out of there in time! I'll be back... One day...
Survival Course
Midday twilight in Inari, Lapland
Today´s course was how to survive in the Lappish winter, I dont think we would last very long outside if left to our own devices but we had a great time all the same. Morning started off with a lecture on general winter topics, outdoor survival and so on, after which we set off on a GPS-orienteering walk.
We finished up with a big lunch cooked on an open fire, on which Matze melted his shoe (Breaking news: Fire Hot) and went on to the Lake Fox near where we´re staying, to learn how to do ice fishing (we didn´t catch any unfortunately), building snow shelters (brilliant fun) and making a campfire with just a match, some wooden sticks and a Sami knife. It´s easy enough provided you know the trick and you have some dry wood to start off with!
Ice and Fire at the top of Europe
Matze and I on a Reindeer Sled
The last few days have been absolutely fantastic! Lapland really is incredible, we´ve done so much in such a short time. The main highlights so far have been the Reindeer Farm, the Ice Lake swimming, and the trip to the Arctic Ocean, all of which were absolutely brilliant and i´d reccomend to anyone to try! Every evening here at Vasatokka we have the Sauna, and theres a little hole in the icy lake where you can take a dip in between sauna sessions. The feeling you get when you plunge into the water is indescribable, it´s so energising and refreshing, when you come back out into the air it´s like being born again. We have this every night of the week, lucky us!
The world´s most northerly Alko shop
Next thing is the Reindeer Farm at Salojarvi, where a Sami family have a sort of open farm, where you get to feed the reindeer, take a trip on a sledge, hear some Sami "Yoik" which is their traditional troat-singing, and try some of the local food etc. The people running the farm were friendly, entertaining and well informed, and the mother of the family really knows how to get a crowd singing!
I´m not in this picture but they were at the beach today as well, I assume they were as cold as I was!
Today we were on a bus for a couple of hours up to the Arctic Ocean, at Bugøynes, a little over the border in Norway. On the way we stopped in Nuorgam, site of the northernmost Finnish village, and the most northerly Alko shop in the World 
Swimming in the Arctic ocean was surprisingly not as cold as in the ice lake here in Inari, but everyone´s feet froze after spending a few minutes on the icy beach - the vodka shots given to us after our dive were much appreciated but did little to warm us up! It´s kind of a once in a lifetime experience, but i´m very glad i´ve had the chance. We didnt see much of Norway but I liked what I saw!
Tomorrow... Survival course!
Visiting Santa
Our visit to Santa!
Our first day in Lapland - we met Santa at his office on the arctic circle, just north of Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland! The place looked amazing, very seasonal, and on the way into Santa´s office there were lots of pictures of famous celebrities, such as Tarja Halonen and Conan O´Brien, who have come to meet Santa too. After that we headed to Inari, went to Sauna and ice lake swimming, and had a terrible, terrible dinner of pizza "sandwiches" and hash browns.
Finnish Independence Day
Crowds in front of the Cathedral, waiting for the speeches to start
December 6th is Finland's Independence Day, (in 1917 from Russia) and to celebrate it every year the students of all the local universities have a parade along the main streets of the city centre. It's a really impressive spectacle, everyone has flaming torches, the students are all wearing their graduation caps, and carrying their society flags. There's a gathering on the steps of the Senate Square (in front of the White Cathedral) and there are some speeches and songs.
We were standing on Pohjois-Esplanadi, watching the procession pass by, and we joined in towards the end, as everyone else was doing. The parade paused for a moment in front of the Presidential palace by the harbour, and Tarja Halonen herself was out on the balcony, waving to everyone!
The event had a really nice atmosphere to it, while everyone was there to enjoy the atmosphere and celebrate their Finnish-ness, there seemed to be a great sense of dignity about the whole thing, and a seriousness that I haven't seen at any other sort of big public occasion such as that, in Finland or anywhere else for that matter.
BlackJack released!
It's my pleasure to announce the release of BlackJack version 1, the game that myself, Olivier and Mischa have been working on for our C++ project for the past month or two. It works for Mac or PC, and you can see a screenshot below. It was developed using the QT framework from Nokia, which means it can be easily ported between platforms, and requires only a few support files to run.
Download (Mac OS X) : 17MB
Download (Windows) : 7MB
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