Boat Trip, Forest Skills, and Turku, Finland

It's definitely been good times here in Southern Finland. I'll start from where I left off last :) Soooooo, we didn't actually make it to the Åland Islands. Our petrol consumption estimate was drastically off. It would have ended up costing about €500 in gas alone. Way over budget, plus one can easily take a ferry for about €20. Woops! In spite of the, uuuh, minor glitch, we made the most of the trip. We had made it only one fifth of the way to Åland. We ended up stopping off at Daniela's (one of the people with us) family's summer house, as well as Sebbe's family's summer house. Both of these places were accessible only by boat. It's pretty cool to wonder around places that are virtually untouched much of the time. After cruising in the boat all day (we also drove through this really really cool canal) we went back to our (well, Ika's) summer house and played some games and drank some beer (surprise, surprise!). All in all, it was great fun.

I've been acquiring some very useful skills in case I want to become a mountain person or what have you. Ika has taught me how to dig for worms and use them as bait for fishing. I was rather traumatized by the whole experience (all the sticking and killing, etc)! I've also learned how to chop wood. It was great, I got a workout and firewood out of the deal! However, it's not exactly my exercise of choice ;)

Yesterday was also fun. I went with Ika and Mona (her mom) to Turku, Finland. Interesting fact: if the city/town is of Swedish speaking majority, the Swedish name is listed before the Finnish name on signs. Turku is the Finnish name of the city and Åbo is the Swedish name of the city. So, yeah, anyway. The three of us went to the Handicrafts Museum which is a collection of old houses from the turn of the 19th Century in which actors are making things like pottery and baskets (pic above of Ika and Me). Then we had dinner on the river in a big boat (rather unimpressive meal actually, booo). After that we went to Ika's big brother's apartment in Turku. We had SUCH a fun time there. We played Nintendo Wii for a while. That was my first time playing with one. What a blast!

Last night on our way home from Turku, Ika and I saw an elk. I am so glad that I finally got to see one. Finland is known for the number of elk they have roaming around. Ika saw 6 while driving home one evening. I tried to take a picture of it but it was a little bit dark. I posted it anyway becasue you can see it if you look closely.

This weekend should be a blast. There is a 3-day-long festival called Faces that happens every year (it is actually directed by Ika's dad). It's a multicultural celebration with music, food, and dancing. Then on Monday I will go to Helsinki for a night, and on the 5th I will be going to Stockholm, Sweden (again) before I fly back to the States. I've got less than 2 weeks left so I've got to make the most of it!!