Marvellous Holiday Mischief - Finnish Fun

Yay, I finally spread my little wings and managed to cram 3 holidays into March! I'm certainly making up for lost time :) You should know by now, to grab a coffee and some biscuits because I cant help but whitter on, even when I'm writing....

Finland

So after 2 years of trying to arrange a holiday to a wonderfully warm place like Marrakesh with my friend Ele, she tells me she is in Vaasa, Finland for a week with work, and on the spur, I decide to join her! Of all the places to choose, freezy Finland was not the obvious choice, but this proved a great example, that the most important aspect of any holiday is the company.

So what Finnish mischief....? Well really we were very well behaved...boring I know...but it was work...well ok, I confess, by Thursday I had let my hair down. Ele did her hour of work, and the rest of the week we were spoilt rotten by the lovely Johan and Sauli. I hope we contributed to their 'project', they certainly entertained us very well, with amusing tales, great trips about the town and surrounding areas, food and alcohol galore (gosh the Finnish can drink!), and a sauna almost everyday.

So before I get to the messy hair down bit (which is likely the only bit you are interested in), lets go through the highlights:

Visiting the frozen sea at sunset - stunning and very odd to be walking on water

Freezy cuddles on the sea

Ele experiencing her first snow angel! 

 

I joined in too, and we were both freezing afterwards, only to find out that Johans car had got stuck in the snow, so we had to push it out. Hmm metal plus no gloves in -10 degrees. I honestly thought my pinki finger had frost bite :)

Fortunately we had a sauna in our hotel room, so soon warmed up! Luxury!!! Oh yes and I do remember my first ever lobster dinner...I could really get used to Finnish hospitality.

I've already forgotten the order of the days/weeks activities, but I think the following day included:

Unusual sculpture on the sea, at a restaurant run by a french/belguim chap

Drinks with Suali (left) and Johan (right)

Meeting up with Ele's lovely friend Ino (this is very unlikely to be the correct spelling - sorry)

As a side note, do remember to collect your pennies before you head to Finland for a booze up - ouch!

Oh gosh and its Thursday already! So yes we drove to Tampere. I was constantly looking out for Moose (I kicking myself for missing one on Tuesday - well I did see a moose leg but not sure that really counts) and Ele was trying catch up on sleep having had about 4 hours sleep the night before (naughty stop out :P ). I had foolishly enlightened Sauli and Johan to the British tradition of Pub Crawls, and thus this was the plan, with hilarious results:

Being the cultured critters we are, we decided to do a little cheese and wine tasting before we hit the pubs. I can concur that 'Plan B' is a wonderfully full bodied red wine, and soft cheese is yummy is various forms.

 

Sadly we followed this with tequila and champagne...

erm...slightly Norfolk love here

With 2 glasses of wine, 2 tequilas and 1 glass of champagne in me I found everything funny, regardless of the reality

By the third pub, it was cigars all round

Ele was onto her third pull of the evening - she is honestly the best man magnet I know!

Gosh I look tipsy! This is an innocent method of keeping warm in -16 degrees

Well anyway we made it back to the hotel at 5am, had an interesting 'special' surprise from Sauli (thanks I will never look at the Russian flag in the same way), and escaped back to our room, for all of 4 hours sleep. God knows how the boys got up and attended a meeting at 9am. We were like zombies, but still looked like our mischievous selves at breakfast!

p.s. I was getting into the Rugby mood - yay we thrashed them!!! Just had to say it :-)

Anyway, all in all it was an amazing holiday, I would certainly recommend it and go back again. Fingers crossed Johan and Sauli make it to Norwich sometime - for the Norwich Project (god that is going to be messy).