Travelling in snowless Finland

Week 9, when our Italian guests were here, was amazing. I was just so frustrated because of the lack of snow. I mean come on, when is there not snow here in February? Apparently when I wanted to show off our country. My sadness was luckily washed away when I realized how much cooler ice is. My guest, another Finnish/Italian pair and I "skated" (walked) on Tuusulanjärvi, and the lakes in Nuuksio were also great for sliding. Well, lakes and the pathways. I had so much fun just travelling there! Natural ice slides are awesome. They of course didn't get as much appreciation form everyone else, but I think many Italians were also enthusiastic about ice.

Lake in Nuuksio

Icy path

It's probably quite obvious that I liked the trip to Nuuksio the best, but we also had great time in Helsinki and I was really fond of our trip to Saima's home. It was nice to show our guests some really Finnish things, like sauna and kota. We sang a lot (Italians put our singing abilities to shame) and ate sausages and chips. It was also a nice way to spend my 20th birthday.

It was an intense week for a quiet and rather maverick Finnish girl like me and at the beginning I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but I grew really fond of our Italian guests in the end. I'm excited about meeting them again in a few days!

-Petra Uimonen