Trips to come in Finland

This weekend I'm going to Tampere: it will be a "surprise" trip to celebrate my birthday. I don't know what's coming, but I'm guessing we'll have a blast with the girls!:) We'll probably visit some museum(s?), have dinner, check out the nightlife and after that crash in our beds at Holiday Inn.

I've also booked a flight with AirBaltic to fly to Oulu in March to visit my sister. I still can't understand how flying actually can be cheaper (37€) than a train (+70€)...

Here's a collection of my bonus cards. These are travel related, I have so many other bonus cards to regular shops, that I'm virtually known as "The Bonus Girl":)

Air Baltic, Finnari Plus, 1st Floor (=Scandic Hotels),
Viking Club, Club One (=Tallink Silja), SAS Eurobonus...

In Stockholm (25th-28th Nov 2010)

The very last days of November were spent with Pictura in Stockholm. We went there for a long weekend to see the Swedish Photo Fair (Fotomässan).


Programme:
Thursday: 
boat Viking Line Turku- STHM. Dinner in the evening.
Friday: 
breakfast at our hotel (Scandic Malmen), sightseeing/walking, lunch, Photo museum (Fotografiska muséet)
Saturday: 
breakfast, East-Oriental museum with my friend Päivi (they had an exhibition of the Chinese Terracotta Army!), Fotomässan, dinner at an Indian restaurant in Södermalmen
Sunday: 
butterflies at the House of Butterflies (Fjärilshuset), boat home STHM-Turku


Here are some photos from that excursion.

Houses in Södermalm.

Shooting the view in Södermalm.

Chinese Terracotta Soldier.

Chinese Terracotta Soldier II.

Fish at the House of Butterflies.

HoB II.

HoB III.

Random picture.

Once again in Copenhagen! (17th-19th Sept 2010)

After a period of teaching in Turku I managed to organize a trip for myself and eight friends. We are all members of a photo club called Pictura vid Åbo Akademi (see link), that is, our photo club is a club at (the Swedish speaking) Åbo Akademi University. 2011 is my third year as a board member and I'm our Excursions Manager! :)


On this particular trip we all made individual reservations for the travel tickets, but we arranged for a hotel for the whole group and planned some activities. I took the direct flight from Turku with Blue1. (It's lovely to have a direct flight from Turku to this Scandinavian metropol, and if you book your flights in advance, you can get tickets for a reasonable price.)


Our group was staying at a hotel in Frederiksberg not too far from the city center (Cabin Express, Frederiksberg). "Walking distance" is of course a subjective thing, but for me it was within walking distance. The hotel was quite affordable and quite OK for a few nights' stay (though on this particular weekend they didn't have breakfast due to some broken water pipe). Okay. After checking in, we had some free time and a few of us went to Jensen's Bøfhus for dinner: I had a nice, big burger with a salad buffé.


After our meal I realized I had just enough time to go check out some tango shoes. I arrived at the Dance & Gym Shop just in time before closing, got some help from an Swedish speaking sales woman. Very quickly I ended up buying a pair of beautiful, well designed Rummos tango shoes - and I haven't regretted one moment that I bought them!! They are absolutely essential for my dancing and worth every penny!!


After my shopping session I headed to a Brewpub, where we were to meet up with local photographers from Københavns fotografiske amatørklubb (KFAK). Some of us had Brewpub's own beer, some of us ate a meal - all in all we had a lovely time with KFAK and I'm glad we have had some continuous co-operation with them.


On Saturday we had a lovely breakfast at a nearby coffee shop and after that we went to Vores Frelsers Kirke (Our Saviour's Church), which I had visited on my previous trip in July (see article here). It was a windier day and the tower swayed a little bit from side to side and it was awful! I'm not particularly afraid of heights but this was a fit frightening... After the church tower scenery, we went to The Royal Library AKA The Black Diamond - absolutely one of the loveliest buildings in Copenhagen and one of my all time favourites! Unfortunately the exhibits were being changed so we couldn't get in.. We wandered around. It was windy and cold. Had some DELICIOUS sushi at some restaurant (can't remember)... 


After our sushi meal I had some free time. I decided to go visit Marjaana: even though Marjaana had moved, she had still stayed close to the only bus route I know in Copenhagen!:) It wasn't difficult to find her and we went to a cute little coffee shop in Amager.


In the evening we had planned to go see Tivoli By Night and it was just as beautiful as you could imagine! It was a cold and windy day, so it was a cold and windy night. We spent some of the time taking in some warming spirits at a couple of pubs;) After the long day was done we were all very tired! I left way too early in the morning, while the rest of the group stayed...


Phew. It's taken me a while to get this written! And for a grande finale: here are some photos!

View from the church tower.

The Royal Library, view to the sea.

Coffee with Marjaana.

A photo I had framed for our 
Copenhagen exhibition.

Grand Central Station by night.

Grand Central II.

Tivoli by night <3