Price of short term visas nearly doubles

Short term visa prices in the Schengen area are set to increase from 35 Euros to 60. The raise won't affect visas for periods over 3 months, however, as those prices are still not uniform between nations.

France had led the push for the increase because Paris is eager for funds to help finance modernisation of its consular network, the biggest in the EU.

Flag Day

Suomen Eduskuntatalo- The Finnish Parliament House

Mitä Maksaa?

Youtube is one of my favorite ways to waste time. Every now and then, however, I find a true gem. When I was as young as I can remember, my grandmother babysat me while m parents were at work and every day at 11 am we'd watch Bob Barker on "The Price is Right." As it turns out, Finland also had a version of this program (as they do with Big Brother, American (Finnish) Idol, and a slew of other game and reality TV shows). I stumbled across the opening credits for "Mitä maksaa?" just now.

Random views from Helsinki

(bright skies, even after 10PM)

Attack of the birds!

Helsinki has too many birds!!! The weather was amazing yesterday (nearly 10C!) so I recruited Maria to come play tourist with me and otherwse enjoy a walk about town. (Little did I know it would turn into a 7 hour trek) As I was walking and snapping as discreetly possible, we started realizing that no matter where we tried to go there was a bird ready to swoop in and steal the fame--especially with the statues. See for yourself:

Uspenski Cathedral by night

The view from Cafe Java

I've found my new favorite place to study- Cafe Java at Lasipalatsi, second floor. The view of the streets and the constant bustle of people rushing by puts me in the perfect trance to get what I need to done while offering a distraction when my eyes are too strained to read any more.

Crossing over


Mannerheimintie on a Sunday late afternoon (deserted!)


Studying is better with good company. Mis and Maria (is it a coincidence that Muppet also starts with M? I think not.)


Maria turned paparazi

Coming soon! Guest bloggers on our trip to grab a bite in between study sessions on this very same day. Just you wait.

Finland roundup

I've been horrible about this the last month or so, but as classes are wrapping up and finals time is perfect for procrastination, here's a bit of the news surrounding Finland these days.

• Surrounding all the "20 years later" talk around the Chernobyl incident in Ukraine, Finnish poll shows Finns would support a 6th nuclear power plant in the country. Considering EU warnings and the current situation of energy exports from Russia, can you blame them?
• Lipponen (speaker of parliament, Eduskunta) urges Finnish ratification of the Draft Treaty for signalling of support.
• Sceptics of the Treaty's ratification threaten to eat fish in protest. (I don't understand this one any more than you do).
• Lordi still causing an uproar as the Eurovision Song Contest draws nearer. The politics of singing...

UPDATE!! The Lordi performance that will be repeated for the contest:

New link!

I'm always amazed by the skills so many people seem to posses with photography. Georg over at in and out of Helsinki is the latest to leave me awestruck. On top of the amazing photos from both the countryside and cities in Finland, he's also much better at staying on top of current events here in Finland than I am. If you have a minute and want to read more about Finland, check him out!

Marie-Antoinette goes to Estonia!

Friday morning my friends Topi, Hannu and me left on the Tallink ship Meloodia to take a 2 day, 1 night trip to Estonia. Thanks to Teija (no pic of her yet, but I'll work on that as soon as she returns from being a rock star in Kotka) I also had a special friend to bring along- Marie-Antoinette. Marie-Antoinette was so eager to share pics of her adventure with you that she rushed me to get this entry up even before the Lapland trip. I hope you enjoy her adventures! If you want to see the pictures I took in Estonia (sans marie) just click any of the ones over there in the Flickr badge. There are some really great ones. The city was more amazing than I ever imagined it would be!

Marie on board the ship, morning 1 around 9am


Sadly she got a little seasick, but she enjoyed the view of the sea anyway


Marie in the old town, Tallinn


Marie and one of many churches who's name I've forgotten


I look a little rough and a bad new haircut, but Marie is looking good still. Dining @ Elefantti


Marie couldn't last as long as the rest of us (royalty, you know)... Taking a nap


Marie and another beautiful church in the old town


Hannu, Marie, Topi overlooking the town from above


Marie and a cityscape


Marie insisted that we enjoy something to drink before exploring the nightlife, so she poured the drinks


The next morning I was not happy with what she had caused! I had slept but 6 hours the previous night, and then 3 hours this night. No wonder I look so tired in all the pictures!


Strong coffee at breakfast helped everyone along, then back to town


I started to get a bad headache, so we stopped for a strawberry margareita remedy at the 2 for one cuban pub, where drinks are buy one get one free. As you can see, Marie didn't get any of my drink-she'd done enough.

OK, that's Marie's trip, but honestly, please check out my photos on the Flickr page. And if you ever get a chance, VISIT TALLINN! Oh, and for those of you wondering how Marie-Antoinette got her name, well, it's because sometimes she finds herself a little disconnected...

HAPPY EASTER from Mr. Happy Egg, mascott from last year's spring break road trip to Toronto!!!

Hyvää pääsiäistä!

Happy Easter! I'm setting sail for Estonia with Topi, Hannu and Marie-Antoinette (I'll explain later...) so it's still gonna be a bit for the Lapland post to reach it's fullness, but when I get back there'll be another amazing trip lined up to blog about. Thanks to all those of you who have been writing to me and commenting on the blog, I greatly appreciate it! Enjoy the holiday!

Fair warning

As many people begin their spring breaks and thinking about travels I just thought I'd give fair warning to those thinking about coming to Finland (and I'm sure there are many of you!). This is the view from my window today. We're comfortably into April and it's snowed pretty much the last 3 days. And I'm not talking a little flurries. Nonetheless the consistency of the snow is much wetter, so it's undeniable spring is on the way! And actually I'll be quite sad when it stops snowing, as winter is much better in my opinion- i'd prefer snow over rain any day.

Still working on that post from Lapland, and a lot of fun and interesting stuff has happened since my return to Helsinki as well, so you'll get caught up on that as well!

Back!

As you may've suspected, I have returned from my trek to the north. Unfortunately along with leaving the city for 10 days comes catching up on work like a madman when one returns (or pretending to anyway) so it may take me a bit of time to compose the entry about the trip. Until then, however, I'll have the photos from the trip uploaded on flickr and you can have a look when you want. The descriptions will have to wait until I put them here though, I'm afraid. Keep an eye out!

Oulu

Just a quick note. Nine hours after climbing onto the train in Helsinki I have safely arrived in Oulu. I had arranged to get a sleeper car, however I didn't realize that being assigned the top bunk meant the top of 3, so quite a long ways off the ground indeed. Two Finnish strangers were sharing my cabin sleeping beneath me, so that was a bit of an odd thought, but still I managed to catch and hour here, 30 minutes there in between the constant clackity clack and screetch as we made stops. It was an interesting experience, anyway. I tried to take pics of the sleeping cabin and if any of them turned out I'll post when I get back to my computer. Until then, it's visiting friends today and Sunday, laser tag and my host bro's b-day bash tomorrow, and then the drive the rest of the way to Luosto on Monday. I should be able to post an update or two from there, as I've just found out that internet access there has increased by at least 500% (there was only one computer last time for everyone at the resort...) So perhaps some stories, but the pics will come from Helsinki.

After this trip me and 2 friends will be heading to Estonia for the Easter holiday. I'm really looking forward to seeing and doing much on that trip, as I've wanted to go to Estonia for a long time. I'm also quite excited about my company there:) What can I say, I'm just all over the place these days.

UPDATE!! Photos

Take Two

Yes yes, I know I said not even a month ago that I was on vacation (and I was, from school). Tomorrow, however, I will be leaving for a genuine vacation skiing in Lapland. My very awesome first host family has rented a cottage for a week at Luosto and they've invited me along for the holiday. First, however, I'll make a stop in Oulu to visit some friends and celebrate my host brothers birthday with what he has billed a HUGE party. Should be exciting! In any event, I plan to get back in the habit of taking lots of pictures. The nature there is beautiful, so that should make for some great pictures. Last time I was there I skiied well over 100 km in the week, and am looking forward to doing the same again this year. We'll see though- it's been 4 years since i've cross country skiied. I'm much more of a skating style skiier. I find trench skiing to be cumbersome and entirely too much work. (see below) In any event, posting will be light if at all possible, and photos will have to wait til I return. Enjoy the beginnings of spring!

Skating style

Trench