Thursday, June 29, 2006

One more movie.

Here is another movie of the second hut.

More. . .


Marcel: The Sony camera is messing up. Now the zoom lens sometimes doesnt want to pop back in. It still cant read the 512 card even after I pressed the reset button, but the smaller card works. But when I press the auto picture mode, it turns off the camera. There must be something wrong so get ready to return it.

More pics from Finland








Click here to see a movie of the midnight sun!!

Finally We are out of the woods!

We are back from our hiking trip through the arctic tundra. We saw many wild reindeers and even a SNOW STORM!!! It was a crazy adventure. We stayed in wilderness huts, and even a Lapish lean-to shelter. We saw many mountains and crossed many ice-cold streams with flip flops on. All in all it was unforgettable. HERE ARE SOME PICTURES:


Friday, June 16, 2006

Tromso is Rainy

Now we are in Tromso. From Helsinki, we got on the Santa Claus Express Train 61 to Rovaniemi, and then we transfer to a bus which took us all the way north to Tromso, Norway. The bus took about 9 hours. On the way we saw the Finnish countryside and forests, lakes, and swamps. Then when we crossed the border into Norway, it began to get mountainous. We saw the first snow covered mountains almost right away! As we got deeper and deeper into the mountains, the more snow, and there were lots of waterfalls running down the cliffs as the snow was melting. Then we found ourselves driving through the fjords. It was really cool how the mountains all of a sudden dropped down straight into the thin narrow fingers of the ocean. It was like the water was trying to swallow the mountains.
It is very rainy here. Once we got in the city, we had toput all our rain gear on and cover our backpacks with the rain covers. We walked about 3 km to the campground,were we set up a small shelter for our bags, and then built our tent next to a river, coming from the mountains.
Now we are walking around the city and later we will go back to the campground to relax.

Tomarrow we got back to Finland by bus. We will begin our 2 week hike in Kilpisjarvi and try to make it to Mt. Halti, the highest peak in Finland (but it is only about 4000 ft). On the top, you can sign your name in a book.
So, this will be the last entry for about two weeks!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Hi from Helsinki

We are now in Helsinki. Wehopped on the ferry last night at midnight and since we didnt have a sleeping cabin on the boat, wemade ourselves comfy in the seating area. The were lots of people, and it was very busy all through the night. We got into Helsinki this morning at 10. Now we are walking around town until our train leaves to Rovaniemi, the "gateway to the arctic." Helsinki is nice and there are lots of boats. It is hot! Probably in the 70s.
We will update again soon, maybe with pictures.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Stockholm pics

The first pic with the hotair balloon is the old fort. It is one of three that originally existed until they were burned down.

These pics are all in the old town.


This pic shows one of the many marinas, since Stockholm is all islands.

Kayaking

This is while we were kayaking along the east coast of Sardinia.

More pics. . .

On the row boat we rented from Sandvik camping. We tried fishing, but no luck came to us!

Nicole relaxing on Kokar island by the old house foundations.

English castle


This is a pic of an old dirt castle in England. It is from the Bronze Age.
After this pic was taken, it rained on us. No. . . it POURED sideways on us!!!!!!!!!

Old Kokar island ferry

woops its sideways


We took this picture at midnight on Kokar island, right where we were camping!

Monday, June 12, 2006

Kokar Island we so nice!

We just came back from Kokar Island. It was the nicest campground ever! We rented a row boat and bikes, and we tried fishing, and we biked around the whole island!! We are all okay and having fun. We also went into their Finnish saunas on two of the nights. We got so hot we jumped into the Baltic sea like it was Lake Michigan! We had a lot of time to relax on the rocks, and make tea in the campground kitchen. We also got this HUGE ice cream cone from a kiosk, and it was just soooooo good for some reason. And it was the biggest ice cream cone ever! Mmmmm. . .
Tomarrow we are leaving for Helsinki!

Friday, June 09, 2006

Åland Islands!!

We are in the Åland archipeligo islands, for a week, and we are enjoying the peace and quiet here. It is so north, that it doesnt get dark at night, so we have 24 hour sunlight!! We are now taking a ferry to another part of the islands, where there is a secluded camping ground right on the water.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

In Stockholm for a day

Hi,

We are in Stockholm for only one day at Hostel Bed&Breakfast, but we are getting a breakfast to go, because we need to catch a bus to a ferry early in the morning. We really liked the city, and it was on many islands all connected by bridges. We saw the old town (Gamlastan), with the royal palace where the King lives. There were lots of guards.
Tomarrow morning, ferry to Finland, Åland islands.

PS we were very lucky today!! We nearly missed our flight because of a 15kg limit on baggage, and we were over anyways, but then the nice lady didnt charge us because we didnt have time to pay anymore. Then the plane was delayed anyways and we got all sweaty running to a gate which wasnt even boarding yet!!!!!!
Oh yeah, then while we were still in London, the subway didnt open when we thought it would, so we were running around trying to find a double decker bus which would take us to Liverpool St. . . . .

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Next to Finland

We really liked the countryside in England; it was really nice. We walked along the Cotswalds, Catbells mountains, and along the western coast. Everything is green and they really only grow grass for all their sheep. Then we walked along Hadrians wall, which is now only 4 or 5 feet high but when it was built was around 15 feet high.
Tomorrow morning we leave to Stockholm and then move right on to Marriehamn in the Aland Islands of Finland. Ta Ta, Cheers!

p.s. - we had fish and chips ... mmmm... so much fat...