Trip to Finland: Day 5 (Suomenlinna Sea Fortress/Oodi Library/Rock Church)
[Photos taken 11 August 2023, posted online 29 May 2024. We have a brand new eruption as of today! Meanwhile, my back is still sore, but it has forced me to actually take some down time, and just read a book. Not a bad idea, come to think of it..!]
A visit to the old Suomenlinna Sea Fortress appeared near the top of about every to-do-in-Helsinki list, so that was our next activity. The fortress is located on an island a 15 minute sail from the “eastern” harbor, and was where visitors were received in the olden days, or cannon-shot-at if they attempted to sneak past it.
Afterwards we visited the very cool Oodi Helsinki Central Library, before spending a moment of quiet in the Rock Church.
Finnur’s foot was so badly bruised from his ankle-twist the day before that he unfortunately had to spend the day lounging at the apartment, but we made sure to leave some supplies with him!
Friday 11 August 2023
Trip to Finland: Day 4 (Heureka Science Museum/Vantaa Hospital!)
[Photos taken 10 August 2023, posted online 28 May 2024. I’ve managed to not drive automatically to work in the mornings so far. However, my treacherous perimenopausal-body keeps waking me up at 6 am, no matter when I go to sleep, so that’s sub-optimal. I also managed to re-strain my lower back yesterday on my third deadlift rep of 130 kg, so I’m forced to take it easy. Maybe one day I’ll learn to listen to that body of mine …?]
We usually try to visit a science museum on our travels, as they usually have something interesting to do for the whole family. Luckily, the Heureka science museum turned out to be only a 20 minute train-ride north from downtown, plus a bit of walking.
It was a fun museum, but our trip ended in disaster when Finnur twisted his ankle so badly that he ended up being transported by an ambulance to the local hospital (even further north!) for x-raying.
Luckily, no bones were broken, but it meant he was out of commission for the remainder of the trip, which was a huge bummer. Also, this meant that two years in a row a family member would be returning from vacation in a wheelchair?!?!
Thursday 10 August 2023
Trip to Finland/Estonia: Day 3 (Tallinn!)
[Photos taken 09 August 2023, posted online 26 May 2024. I am officially unemployed! Survived the last two weeks at work by blasting the winning song of Eurovision 2024 (Nemo’s The Code) at every opportunity, just to keep up my energy levels, and joie-de-vivre! Expect more frequent blogging in the near future, as I try to catch up with myself… ]
When I mentioned to people that we were going to Helsinki, I was advised to plan a day-trip to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, as it is only a two-hour ferry-ride away.
Apparently it is quite common for Finns (the natives of Finland, not people named Finnur!) to take the ferry over, party hard and buy cheap alcohol, and then sail back late at night.
After much perusing online, I decided we’d start the day by visiting the highly popular (really?!) Lennusadam maritime museum, before passing the time walking around the old town.
Wednesday 09 August 2023
Trip to Finland: Day 2 (Korkee Adventure-park)
[Photos taken 08 August 2023, posted online 20 May 2024. Just a quick addition, because I can.]
Our family trips almost write themselves these days… Next on the agenda was visiting an “adventure park” with obstacle courses through the trees. After much mulling we ended up going to the Korkee park on the island of Mustikkamaa (“Blueberry-land”).
Tuesday 08 August 2023
Trip to Finland: Arrival & Day 1 (Linnanmäki Tivoli)
[Photos taken 06 – 07 August 2023, posted online 20 May 2024. This Whit Monday is the last of the religious public holidays in Iceland in a while…]
We’ve been slowly, but surely, working our way through the Scandinavian/Nordic capitals. We’d already visited Sweden’s Stockholm, and Denmark’s Copenhagen, and now it was time for Finland‘s Helsinki.
We’d rented an AirBnb apartment, because fitting five people into hotels is very hard. The apartment was pretty central, and it turned out to be an on-repeat-rental, as the closets were closed with screwed brackets, and the care and cleaning were being handled by some company, even though we stayed in contact with the owners as needed. It suited us very nicely, and we very much enjoyed our stay!
We decided to start the trip with a bang, and our first full-day activity was the local roller-coaster park, Linnanmäki.
Sunday 06 August 2023
Garbage-Bin-Shed Build Begins
[Photos taken 01 – 05 August 2023, posted online 19 May 2024. Finnur’s off on a work-trip to the mothership in California, while I am four working-days away from being unemployed, by choice.]
The garbage/rubbish sorting system in the capital area underwent a big change in 2023. Most notably everyone was asked to sort out food-leftovers into a separate bin, as well as sort paper and plastic separately (they used to be in the same bin).
In practice this meant that instead of having two large bins, we ended up with three large ones (for homes with little waste, they could ask for two split bins, but we’re not there), and nowhere to put the third bin.
Thus was born the “build a garbage-bin-shed” project, which would last into the first frost and snow, but it was a lot of fun!
Tuesday 01 August 2023
Thorlákshöfn Horse Rental, Summer Housing & Finnur’s 49th Birthday!
[Photos taken 27 – 31 July 2023, posted online 04 May 2024. We’re starting to see a little bit of greenery erupting from the ground, shrubbery, and trees!]
We managed to find a break in Anna’s work schedule to go horse-back riding by Thorlákshöfn. Then we spent a night with friends at a nearby summer house, before heading to our own summer house, and celebrating Finnur’s 49th birthday!
The weather cooperated and we went kayaking, before returning to town, and getting started for real on the garbage bin shed. I may also have gone gymming… Thus endeth July of 2023.
Thursday 27 July 2023
New School Bike Route & Family Moving Prep
[Photos taken 17 – 26 July 2023, posted online 28 April 01 May 2024. Started writing this point in Holland, finished in Iceland.]
We were all formally on summer vacation except Anna, who would be working to the end of July. Thus we took it pretty easy for the most part.
I did start working on one task early on: finding the optimal 4 km bike-route for Bjarki to his new school. We had to take into consideration how easy it was to navigate, how to avoid the worst hill-climbs and busy streets, and stay sheltered as the school is located near the top of a large hill, higher up than we live.
We also helped my brother and family pack up their apartment, as they were moving to Sweden! Then it was prepping for the next big project: The Garbage Bin Shed!
Monday 17 July 2023
Kayaking & Eruption-Monitoring on Vacation Eve
[Photos taken 08 – 13 July 2023, posted online 14 April 2024. Today I want to clear out the garage, ooof.]
We’d gone ahead and bought a couple of kayaks at Costco, and then scratched our heads long and hard on how to transport them to and from the lake. Thankfully we found roof-racks for the big car, and after some more head-scratches, the roof racks were installed, and a YouTube video consulted on how to fasten kayaks on top. We invited the soon-to-be-Swedes to the summer-house for a bit of a farewell, and lucked out with the weather!
We then held our collective breath until yet another volcanic eruption began. It was far away from everywhere, and would last for just under a month.
Finnur remained at the summer house, working remotely during the day, and oiling/staining wood outside of working hours. There’s a lot of wood that needs to be taken care of there… Meanwhile I cooked (once), weeded, gymmed, and prepped for my formal summer vacation!
Saturday 08 July 2023
July Warmth = Jog, Tub, Sunsets & Horse Camp
[Photos taken 02 – 07 July 2023, posted online 14 April 2024. I have resigned from my current job! Still have a few more weeks to go until leaving for good. Hard to leave excellent coworkers, but brain wants a change.]
July rolled around, and with it some lovely weather-days. I went out for a jog, and even cleaned the hot tub in the backyard, which rarely gets used. The sunsets were of the “are-you-kidding-me”-type evening after evening, we starting subscribing to fruit deliveries, the earth rumbled, and Emma finished yet another horse-camp session.
Sunday 02 July 2023
