Menu

Elk and Beetroot carpaccio served with horseradish and cheese

Oven-baked salmon with whitefish, bacon, bread with lemon and herbs. Wine sauce, fennel and asparagus

Lingonberry granite

Lightly smoked lamb with herbs, potatoes fried in butter, cherry tomatoes baked in oven with garlic and balsamico

Chocolate fondant and white chocolate mousse with buckthorn & strawberry sauce.

Coffee

All served with a generous sized never ending wine glass. We got liquor made form arctic berry’s with desert and also some cognac with the coffee.
All this was served in a restaurant with the most expensive roof ever imaginable. Baltic yachts officially opened their new factory on Friday afternoon. They put on a light snack during the afternoon and gave guests a tour of the new facility. Guests were also invited to enjoy the beautiful dinner mentioned above at the yard in the

Snow

There has not been much snow about the last few weeks. With the longer days and some finer weather the temperatures have been warm (er – like edging above zero) and the sun has been melting away all the snow and ice on the roads. So in an attempt to make the most of what snow there is before it disappears I went to Ruka last weekend and went Snowboarding for the first time.

I went up there with Barny (one of the Crew from Visione – a boat being Refitted at Baltic at the moment). We left Baltic at about 1615 and with pretty clear roads the whole way up made it to check in to our hotel at about 2230 which was pretty good time for the trip. After checking in we checked out one of the local pubs quickly and then got off to bed so we could hit the slops first thing in the morning.

After a very nice European breakfast we got the to the ski hire place just as they opened at 0900, this wasn’t difficult as it was the next building across from the hotel. We collected some gear we were out waiting for the lifts to start by 0930, just enough time for Barny to give me a quick snowboarding lesson before we had a real slope to look at. After taking the lift to the top of the main runs and strapping myself in, Barny persisted with a lesson and kept giving me pointers as I half slid and half fell down the slop a couple of time. After this I figured he probably couldn’t help much and I just needed to practice. So I stayed on the gentle slops while Barny went to explore the hill (there aren’t really any mountains in Finland).
We meet up about 1300 and found some lunch, I had been falling allot but was managing to stay relatively in control and I could stop well enough. Barny told me I had to go and check out this other run so I followed him round to one of the other lifts and up over the top of the hill was an Igloo with a Bar inside. We sat and had a Hot Chocolate with Minttu which was very nice, surprisingly it did not feel cold inside, as the walls obviously keep the wind out very well. I was a bit disappointed that the lens on my camera kept fogging up so I didn’t get the best shot from inside.

After a full day of falling/boarding I was very tired and bruised but I had great fun. We got cleaned up and warm and eventually went to find some dinner which ended u just being at the hotel, but was still very good, and almost exactly what I wanted.

Again we were up in the morning before the lifts started and were greeted with light snow and less than 100m visibility at the top of the hill. I had much more success and enjoyed myself even more, much less falling on my second attempt. By the time we had to leave I had managed to go down over half of the runs available and most of them a few times. I got some air over some bumps without hurting myself and even weaved through some trees.

Although the drive back was quicker it felt longer due to tired and bruised mussels. I was very stiff while at work on Monday but gradually loosened up over the week.

It started to snow here last night and it still hasn’t stopped. I went for a ride this morning in about 50mm of snow which was fun although very slippery at times. The snow is easy enough to ride in, what’s under it is the problem. Randomly hitting frozen puddles or completely iced up bits of the path made for an interesting balancing act at times. When the paths were wide it was even more difficult as the extra light meant that you could not distinguish the highs and lows of the ground in front of you because it was all bright white. But it was fun and it’s nice to not have to worry about washing the mud of the bike, just let the snow melt and it’s clean!

Ice

I went for a walk yesterday out to a small café located on an island (Måsskär) about 10 or 15km’s outside of Pietarsaari. This doesn’t sound that out of the ordinary I know. The bit that makes it worth writing about was that there is no bridge out to this island, yet I still walked the out there.

I drove around to the fishing Harbour and after having a quick look at the fishing boats sitting in the snow I found the small sign pointing to the island. There is also a sign right next to it advertising a snowmobile taxi to get you there, but I wanted to walk. The path is well marked with snow poles drilled into the ice about every 50-100m so once you have the starting point it is not hard to follow. This was the first time I’d been out on the ice so I was a little nervous.

At the shoreline there is a couple of metres of slush about 50mm deep because the ice is cracked at the shore. This is of course due to the fact that unless the water freezes completely the tide will still move the layer of ice up and down (a little). So after talking myself into believing that this was the case I continued to follow the snow poles further onto the big expanse of white (I did let a group of four people go first though). It is about 2km over the ice out to the island in almost a straight line. In one place there were rocks sticking out of the Ice I passed a number of fishing/buoys. Once or twice there was a big Ice block sitting near the path which was obviously a sample cut from the shelf and showed that the ice was about half a meter thick.

I made it to the Café by 1330 and had a relatively cheap lunch followed by a ‘Pig’ and a Coffee which was recommended as a specialty by the owners. The Pig was basically a Jam donut but shaped kind of differently. I learned that the building was originally constructed in the 50’s as a pilot house and the space used for the café was originally used by the coast guard. The Café was decorated with some old marine navigational equipment, including some replica Viking instruments which were very clever. On one wall there were a number of charts of the surrounding waters, and another wall housed a bit of a shrine to the building, filled with newspaper articles about it’s construction and life. Some interesting photos showed a small truck being pulled from a hole in the ice in apparently 10m deep water. The truck hit a soft patch and fell through loaded with sand while the were building the pilot house. They managed to construct a big frame on the ice and winch the truck back out within a day or two.

I had a quick look around on the island before I then walked back to the Car. I turned on the GPS a bit after I was back on the ice, the red line in the image is pretty much all on the ice.

The yellow line is a ride I did on the mountain bike last week, about 50% of which was on snow mobile tracks or single track (which is very tricking in thick snow). That was allot of fun. The blue line is a ride I did today, we were only riding on the roads today though as the snow on the tracks would have been too soft to get anywhere. It didn’t rain at all but we got very wet, we went a little further than last week and ended up doing over 60km. I expect to be a bit sore tomorrow.

A Bit Slack Lately

Although I seem to spend too much time in front of my computer, I’ve been slack about uploading photos recently. I’m still getting used to using my new camera so many of the shots I’m taking are not very good. But there are an awful lot of them to sort through. I may be a bit trigger happy occasionally. But I’ve just gone through a bunch and picked out some good ones from while I was back home and some more recent ones from over here. They are in no particular order and most of them are from the old camera. But they are uploaded here.

This one is from the new camera while I was playing with it one night. It cracks me up. Enjoy.

Spring

Well, officially winter is now over, and if you’re wondering it does seem very odd for me to be saying that in the beginning of March. Last week was quite cold but this week has been progressively getting warmer. Today the local high temperature was 2 degrees and the overnight low was only minus 1. The change is quite noticeable, by the time I was on my way home from work today just about all of the roads had thawed out and I went for a run and found that many of the paths had slush on them instead of snow.

The last couple of days I’ve also noticed that the snow seems moving off many of the roofs in town. One of two things is happening which both look really cool. With the warming weather the snow is melting in one way or another and either the whole sheet of snow covering the roof is sliding gradually down and curling over the edge forming 200mm thick white curtains hanging on the buildings. Or the snow is melting to water against the roof and then the run off is re-freezing as it leaves the roof forming quite impressive lines of stalactites hanging from the edge of the roof.

I am hoping that it gets cold again (yes it is a strange thing for me to be saying). Last week I was lent a pair of cross county skis and so far I’ve only used them for half an hour. I didn’t really have time to get the hang of them and the shoes I was provided are too small and don’t match the skis which did not help. I found a cheap pair of shoes in the supermarket yesterday which should match the skis but if all the snow is going to thaw out it may not be worth buying them. The forecast for next week is colder than today but only barely with forecast highs of 0.

Sodankylä

I got invited last week to go to Lapland for the weekend with Erno & Katri (& Mano). It’s a non study week for all the university students this week so Katri was going home for the week to visit her family. I managed to get Friday off and we drove up to Sodankylä on Thursday night after I finished work. This was a long drive but was not two bad shared between the three of us, and Katri did the last bit when it was darkest and most slippery (as she was most familiar with the roads and knew where we were going). We arrived at a pretty unreasonable hour and didn’t do much but get to sleep.

On Friday morning after a slow start to the day we eventually visited Katri’s Grandmother who seemed very nice even though I could only understand a couple of words she said to me. We stayed for lunch and were fed some traditional Lapland food. Included on the menu was some berry juice, poronkäristys (Sautéed reindeer served with potatoes), and some bread, cheese, ham, and salmon. All very good, except the Salmon was very well salted and tasted a bit too fishy for my liking.

After arriving at Tähtelä about 7km outside town and the place where Katri grew up (our accommodation for the weekend). We scrounged around for a while finding some appropriate cloths to borrow to go skiing. We then spent another little while finding Katri’s gear which had mysteriously been moved. Eventually we headed for Kommatin Rinteet (the closest Hill) and arrived at 3pm so we could fit in two hours before the lift turned off. It was only a small hill but that was ok with me especially given there was only 2 or 3 other people on the slope. It cost €15 for a 2 hour lift pass and another €15 to hire the skis and boots.

After managing to get the things on and stand up we headed up the slope. Once at the top it started to get a little more scary, standing up was easy, moving was not difficult and heading down the slope was a piece of cake. Actually going where you wanted to or stopping, that was a bit of a challenge. After two times half way up the slope we ventured to the top which was a bit steeper. This proved no more difficult and the more I tried the easier it got and more comfortable. It wasn’t until the forth time down the slope that I actually fell over so I can’t have been trying hard enough as I fell over allot more after that. I think I managed to get a reasonable handle on things considering the short time we had. Katri was on her snowboard and was giving some helpful coaching tips to Erno and myself. Although I think I had a little bit of beginners luck I really enjoyed myself. Next time I’ll have to go for a little bit longer though.

After collecting some food and beverages for the night we headed for the sauna and some a little bit of snow rolling in between. I think I may have been refered too as the crazy Australian in Finnish at least once or twice as the Fins were a little taken back by my snow rolling enthusiasm. The evening then continued with sausage cooked over an open fire and eventually we caught a taxi into town and went to most of the local pubs (there were only 3). I was surprised by the number of people inside the pubs given the size of the town. They were busy but it wasn’t too difficult to find a seat. After a bit of dancing, some talking and more drinking we made our way outside, ordered and received some fast food and grabbed a taxi back. I admit it’s a little fuzzy but I think we got back about 4am.

Needless to say there none of use were particularly enthusiastic about Saturday. Mostly we watched the Skiing World championships on the television, went and got pizza (I had more reindeer on mine), played some card games and went through the sauna again.

On Sunday morning we woke late and went back to Katri’s mum’s place where she feed us Porosoppa (reindeer soup) for an early lunch followed by some ice cream and coffee. I then left to drive back to Pietarsaari at about 1215, finally arriving back home at about 2030. Most of the trip was ok except about 150km between Oulu and Kokkola where I was stuck behind a truck which was dragging a massing plumb of snow behind it making visibility virtually none existent.

So I think in the end I ate more Reindeer than I saw over the weekend, perhaps I should comment on the meat. As far as meat’s go there is nothing wrong with it, I was surprised at how good it was on the pizza. It appears similar to beef in colour but smells more like lamb whilst cooking, but I wouldn’t say it tastes like either that much, It was just different. Perhaps I need to try it again and get a better description; that will have to wait for another day though.

Two Weeks Later

I’ve now been out on the bike a few times. Surprisingly I have not fallen off yet. It’s easier to ride in snow than I was expecting. It is very similar to riding on sand. The deeper the snow the more it slows you down and the trickier it is to stay upright. At one stage I tried to ride through some 200mm deep snow and although I could keep the bike moving it may have been faster to walk. Most of the time the bike paths have been cleared (as have the roads) and the snow is only 50mm deep. My tyre’s seemed to be ok but I may have to invest in some winter tyres for the bike.

Probably the most important thing is to be dressed appropriately and I think I’ve managed to achieve this with some thermals, a light mid layer and some very light weather proof cover. Throw on a pair of gloves and thick socks and I was fine. Although there was a gap between my shoes and the weatherproof pants which meant my ankle got a bit cold. So the only additional bit of kit I need is shoe covers which will extend over the ankles and make my shoes a bit warmer.

Below is the forecast temperatures for this week.