Porvoo, Finland - 28th November 2007
By: Delenna
This is me walking to the Old Town again. My hostfamily crosses the old bridge and walks thru the old town every time they walk to the city center. This is the "shopping part" of the old town. Cafes, shops, museums... The last photo shows the street where the Moomin house window is.
This place is crowded during the summers! Now I was the only tourist there
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Posted Dec 5, 2007, 8:21 pm
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Porvoo, Finland - 1st December 2007
By: Delenna
My host is fond of river photos... There are 4 bridges crossing the river so there are plenty of angles to take photos of!
The third one is the Orthodox Church quite close to my host's home. then again, everything seems to be close to everything here
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Posted Dec 5, 2007, 8:33 pm
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Porvoo, Finland - 2nd December 2007
By: Delenna
More snow! Much more snow!
And a play for kids at the Art Factory: "Viiru's Christmas plans". Viiru is a (hyperactive) cat who did quite a few things... He was funny too! Viiru is a character in a Swedish comis/cartoon/book illustration. He has adventures with his owner called Pesonen.
Here a few pictures of them:
http://www.film-o-holic.com/1998-2003/arvostelut/ensi_illat/op/pettson_och_findus_kattonauten.htm
Their original (Swedish) names are Findus & Pettson.
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Posted Dec 5, 2007, 8:57 pm
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Porvoo, Finland - 6th December 2007
By: Delenna
Congratulations Finland! 90 years of independence!
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Posted Dec 7, 2007, 7:16 pm Last edited Dec 7, 2007, 7:18 pm by Delenna
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Helsinki, Finland - 7th December 2007
By: Delenna
I got to visit Helsinki, the capital city, with my host today. It was a brief visit and it was dark most of the time, therefore the photos are mainly from the main street. Photos 4 and 5 show the main railway station. Because it was so dark my host enhanced the photos: half of the photo is as dark as it really was and the other half made brighter so that you could see what I saw - isn't that nice of her?
Helsinki is only 50km west from Porvoo and it takes about 1 hour by buss (from Porvoo to Helsinki). There are about 500 000 inhabitants there.
Here's a brief history of Helsinki.
Here some touristy information.
Christmas lights everywhere! The third pic from the end shows the parliament house and behind it (the tower) The National Museum. The second pic from the end shows the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma(the white building on the back) and the statue of CG Mannerheim (the riding man next to it). In the last photo there's some of the newer buildings, it's not all Old.
We even saw Santa Claus doing tricks on a rope! What a country...
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Posted Dec 7, 2007, 7:42 pm
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Porvoo, Finland - 21st December 2007
By: Delenna
My host and her kids made gingerbread cookies - and I of course helped out! The kids enjoy most of all the decorating part. In the pics we're making a gingerbread crown. Traditionally people make a house but my host said she got fed up after doing one - and that was about 10 years ago! After that she's made different building every year. Except for 2006 and 2005 when she made a Moomin house. She found out by herself a way to make a tall, round house and was very pleased with it. This year they made this crown because last xmas my host got a book with all sorts of examples of gingerbread cookies - she decided to start with this simple one as it was easy to divide the task between the girls.
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Posted Jan 9, 2008, 5:56 pm
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Porvoo, Finland - 24th December 2007
By: Delenna
Christmas!
In Finland they celebrate it on Christmas Eve. The feast wasn't a traditional one - we ate burritos! Every family member enjoys this unlike the traditional foods. The tradtional version would include ham, potato casserole, carrot casserole and Swedish turnip casserole, fish, this stuff... etc.
The only traditional foods they had were rice porridge in the morning and plum pastries for dessert (plus the gingerbread cookies of course). But it was good!
I helped the kids decorate the tree and while we were outdoors had Santa dropped the gifts to the balcony! With a letter! I got a gift too! It was an red woollen scarf to keep me warm in the windy weather. It suits me very well!
In addition to all this we went to the sauna (it's also a tradition on Christmas although these people go there at least weekly anyway) and watched tv. My host's favorite is the Jimminy Cricket christmas show (the cartoon)!
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Posted Jan 9, 2008, 6:01 pm Last edited Jan 9, 2008, 6:11 pm by Delenna
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Helsinki, Finland - 5th January 2008
By: Delenna
We were invited to a christening - me, Lucky-Ducky and Poochie (a Postcrossing voyager). My host's friend had her second daughter and that little baby girl was christened. My host was asked to take the photos and she gladly did. Here is only a few, but the rest were with people and my host thought they pobably would mind being on the net without permission.
It was a nice ceremony with nice food and gifts. The last pic is me by a bay in the sunset.
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Posted Jan 9, 2008, 6:09 pm
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Porvoo, Finland - 19th January 2008
By: Delenna
Two of my host's daughters held a joint birthday party. They turned 6 and 2. the younger one had that Winnie the Pooh cake and the elder one the barbie cake. There was also cookies and drinks served. Grandparents and godparents were invited. It was a small but crowdy party and the girls got many presents!
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Posted Jan 25, 2008, 5:39 pm
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Porvoo, Finland - 23rd January 2008
By: Delenna
It has been a weird winter here. Almost no snow, mostly wet & windy. My host says it's been like this for a couple of years, nothing like she was young in the good old days
She took a pic to show a day when it snowed and the wind blew hard. We stayed indoors so I didn't go and try my new woollen scarf either.
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Posted Jan 25, 2008, 5:43 pm
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Porvoo, Finland - 2nd February 2008
By: Delenna
This is my final entry. I will go back home to Ukraine next week. I have had a wonderful adventure visiting all these nice places and meeting all these nice people.
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Posted Feb 5, 2008, 10:22 am Last edited Mar 26, 2010, 7:30 am by Delenna
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