Suomi ♥ ...again ^^

Good morning! ^.^

I woke up at 7 a.m. today just to write this post before I must go to field practice at Kolka (as with my slow laptop there I will write it forever) :D And I guess this post will be really long (although I tried to write in short), as I will write about Finland, about some awesome days I spent there :) So, take some tea and prepare for reading & photos ^^

Day 1. Helsinki

As there were no cheap tickets to a night bus, I went to Tallinn at 10 a.m., it was the first time it wasn't dark all this way.

Pärnu river

I had time to listen to three Nightwish albums, and finally arrived to Tallinn and then by a small Linda Line ferry went to Helsinki :)

Tallinn

On a ferry already

The ferry was a bit late, and I arrived at Helsinki at about 7:30 p.m. and went to Katja & her husband :) We went to a Gallträsk lake - such a beautiful place, especially when there is a sunset ^^

The lake

Then we went to see a bog near the lake. And again I wonder how Finns can combine such a beautiful and untouched nature with roads and civilization around :)

There were many Ledum palustre plants there, I so much love smelling them ^^

Beautiful clouds

Day 2. Helsinki & Mineraalikabinetti
The next day we went to Helsinki, to see some beautiful fossils & rocks in Geological Museum and Mineral Kabinet. At the beginning we couldn't find it, as it's part of University Museum. But finally we managed to do it :)

Helsinki Cathedral

Fish :)

Beautiful creature

I have many photos with beautiful rocks, but I tried to choose just few of them, as this post would be much longer then :)

Nature is the best artist, isn't it? :)

Aragonite

And later we walked around Helsinki a bit. And at the evening watched some movies. I actually don't remember when was the last time I watched so many movies in one week :D

Helsinki

Day 3. Kilo stables & horses ^^
The next day we went to Kilo stables to see some cute horses ^^ Once again - I have many photos, but I tried to choose just few of them (so I shouldn't make another post just about horses :D ).

Isn't he cute? ^^

We saw four beautiful horses there :) Was so nice to pet them, to touch their soft noses & feed them with a grass. Awesome animals ^^
And later we went to a shop in Leppävaara. Saw some beautiful houses there.

I would love to live there ^^

Day 4. Suomenlinna
The next day we went to Suomenlinna sea fortress. Although this was my 5th visit to Helsinki, I've never visited Suomenlinna, and now I understood that it was a big mistake :) The sea fortress is such a beautiful place to visit (and finally we saw many people there, as everywhere else except Helsinki there were almost nobody :D. This time I couldn't choose less photos to put here, so enjoy.

On the way to Suomenlinna

Just beautiful ^^

Sea

Finnish flag ^^

Such a big ferry, I wonder how it could swim between these islands

View through the window

There were also many buildings of this kind

The King's Gate

Seagulls ^^

The tomb of Augustin Ehrensvärd

Day 5. Nuuksio

And, of course, we had to spend one day at Nuuksio :) As I heard, every biologist from Latvia that comes to study in Helsinki, first visits Nuuksio. So I couldn't be an exception (although I'm not studying there ...yet). We took a bus to Nuuksio, and as we were the only ones there, the driver was driving along this winding road, as Katja said, like Mika Häkkinen :D

But the nature was so beautiful there! We saw many lakes, had a picnic on the lake shore and walked at least 10 km in those awesome forests :)

Have you ever seen such a huge anthill? o_O In Latvia there are like 4 times smaller

You know Finland is the Land of the Lakes ^^

Holma-Saarijärvi

We also fed ducks there ^^

Another lake, I don't even remember which one

And another one ^^

Almost sunset :)

Now I know where I will bring my friends, if they someday come with me to Finland ^^

Day 6. A bit crazy going home

Next day it was raining (by the way, thanks to Finnish nature for no rain for four previous days ^^), and I had to go home already. I had a ferry at 14:00, and went to Makasiiniterminaali (where Linda Line ferries arrive) a bit earlier. Nice try. There was announced something like `kaikki lähdöt on peruttu` - all departures were cancelled, because it was a storm at the sea. Well, it wouldn't be a problem, if I had no bus ticket from Tallinn to Riga, but I had it, and my bus was at 17:00. I took a tram and a bus to Länsisatama, went to Silja Line, and they had a ferry at 16:30.

Another ferry

Of course, I missed my bus. But there were so high waves in the sea! I was sitting near the window on 7th floor (as high as you can see orange boats on previous photo). And splashes were higher than my window! Never saw something like this.
I got to Tallinn at 18:30, went to the bus terminal and had to wait the bus until 21:00 (and I was completely wet, as it was raining). And it was so cold there. And when I finally got to Riga, I had a little trip in a police car to the police station. It's a long story.
And I have finally finished this post! :D It took me almost 3 hours, as I was watching this video and singing along all songs. Mom's reaction: `Wow, and I though you never sing!` I just don't want to tantalize people with my `singing`, today is an exception :D
P.S. Katja & Henri, thanks again for invitation and those awesome days in Finland ^^ Now it's your turn to go to Latvia or at least to Tallinn :)
P.P.S. I'm going to Kolka now until 5th of August, I guess :) And it seems like there will be no time for me to write posts here, but let's hope for the best :)