Travelog for: Banyo

In the morning of Christmas Eve we made traditional plum pastries - also called Christmas Pastries.  My host prefers them warm and fresh, thus she makes them "in the last minute" 
Oh goodie! She found a recipe in English language! She took a photo of the pastries "step by step": if you look  the second photo counter clockwise you'll see the steps of making the star shape

Yummy!

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the waaayyyyy! Oh, I mean: kulkuset, kulkuset, riemuin helkkäileeeeeee! 

It's Christmas Eve! The day Finns celebrate Christmas. In the morning we had rice porridge (a tradition), for lunch/dinner we had traditional ham and casseroles (gratins) etc. My host wanted to show what her family eats traditionally on Christmas Eve, so in the third photo is burritos!  I spent this Christmas with Gary Boldie, Leonard, Hueso and Foster Care Home visitors Alfonz and FoxForce 

For dessert we had for example gingerbread cookies: another carousel! This one was made with snowmen 

In this link, you'll find some traditional Finnish Christmas recipes

Later in the evening Santa came for a visit! He brought us some gifts as well. We all got "stamp magnets"! Mine has 3 different Finnish flag stamps on it 

The rest of the night we ate some more - also and especially candy  My host had got us a box of Finnish chocolate. We didn't leave much for the next day... 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy New Year! Onnellista uutta vuotta!

We cast tin which is a tradition. They say that you can predict the coming year from the shadow of the tin. Our tins looked like Finnish birds but the shadows looked like australian animals! Or at least that how my host interpreted them... 

Later we watched some fireworks. The neighbours had quite a few of them. We just sat indoors (safe & warm) and enjoyed the show 

Happy New Year! Onnellista uutta vuotta!

Greetings from "only" -15 degrees Celsius! Yep, my host said it's "only" as it was -22 just the other day  I wanted to show you how much snow they have in Finland right now. Even my host says it's quite a lot 

A new guest Meleca arrived just on time to experience a Postcrossing meetup  To me and most of the others it was "same old, same old"  - although we almost had to have a chat with a guard! we left when the cafe closed and wanted to send the postcards from a special cancellation box - but we were told that if we stepped over the line there would be an alarm screaming... As the post office had closed too  I mean, there was only a few meters between us and the box but no...  Oh well, we didn't want to disturb the guards so we exited nicely. And sent the cards from elsewhere.

This was a busy party weekend for my host: her daughters had birthdays. I helped my host make cakes; Hello Kitty cake, 8 cake, rainbow cake... They turned out pretty awesome and tasty  The theme was Hello Kitty and we blew quite a few balloons... Outside my host made ice balloons  She filled some latex balloons with water and put them outside to freeze (it took 1-2 days to freeze, depending on the temperature). they turned out so cool and festive that half of them were stolen! My host caught the boys who had done it and gave them a speech and told their parents. The kids apologized and filled new balloons. So it ended well - for us at least.

There was also a disco! We even had disco balls! "I like to move it move it, I like to move it move it, I  like to move it move it, you like to - move it!" 

I'm walking on the Baltic Sea! It's so frozen that one could even drive a car on it  Many people ski on it and even more people take a walk on it. My host said that if it's not covered with snow then many people skate on it too  It felt really weird, walking on the Sea that I've seen unfrozen... 

My host attended yet another Postcrossing meetup in Helsinki. She said it's her last in a longer while because she has to cut expenses... But that's what she said on the meetup before this one...
I met some celebrities! The Post had issued stamps if old Finnish rock (& pop)stars and most of them were there to give autographs  My host is too young to be a fan but she got some autographs anyway 

There were lead singers from Popeda, Yö and Mamba! Plus one woman: Maarit.

In the group photo  (taken by Huppu68 as my host missed that) are also the designers of the new stamps: Minni Havas, Klaus Welp and Inge Löök (also famous for her granny postcards). Klaus Welp is the one who designed the rock stamps.
Group photo from left to right: Mamba-singer (Tero Vaara), Minni Havas, Yö-singer (Olli Lindholm), Klaus Welp, Maarit, Popeda-singer (Pate Mustajärvi, he was really nice to my host) and Inge Löök.

Today we went to see a sychronized figureskating competition at the local skating hall. The black blob in the photos is usually me 
We weren't allowed to use flash during the skatings. There were 4 teams in each "section". We watched only half of them as the kids got tired of sitting... Hence we didn't see who won  But here are some photos of the end of the show.

The winter continues here We had 2 days with + temperature and made a snowslide and this snow Totoro with the kids - cool huh! The hole in his stomach is for a candle

Finally my host remembered to take photos of me in the Finnish Sauna  In Finland every household has a sauna - or in case of a block of flats, then there usually is one sauna for the whole highhouse. Anyway. This is my host's sauna.

Sauna is a room that you heat up (there are saunas that are heated with wood and saunas that are heated with electricity), preferably 60-80 degrees Celsius (that varies, some people like it even hotter). Then you take a shower (just to get wet, it's not pleasant to be dry in a sauna) before you enter the sauna (naked!). In sauna you just sit and relax and maybe throw some water on the hot stones (to get more heat and steam). Sauna relaxes your muscles and opens your skin pores, which makes you clean from the inside 

After a while (when you feel like it) you go to the shower again to get wet and re-enter the sauna. You can repeat it as many times as you want. In the end you shower to wash yourself.

In summerhouses people also have saunas. There it's tradition to make (or buy) a birch whisk with which you beat yourself gently in the sauna. The whisk has the leaves on so it won't hurt.

There are saunas in gyms and swimming halls but there men & women are divided in separate saunas. Otherwise, with friends and family, it's normal to go to sauna together.

Finns even have a Sauna Society!

Wohoo! I'm going on a cruise again!  And it's to Stockholm, Sweden - again! 

Here I am onboard Silja Symphony. It's quite foggy in Helsinki so the views aren't that good. I hope it's better in Stockholm 

This time we took the subway and went straight to the old town. We hadn't been there for the last times we visited Stockholm. Well, the Royal Palace area is in there too but we had missed most of the Old Town. The old town is the original Stockholm. The town was built during the 13th century but most buildings are from 17th and 18th century. There are about 3000 people living in the old city today.

Now there are 2 more as we released 2 of the 3 wild Toy Voyagers in the old town 

After the tour in Old Town we took the subway and headed towards the city center. We finally had lunch and time to write postcards! The couple in one of the postcards is crown princess Victoria and her soon-to-be-husband Daniel. They're going to be wed this summer and people are very excited about it - a royal wedding! I wish we could be there too! There are lots of souvenirs with Victoris & Daniel on them and they've even made special \"dalahästar\" (Dala Horse). They're usually red (although on the link you can see more variety) but now there are special white, pink and light blue ones too - with a different decoration.

We're back! It's  a bit clearer in Helsinki today but rainy too. I added a group photo of us travellers