Kuusamo fall holiday

Last week was the fall holiday, which is a holiday that only students and not normal people have. We decided to head north east as Halle is not up to traveling too far and flying is out of question for now. So anyhow we boarded a bus at Oulu station for Kuusamo, 3h journey during which the dark muggy scenery changed to this...




The snow just seemed to appear from nowhere and got more and more as we neared Kuusamo. Few times on the way the driver had to slow down to let the Raindeer across.. It was so strange to see those little moose looking fellas just running wild and on the road and all.
We stayed at sokos hotel Kuusamo, in a lovely room where we had our very own little sauna and slippers and hardwood flooring. It was really lovely, we warmed up the sauna every evening and enjoyed our time very much.
Here are few photos from our holiday.

 We were at the scene as the water on the lake was freezing over, it was at the very moment where something moving stops and stays still for months.. And on the edge of the ice we saw what I thought was a mink, trying to climb over the thin ice to the shore, but the ice was too thin to bear the weight of the animal.. Hopefully it managed to find the way to the shore somewhere else.

There were these floating piers that we walked to to enjoy the sunset at 4pm, the weather was so very still and beatiful colors filled the sky.

This is how the Kuusamo ski track is opened ahead of time for those enthusiastic skiers we saw going around and around on that small few mile long stretch of imported snow. They pile up snow during winter and cover it with sawdust and just leave it for the fall and it says just fine and is much cheaper than using snow cannons to make snow. I think that style has been in use all over the world for centuries to keep food items cold during the summer, but I guess re-inventing is what we do anyhow.. nothing new under the sun..

Here we are on a self portrait, the sun is just behind us, the lake surface is frozen and we made some waves with the floating platform to break it and hear the crackling of the thin ice surface..Sounds somehow like plastic or Styrofoam. 

We spotted this sign marking a husky trail... I think it is the Finnish equal to the kangaroo in Australia.

More of us sitting and enjoying the sunset, that lasted for 4 hours.. 

There are trees that look like fir, but have actually small leaves that fall off during winter, They had lovely colors and this photo was the best of them, not because I am in it, but because Hale took it and you can see how many there are. It also reminds me of Halle asking why those fir trees are dying? I explained that they are like the birch and will come back later. The fact at north east Finland is though that some areas are affected by the Russian atomic bomb tests up north in the atmosphere... and hence the reindeer meat you buy/eat is actually radio active.. It was the one thing that got the German people caught when they tried to sell deer meat as reindeer meat,it was not radio active and hence could not be Finnish reindeer... The meat is not so radio active that it would be dangerous, but enough to be detected.. Bon apetit..

At the end of the road going to our hotel there was a church, we didn't visit it, but watched the cross at the top of the steeple light up red in the evening as we were trying to spot the northern lights.. But we got the northern light pollution instead..

 This is me trying to find the internet in our room, but it was not included, so our holiday was even more like a holiday. No e-mail or face book or anything like that. Just relaxing and wonderful time. Every morning at 9am we made our way downstairs for some breakfast and then back to bed...to rest after eating..

Here we are at the Kuusamo center.. Ready to get back home to Oulu..

Where I returned my research plan and grant application for some work in FL next summer.. Hopefully everything goes well. Now just few weeks and we will have our first baby, and the in-laws will be visiting soon and so many lovely things are happening. Blessed fall for everybody!
H&P