I am currently visiting friends in central Finland (330km south of Arctic circle) to escape the Qld summer heat before uni starts. WOW what a difference!! Today it is -26 degrees in the town I am staying in! The snow is too dry to throw, your nose hairs freeze solid in the first minute of going outside and your nads permanently reside somewhere deep in your belly! Roads are icy and the bus barely stays on the road.
Tomorrow the breeze will be 10 knots (huge for here) and I am heading to the local lake with multiple layers of clothing on to try some snow kiting with the local instructor. The forecast is a sultry -16 tomorrow!!!
Despite the cold, people still walk to work, go skiiing and skating in the afternoon and drink beer in copious quantities. Sunrise is at 9am and sets at 4pm and barely raises 25 degrees above the horizon.
Kids still go to school and noone is late for work. These people put us Aussies to shame!! No whinging or whining.... they are stoked just to see the sun from time to time. maybe it's the secret to their beautiful nature!
So when waveslave has a spray and everybody bites, chillax dudes!! You have wind, warmth and sunshine every day.
Things I would like to know.
Can you eat ice cream outside or does it freeze solid like a rock and make it a indoors thing to do.
Does the electricity freeze in the power lines or do you need colder weather for that to happen.
Do you flush the toilet or dig it out and put it in a bag.
How do dogs pee against trees.
How do you mow the grass or do you have special mowers.
When you spit do you see it the next day.
What temperature freezes the grease in wheel bearings.
Do they have fire hydrants in the street.
Have you tried to see if your tounge does stick to cold metal.
Have they ever heard of Kevin Rudd.
Thats all for now but I think I will have more questions once I have a sleep.
Great stuff Dave....I would be very interested in hearing about everyday things that folks do over there.....stuff that may be different from our everyday stuff...
also mate....do you know if fox hunting is part of their lifestyle
cheers Dave
the fox
How's this for a laugh? Went to the shops last night and bought some cans of beer from the bottle shop. I bought them hot. By the time we got home on the bus they were icy cold!!! I love this place!!!
what ever you do Dave, don't pump up a wet kite in finland in winter, it'll most likely shatter,lol
rock on oldy! go the zappa memories!!
hey bigWave, did you hit one of those ice hotels?
hi dave, we missed you today big SE!! big tide!! now I still hold the title for the biggest splash, what would happen if I lived over there and snow kited???? ( are avalanche good??? )
Went away for the weekend, no chance of snow kiting.... but we found alternate fun.
Snowmobile and a flat lake with 30cm of snow!!! Snowmobiles are like jetskis....noisy,
smelly but come in handy for fun things.
finland is not very hilly so my snowboarding attempts will not be very good.
Hey Dave
You missed out on 30knots+ today, dead east. It was awesome, massive waves out front of Bullcock and super high tide, I kited from Happyvalley all the way to dimand head (mouth of Bells creek) Tim and I were also having some dead flat water runs up the north end of Bribie almost touching the trees weaving in and out. I did some videoing after I was done so will have to edit it and uplaod. I'll post something up asap. cheers Marcus
gr8 to see you getting amongst it dave.
Dont listen to Marcus - you would have hated it - it was gusty, choppy and only 30 knots - you didnt miss anything. theres never any fun to be had here. the sunshine coast is not all that sunny anyway.
I thought you plucked all your nose hairs anyway - how could they freeze?
have fun brus.
Hahahaha, don't listen to Brus, I know he was having an awesome time out the front of happyvally in about 3m swell, I have video to prove it, will upload it soon, lol. Cheers Marcus
I don't care that I missed the wind. I got to snowboard with my best friend. It was minus 7, the snow was falling and I just found my new favourite sport.
It only took 15 minuteson the kiddy hill then I was into the big hills. What a buzz!!!
Then home to a bowl of traditional Finnish sausage soup, a glass of wine, and helping Minttu with her uni homework.
You can keep your 30 knots ;)
Hahaha, sounds like a great day Dave, you forgot to mention the walm fireplace, lol. cheers Marcus
No fireplace here!!! Not efficient. The whole building has heated floors and walls. I get around in jeans and a tshirt all day while it's -26 outside!
Went snow kiting on Saturday on a lake near the town of Jyväskylä in central Finland.
Wind was about 7 knots with the occassional 10 knot gust.
There was hust enough wind to fly and we had some fun. The local instructor, Mauri lent us all the gear we wanted. The snow was a bit thin and I broke throught the ice a few times!! That was freaky!!! came home wet and cold but what an experience.
I found it difficult to land and front or backrolls so i blamed it on the light wind and the lack of pop available on snow.
The people of Finland are very generous. I thoroughly recommend it as a holiday destination. Mauri even gave us some slabs of yearling reindeer meat to take home for dinner!!
Wednesday he is taking me ice fishing!!!
Thats awesome Dave, I'd love to go to the snow one day. Totaly enjoying your holiday snaps and diries. Cheers Marcus.
