summer days in Oulu

Here are some images of our last weekend in Oulu, enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/joiao78/SummerInOulu

See you in Wisconsin...

or where should we live/travel next? Any suggestions?

Our trip to Norway (Oslo & Fagernes)

We just got back from Norway, we had a fantastic time! I don't have much time to write, so here are our photos and videos of fjords, mountains, stave churches, outdoor sculpture and the like. http://picasaweb.google.com/joiao78/Norway2007

Home is...

sunbeam "the good life"

I wanted to share these furry photos with you. They express how much we miss our kitties Loli and Kissa and more importantly how much we are looking forward to getting back to our house, family, and friends. Home takes on an intensely different meaning when you've lived away as much as we have. I believe that home can be anything you want it to be, sometimes home is a feeling or sometimes it's just one person....:)

Plans for Norway

We will be staying at the City Hotel in Oslo on Friday, May 25, and again on Monday and Tuesday, May 28 and 29 (includes breakfast). On Saturday and Sunday May 26 and 27, we have room (includes breakfast) at Furulund Pensjonat in Ron, near Fagerenes, Norway. There's a website if you want to check it out - Furulundpensjonat.com

(this website is where the photo is from)

Jason says "the pension has been operating for over 100 years and they closed it for a year to remodel it when they came up last year - the location is within walking distance of the church where I will go to the confirmation on Sunday, and it also is only about a 15 minute walk to my friends house around the bottom end of the "fjord" - an inland lake here - it is a very beautiful and peaceful valley - typisk Norsk - typically Norwegian so I think it will be a nice getaway. We will also be only about 10-15 minutes by car from Fagernes which is a cool little town - there is a pub and a small butikksenter (shopping center) across the highway from where we are staying in Ron".
Yah, I'm excited about this "getaway" part.

Hei from Rovaniemi

Right now Tim and I are staying in the town of Rovaniemi, which is 8 km south of the artic circle. It’s also home to the Santa Claus village. Rovaniemi has some great museums, including the Arktikum, which is a museum of artic peoples and their environments. The Arktikum has some very well put-together exhibits making it one of the best museums I’ve ever been to.
Rovaniemi is a very nice tourist town. It’s full of friendly shopkeepers as Tim has found out. He had a whole long conversation today (in Finnish of course) about the differences between a black grouse, a willow grouse, and a ptarmigan.
Rovaniemi is a hilly town, unlike our coastal city of Oulu and we have seen parts of the surrounding countryside and forests. Rovaniemi is also hometown to the hard rock band Lordi. They are extremely famous in Finland, because they won the 2006 Eurovision competition (similar to American Idol). Lordi is the pride of Rovaniemi and have opened a “rocktaurant” here in honor of themselves. It serves death metal themed food.

Check out our photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/joiao78/OurStayInRovaniemiMay2007

We are in the midst of planning a trip (we are flying) to Norway in a few weeks (25th -30th), where we will be meeting up with our friend Jason. Jason knows Norway very, very well and he has graciously volunteered to show us around his beloved country. He will be renting us a car and then touring us around, what fun!

When we return from Norway, Tim and I will be forced to move out of our lovely apartment into a hotel (Hotel Turisti from 31st - 5th June) until we fly home to Wisco. I must say it will be bitter sweet to say goodbye to Oulu, our home for almost 5 months.

P.S. Feel free to leave lots of comments…we’ll really try to answer them!