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Finland update #2
May. 10th, 2006 09:20 pmNothing terribly exciting to report, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent with more bumming around Helsinki.
Tuesday Jani was busy with work all day, so Jennie and I ventured into the city on our own. First I took some pictures of the big nice buildings they have, mainly the gigantic church and some university buildings. Then we spent some time shopping in the very touristy marketplace area right next to the pier where the big cruise ships dock. After about an hour or so of that we boarded the boat that would take us on a short trip across the bay to the island where the zoo was.
Most of the rest of the day was spent exploring the zoo. The zoo covers this whole little island and is fairly spread out. Unfortunately they seemed to be undergoing a lot of renovation, so many of the enclosures were under construction or empty, but there were still quite a few intersting animals to see. No penguins though, sorry Josh. =( On the other hand, there were plenty of other bizarre birds...one of the exhibits had these weird looking birds called ruffs. I don't know if it's mating season for them or what, but they were all puffed up and dancing around and generally acting crazy. There were also some entertaining guanacos that had a bit of a stand-off, and one of them spat at the other. There were also some cute Przewalski horses, including a foal. There were lots of other animals and I took tons of pictures of them; I have yet to see if any of them came out well.
In the evening Jennie and Jani brought home pizza and rented a movie to watch, The Family Stone. It was kind of dull and I fell asleep about halfway through, so I don't know if it turned out to be any good or not. Based on what I saw of it, I'd say not. =p
Wednesday morning I first went with Jennie and Jani to pick up their newly engraved rings and cake set from the jeweler, and to the supermarket to get snacks for Jennie's incoming family when they get here tomorrow afternoon. After that we set off for Helsinki again. We did more exploring of the local shops and had lunch at a cafe. I found this beautiful black stuffed horse I decided I had to have, so I got it. I'll figure out how to get it home later!
I think I started to suffer from a bit of dehydration around then, feeling a little dizzy and headachey. This makes sense since we have been doing a LOT of walking these last few days, and I haven't been drinking nearly as much water as I normally would, which was stupid of me. I'm working on correcting that now. But we were on our way to see a movie, so I would have the chance to sit and rest for a few hours.
On the way to the movie we made a detour through a shopping mall, and I spotted a giant penguin on the escalator there! I really wanted to get a picture of this penguin for Josh (penguins are his favorite animal), and I sort of got one as it was going up the escalator. Then we went up about five floors to the new bowling alley Jani wanted to check out which we'll be going to tomorrow. The penguin had stopped on the floor just below us! I wanted to go over and see if I could get a picture with it, so we did. The penguin was a tall girl in a penguin costume, and was apparently the mascot for some Scandinavian cruise line that was doing some advertising there. Anyway she was very friendly and cheerfully agreed to take a picture with me (she even spoke English and asked where I was from), so we did. Jani seemed to have some trouble with my digital camera, but between him and Jennie and my two cameras I think I got at least one good picture of me with a giant penguin. ^_~
Then it was off to see V for Vendetta. I had no idea what it was or what it was about, but I've wanted to see it ever since I heard Hugo Weaving played the main character. I LOVE his voice. They show movies here in their original langauge with Finnish and Swedish subtitles, so I was able to listen to Hugo Weaving for the entire length of the movie. ^_____^ Wonderful. The movie itself was...well, interesting I suppose, but not really my kind of thing. Well whatever, Hugo Weaving is enough for me.
PS - emailed to family
Tuesday Jani was busy with work all day, so Jennie and I ventured into the city on our own. First I took some pictures of the big nice buildings they have, mainly the gigantic church and some university buildings. Then we spent some time shopping in the very touristy marketplace area right next to the pier where the big cruise ships dock. After about an hour or so of that we boarded the boat that would take us on a short trip across the bay to the island where the zoo was.
Most of the rest of the day was spent exploring the zoo. The zoo covers this whole little island and is fairly spread out. Unfortunately they seemed to be undergoing a lot of renovation, so many of the enclosures were under construction or empty, but there were still quite a few intersting animals to see. No penguins though, sorry Josh. =( On the other hand, there were plenty of other bizarre birds...one of the exhibits had these weird looking birds called ruffs. I don't know if it's mating season for them or what, but they were all puffed up and dancing around and generally acting crazy. There were also some entertaining guanacos that had a bit of a stand-off, and one of them spat at the other. There were also some cute Przewalski horses, including a foal. There were lots of other animals and I took tons of pictures of them; I have yet to see if any of them came out well.
In the evening Jennie and Jani brought home pizza and rented a movie to watch, The Family Stone. It was kind of dull and I fell asleep about halfway through, so I don't know if it turned out to be any good or not. Based on what I saw of it, I'd say not. =p
Wednesday morning I first went with Jennie and Jani to pick up their newly engraved rings and cake set from the jeweler, and to the supermarket to get snacks for Jennie's incoming family when they get here tomorrow afternoon. After that we set off for Helsinki again. We did more exploring of the local shops and had lunch at a cafe. I found this beautiful black stuffed horse I decided I had to have, so I got it. I'll figure out how to get it home later!
I think I started to suffer from a bit of dehydration around then, feeling a little dizzy and headachey. This makes sense since we have been doing a LOT of walking these last few days, and I haven't been drinking nearly as much water as I normally would, which was stupid of me. I'm working on correcting that now. But we were on our way to see a movie, so I would have the chance to sit and rest for a few hours.
On the way to the movie we made a detour through a shopping mall, and I spotted a giant penguin on the escalator there! I really wanted to get a picture of this penguin for Josh (penguins are his favorite animal), and I sort of got one as it was going up the escalator. Then we went up about five floors to the new bowling alley Jani wanted to check out which we'll be going to tomorrow. The penguin had stopped on the floor just below us! I wanted to go over and see if I could get a picture with it, so we did. The penguin was a tall girl in a penguin costume, and was apparently the mascot for some Scandinavian cruise line that was doing some advertising there. Anyway she was very friendly and cheerfully agreed to take a picture with me (she even spoke English and asked where I was from), so we did. Jani seemed to have some trouble with my digital camera, but between him and Jennie and my two cameras I think I got at least one good picture of me with a giant penguin. ^_~
Then it was off to see V for Vendetta. I had no idea what it was or what it was about, but I've wanted to see it ever since I heard Hugo Weaving played the main character. I LOVE his voice. They show movies here in their original langauge with Finnish and Swedish subtitles, so I was able to listen to Hugo Weaving for the entire length of the movie. ^_____^ Wonderful. The movie itself was...well, interesting I suppose, but not really my kind of thing. Well whatever, Hugo Weaving is enough for me.
PS - emailed to family
