Ruottinen meets World

We have now bought our first own car! And my old Nissan Datsun Sunny has left our yard for the last time.

We had a great time in Lapland! There was hardly any mosquitoes left and walking in the forest was very nice. We spent one night in a cabin in Pudasjärvi and another one in a tent. It gets already quite cold during the nights.

We have spent couple of days in Utajärvi again. Maria is working hard trying to get one big handicraft done which she started some years ago. I am working on our travel log and pictures. Just wait! In the beginning of this week we will take care of some things in Oulu but come back here for the rest of the week. In the beginning of September I will start my studies and Maria her new job.

P.S. I changed the size of the thumbnail pictures. Comments are appreciated!

Utajärvi, Finland

The rest of our journey through the Baltics was successful, even though there was quite a storm at the Sea on the way from Tallinn to Helsinki. Before reaching home in Oulu we visited relatives in Finland. The days have gone trying to deal with all the paper work and getting over of some kind of culture shock.

We have also spent couple days building a garage roof for relatives. I have already got used to climbing up and doing stuff on the roof, but getting down is still scary. Last weekend we had Maria’s cousins wedding at Kokkola and tomorrow another wedding. Now we are spending time in Utajärvi. Next we head up to Pyhätunturi for couple days.

Kėdainiai, Lithuania

Driving through Poland during the day was a bit frustating with all the traffic, so we decided another approach. We left Wroclaw after the evening service at ten and after 11,5 hours we were having breakfast in Kaunas. We spent the day shopping souvenirs and some new stuff to decorate our home.

We found a nice hotel, Aroma Rex, from Kėdainiai. We even get the breakfast to our room in this four star hotel. And the night costs only 150 litas (43€). What a great way to celebrate the last night abroad on our trip.

Wrocław, Poland

We have had really nice time in Wrocław. We were trying to find all the dwarfs around the city and admired a month old Tapir baby in the zoo. Now we are baking traditional Finnish Karelian pies with our friends. In the evening we will continue our trip to home again.

Budapest, Hungary
Jankowice, Poland

After busy days in hungary and in Poland we decided to write again! So, we spent great three days in Budapest. We were very warmly welcome to Zsuzsa’s and Imre’s home even though we informed them only couple of hours before we went there! The children, Auguston and Hanga liked when we read books and played with them. The most impressive sights in the city were the caves and the Roman spa.

We left from Hungary with two hitch-hikers on the back seat. The journey to Katowice took the whole day because the polish “highways” were under construction.

In the evening we tasted some souvenirs from spain, boys went running and I made some pasta for a midnight supper.

On Thursday we went to Arthur’s home. There we went biking to the forbidden area of the cole mine and saw nice nature and a church in the woods. We ate delicious pancakes and enjoyed Polish hospitality!

Soon we’ll arrive to Wroclaw with Arthur and Magdalena. We’ll have a great weekend with Joanna and Barbara!

Budapest, Hungary

We didn’t go to Krka park after all. We just drove to Balaton lake in Hungary where we stayed the night in a tent for a long time. It was nice to have such temperatures that we needed our sleeping bags.

Next two nights we will stay in Budapest at our friends place.

Cetina river

Yesterday we went rafting to the beautifull Cetina river. What a great experience! Mayby the best adventure on this holiday so far. We paddeled down the rapids, swam in refreshing water, jumped down from the cliff and went to a cave behind a water fall. There is no words to describe the views.

Today we pack our stuff to the car and go see the national park of Krka.

Kukljica, Croatia

It is very very very hot in Croatia at the moment. Even a local fisherman was wondering the temperature and the climate chance. Today we went to Zadar and listened to the sea organ that is unique in the world. Then we escaped the heat of the city to a lonely beach on an island. By the way, we have booked a ferry ticket to Helsinki for the last day of July, so we’ll start heading up north in the beginning of next week.

Zlarin, Croatia

Yesterday we visited Split and today we spent the day at small island called Zlarin.