The last month has been excellent. The trips to Paris, Milano and Finland were all really intriguing.
I was so much fun to be in Paris for the first time and it left me wondering why it took me so long to visit Paris in the first place (expecially since I have been to France at least once a year for over ten years now… ) It is a great city, with a much better and warmer atmosphere then I expected. It also was a lot of fun to venture there with all the nice people from my post-graduate college. Soon I will have a bunch of photos taken during this trip posted to the web.
Milano has some great food to offer, Florian’s and Rita’s place is very nice and the intermingling of Italian and German people at their party was really nice. If you haven’t been to Milano, don’t expect to much of the Scala’s architecture, one could say it is quite modest. However, it is currently being renovated and it is famous for what is happening inside and for its acoustics. The glass-roofed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. and the Duomo are stunning sights and I thouroughly enjoyed walking around on the roof of the duomo. Look out for pictures and perhaps a movie clip of this trip too!
Though it was not at all cold when we arrived with the ferry in Turku, Finland, the temperatures soon declined to between -12 and -20 degrees Celsius. We had just a little snow which was perfect for our nordic skiing excursions on the lake right in front of the mökki that we stayed in. Timo’s parents also have a seperate sauna mökki which we used quite often. We worked a hole into the ice on the lake and took (pretty short) dives into it to “freshen up” after leaving the sauna. Yes, that was quite cold, but then again, the air in the sauna is quite hot and it is refreshing. Timo also build excellent ice lamps around the hole, so the whole thing was an aeshtetic pleasure too. Kerstin took some neat pictures which she should be able to convert with iPhoto to a nice enough web page for your pleasure too. Finally, let me tell you again that boat trips can be quite exciting! Definitely the best way to travel.