Saikari

This is one of my favourite places in the world, Niinivesi, Rautalampi. If I could get rid of all mosquitos and "paarmas" (horse fly, probably) it would be number 1. We have spent more time here this summer than any of the previous summers. Not only because the weather has been so good. For the first time, we went around Kotasaari near Vaajasalmi by boat. I had studied the map and found out that it might be a beatiful boat ride. My other favourite ride is from Saikari to Lohimaa, Tervo. On that route you will go through Härkäsalmi which has some of the quintessential Finnish lake scenery http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/linkki.html?x=3488282&y=6976921&scale=16000&text=Härkäsalmi&lang=FI.

Vasamuseet in Stockholm

I have visited Stockholm countless times but I had never visited Vasamuseet. My colleague said that it would be worth a visit and off we went. We took a ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm and we had couple of hours to walk around Stockholm. Because my family was with me, I decided to go to places they might like. We had just enough time to visit Skansen and Vasamuseet. The latter, I must say, is one of the best museums I have ever visited. My daughter was especially interested in the skeletons of the crew members.

Piece of Finland in Dubai

Resaurant is upstairs, apparently...

Visiting UAE

In the end of March, I visited the United Arab Emirates. First, I went to Abu Dhabi for a couple of days and then I went to Dubai. The country gave me some mixed feelings. First of all, this was the place I knew from the postage stamps. I used to have stamps from Fujeira and Sharjah and they usually had pictures of Disney characters and American movie actors and actresses. The funny thing was that the stamps were always unused. When I saw Dubai for the first time it looked like a huge construction site. There were cranes everywhere. I think I heard that 30 % of the cranes in the world are in Dubai. This did not look like the other muslim countries I had seen on TV. They have so much money but almost nothing historic was preserved. This was my main disappointment. What a perfect place for the sports elite of the world to spend their free time...