Coming up next..

Almost done with July, whew.. still in the next series of updates I intend to cover the main holiday trip I did last summer.. so stay tuned. :)

Parolan Panssarimuseo

It must have been somewhat like ten years since the last time I visited the "the Panzer museum" in Parolannummi, near Hämeenlinna. Time sure flies past quite fast!

Kouvola

During the "Days of the sea" event in Kotka we actually stayed in a hotel in Kouvola, because all the hotels in Kotka were already full. There was a frequent "party train" connection to the Kotka harbour, and this arrangement turned out to be working just fine for us.

I can confirm that Kouvola was a perfectly suitable place to spend some time in, or to sleep over at!

Kotkan Meripäivät

Kotkan Meripäivät is the second biggest festival in Finland, second only to Helsingin Juhlaviikot. The city of Kotka only has about 54.000 residents, and there was 232.000 visitors during the festival week this year..

So, being there was like.. expensive, but fun, and with a LOT of other people to party with!

MCC Action @ Mielakka

Hey, how convenient, I'm visiting Kouvola and they say that Finland's fastest MCC track is nearby.. :)

KohinaBaari

KohinaBaari was opened in the first half of 2012 in the Numminen village, and it may just be what this whole town (Mäntsälä) has been waiting for. It's about time Gasthaus Wäinölä gets some competition!

No - seriously - these bars are like 10 kilometers apart from each other, and both are kind of unique. But KohinaBaari was a really nice place to visit. It was rather quiet evening when I visited there, but I'm looking forward to another visit, and I'm sure it will be more lively the next time.

Orimattila x3

This summer I visited Orimattila at least three times. On the first visit I took my daughter to see Orimattilan Eläinpuisto, on the second time we went to check out the Megamyyntiareena (a large outlet center), touring back with a planned coffee breakt at the nicely decorated Mato & Makkara kiosk in Mallusjoki. Then my third visit to Orimattila was for checking out the great annual Mallusjoen Takinkääntöviikot event also this summer.

Camping @ Lake Bodom (and visit to Villa Elfvik)

And then we come to some good stuff. In the latter part of July we went camping with the little buddy to Oittaa Camping in Espoo. After setting up the tent and sleeping bags we enjoyed camp life in the form of lemonade, potato chips and grilled sausage.

The next day, we visited the "nature house" Villa Elfvik and its' beautiful surroundings (I actually realized later that also Espoon Automuseo would have been quite close to the camping area).

After all, my son said he had a great time and so did I, so I guess we need to come up with some trip like this next summer too! :)

Sahtimarkkinat 2012

Okey dokey now, here we go. The first event I visited in July was the traditional Sahtimarkkinat @ Padasjoki. Umm.. the following image was the most suitable "artistic representation" I could find. ;)