Lahti Ski Games 2013

Let's skip a few smaller updates and fast forward a few months, shall we.. It was the perfect weather in Salpausselkä, for enjoying the Lahti Ski Games.

Christmas land @ Saari

Traditional visit to the Saari "Christmas land" event.

Open Door Day at the local fire station

Fun, and also education for the whole family. Held annually, every November.

Shopping center Willa in Hyvinkää

A few quick snapshoots from the opening weekend of a brand new shopping center, Willa!

Finnish Hot Air Balloon Championships 2013 in Mäntsälä

Gentlemen, warm up your balloons! Actually I think this event is really nice. And yet so distinctly Mäntsälä. :)

MB Expo @ Jäähalli

And so we've made our way to the beginning of September when there was a lot of nice (and expensive) cars in Jäähalli.

Sirkus Florentino in Mäntsälä

A circus came to town at the end of August. The show was quite allright, though the kids! :)

Valkosipulimarkkinat 2012

Time to share at least a few new updates. This one is from August last year, from the traditional "garlic market" in Kerava. (Whoa, the Blogger default layout has changed a bit again!)

Rally time: Ouninpohja 2012 & Mäntsälä 2013

So here's one event from the past, and one from the very present. What's common for them both? Rally cars!

Last summer, in the beginning of August, we checked out the legendary Ouninpohja Special Stage at Neste Oil Rally Finland with my son. It was great. Some people criticize that WRC is more business than motorsport these days, and they're probably right. It was dreadfully expensive afternoon, but the event was well organized and a nice experience nevertheless.

Today we got to witness somewhat different level of rally experience. The national F-Cup's start-up rally, Ramirent Mäntsälä Ralli was held nearby. How convenient, particularly Special Stage 4 was run within a walking distance from our house, so we decided to check it out. The weather was cold outside (around -20c degrees of Celcius), but sunny, and the feeling was definitely there. The business aspect was conveniently toned down: just coffee, hot juice and warm sausages were available, and that was all we needed! :)

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!

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.

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. ;)

Tramspotting (a.k.a "My WDC day")

Helsinki is World Design Capital in the year 2012. One sunny wednesday in June I took a day off and decided to check out how it looks like.

Too bad the main attraction I was looking for, the HI Design exhibition at Kaapelitehdas was only open from Thursday to Sunday..

After seeking consultation from WDC guides at Kauppatori I decided to see the Finnish Design Museum (Designmuseo). I also was along on the very first ride of the Culture Tram (Kulttuuriratikka). During the ride I noticed that the Spårakoff restaurant tram was following us, so I stepped out from Kulttuuriratikka and stepped into another interesting tram for one-hour ride.. :)

(Anyway, luckily I've finally also managed to check out the HI Design exhibition now, in August!)

Crazy Drivers Stunt Show

Let's get started with June updates. Crazy Drivers Stunt Show visited Mäntsälä in early June. It wasn't cheap, but offered pretty good entertainment for the whole family!

Earth Hour

I know, it's been quiet on the blog for the couple of months though I'd probably have something to share still.. Well, spring is coming on strong and the days are getting longer. But for once, yesterday evening was pretty dark for a while without the street lights. Which was nice, since it was the Earth Hour of 2012. :)

Matkamessut 2012

The mandatory annual visit to Matkamessut (the Travel fair) happened last weekend. We only had some two hours of time and it was packed with people, except for the last 30 minutes. Didn't manage to spot any phenominal offers, but they're still online for a while so I guess I'll keep looking.

Summer 2011 update 14/16: Padasjoki pt. II

We went camping with my son to beautiful Padasjoki. He was excited about spending the night outdoors, but managed it very well after all. There was also Elomarkkinat at Arrakoski.

Here are some pictures from the buildings at Arrakoski. :)

Summer 2011 update 13/16: Neste Rally @ Koukunmaa

Wr-ooom! It was my first time as World Rally Championship event spectator, at Neste Rally Finland Special Stage 7 - Koukunmaa. As I didn't have previous experience I dediced to play it safe and we arrived on-site some three hours before the start.

In the end I feel it probably was a good decision to come early, as there was already some traffic packing on the road. But of course, arriving early with my son with me, and he was a little impatient at times. Luckily we had chosen a spot very close to the stage finish line, there was the Rally Shop and a plenty of helicopters landing and taking off to keep us entertained.

Later in the evening I went to see Lahti Historic Rally Special Stage 3 along the same route.

I'm not converted as a rally fan yet, but of course I can't say it would not have been interesting either.

Monster Jam @ Helsinki

I decided to post this event update as attendning the "Freestyle Mania" really felt like a fresh(!) breeze from America to me. That may sound odd? I think only Americans can come up with sport events like monster truck racing or (WWE style) wrestling, and fill up Helsinki's biggest indoor stadium, the Hartwall Areena!

There were many things about the event I loved. The presenter speaking English with true US accent and trying to warm up the rigid Finnish crowd: "And remember, he'll do one more donut [with a monster truck], only for you, as you've been such a wonderful audience tonight.." That translates to me something like "Hey now c'mon, let's try it again, you are such a quiet crowd and we're really having a hard time getting you to make some noise!!" Haha! :)

And it was all about the merchandise, the excess of toys, T-Shirts and caps available, as well as popcorn mugs and all the exotic stuff you know you really don't need, but you buy them because the kids love them.

Sure, the tickets were expensive, the merchandise was overpriced (compared to the US), and the toilet queues were exessively long (as usual).. But as this kind of tour comes to Finland once in a year or two, we tried to love the show to the max. My wallet feels somewhat thinner, but so what, I feel happy and it seems my son got some inspiration to his child's play too. ;)

I'd love to go and see it again.. in ten years here, or definetely sometime sooner in America!