Catching up on the start of 2017

Despite my minor surgery, we did manage to do a few things in the start of 2017, so here's a rough recap:

On the 17th of January, Tomas participated in the school's choir - Tvåornas Kör (Two hosts choir).  He had a great time and did really well.

Here's a link to the groups YouTube channel, showing some of the songs.

Tvåornas Kör

Our next event was the Australia Day celebrations.  We hosted a BBQ for the expats and this time I didn't set the BBQ on fire!

Sunday the 28th we headed back up to Gekås and managed to get a full set of new clothes for us and the kids for about 3000kr (about $500).  It was a lot of money but we got A LOT of clothes - the kids are growing fast (and I didn't want to have to head back to Gekås again...)

Outside Gekås

A few of the tags from the clothes to give some idea how much we got

We had a little snowfall come in on the 9th of February, but it didn't stay long..  However we did get some nice photos:

Cleaning off the car

Saint Petri's Church

Frozen Malmö Harbour

My rugby field - proving why Swedes play in the Summer

A slow start to 2017

So, 2017 has started pretty slow - its already 4th Feb and this is my first blog post of the year...


The main reason is because we took it a little slow after doing so much at the end of last year, Iceland into Christmas, into Rovienmi and then into New Year.  After Peter and Heather returned home, we took some rest time and took it easy... for 3 days...

I ended up with an infection in my leg that put me into emergency surgery.  It was only an overnight stay but I ended up with 2 weeks off work and am still in 'recovery' as I wait for it to heal (could take up to 2 months).

So not much happening here, we did take a trip to Gekas last weekend to spend about $500 on new clothes for the kids as they somehow managed to grow out of everything.

We do have some exciting trips planned though - we're off to Norway at the end of the month to stay in a cabin with a friend and go Ice Fishing and Ice Skating.  Then at the end of March we're off motor-homing around Scotland and Northern England.

Lots to look forward to and to blog, but its all quiet at the moment..

Hope everyone is having a better start to 2017!

New Years Eve in Limhamn (31 Dec)

This was our second NYE in Sweden and we had some great memories of the massive firework show last year and some disappointment that we missed out on firing our own.

This year we also had some extra guests, Kristine's parent, Peter and Heather, were staying with us and were keen to set off some of their own explosions.

Fireworks are illegal for public use all year round, except for 6pm til about 3am on New Years Eve.  So in the days after Christmas lots of little pop-up shops appear with their selections of fireworks.  This year there were a few less as some of the companies didn't sell them due to protests that they were scaring pets.

So when we got back from Rovienemi, we took Peter down to the firework shop and he made some selections:

Svea Fireworks

In the end, he spent about 1800kr ($300) on a decent selection - a bag of bombs and crackers, a bag of single fireworks and a firework box that promised 1 firework a second for 90 seconds.

The selection

Of course I made my customary Oreo Cheesecake, so after dinner and cheesecake we headed down to the park around 7pm and set of our fireworks:

I like the trails on this one

One of the sparkers

The bombs and crackers were pretty cool - some were only little pops and crackles but some fired off a lot of exploding bits like the one above.  We had a mini-tank that fired a cannon of sparks, and after firing seemed to be completely undamaged, so we made it our goal to blow it up:

Somehow it managed to survive that explosion and the next few that we tried...


Here's one of the crackling sparkers:

One of the ones was a spinning disk that ended up flying up and off.  It narrowly missed the bag of fireworks (which could have been interesting) and landed in a tree:

There were a few minor mishaps, like this firework that fired downwards instead of up, or the couple that were staked too deep and didn't take off, but overall no limbs or digits were lost (despite the screams).

The kids ended up pretty tired and grumpy by around 10pm so we put them to bed.  At midnight we had the usual 360-degree firework show that ran for about an hour.  The highlight was the guy down the road placing a fireworks box on the kerb.  It fired about 2 or 3 shots and then fell onto the road and began shooting fireworks into the house across the road (again, luckily no-one was hurt):

I can't post up any videos of the main fireworks as they were too big to go up on here.

All in all it was a great night with plenty of explosions.

Here's to a great 2017!

Rovaniemi - A Visit to Santa - Part 3 (26-30 Dec)

For our last full day in Rovaniemi, we ventured back to the Santa Village, to make sure we caught all the bits we'd missed before.  On the road on the way there, we made some new friends:

Reindeer

They were pretty curious about the car

We all made it safe to the Santa Village (well except for the reindeer, they didn't come with us, but they were safe last time we checked, honest!)

Our first goal of the day was to find the location of the live webcam, as one of our friends back in Malmo was watching for us on it.

Found it - just above Cam's head

Turns out that the camera was also situated on the Arctic Circle:

Alana introduced the Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle

Panoramic 360 view standing at the circle crossing

Us on the Arctic Circle

The temperature was a nice warm -4 degrees

Santa Claus Office

Christmas Tree - I didn't see an Aussie flag though

We found a place where you could ride a reindeer sleigh, but it was a little too expensive (and probably cruel to expect a reindeer to pull me when I haven't been to rugby training for a couple of months...)

Reindeer Sleigh

The reindeer tracks

We had a wander through the village, checking out the stores and the entrance to the holiday village:

The holiday village

Signpost outside the post office

We wandered over the road for lunch (a little cheaper that in the village) and on the way back, we got in a pretty decent snowball fight.  I think I have to claim shot of the day - it hit Kris on the chin and spilled down inside her (zipped up) jacket:

That's her "You're dead" look

After I had run away, we ended up inside and again found ourselves on the Arctic circle line:
(we'd now done in inside, outside and underground)

Arctic Circle

Kris on the Arctic Circle line

Santa's Office all lit up

That ended our last day and we headed back to the cabin to pack and clean.  The next day we had an early start - needing to leave for the airport at 6am.  We arrived in Helsinki around 10am and headed into town as we didn't have to catch our next flight until 3pm

This was our second trip to Helsinki, so we headed straight for the harbour markets.

Train Station

Statue in the Park

Christmas Decorations

After checking out the markets, we headed up to Uspenski Cathedral, an  Eastern Orthodox Cathedral, built in 1868. We'd seen it at a distance the last time we'd come so we wanted to check it out close up.

Uspenski Cathedral

Inside

After the cathedral, we headed back for lunch and then caught the train back to the airport.  It had been a short trip but a fun one.

We loved the Santa Village, even thought it was mostly shops.  Santa Park was a bit of a let down (especially for the price) but was a fun day.  For me, the highlights were seeing the reindeer and the snow.

We did check for the Northern Lights each night, but despite it being clear and cloudless we never managed to see them.. oh well, maybe next time.

Rovaniemi - A Visit to Santa - Part 2 (26-30 Dec)

We started our second day with some play in the snow around the cabin and some exploring.

Please can we come in now.. its cold and there are wolves after us

One down

Some idiot in the snow showing off

Snowball fight

Our cabin

The kids took some time to write in the guest book:

Cameron

Alana

The scenery we had to put up with

The area around the cabin

When we were all ready we headed off to Santa Park, a Christmas Themepark that was listed as one of the biggest attractions.

We expected it to be a big Santa's workshop, with elves making toys and machines etc, but it was a big cavern with a few attractions.  Overall it was fun, but not worth the entry cost (33 euro an adult, 27 a child - 213 euro for our group of 7, or $312 AUD).

Santa Park

Entrance to Santa Park

The Santa Park is built in an underground cavern. Blasting work started in 1997 and 59,000 cubic meters of rock were removed.  It serves both as a theme park and also a shelter for the citizens of Rovaniemi in case of emergency (it can hold up to 3,600 people) - the conversion from theme park to shelter is listed as taking 24hours and the cavern is protected by 16,000kg fire doors.

After traveling down a sloping tunnel :

Tunnel entry

we arrived at the entrance hall and cloak .tooms and then passed down a further tunnel into the cavern.

Entrance to the cavern

Our first stop was the undercrossing of the Arctic circle - an underground marker for crossing into the arctic circle:

The kids at the crossing

The Pupletts

The whole motley crew

Our next stop was the ice sculpture display and icebar:

Ice cat

Cameron on his throne of ice

Tomas on his throne

Sculptures

Next stop was Mrs Gingerbread's Bakery.  We all purchased a gingerbread biscuit and were able to decorate it.  Things started normally:

Decorating

Then Tomas realised that, while we'd had to pay for the gingerbread, the icing was free.  So the way to get best value for money was to pile up as much icing as you could:

Tom's end result

The others were not going to let a good suggestion go to waste - here's Alana's efforts

Cam couldn't even fit his in his mouth...

We walked around a little more and then the kids had a play in the Angry Birds playground:

 

 Then met up with Peter and Heather in the central cafe for dinner.  Despite the high entry costs, we were a little annoyed at having to pay 2.5euro each for the gingerbread (about $3.5) and 5euro for a coffee.  Fortunately, we'd brought our own lunch and had ham and cheese sandwiches while we watched the midday show - an acrobat elf performance.

Afterwards the kids got to meet up with the crew:

The elves

Once we finished up with the show and lunch, we headed over to Elf School, pausing only to 'take an elfie':

Cameron's Elfie

Tomas' Elfie

We did also get an Elfie of Alana but she asked that I didn't put it on the blog.

Elf school is a 20minute show led by two elves, who teach the kids how to sneak, check in windows to see if kids are behaving and how to use captured light to light a Christmas tree:

The entry to Elf School

The first room of Elf School

Elf School

The elf map

The classroom

The kids enjoyed the show and got a Santa hat and certificate, then we headed off to the Magical Sleigh ride, a tour through the four seasons with animatronic animals and elves.

Starting off the ride

The workshop

Workers making toys

Packing toys and the letter sorter

Cameron's favourite part was the electric track warning picture, though:

Zapped elf

Next we headed to Santa's office to meet Santa Claus:

Santa's Office

Fortunately we were allowed to use our own camera to take a Santa photo as the park charged 30euro (about $50 for a photo):

Santa in the Santa Park

Next stop was the decoration making room, where the kids made elf and santa heads out of wood, cotton wool, paint and felt:

Tom busy at work making a blue (cold?) Santa

The walls of the room were covered in heads people had made.. it was either really festive, or a creepy wall of severed heads.. depending on your level of sanity.

One of Cameron's creations

Alana points out her addition to the wall

We had a brief stop at the calligraphy table, but there wasn't much too do there. Alana had some fun writing with a quill and ink:

Lots of concentration

Sign at Calligraphy school

On the way out, we stopped to have a ride in an old fashioned reindeer drawn sleigh:

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen

Family shot

Overall the park was good fun, but nowhere near what we expected and little dissapointing.  For the entrance cost, it felt like everything inside was still overpriced and it didnt really have the magical Santa feel we had expected.  A few more things like the elf school or other attractions would have helped I feel.