After a very long itinerary, we finally made it to Oulu, Finland for all day meetings on Wednesday. We left at 6:45am from the FTC site and after dropping off the car, checking in and going through security, we actually had to hustle to board the plane. Ken and I were both pretty surprised at how long it took given how early we left.....
We flew from Denver to Dulles, had a 2.5 hour layover, then boarded our long flight to Frankfurt. I got to "enjoy" a middle seat from Denver to Dulles, but it wasn't too bad. I'm just glad its over. After another ~3 hour layover in Frankfurt, we flew Lufthansa to Helsinki, Finland, then took a short 1hr flight on Finnair to Oulu. From the Oulu airport, it was only about 20 min to the hotel. We checked in and took some time to "refresh". I didn't take a shower, but I definitely washed my hair and brushed my teeth. I closed my eyes for 15minutes and it almost knocked me completely out...
Here are some fun photos from the plane as we landed in Finland. In the first photo - you can see how the lakes still have a bunch of ice in them.
In this next photo, I wanted to capture the size of the airport in Oulu - smaller than the one in Asheville, NC and they ONLY fly to Helsinki!
For dinner, we walked into town. The first things I learned about Oulu - its only 120 miles from the Arctic circle. It didn't get dark until 11:30 and the sun rose at 3:30am. Crazy long days during the summer. Their longest days are in July when it basically never gets dark!
Here's the fun "viking" themed restaurant where we had dinner. We had a "shield" appetizer and then Ken and I shared a "sword" of meat for dessert.
After dinner, we when on a 1.5 mile walk around the island near our hotel. It was a very nice walk, but the chilly air definitely rolled in once the sun ducked behind the clouds. I'm glad I had planned ahead and was dressed warmly.
As you can see above, the water was incredibly still (and cold) with snow still along the banks!
No comments:
Post a Comment