I don't know about you but I'm feeling 22 | emmainlapland

Hei!

So, last Sunday I turned 22 and my boyfriend Mike came to visit to celebrate, so this blog shall be all about my week long birthday shenanigans!

It had been 6 weeks since I had last seen Mike and so when I met him at the airport on Saturday evening I was ridiculously excited!

When we arrived at my flat he spoiled me with all the things I needed that were either far too expensive to buy in Finland or just not available here. This of course included Irn Bru and Haggis.

It was a fairly chilled night spent eating and watching the Great British Bake Off final. My birthday actually came 2 hours earlier in Finland than at home and so I made a conscious decision to stay awake until 2am to celebrate at Scottish midnight! At midnight Mike gave me my first birthday present - a big cuddly moomin!!!!!!!!

I had been awake since early Saturday morning because I was acting like a child at Christmas waiting for Mike to arrive and so it was a struggle to even stay awake until 2am that I had to set an alarm to wake me up at that time.

The next day was my actual birthday. In the morning I opened all my lovely cards sent from my friends and family back home and then my presents from Mike. He got me the most gorgeous bracelet ever - it's silver with garnet stones in it (his birth stone) as well as some cosy socks and a book. He's too good to me!

We had the traditional celebratory breakfast of bacon... lots and lots of bacon and then headed into the city centre for a trip to the shops and some lunch.

Lunch consisted of chocolate orange waffles and a pint at this gorgeous place called cafe 21. It had to be done.

We also had a lovely Romantic walk home and took several touristy photos.

When we came home we organised my flat for my party and had some dinner.

I invited a bunch of my friends round to eat drink alcohol and be merry... and merry we really were. Some of my friends were so sweet and made me cakes and pancakes! Some even gave me chocolate. WAAAAAAAAY too much chocolate!

We played an international language drinking game that I learnt whilst travelling to Russia where we each say a word in our native language and everyone else has to repeat it as best they can but if they don't do it well they must drink. It would be fair to see this was hilariously fun but got me terribly drunk.

 The next day was a struggle. A really big struggle. Most notably because the first thing I saw when I woke up was this:

However, after several moments of doubt, I survived and cleaned up the mess and went out for a lovely meal with Mike. We went to a traditional Finnish restaurant and had a delicious three course meal that included some reindeer! Reindeer was surprisingly really tasty yet for me was similar in taste to beef...

On Tuesday Mike and I took a trip to uni, I showed him about, ate lunch and I did some work on an essay. In the evening we had another birthday party to go to. That night was an incredible and unexpected northern lights show. I was unbelievably pleased that Mike was there to see it and that we got the opportunity to experience the aurora together. 

As always the photo does this no justice whatsoever but you get the idea.

On Wednesday we took a trip into town and went to Hesburger for lunch. Hesburger is much like Burger King but I personally think it's better. After lunch we headed to the Arktikum which is an arctic museum. It looks stunning from the outside but was really interesting inside. It was also interactive which I loved. I'm a big kid at heart.

We weren't really supposed to take photos here unfortunately.

On Thursday we didn't do much. For whatever reason I was incredibly tired and couldn't be bothered doing anything. In the end we decided to go bowling but there were no free lanes and so we just had a slush puppy at the cafe. Later I went to the sauna with my friends whilst Mike made us dinner. We had haggis with neeps and chips. Not quite traditional but still delicious. 

Now Friday, without exaggeration, was one of the best days of my life. Not only did I go to see Santa, I also went to a husky farm. I guess it is kind of sad to say meeting Santa was so amazing but it really was!

We went with my other Scottish friend here and her boyfriend. I was definitely the most excited out of us all. There was some snow on the ground too which just made the whole thing even more magical and there was even Christmas music!

At the entrance to Santa Claus village is the arctic circle line showing the coordinates of the arctic. 

 

We also went to Santa's post office!

 

All the letters Santa receives from children around the world generally go here. So cute!

And of course, we met Santa!!

It's never too early for celebrating Christmas if you ask me!

Here's an assortment of pictures from Santa Claus Village: 

And some more... There's tons!

I also mentioned that I went to a husky farm! This was equally as amazing. I didn't go on a sledge or anything but just being surrounded by so many huskies was enough for me.

On Friday evening we went out for a couple of drinks... Which resulted in more than a couple... Which resulted in a hangover on Saturday morning.

As a result, Mike and I literally dragged ourselves out and went to the Chinese for lunch. We then did a spot of shopping and went on a romantic cycle along the river. We found a BBQ area and decided to make a little campfire which failed miserably and so we gave up in the end and went home.

On Saturday evening we went to a Mexican themed party with my friends! It was loads of fun, with delicious food, tequila (of course) and fake moustaches!

Sunday morning was sadly the end of Mike's trip. I didn't want him to leave but I know I will see him again in another 6 weeks. Until then I have all the lovely memories from one of the best birthdays ever!

Sorry for the long post, but it really has been a truly awesome week.

Thanks for reading everyone! I shall update you all next time I have some exciting stuff to share!

Emma x

I went to Russia | emmainlapland

Hey lovely people!

So... The time has finally come for me to update you all on my wonderful trip to Saint Petersberg in Russia!

I have a truly disgusting amount of pictures from this trip and so I'm not going to add them all as we would be here all day but hopefully from my words and the few photos I will add you will get a true taste of how stunning and overwhelming this city really is. 

My trip started on the Thursday evening as we boarded our coach that would come with us the whole journey. I thought I was leaving on Friday but thankfully I realised it was Thursday night that we left, otherwise I was going to miss the whole thing! 

So the bus left around 10pm on Thursday night and after roughly 3 stops we reached Helsinki, Finlands gorgeous capital, at 8am... It was a long journey! 

We had a lot of free time to explore the city and so this of course resulted in several tourist picturs and a trip to the Moomin/ Christmas shop!

At one point we found a farmers market that had loads of fresh and local food as well as souvinirs and what not. 

The exciting part was what hid behind this market... A random, ginormous statue of a man peeing into the river. 

Eventually, we headed to our "ferry" which to me was more like a cruise. It had 9 floors, a casino, a sauna and swimming pool (which you had to pay for - outrageous!) and loads more. 

I was incredibly tired from my journey to Helsinki that I ended up going to sleep super early so there's not much to say about the boat journey there. 

The next day we arrived at long last in Saint Petersberg... It was a glorious and apparently uncharacteristic morning.

At the border I discovered that I don't look at all like my passport photo according to Russia and so I had to hand over my driving license, remove my glasses and move all my hair about just to prove I was not fraudulently trying to get into the country, I was just experimenting with hair dye at the time the picture was taken. 2011 was a strange year... 

Anyway, eventually our tour of St Pete's began! 

Admittadly I can't really remember what all the sites that we saw were... At one point we stopped to take photos of an Egyptian sphinx and some kind of griffin that if you rubbed and made a wish would apparently come true. We also made a stop at a pizza place for lunch. As far as I can remember, the fortress of Saint Peter and Paul was also on the trip but as I said, I don't remember all the stops so instead I'll just show you some pictures.

That evening was relatively chilled and I just stayed in the hotel and ate McDonalds whilst watching crap Russian TV. Some people went out to a nightclub but I personally didn't feel up to it. 

The following day was far more fun filled and touristy. 

The day began with breakfast... An all you can eat buffet. I was let down by the lack of bacon but the delicious pancakes more than made up for it. 

We then headed back on the bus and headed to the hermitage museum. This place was amazing. It was a palace from the outside and just as grand on the inside. It was more of an art gallery than a museum but truly astounding and beautiful nonetheless. 

Later that day I went on a cathedral tour. My favourite was the Cathedral of Spilled Blood which looks like something from Willy Wonka! Inside was something else. The entire enterier was created with mosaics and it was ridiculously overwhelming to look at. 

We also visited St Issacs cathedral, another grand and stunning piece of architecture!

In the evening, my friend and I took a trip out for dinner, in order to find some traditional Russian cuisine... We went for beef stroganoff and it was DELICIOUS! Of course we also couldn't resit the chocolate dessert, a cocktail and trip to the Irish and English pub after. 

Whilst in said Irish pub I saw this sign on the bathroom door... I'm not sure why this was there but clearly this must have been a problem in the past and I found it hilarious! 

I was very pleased when in the English bar there was bagpipes on the wall... Not that you would ever find that in a real pub in England but it pleased me regardless. 

The next day, the Monday, was our last day in Russia and we had a ton of free time to go out and explore the city. 

This time was spent buying a disgusting amount of souvinirs and taking photos of anything that looked remotely touristy. 

We also went on the underground metro which was great and far too amusing for me. I enjoyed standing on an escalator for literally 5 minutes as the trains were so far down! 

Here are more pictures from my final day in Saint Petersberg!

That evening we headed back to Finland on the boat. Even though I was pretty exhausted I still managed to fit in a couple of pints at the bar! 

The hardest part of this journey was the bus home. It felt like forever and as I had had very little sleep the night before all I wanted was my bed but instead I had 13 hours on a bus in which I attempted to sleep. This wasn't easy since it was broad daylight but after a few stops and a Hesburger smoothie later, we arrived back in sunny Lapland! 

All in all I had a fabulous trip and I am so glad I went. In the space of one week I managed to travel from Finland to Norway, Sweden (only for 30 seconds whilst en route to Nothcape) and Russia. 

I am so grateful for the opportunites I have received in the short time I have been here. 

For now though, I am excited to enjoy Lapland and everyone in it! 

My next post will perhaps be next week as it's my birthday on Sunday and my boyfriend is coming to visit. So I should have lots to say as we are going to do all the fun touristy things that Rovaniemi has to offer... (Hopefully Santa will be somewhere on this list :3) 

Anyways, as always, thanks for reading guys!

Emma x