Lappi

I went to Lapland this weekend, to the town of Levi. Here's where I stayed, in Kimmo's father's and uncle's place:


I tried cross-country skiing, grilling sausages like s'mores in the fireplace, and making Finnish pea soup. However, the undisputed highlight of the weekend was the reindeer races! They were easy to follow. First, choose a reindeer from those milling about:

Then stuff it into a starting gate:

And it's off!

Waiting for the #10 Tram

Buying Alcohol

Here is the only place you can get non-beer alcohol in Finland. Doesn't it look like Target?

I ate bear meat

Yep!

Last Friday was Kimmo's birthday and we went to Saslik, a Russian Restaurant in Helsinki. We started the meal with a vodka, followed by a little amuse bouche of malt bread with some meat and oil, both of which were great.

But here was the exciting part:


That's the bear meat in the foreground, on a bed of shallot potatoes. The dish is called 'The Delicacy of the Czar'. The meat in the background is a bacon-wrapped elk filet.
Here is the short video of the plate, only taken so you can hear the meat sizzling:

And here's the bear meat on it's way to my mouth:


The verdict? The bear meat tasted and looked like pot roast and was not worth the money (82 Euros, but who's counting?). The elk, however, was delicious.

The Theatre

Today I went to see a performance of Everybody Loves Opal. It's a cute comedy about a failed scheme to murder a crazy old lady. It was all in Finnish. Needless to say, I didn't understand most of it, but Kimmo's quick summary at intermission helped.