Wrapping up in Finland

LEAVING our Finnish HOME

As the snow starts to fall and the days grow steadily darker and shorter, we are wrapping up our time here in Finland. We have been here in Juho's homeland for 1.5 years and we feel it is time to depart. 

Locked out of Australia on account of a ridiculously long visa wait, traipsing through South East Asia, which is actually where we met in the first place, seems like a good way to pass the time!
But first Let's Recap:

This is Turku where we have been living: 

Turku in Summer

Turku in Autumn

Turku in Winter

What have we been doing here?

Absorbing Finnish Culture:

Sauna

Sauna is a Finnish word and an essential part of Finnish life. This is the sauna in Juho's childhood home.

Kesämökki

Finnish Summer cottages are a very integral part of summer.This is a beautiful cottage on an island where Juho and I were lucky enough to spend a weekend. 

Developing Sisu!: 

Sisu is a Finnish word translating to mean something along the lines of 'resilience', 'courage', 'guts', and the icy cold darkness of Talvi(Winter) surely tests that.

Finnish people are so full of sisu that they do crazy things like ice swimming! See below.

Here I am trying to develop some sisu.

Other things that happened here:

1. We got Married!!!!

2. I completed my Masters!

3. I taught Law students for a semester (!!??!!!)

4. We visited some countries: Italy ( Lake Como for our honeymoon!), Estonia, Latvia, Sweden ( Me), Spain (Juho), The Netherlands (me),Poland 

LAKE COMO, ITALY

5. We visited cool places in Finland 

......like Bengtskar lighthouse,the oldest lighthouse among the Nordic nations, see below.......

........... bike trip through the  Turku archipelago.............

But most importantly I got to know my new Finnish family!