Suomenliina 'happenings'

This weekend my host family took me to Suomenlinna, which is an island just off Helsinki to see some christmas 'happenings'. We drove into Helsinki and from there we caught a ferry over to Suomenlinna. The sun was even out for a bit that morning. 

On the ferry...

When we stepped off the ferry we were greeted with the strongest wind I have ever experienced in my life. It suddenly got a whole lot colder. The temperature was 0 degrees but my host family reckoned the wind made it nearly as cold as -15. We first walked to this beautiful church and met a cool chap on the way. He was dressed how they used to dress back in the old days. 

After the church we found this statue. My host sister and I had a great time pretending we lived back in the days. My host dad told me all about the history of the statue and the island but the wind must of blown most of it out of me cause I don't remember much. 

We then came across a huge, beautiful castle wall. At this point we were entering the castle grounds. We then walked to a huge building and found christmas handicraft markets inside. It was nice to get out of the wind for a bit. 

My host dad took me up a hill to a lookout type place. Here we found a magnificent view but it was so windy, I actually found it hard to stand in the one spot. 

We went down to this dungeon type building. It had a window with a picturesque view. The lake outside the window was actually frozen. 

This was the theatre. 

This was the best room as the lady was making/shaping glass, which meant she had a huge furnace that was burning hot, which meant it was so warm inside! 

We then went to a cafe on the island for some nice, hot Glögi (a finnish christmas drink which tastes like spiced hot red cordial haha). The weather then turned horrible and it started to rain so we caught the ferry back. 
When we got home it was straight to sauna to warm up! It was a really lovely day :)