Tampere Skating Trip

Last Friday Elli arrived back in Finland!! Her family picked me up and we went to the airport to eagerly await for her. It was so exciting to see her again. We then went back to her house so she could have a shower and then we were off to Tampere for her skating trip. I don't know how she had the energy after a 30 hour flight but she seemed more awake than me! We caught the train there. That night I met all her friends in her skating team and we went out for coffee with a few of them. 

The next morning we headed to some markets as Olli and Elli were eager for me to try the famous 'black sausage'. It is one of their favourite foods. To be honest, it was edible but I didn't really like it at all. It was also freezing cold but it meant there was lots of snow around :)

The three of us then went on a shopping spree :)

We came across some christmas markets! They were gorgeous and the snow made it feel really festive. There was lots of little handicrafts and sweets. 

We even found santa. I made Elli get a photo with me :) He didn't speak much english but the one word he kept saying to me was "real" while he pointed to himself. 

Behind the markets was a giant, REAL christmas tree. I think it is pretty famous. 

We also found this famous church which looked really lovely against the snow. 

It was then time to go see the synchronised sakting! Saturday was the short program. This is a rountine that has to include certain skills/elements. There were 3 sections. The novices, the juniors and the seniors. Elli's team is in the juniors but we watched all three. It was so amazing! I can bearly stand up on ice so I thought they were all very talented. The teams I thought performed really well though got not very high scores so i officially know nothing about ice skating. On saturday we watched around 7 hours of skating... although i loved it, towards the end they all started to look the same. 

This is the noive team from the same club as Elli's team.

 This is Elli's team performing their short program. 

On sunday, it was the long program. This is a longer rountine (around 4 to 5 minutes) and they have more freedom so there is fewer skills/elements which have to be in the routine. I liked watching this a lot more as it was way cooler and there were even lifts! The novices don't have a long program so it was just the juniors and seniors. Since I know nothing about skating, I resorted to commenting on if I like their costumes or not... I think this annoyed Elli. 
This is Elli's team performing their long program.

Overall Elli's team came 6th from around 12 teams. I think this is extremerly good :)

Since there was a lot of 'watching skating', Olli, Elli and I went on a macca's run to get a break. It was freezing outside but since it was snowing we got some cool photos with the flash :)

It was such a good trip and it was so lovely to see Elli again <3