No movie theaters in Åland

I have a thing for places whose names start with Å. Take Å, for example, which we visited last year. When I read about a group of islands off of Finland called Åland, I knew I had to go there, too. I can tell you’re impressed with my sophisticated decision-making process. Åland is a group … Read more

Stockholm. Bork bork bork.

Whenever we visit a city, Scott and I both instinctively size it up based on whether we would want to live there someday. Stockholm gets a big “yes” from both of us. It’s big, beautiful, and full of stuff to see, do, and eat. Guess I have a thing for cities built on islands. The … Read more

Scenes from Tampere and Turku

Still having fun in Finland. The middle tap dispenses something called “Long Drink”. I didn’t try it. We spent an evening at Vaakahuoneen Paviljonki watching the Siberian Teachers, a jazz band. Not sure where they’re from. Turku’s castle proved a nice place to hide out from the sun. When walking down the street in Turku, … Read more

Tar: not just for paving roads anymore

Greetings from Turku, Finland, where we are trying to hide from the hot glowing ball in the sky. Not such an easy task when it is beating down on you for 19 hours a day. Not that I’m really complaining – we are still having a lovely time. Since arriving in Finland, we have been … Read more

Flittering around Finland

I have more to tell you about Estonia, but I think that will have to wait until we get home. For now we are busy taking in Finland. My favorite bits so far have included the local fashion (you can really imagine Lordi coming from this country) and the copious amounts of free ice water … Read more

Sligo and more Irish coast

What a lovely Irish weekend we just had – cute towns, sandy beaches, and dramatic cliffs punctuated by heavy but tasty food and creamy ales. Life is good. Our first stop was Sligo, a small city in northwest Ireland. The guidebooks had mixed things to say, but we found Sligo to be a very nice … Read more

Piran: Slovenia’s coast

If you look at a map of the area, you’ll see that Slovenia really lost out to Croatia and Italy when it came to divvying up coastline. At least they have Piran, one of the loveliest seaside towns I’ve seen in a while. Early May seemed like a good time to visit, since the town … Read more