Half of the Summer

Ahh... So I went back to my childhood neighbourhoods, and decided it's time for a ROADTRIP~

Lapinlahti - Nilsiä (Tahko) - Koli - Juankoski - Lapinlahti

Overall somewhat 400km

Ever since I was a kid, father took us to see the foresty landscapes of the East-Finland every year. Usually we went to Lapland to see ruska, and lots of war-related monuments and buildings (does Kalle Päätalo ring a bell, anyone? Guess what, I've seen his childhood home building in Taivalkoski over 8 times...). I have panned for gold and mined for amethysts and have had fun with porotokkas (reindeer herds), so I decided to look to the East instead of North, and Koli sounded pretty nice place to visit again.

Be prepared for the overly vintaged and dramatized photos!

So my first stop was in Nilsiä, a town more known for it's holiday resort site Tahko.
Usually people tend to go there in winter time, when the lake is frozen and there are many possibilities of winter sports. So now in summer it's more like place for those who don't have summer cottage, but yet need a calm place with some activities around.

I have this weird thing to photoshoot stairs... 

I dont' know why I find stairs so fashinating....

AH! And this lovely pig altar.

You have to put your sacrifice (sausages on a light basket) and let it go with the flow...

...on water...

...or something..

"Oi Sikajumala-kamisama, let this summer be the greasiest and tastiest ever!"

Eventually I managed to get to Koli, but with my luck I forgot to pray Sikajumala and the weather wasnt' with me - it started to pouring rain hard when I drove to the parking area of Koli's, so my pictures from the actual final destination failed totally...

This was the only good one, and it's not from the top of the "hill".

Then there was this landscape elevator, that was like straight taken

from JURASSIC PARK!!

In the end it was really good trip, although I almost hit a moose (and got traumatized..). I expected the amount of kilometers would get me tired in the end, but the amount of stops, the moose and rainy weather helped me to survive from it~

I also made another roadtrip to Kajaani-Manamansalo (and took a ferry ride! How awesome is that nowadays!!), but of course I totally forgot to bring my camera with me... Oh well... Only the ferry would've been enough interesting subject for taking a pic..

And some pictures from Kuopio for a good ending~