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Nothern Lights in Lappland. Photo: Pixabay Tourism in Lapland in Finland is growing rapidly. Snow, scenery, ski tracks, ski slopes, the northern lights and Santa Claus will attract tourists to Lapland. The numbers speak the same language. Accommodation establishments in Lapland collected one-half of overnight stays by foreign tourists in December 2016, tells Statistics Finland . The number of recorded nights spent by foreign tourists at accommodation establishments in Lapland was 336,000, which was 26.5 per cent higher than in December 2015. Of these, most nights were spent by British visitors, 158,000. Their overnight stays increased by 28.1 per cent year-on-year.  Reindeers, photo: Pixabay. Overnight stays by tourists from Asia increased by as much as 53.6 per cent in Lapland and nearly 51,000 nights were recorded for them in December 2016.  British visitors emerged as the biggest foreign tourist group in the whole country in December. The retur...

Karelian house, Bomba, Nurmes. Photos: Sirpa Pääkkönen Finland will celebrate its 100th birthday. Finland got independence 6 th December 1917. From late 12 th century Finland was an integral part of Sweden. In 1809 Finland was incorporated into the Russia Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. Following the 1917 Russian revolution Finland declared itself independent. Archipelago. So we’ll get a big celebration. What do foreigners usually know about Finland? We have thousands of lakes. In Lapland the sun will shine all night long in the summer, but in wintertime the darkness covers the country. If you are lucky you can see northern lights and they are amazing. Reindeer you’ll meet very likely and the Santa Clause in Lapland. That’s why children from all over the world love to travel to Lapland. You can also learn something about Finland by looking statistics from T he Statistics Center of Finland , Statistics Finland. Let’s see what we can find out. F...

Photos from Tallinn's Old Town by Sirpa Pääkkönen From Helsinki Finland it takes two hours to get to Tallinn by boat. So near but at the same time you’ll get to a very different world. The reason is history. Tallinn is a medieval city and has a very beautiful but quite small Old Town. Once it was surrounded by walls and there are still quite many old towers from the middle age. The Old Town is beautiful in all times of the year. Just now the autumn colors make it colorful, bright and charming even the weather can be cloudy and grey. Tallinn was founded in 1248, but the earliest human settlements are over 5,000 years old. So it is one of the oldest capital cities of Northern Europe. Due to its strategic location, the city became a major trade hub, especially from the 14th to the 16th century, when it grew in importance as part of the Hanseatic League. Tallinn's Old Town is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a  Unesco ...

Verenpisaroita Kumpulan kasvitieteellisessä puutarhassa. Kuvat: Sirpa Pääkkönen Kumpulan kasvitieteellisessa puutarhassa on vielä syvän vihreää, vaikka syksy kolkuttelee ovelle. Puutarhakin sulkee ovensa syyskuun lopussa. Mutta vielä pääsee ihailemaan jättikurpitsaa ja hentoja tilleja hyötykasviosastolla, oranssinpunaisia pih lajanmarjoja, muutamaa myöhään kukkivaa ruusua ja Koillis-Aasiasta peräisin olevaa sorvarinpensasta. Sorvarinpensaan kukka on lempikasvini, koska se tuo mieleen kiinalaiset ja japanilaiset puupiirrokset , joissa kevyellä viivalla ja väreillä loihditaan maisema katsojan silmien eteen. Kumpulan kasvitieteellinen puutarha Vallilan laaksossa on ihana idylli. Se on monta vuotta ollut lempipaikkani. Kuuset ja lehtipuut ovat venyneet muutamassa vuosikymmenessä aikuisten puiden mittaan. O ksat kaartuvat toisiaan vasten ja luovat hauskoja katettuja polkuja. Alueelle on syntynyt myös  tiheitä pusikoita. Keskellä puutarhaa on pieni lampi ja soliseva pur...

Imatra Sate Hotel. Photos: Sirpa Pääkkönen Imatra State Hotel is one of the most beautiful buildings in Finland. In the European art nouveau building the style is rich and exciting . All walls are different and details countless. The house has towers and a wide range of windows and ornamentation based on the Finnish topics . For example, the main entrance you can find small reliefs of birds, fox and deer . The building was designed by Usko Nyström and completed in 1903. The architect   had received from the Senate a free hand to design a new river beach hotel. The condition was that the building was supposed to be made of stone. The previous two wooden hotels were burned. This room belonged to emperor Nicholas II. Grand hotel de Cascade was opened in 1903. Later the name was changed to Imatra State hotel. The building was like a medieval knight’s castle. There were 53 different-sized rooms and a large dining room. Material was light-coloured limestone. ...

Tunnelmallinen Viljandi. Kuvat: Sirpa Pääkkönen Viivähdin Viljandissa Etelä-Virossa vain muutaman tunnin, mutta olin täysin myyty. Harjun päällä mutkittelee muutama mukulakivikatu, jota reunustavat vanhat puutalot. Rakennukset ovat tyyliltään kirjavia ja samoin värit. Osa hirsitaloista on kunnostettu. Omistajat ovat valinneet maaliksi vihreää, ruskeaa, punaista ja okraa, jolloin kokonaisuudesta tulee hauska tilkkutäkki. Alueella on myös puuhuviloita, joita varakkaat perheet rakensivat 1900-luvun taitteessa. Omistajat olivat pääosin saksalaisia. Kauppa vanhassa puutalossa. ” Puutalojen säilymisestä voi kiittää itsepäisiä kaupunginjohtajia, jotka eivät koskaan antaneet purkaa niitä”, sanoo ystäväni, matkaopas Elina Aro-Ojapelto . Kun postaan muutaman kuvan Facebookiin, kollegani Hannu Marttila kirjoittaa, että Neuvostoliiton miehityksen aikana suuri osa vanhoista puutaloista oli puna-armeijan käytössä. Venäjän armeija poistui Virosta vasta 1994. Puutalot säästyivät toise...