Winter in Helsinki

[Nicely]

As some of you know, I moved to Finland last October. Some of you may think 'why', while other may wonder what it's like and there will be some asking where the fook Finland is?! I can tell you it's one of the least populated and cleanest countries in the world. It's also a great place to live with really friendly, straight-talking people Anyway, I promised a long time back that I'd put up some photos of my trip over here. Unfortunately, it either wasn't possible to take photos or they aren't that interesting. So instead I'll give you a taste of my first winter here. It's been one of the hardest winters here for a long time I've been told. Problems clearing snow in Helsinki, late trains, etc. and the press questioning whether the city knows how to deal with winter still. I can tell you that they are very capable of dealing with it. If the UK had had two months of winter like here, the entire country would have fallen apart. It's bad enough there after a day's sprinkling of snow! Yet there's just been a few late or cancelled trains and lots of huge mountains of snow at the sides of the (otherwise clear) streets.

Some Christmas photos

 

[Nicely]

Some photos from this year so far.

These next two are islands. I was stood on the Gulf of Finland...

 

[Nicely]

This is the harbour.

Ninja ducks...

Ice fishing.

Cross-country skiing on a river That's my neice-to-be BTW, not my girlfriend

 

[meddler]

wow great pictures. The country looks beautiful. I have to come and visit won't be for a few years tho

 

[JameS15]

Amazing photos mate!

 

[craig8585]

Awesome! It looks amazing there. What are the summers like? I bet it takes ages for all that snow to melt!

 

[Nicely]

We've had a bit of a melt this week, though it'll take a lot for it all to go. It's got over 0° for the first time since before Christmas. The lowest it got in Helsinki was -23°. The wind chill was around -35 that evening though. The lowest temperature on my car thermometer was -28° about 60km north of Helsinki. Ships got ice-locked several times in the Gulf and had to be rescued by the ice breakers. Lucky we're all in the grips of Global Warming... :rotfl:

Summers are generally good. They had a better and more consistent summer than the UK last year. And the days are longer than in London from the 19th March through till the end of September (not that I've checked ). 21 hours of light on the longest day.

 

[C1TPT]

Wow what anamazing place!!! Great pics!

Your brave moving away! I wish I had the guts to do it!!

 

[Yakozan]

Looks like you've got the same weather and temps as we do over here.
Lots and lots of snow this year. Last time we've had this much snow must have been before global warming was even invented
Probobly about 15 years ago or so. I'm just waiting for the snow to melt so I can get my R33 on the road
That won't probobly happen untill April though, but there seems to be some warmer weather comming next week.

When are you going back to a japanese sports car
370Z maybe?
I think there is a track pretty close to Helsinki called Alistaro or something like that.

 

[Nicely]

Yeah, there's been lots about the problems in Stockholm/Sweden on the Finnish TV news. If you know anything about the Finnish TV news, it's something major if foreign news makes it on, even when they're neighbours.

No plans to change car. More so after this winter. AWD mode has been permanently on for two months except at high speeds. Did have an invite to go with a friend to a snow track in Lapland, but not sure if we'll still be going as he's been quite ill recently.

 

[Nicely]

Thought you might like a few of the Surf with winter wheels and new plates The front was completely encased in clear ice until last week

 

[V-MAX]

Some great photo's there mate.

Here's a few from my recent trip up to Lapland... (My first time loading pictures, so I hope this works?)

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[V-MAX]

ok think Ive got this...

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[Darren_S15]

That last photo is pure genius...

Not sure about the white plate on the back Nicley, looks a bit odd

 

[Nicely]

I've seen the video. It's even more genius

 

[Yakozan]

You managed to convice the Finnish government to get some new plates on the car

Finnish news are aired here aswell on one channel. Think it's called "Uutiset" or something like that. Never watched it as I don't understand I word they say.
I can count to three in Finnish though and say "best before" and "Do not cover". Always a start

 

[Nicely]

I don't understand the news either. I watch the pictures and guess

 

[kababaka]

Love the pictures! Thats a place i'd love to visit, looks beautiful...nice xmas getaway perhaps....Although I am off to Spain this Christmas..slightly warmer

I lived in Japan for 3 years, I will have to get some pics up from there if people are interested

 

[Nicely]

Slightly warmer at Christmas maybe, but not at the moment. We've had temperatures in the high 20s for the past month now, with the past two weeks being above 30°C on many days. Yesterday saw a new record temperature in Finland of 37.2°C.

Here's the car thermometer at 17:00 on the 13th July.

And on the 18th December last year...

 

[craig8585]

Haha, just a 54C difference!

I didn't realice The Surf had an onboard met office either!