Cookie travels

I never thought I’d see a travel agency in Pori as I always do bookings online particularly for hotel accommodations when we were still in Thailand. Not until hubby decided we spend the May holiday in Stockholm. To book for sea travel and accommodation in a new place given the short span of time, I think the best person to do this is a travel agent.

The travel agency is located near the Market Square (Kauppa Tori) in Pori. If you come by bus it is very convenient coz Market Square is where the bus stops. I find the staff at Matkapojat Oy efficient and helpful. They also have English speaking staff so I had no communication problem at all and it was not crowded office too. I was immediately attended. One of my worries was our visa to Stockholm and they helped us contact the authorities regarding this. Although our booking was confirmed, it was not until they got a confirmation from the immigration officer regarding our visa that I got our booking voucher. I had to come back the following day in fact for the payment. With our booking voucher at hand, now all is set for the journey. To make our travel smooth, I was also given a small map of Stockholm.

Matkapojat Oy
Opening hours: Mon-Fri, 9-17hrs
Address: Eteläkauppatori 2, 28100 Pori
Tel: +358 (0)102323920
Fax: +358 (0)26341249
Email: pori@matkapojat.fi
Website: www.matkapojat.fi (Finnish)

Note: Matkapojat Oy has offices outside Pori. You can find contact details here.

I’ve been window shopping yesterday and wish I’m in Thailand. So many brightly colored spring wears and accessories on display in the shops. And summer wears are coming up, too. Ah shopping! It’s really cheap to shop in Thailand especially for clothing, accessories, shoes, electronics, and more to which I just realized now, I never took photos of my shopping spree. Aside from those mentioned, here are some shopping finds in Thailand from another travel bug happysteps.net, with photos.

Internet spat can sometimes bring some changes. Some of you might have noticed that Cookie travels was silent for a while as the author got out of touch from the internet world due to this disagreement between her ISP, Telia, and American network operator, Cogent. It was not a complete atmosphere of being disconnected though coz of proxy server. Nonetheless, she kept herself busy redesigning her photo templates. The software used was ArcSoft PhotoStudio 5 which came as a bundled software for Canon digital camera. You may now notice a different look. Here’s a comparison of the previous look and the new look.

previous photo template, Kokemäenjoki River

new photo template, Keski-Pori Church

Continued from playful sea ambassadors of Särkänniemi Dolphinarium –Part 1

The show lasted for about 45 minutes. It didn’t occur to me that Dolphinarium would be our last adventure. I wanted to go back to the Aquarium. I missed a lot of marine friends there. I also wanted to move around Särkänniemi Park. But our sick girl was getting weaker and even slept during the whole Dolphin show. She wanted to be carried now. So after the show we just called it a day. It was still 1:45 PM.

Before I end our Särkänniemi adventure, here are more tricks from the playful sea ambassadors of Särkänniemi Dolphinarium: Veera, Näsi, Delfi, Leevi and Eevertti. Which is who, I don’t know. The narration was also in Finnish.

wow! perfectly done this solo performance of loop trick

group performance of the loop trick

jumping over the horizontal pole

a hug and a dance with the trainer, how sweet

now its the dolphins turn to dance together

Continued from the Särkänniemi Planetarium experience

From Planetarium we proceeded to the Dolphinarium. Särkänniemi Dolphinarium opened in 1985 and is the first in the world to make use of biological water purification system that is chlorine-free. There are 5 dolphins at the Dolphinarium to amuse the viewers. These dolphins had their own names. Their trainers may be able to distinguish them by their names, but for me they all look the same dolphin during the show. Anyway, let me introduce them here:

Veera - born in 1978, oldest female dolphin, leader of the group

Näsi - born in 1979, another female dolphin, not camera shy, has learned more new tricks

Delfi - born in 1980, male dolphin, a good jumper

Leevi - born in 1993, son of Näsi and Delfi, has learned the skills same as the adult dolphins, favorite toy is ball

Eevertti - born in 1996, son of Veera and Delfi, still busy studying his tricks

We had about 15 minutes before the Dolphinarium show would start. While waiting we were entertained by a singing tree. A lot of children and parents crowded this fenced tree including me and younger son. It’s not a problem if you have to wait long coz the lobby had chairs. Somewhat boring though. There were also informative displays at the lobby about the life and behavior of marine animals. You can learn more while waiting.

singing tree at Särkänniemi Dolphinarium

maybe this is Leevi coz his favorite toy is ball

who is hitting the ball?

now there are 3 of them; are they the 3 adult dolphins or a parents-son team?

To be continued: more of the playful sea ambassadors of Särkänniemi Dolphinarium –Part 2

Continued from finding Nemo inside Särkänniemi Aquarium

Recently renovated in year 2002, this 139-seat Planetarium will give you a unique multimedia, multi-dimensional, multi-channel surround space experience as it takes you to a journey through our galaxy, with the Planetarium ceiling as the observation sky. A show will take about 25 minutes and new ones are launched every year. So space enthusiasts, that’s a thing to watch out. Single ticket is at 10 Euro.

The middle and back rows were quickly filled up so we took the seats near the front. The usher then gave us headphones so we can listen to the English narration (Russian and Swedish also available) coz the show was in Finnish. When the lights went out, it was total darkness inside the Planetarium. Our younger son was sitting beside me, holding my hand tightly. He was scared. The show was about Black Holes. The journey through our Milky Way galaxy in to the black hole seemed so real. It was like being pulled inside the black hole. Our young boy had to ask me “Are we falling down? We are really falling down.” Nothing can escape a black hole.

Black hole. It is so dense, its gravity so intense, light can’t escape – it’s invisible. …astronomers have begun to pick up clues that one may be lurking at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy.” (spacetoday.org)

Circinus Galaxy black hole © Spacetoday.org

To be continued: playful sea ambassadors of Särkänniemi Dolphinarium

Continued from City of lakes from Näsinneula Observation Tower

From the observation tower, we went to the Aquarium. Entrance here is 8 Euros if buying a single ticket. The Aquarium is small and dimly lighted. I had difficulty taking photos. I had to remove the flash to get away with reflection from the glass. The results were mostly blurry. So I was struggling with my shots here and admiring the different species on display, which included Finnish fish species. The kids excitedly pulled me over to see ‘Dory’ and ‘Nemo’ swimming in one aquarium. This specie is familiar to them having watched the animated movie ‘Finding Nemo’. Just then we heard an announcement that the show at the Planetarium was about to start so we hurriedly went up.

It was a quick tour inside the Aquarium, less than half an hour? We missed the thunderstorm demonstration in the tank, a round at the 2nd floor of the Aquarium, and the many other species of fish and sea animals (more than 200 of them). According to Särkänniemi, selections of aquatic species are changed annually including the Aquarium surroundings to closely imitate the species natural habitat. So I’m sure another trip here would mean another adventure.

finding Nemo inside Särkänniemi Aquarium

and Dory inside Särkänniemi Aquarium

stingray inside Särkänniemi Aquarium

To be continued: the Särkänniemi Planetarium experience

Continued from Särkänniemi Park view from Näsinneula Observation Tower

Going back to my previous post, I left a question there. You can leave your answer at the comment box if you want to think… So here are more photos taken from Näsinneula Observation Tower. This time the photos are about Tampere as viewed in winter. You can see the frozen lake and part of Tampere city. The lake must be a breathtaking view during summer when its color turns to deep blue.

City of lakes

Särkänniemi Park and the frozen lake

the wide frozen lake in front of me

another view of the city of lakes

To be continued: inside Särkänniemi Aquarium

Continued from the Näsinneula Observation Tower

It was a quick ride from ground floor to the top of Näsinneula Observation Tower via lift. At a speed of 6 meters per second, how long did it take us to reach the top? Anyway, from the top, we saw the adventure park below with their adventure rides still close due to the winter season. Kiosks and other food stalls are also close. They look lifeless and dull with the black and white color. Not a magnificent view to behold yeah? Better come back during summer time coz this is the wonderful view in Winter!

left side of Särkänniemi Park

right side of Särkänniemi Park

right side of Särkänniemi Park, closer view

right side of Särkänniemi Park, the tip

To be continued: more views from this tower

Continued from at Särkänniemi Adventure Park in Tampere

We began our Särkänniemi adventure with sightseeing on top of the Näsinneula Observation Tower. This tower opened in 1971 and is the tallest observation tower in the Nordic countries. More facts about this tower: the height of the tower top is 168 meters, the revolving restaurant is 124 meters, the lift’s speed is 6 meters per second, and regardless of season, this tower is open to visitors. So if you travel to Finland and happen to drop by Tampere, don’t miss this tallest observation tower in the Nordic countries.

Näsinneula Observation Tower

Reference: www.sarkanniemi.fi

To be continued: views from this tower