Cookie travels

I had a chat with my sis last Friday and I’m glad that she already got her Schengen visa. I actually knew about her flight to Europe but her domestic flight last night to Manila caught me by surprise. Gosh how time flies. That’s why the urgent buzz in my chat window. She was finalizing some of the stuff she has to bring plus some of our requests to Europe. I advised her to bring fewer clothes and leave her sweater so they can all be accommodated. She was worried about the cold weather in Finland. Few hours before she left the house we were still chatting. That was past 2AM already. She was busy repacking coz of the 20 kilogram limit on board the aircraft. The 20 kilogram limit was driving her crazy…LOL.

After posting about a luxury cruise to Alaska which is best to experience this summer, how about spending summer vacation by way of camping? The idea of camping this summer has been in my mind lately. It would be an exciting activity for our family especially if it’s near the beach, a popular place for our kids, including the pool. They just love to splash in the water and swim. One of the camping sites I have browsed is the Top Camping Yyteri which is near Yyteri beach so maybe we can try this one first. I haven’t gone camping yet in Finland so if pushed thru this will be one of the unforgettable family activities for summer. I can feel the excitement now…

I know that spring is just over and summer is here, referring to Finland’s season. But this one’s part of the many travel stories I want to post before they fade in my memory so please bear with me…

To start with, if I forgot my travel buddy – my digital camera – last year during our first family trip to Yyteri, this second time around, I made sure that our outing here is captured through the lens. I brought my camera this time so I will be posting photos as soon as I upload them.

If I make a comparison between then and now, the scene last autumn (or end of summer) and this spring was somewhat the same. There were few people strolling along the beach side. I could count them. The weather was also similar, still chilly and windy, and the sea was icy cold. This time though we had an added activity aside from the usual picking of cute white shells and building sand castles with bare hands. We brought a soccer ball so we had fun playing family soccer, kicking the ball and running after it.

As we started to feel the chilly wind coming thru our bodies, we then decided to leave the place. And we were hungry as well. It was about 2pm. After our short trip to this beach, we went back to the city to enjoy a pizza buffet treat to celebrate in advance hubby’s birthday. I posted one photo there and more photos coming up here at cookietravels…

Our first family trip to Yyteri was towards the end of summer last year, August to be exact if my memory was right. It was not our intention to visit it that time so my camera was left in the house. The whole family was driving to Rauma to see hubby’s new work place and on our way back we decided to drop by this famous beach in Pori coz it was still bright at seven in the evening that time. We were amazed by the vast sand dunes that covered the beach. At first I thought we went to the wrong place. It was a matter of crossing the sand dunes before we could see the beach. I felt it was a long walk from the parking area then going up the hilly sand dunes before the sea was in sight. Excitedly the kids ran towards the sea but then it was for their viewing only. The water was cold and the weather was chilly. Dare to take a plunge? Instead, the kids just made sand castles with their bare hands, picked up sea shells, and ran around the dunes. I know the kids have been missing our trips to the beach when we were still in Thailand but here it was just too windy and cold. It was on this day too that we touched part of the Baltic Sea for first time. Too bad there was no ceremony. Haha. Aside from us, there were few people who were around strolling and enjoying the fresh sea side air. We couldn’t stay too long now…brrr and dinner? It was an indication for us to go home.

I went to the travel agency this afternoon to inquire about Prague-Helsinki-Prague airfare. The lady who used to assist me when I booked for our trip to Stockholm was on leave today so another lady happily helped me. After a quick check at her computer, she informed me that the cheapest price is flying via Czech airlines. The airfare she quoted was 357 Euros per person. Gulp. Shocked. I was expecting their quotation to be a bit expensive but it was way too high from the airfare that I have been checking online. If I purchase online, the cheapest price at a certain date was only 82 Euros per sector per person. It was expensive she told me coz the ticket will be bought from Finland but the point of departure is in Czech Republic. Yeah I understand. So she advised me to check the price from Czech Republic as well so I can also compare. Or I better purchase it online to enjoy great savings. She also eagerly answered my question about bus fare from Pori to Helsinki. She said it would roughly be 60 Euros per person and child about 50% less. So I also need to visit the Express Bus office tomorrow to get the exact bus fare and timetable…

My parents together with my cutie sis and baby Caite left Philippines last Saturday despite the storm that hit the country. Their Manila-Amsterdam flight was delayed though. As a result, they missed their connecting flight to Prague. I pity my cutie sis’ techie hubby who was waiting at the Ruzyne International Airport in Prague. That was the latest update I received after chatting with my artist sis yesterday. She was left behind for few weeks but will soon be following the rest of the family in Prague after she gets her visa. Being a travel bug herself, I know she doesn’t want to miss this family travel to Europe.

I don’t have any idea where else they will travel during their stay in Prague but from there, the whole bunch will be visiting us here in Finland, probably by end of June until July? I’m so excited about it. July is a good month for them to visit coz our laid-off city will once again be crowded and busy due to the International Pori Jazz Festival. I hope they can experience this international event coz a lot of visitors come to Pori just for this event. Let’s see how much their travel time here allows. Anyway, we will be busy this summer touring our visitors around Finland. I haven’t planned their itinerary yet. Well, I still have plenty of time to do that but will be doing that soon.

Continued from preparing for Stockholm trip –part1

When all seems to be done, the night before our trip, hubby asked me if I already planned where to go in Turku? Oh yeah, it slipped out of my mind that Turku would be our first stop. I was engrossed finding out where to go in Stockholm that I forgot about Turku. Actually, we had a day to tour Turku before our sea travel to Stockholm which was in the evening. Then there’s another question posed to me by hubby regarding the parking area in Turku coz we’re driving from Pori to Turku. We need a parking area where we can leave the car for few days while we were in Stockholm. Gosh, I had to sleep late reading the Turku brochure given to me by the Tourist Info office in Pori. How we spent our May Day in Turku will be another post.

Packing? I managed to do this in the night time. There were still toiletries to pack. Those were the last items that were crammed inside our backpacks before we left the house. We wanted to travel light, so each one carried a backpack. For now it was time to say bye to our home.

Whether there’s a love vacation or not, our family vacation is still coming into reality. Thanks to the May Day holiday. The kids had a break in school during 1-2 May plus the weekend so it’s again a perfect time to think of a family getaway. It was a sudden plan to go to Stockholm. I had 3 days to get the booking done before travel day. It’s good that I found a travel agency that helped us in our travel and accommodation booking. So my focus now would be where to go in Stockholm, like which sights to see in our 2 days stay in the city. With the small map given to me by the travel agency, I was able to figure out the places we should once we arrive there. Booking and sights in Stockholm done, I gave it a tick.

Next were the things to bring, like some juice and munchies along the road coz we’re driving from Pori to Turku, our port of departure to Stockholm. I already did a short grocery stop during the daytime coz I’m scared that shops will close early for the May Day holiday. I still can’t tell properly when do shops close. Shopping for trip done so I gave it a tick. Am I really done?

I read in the news couple of months ago an interesting item about vacation. To all who love vacation, this one is a ‘watch out’ but only here in Finland. Love vacation is another kind of paid leave that can be accumulated similar to summer holiday time of up to 7 days a year.

This is yet a proposal by Social Democratic MP Tommy Tabermann, a person known for his collections of romantic poetry. According to him,

People in today’s fast-pace society have been robbed of time for themselves and those close to them.

A healthy person works better, a sick person less, and a healthy person can stay in the workforce longer.

Although this proposal is aimed for couples and spouses to prevent their relationship from getting distant but then I feel that the whole family would also benefit from this. The kids for example can enjoy more time with their dad and mom. They can join the holiday too depends on the couple right? For us, we always bring the kids during vacations. But I don’t know what has happened to this proposal coz I haven’t heard hubby talking about love vacation yet. Prop or drop?

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.