Finland: Porvoo II

More pictures from Porvoo. I kind of want to live there.

It's 1:45 am as I'm typing this. Everybody is asleep, and the house is quiet... but I can't fall asleep. (Isn't it unfair, how that goes... you are a mom, your kids are sleeping, but you are lying in bed wide awake because your head is buzzing with thoughts and ideas). Sigh...

Tonight, I am too excited to sleep because I have been thinking about what floor I want for our attic-to-be-bedroom. Strange. And about summer. Summer is here, finally(!), and that means a lot of things. But this year it means we'll be traveling.

Our itinerary:

Turku. Naantali. Ruissalo. The Finnish Archipelago (hopefully by boat). Düsseldorf, ah, home sweet home (next week)! Dresden. I've never been there. I'm excited. Downtown Helsinki (does this count as traveling?!), Helsinki is magical in the summer. A girl trip to Stockholm (...). Tallinn. A romantic 7-year anniversary get-away (with baby)... to Paris, or Madrid, or Vienna.

Hmm... this is shaping up to be a pretty good summer!

What are your plans for summer? What are your favorite cities? And which places in Finland should I go see? Any suggestions? I must admit I haven't seen much of Finland.

... and now it's 2:00 am, and I still can't sleep. I really feel like dusting the TV. Again, strange! I have a feeling you will get a post overload tomorrow (today). Haha, this post is random. My apologies.

Finland: Porvoo

I love doors and windows.

When I was a young teenager, before we moved to Finland, before I even knew where Finland was really, I took dance lessons at the one and only dance school my town had to offer. Well, it wasn't a "school" as much as one mirrored room. I would walk there, to the other side of town, every Wednesday. It was a 30-minute walk, which isn't too bad, I know, but it felt like a hundred kilometers to me at the time. (And yes, I could have taken the bus, but back then I was too shy to take a bus all by myself. Plus, I was always out of cash. Haha, some things change, some things don't).

Anyway, what I did during that one hour of walking every Wednesday was to peek into the homes of fellow Lintorfers. I'd look through their windows... or the slits of their doors left open... and I'd see families celebrating a child's birthday... or an elderly couple watching TV...and a lot of times... nothing. People don't spend that much time at home these days.

I still do it. I steel peek into other people's homes. Is that creepy? Maybe. But I can't help it. It fascinates me. :)

So. For this reason I love doors and windows. What lies behind them...?

Finland has incredibly fascinating doors and windows, I think. They can be surprisingly colorful, and old, and wooden. I think one could analyze an entire nation based on their doors and windows. Maybe somebody should travel the world and take pictures of the doors and windows he or she finds along the way. And make a book out of it. I would buy it!

On Thursday we went to Porvoo, a little town about  a 40-minute drive outside Helsinki, with a picturesque Old Town. These are some Porvoo doors and windows. Aren't they beautiful? I wish I'd know what goes on behind them.

Maybe I'll take pictures of Finnish doors and windows in different Finnish towns this summer. That might be a nice little project. And a  nice way for me to get to know Finland better. :)

Which one is your favorite door? I like the first one, the red house. So romantic. It was on a beautiful hill, overlooking a lake...

... or the blue-white-yellow one, with no stairs leading up to it. How strange!

Happy weekend!