HELENA-REET ENNET

Helena-Reet: With children on a road trip around Finland (VOL8 – from Rovaniemi through Ranua, Pudasjärvi and Puolanka to Kajaani) + PHOTOS!

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – On the eighth day of our trip around Finland we headed from Rovaniemi (read the journey description HERE) towards Kajaani. Quite a long journey was ahead of us. Google distance measurer displayed ca 385km (4h 45min) when driving along E75 and E8. Since we were not in a hurry then we took our time and drove quietly, taking stops wherever we pleased.

From Rovaniemi to Kivitaipale, Narkaus, Ruonakoski, Portimo, Nuupas we drove towards Ranua. It was a small municipality in Lapland with less than 4000 inhabitants, 1.13 people per one square metre – very cool! I like it when people are not cramped together. The little municipality is divided into 21 small villages (Asmunti, Hosio, Impiö, Kelankylä, Kortteenperä, Kuha, Kuukasjärvi, Mauru, Nuupas, Petäjäjärvi, Pohjaslahti–Piittisjärvi, Portimo, Putkivaara, Raiskio, Rovastinaho, Saariharju, Saukkojärvi, Sääskilahti, Teerivaara, Telkkälä and Tolja). Ranua is known for its beautiful nature and large number of lakes – the little minicipality has as many as 569 of those! A source of popularity is also the Zoo of Ranua. It Europe’s northernmost zoo where one can see various arctic animals – for example the polar bear.

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Further on our road took us from Ranua through Asmut, to Pudasjärvi. This is a small place, for some reason or other, at that moment is gave us a slightly depressive impression.











From Pudasjärvi we drove through Jatko, Hirvakoski, Ervasti and Auho Puolanka. Almost two hours of driving in complete abandonment… Perhaps a few cars passed us by during that time. A look to the right – there is forest, a look to the left – there is forest again. On the one hand this might be boring yet on the other hand it makes you happy. For once there are not factories and rubbish at every step where people have been. And in one place we also saw reindeer again, although I mentioned in the previous blog post that reindeer were not seen anymore. So now while reviewing the photos again I remembered that we still did see reindeer – these were tagged.

Puolanka (Puolango) is even less densely inhabited than Ranua municipality. In the 17 villages of Poulanka (Aittokylä, Auho, Joukokylä, Kivarinjärvi, Kotila, Kongasmäki, Leipivaara, Lylykylä, Naulaperä, Puokio, Puolanka, Rasinkylä, Suolijärvi, Vihajärvi, Väyrylä, Yli-Oterma, Törmänmäki) there are 2637 people according to the 31.08.2018 census, this would mean 1.07 people per one square kilometre. Like in Ranua, the municiplaity of Puolanka is only Finnish-speaking (as you may know, most of Finland is bilingual – the spoken languages are Finnish and Swedish. However, regardless of the latter fact you can hardly meet a genuine Finn in Finland. For some reason I had the idea that the countryside is untouched and not spoilt in that respect, that there are mainly Finns. But the streets are colourful in Helsinki as well as in Northenrn Finland. There are Iranians, Iraqi, Turks and people from other nationalities 50:50 with local people. The white Scandinavian porcelain skin is more and more rare, as well as the fair hair and blue eyes that used to be so common only 25 years ago. I guess the Nordic woman is alive only in folkrore and the epics a hundred years from now – provided there still remain people who value the culture. Nowadays everything has been mixed up. Even beside the two sexes, man and woman, there is the third gender. The social media has been praising robots, artificial intelligence, for many years already. Robot-influencers (i.e. @lilmiquela) have more followers than actual people. I am very curious about haw long it takes that people will say “now this is enough for me, I won’t go with the flow any more”. When do people start to appreciate reality?! Well, in some sense this is the society’s new reality. I guess VIP/Glamour versus Reality/Genuine have changed places and nowadays the actual things are luxurious products and everything that has been desirable and unattainable for years is now mass commodity.

But about Puolanka. Finland’s largest waterfall Hepoköngäs is located 16km from Puolanka centre, in the national park. There is plenty of beautiful, pure nature! An interesting fact about Puolanka is that Finland’s current Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, grew up there and spent his early days exactly there. This is a good example about a venturesome and ambitious person breaking through into big politics and business from this small place. I am glad that someone as high up the ladder has their roots in a small place and is aware of the life outside the capital city.

In Puolanka we briefly stopped for lunch. We stopped at the local Ester Restaurant (Ouluntie 4, 89200 Puolanka). The food was great and service was quick. We ordered a pizza (9.50), chicken salad (16.90), French fries (5.50), a jug of water (1.-) and coffee ( 1.60).

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Now we were already looking forward to reaching our destination – Kajaani. There were a little less than 100km driving. We rolled through Leipivaara, Paltamo and Jormua to Kajaani where we parked the car and checked in to the hotel. I will write about Kajaani already in the next blog!


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Helena-Reet: With children on a road trip around Finland (VOL7 – from Kittilä to Rovaniemi, Santa Claus Holiday Village etc) + TRAVEL PHOTOS!

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – It was a pity to leave Levi, since it had been just wonderful there (read the blog overview HERE and general information what one can do in Levi HERE), however, we were on a road trip around Finland and it was time to move on. New places and new events were awaiting us! Today the trip to Rovaniemi where we planned to stay for two nights was ahead.

It is ca 2 hours driving from Levi to Rovaniemi (about 150km). I had a plan to drive through Särestöniemi museum that was conveniently on the way (Särestöntie 880 99119 Kaukonen), but apparently the GPS in the car was out of order since it was taking us through the wood to absolute wasteland… At some point when it was saying “you will reach destination after 800m” I just turned over as I was afraid to get stuck. The road from Kittilä to Rovaniemi was a little less awsome than the impressions from Kolari-Levi road, but the nature was there and the reindeer at the sides of the road were there, too. For me, the greatest impression from Lapland were the reindeer – they are just so wonderful! Together with the Nordic dark thick forests they create for me the mystic air that I went to find. Lapland is sooo lovable! I mostly like animals when they are freely in the nature – this is why I prefer to take children and go by ourselves into the nature rather than visit moose and husk farms where the animals are exhibited to tourists and used for riding. While the urban folk, constantly in a hurry, literally cannot see them any other way – then it is still good to have them, otherwise people would alienate from animals and from the nature completely.




The usual two-hour drive again took us about five-six hours while every now and then we stopped to enjoy the beautiful nature, see the reindeer, take photos and immediately share them on Instagram / Snapcat with our followers. Here and there we digressed to see the little villages on the sides of the road (Kaukonen, Lohiniva, Molkojoki, Meltaus, Patokoski, Marraskoski, Tapionkylä, Sinettä). Kittilä-Rovaniemi road number 79 goes almost all the way along the side of the longest river in Finland – the Ounasjoki River. Ounasjoki is about 299,6 km long (186,2 miles).


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By lunchtime we arrived at Rovaniemi and decided to start with the greatest attraction here in Rovaniemi – the coolest sightseeing – Santa Claus. While we actually mixed things up then hereby I will also inform you that Santa Park (Tarvantie 1, 96930 Rovaniemi) and Santa Claus Holiday Village (Tähtikuja 2 96930 Rovaniemi – ca 8 km from Rovaniemi Centre) are two different destinations, however they are located quite close to one another (about a couple of kilometres apart). The first one was still closed when we arrived in Rovaniemi in October during our trip to Finland (it is open from November on). Santa Claus Holiday Village is a small village with cafes, a large souvenir shop and a possibility to take photos with Santa Claus in the post office for a reasonable amount of money. In our family we celebrate both Hanukka and Christmas – however the last holiday is not related to religion in our celebrations. There are the gnomes – funny little wizards, and Santa Claus, with his long white beard, who comes from Lapland, loves children and brings them presents. For us this is a fictional character, a fictional hero like the Pokus in children’s books (living in Southern Estonia), The Puppy-Girl Lotte (living in Pärnu) or the Moomins (living in Naantali, Finland).

The children (especially Ivanka Shoshana) were waiting with excitement to see Santa, yet ultimately such reserved reception by the children was unexpected. Quite honestly, I myself was rather disappointed. This is largely commerce – not even well-organised and convincinly sweet commerce, but rather somewhat hasty commerce… Along a quite interesting hallway we made it to Santa who was wearing an artificial beard and a cell phone in his hands (that one however he hid quickly). Even before children could have a look at Santa there were signed all over the place that you can take photos with Santa for such and such sums of money. Ahh.. who could be the marketing manager of that place? 😀

Rovaniemi has invested millions into promoting the Santa-story, and therefore it all is still worth seeing. Yet there is a difference between mere commerce and the real feeling, you still expect something for the soul… The story is actually fine, but the telling of the story could be a lot more magical and mystical! I think. From the positive side: the village cafes offer a lot of delicious food, you can purchase various local souvenirs and kill a couple of hours in quite a pleasant way – thus, once you are already there then it is definitely worthwhile paying a visit. Time spent with children and with the family is always wonderful for me and actually ther eare not too many places to see for a family event.

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Having seen Santa, we checked in to our hotel — we felt that the “backbone” of our journey had been broken. In our hearts we knew that with great probability the most exciting part of our trip has in Lapland and in Finland overall been seen by this moment, yet rushing ahead of the event I can tell you that it wasn’t so. An abundance of surprises, excitement and discoveries were awaiting us on our trip around Finland! However, we didn’t see reindeer on the side of the road anymore and the hope to see northern lights/aurora borealis dimmed with every kilometre that took us towards Southern Finland.

I had to do some work in the evening to prepare for the next day’s mini-meeting with NordenBladet Southern Finnish team. Ivanka Shoshana (10) started to play with her toys and Estella Elisheva (12) went for a walk in the town on her own. I allowed her to go, provided she stays near the hotel. So she left, the cell phone, two GPS-transmitters and my bank card in the purse. I let her go alone but lectured lengthily about all possible dangers and instisted that she calls every now and then. Estella went to a restaurant to eat a vegan salad and on her way back on my friendly request brought a hamburger for me and Ivanka. Although I had imagined that Rovaniemi would be a lot smaller, it was actually a rather large town – with factories, block houses, broad roads. It was a big city, but the city centre however was really compact – right around the corner from the hotel there were several restaurants and department stores. All the larger and best known good hotelsand reatsaurants were close at hand, not to say they were tightly placed next to each other. We spent two days and two night in Rovaniemi and this time frame was filled with pleasant events.

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The next morning we woke up early. The breakfast in the hotel was delightful, as well as the interior design, however, the bed linen turned out to cause allergy to me and Estella. At home I always wash the bed linen with a delicate detergent and rinse so that the linen would finally be completely detergent/chemical free. A night or two in the hotel would also do, but living a life where you travel from one hotel to another like it is usual on a longer journey – this will soon reflect on the skin. I even thought of taking my own bed linen with me nest time I travel. 🙂

I asked the children wheather they would like to see Santa once more, but they didn’t. Then we decided to take a tour in the town and drive around in Rovaniemi. During lunch I had two brief meetings in Rovaniemi – one of them with NordenBladet Northen-Finnish team members and the other one was related with the brand Elisheva & Shoshana. The meetings held abroad always leave an unforgettable impression on me – sometimes I even wish to pinch myself to believe it. To have business network across Scandinavia is a dream come true. It is funny how used to this I am already – the goals set a few years earlier are the reality today. Actualy I am obliged to praise myself, take some time off schedule and enjoy/celebrate!

As in Levi, also in Rovaniemi entrepreneurs organise safaris with husks and reindeer for tourists, there are activities suitable for every age group. The science park and museum in Rovaniemi, Arktikum Science Museum (Pohjoisranta 4, 96200 Rovaniemi), holds interesting events all year round – lectures, market day, even a film festival.

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There would have been a lot more to discover in Rovaniemi, I had also two meetings arranged with local representatives on Lapland media, however the hands of the clock are not made from rubber. As in Tornio (read the travel blog HERE), I slightly conflicted my schedule and thus the visit to Daily Finland editorial and the meeting with the editor-in-chief Mister O.H.Ruhin and the plan to schedule a meeting also with the editor-in-chief of Lapin Kansa, A. Kokkonen, due to time restictions, were postponed for the time being. Two days in Rovaniemi passed quickly and the next destination on our journey was Kajaani. About that already in the next blog!

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Helena-Reet: With children on a road trip around Finland (VOL6 – Levi Hotel SPA in Sirkka, restaurant Kekäle, magnificent nature, ski slopes, etc) + MANY PHOTOS!

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Our grand road trip had already taken us quite far North and as I described in the previous post (read blog review HERE), the more up North, the more miraculous Finland gets. The road between Kolari-Kittilä was like a fairy-tale – there were reindeer on the sides of the road and even by the highway. Me and the kids would go Ah and Oh every kilometre that we passed. It was a very special feeling. Besides, there are quite few inhabitants there and also wild nature, which I like.

Since I didn’t dare to speed to avoid running over any reindeer, and since we also stopped at every possible stump to take pictures, then getting from Oulu via Kolari to Sirkka took us extremely long. Once we arrived it was already eight o’clock and I was quite tired from driving. Before starting the road trip I had done my homework well and had thoroughly calculated where to stay overnight in order to get the most out of our journey. In northern Finland in Sirkka the choice was Levi Hotel SPA (Levintie 1590, 99130 Sirkka, Finland) – while with children it is the most comfortable place to stay – good location, parking is free of charge, a quality hotel, luxury rooms, good standard of service, a selection of many good hotel restaurants, SPA and pool center, short distance by foot to everywhere (i.e. ski slopes, souvenir shops). Briefly, it was everything you could need in just one place. Our stay there was made especially pleasant by the fact that extra to our Superior-room an interconnected Junior-suite was also added, thus we had two separate bedrooms all in all, two separate bathrooms, a living room, a sauna section, two balconies and further amenities (three big flat screen TV-sets, safe deposit box, ironing board, an iron, clothes dryer, WiFi, slippers, dressing gowns, etc). For children there were gift baskets with handmade chocolate, lemonade and candies, also stuffed toys and in our room awaiting us there were complimentary invitations for three guests to the restaurant Kekäle (the newest and most popular top notch restaurant in Levi), as well as a welcome note from the hotel manager. On top of that, the hotel governor personally was there to meet and welcome us! I am so deeply moved to see that NordenBladet is so cordially and personally hosted – it gives a warm feeling! Thank you for the wonderful surprise and remembrance!

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When we had got acquainted with all the rooms and additional space, we decided to visit the Levi SPA that was integrated with the hotel. Although the SPA and the hotel are technically in different buildings, one can enter the SPA from the hotel through a hallway without necessarily going outside. It is a pleasant large SPA and I liked that there were cool sliding tubes and yet they were not dangerous – either with too rapid water flow or the risk of falling into the water from too high. As a mother it made me feel much more at ease.

Now being a Finnish “SPA expert” I can say that to my mind it is the best SPA in Finland – if not top 1 then at least among top 3 for sure. Pleasant warm water, several different pools, saunas, two large sets of pools inside and also a set of pools outside where there is also a Jacuzzi. Besides, there is also the magnificent mountain view!

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After going to the SPA I worked a while behind the blue screen, Ivanka Shoshana spread her toys in the living room and played with them, and Estella Elisheva was busy with our social media. We live-streamed in Instagram (@helenareetennet) the entire trip around Finland that took place in October-November and today it is possible to read about the journey online in four languages – in Estonian (NordenBladet.ee), in English (NordenBladet.com), in Finnish (Ohmygossip.fi) and in Swedish (Ohmygossip.se). In the travel posts I describe where exactly we travelled and I share useful information and interesting facts about various destinations in Finland – fervent tourism objects, undiscovered pearls, premium hotels, top notch retaurants, SPA-s, adventure parks, zoos, shops, department stores, historical places, holiday resorts, etc. Altogether, a lot of interesting information! The reader of NordenBladet is a 45+ wealthy Scandinavian woman with children and in our portals daily tens of thousands of search events take place regarding travel destinations and tourism. NordenBladet has become the largest media edition in Scandinavia offering information, articles and weblinks about the Northern countries.

Located 17 km from Kittilä center and the airport, the holiday destination and active sports centre Levi has for more than four times been announced as the best ski resort in Finland, and indeed, it is a magical and beautiful place, perfect for spending the holiday with family. Bearing the badge of Scandinavian safety and comfort, the beauty of Nordic forests, the mystical aspect and the beauty of the nature, the care and cordial attitude specific to a smaller place. While many people visit Levi during the winter months – because nowhere else can you find so much snow and fierce skiing mountains as here – then I would actually venture to assert that it is no less an impression and experience that you get here visiting the place in spring-autumn as well as during the summer months. The wonderful forests-mountains and hiking tracks, cute log houses and peaceful holiday village, golf courts, reindeer and the Nordic air of mystery on every step – not to mention the Nordic lights that can best be seen exactly in this region! Despite being in the far North, in Lapland no less than top quality service awaits you, accompanied by the crop-of-the-cream restaurants, enormous SPA and, again, quality. By the way, not far from the place stems the lineage of the famous Lapland witch – Näkkälän noita, whose powers are well known around Scandinavia. According to folk wisdom the witch draws the powers and energy from the forests in Levi neighborhood.

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Breakfast done, we decided to go and see the town. There is a lot to discover in Levi, I intend to post a separate story about it, yet I will add a brief outline piece here as well. For travellers with cars (like us) it is especially nice to discover Levi, since one can swiftly and smoothly drive through the entire neighborhood. Yet also the pedestrian-travellers’ outlook is not narrowed down too much, for example it is easy to reach any nearby destination on foot from Levi SPA Hotel. Levi Express Gondol can take you uphill to visit Samiland Exhibition – both the journey uphill as well as the exhibition itself amount to a full impression. Address Tunturitie 205, 99130 Levi. Levin Lapinkylä (Isotaalontie 285), 12km from Levi towards Rovaniemi is a fun village composed of igloos, and one can also see reindeer there. A popular place is Harjatie 2 (8,5km up North from Levi) Sky restaurant and Levi Igloo. During winter time in Akantie 180 (7km from Levi) the Levi Ice Gallery and Ice Restaurant of Levi are open.

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We spent two wonderful days in Levi, and two even more delightful evenings. Each day we went to the SPA and got to know the town. It was so relaxing and great that we would have stayed even longer. The highlight of the second night was the dinner in Kekäle restaurant. Three courses of the world’s top food in the cosy milieu of the modern beautiful freshly renovated restaurant! Yammmmmm… The meals were absolutely delicious and were wonderfully served (see photos and videos also from Insta!). Children were overwhelmed about Levi, Estella Elisheva even declared that she is determined to become rich as a grown-up, since rich folks have such great life. Travelling and getting to know new great places is really cool, especially when you can take time to enjoy it. The one who can notice and be glad about the small things is about to experience so much in life! It definitely pays off to be rich, yet wealth can also be a mindset, a lifestyle and an attitude that originates in our heads.

Next day greeted us with the journey to Rovaniemi. That is already the story for the new post.
Hugs!








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Helena-Reet: With children on a road trip around Finland (VOL5 – Oulu sightseeings, Kemi, Tornio and the journey through Kolari to Levi) + MANY PHOTOS & INFOLINKS!

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – On the fourth morning of our road trip around Finland the sun was greeting us again. We already felt like experienced travellers as we had covered quite so many kilometres (Tallinn – > Helsingi -> Tampere -> Vaasa -> Oulu). Today the longest ride was waiting for us (Oulu -> Kemi -> Tornio -> Kolari -> Kittilä -> Levi).

Oulu town was founded in 1605 by the Swedish king Karl IX near the Oulu stronghold that had been erected somewhat earlier. Previously Oulu used to be the center for tar production and was the second largest town in all of Finland after Turku. Nowadays Oulu is a rapidly growing center for technology and for lots of people also a beloved resort. And it really is beautiful here, it is not without reason that Nallikari in Oulu is called the Nordic Riviera – the kilometre long sandy beach, opportunities for hiking, the Vauhtipuisto game park (Hietasaarentie 9), Ponitila for those keen on riding, and additionally also minigolf and other fields of sport (for example 600km of cycling roads/light traffic roads). Not far from Oulu city centre in Liminga municipality there is Escurial Zoo and Flower park (see Kukka- ja eläinpuisto Escurial – Paavolantie 83 C, 91900 Liminka). Among the sightseeings a great destination is also Turkansaari Open Air Museum where one can learn about traditional lifestyle like tillage, forestry, cattle breeding, fishing and tar production. The museum area comprises two islands covered with full flora – Turkansaari and Siikasaari. However, the best known tourism object in Oulu is the Northern Ostrobothnia Museum (Pohjois-Pohjanmaan museo) next to Ainola park. Everyone interested in the cultural history are recommended to visit this! The address is Ainolanpolku 1, 90130 Oulu. Also a fascinating institution in Oulu is near Myllytulli (Nahkatehtaankatu 6) is Tietomaa Science Centre (Tiedekeskus Tietomaa) – the function of the centre is to popularize the achievements of science and technology to common people in a fun and fascinating manner.

We had breakfast in the hotel (see photos HERE), packed and took the luggage in the car and set off from the hotel to Oulu city center where we had a walk, took some photos from the old town and where I also had two brief meetings/consultations. Afterwards we headed towards Kemi and Tornio.

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It is a bit more than 100km from Oulu to Kemi – driving there at a normal speed would take ca 1.30h. The population of Kemi is 21019 (population census August 31 2018), the town is situated near the Swedish border and it was founded in the year 1869 by the Russian czar Alexander II. The northern part of Finland indicates that the country reaching to the polar circle is much more than the capital city Helsinki. Starting from Kemi completely new horizons open and it is possible to experience a completely different kind of Finland. The more to the North – the more exotic it gets. The town of Kemi on the banks of the Gulf of Bothnia is a seaside town and during winter it attracts tourists with the ice breaker Sampo (this allows to go into the sea straight from the ship and take a swim in the midst of ice blocks during a 4-hour arctic voyage). The address is Sampotie 137, Kemi 94900 and the cruise “Arctic Icebreaker Cruise” can be booked via their homepage.

An exciting tourist magnet in Kemi is also the Snow Castle Resort (Lumilinnankatu 15, Kemi 94100) – arguably the world’s largest snowtown/centre where you can find SnowRestaurant365, an ice bar, sculptures made from snow and ice (snow town), the restaurant Lumihiutale, Sea Lapland Day Spa etc. PS! There are various smaller snow towns in Northern Finland, Lapland. An interesting place to see is also the Kemi gemstone museum Kemin Jalokivigalleria (Kauppakatu 29, Kemi 94100) founded by the jeweler Teuvo Ypyä, that actually accommodates the crown (see Wikipedia image HERE) prepared for the King of Finland, however, since Finland eventually became a republic then the crown was never used. Among the many interesting jewels there is also the necklace with 647 jewels, that used to belong to Marie Antoinette.


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The best known sightseeings in Tornio /most visited tourist attractions are the Provincial Museum Of Tornio Valley (Torikatu 4, Tornio 95400); Duudsonit Activity Park – TornioHaparanda (Vesaisenkatu 1, Tornio 95400); Tornio Church (Seminaarinkatu, Tornio 95400). Tornio church was built in 1647 but in the year 1682 burnt down completely and was rebuilt in 1684 near the original location. The church was dedicated to the Swedish Queen Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp (lived 1636-1715 and was the wife of the Swedish King Charles X) and until today it is the oldest wooden church with an actual congregation in Lapland. Hedwig Eleanora was relatively detached from political life yet a dominant figure who ruled as a regent repeatedly and was by the way for 61 years the de facto first lady in the royal court but later was known rather as a passionate card game player and a friend of gambling, the widow that conducted great parties.

In Tornio I really also wished to visit the Tornio Panimo Brewery founded by Karl Johan Boström in 1873. The current manager of the factory Kaj K. personally allowed us a private industrial tour and in the morning also sent an email about inviting us, however, my previous meetings lasted quite so long that the time was already pressing and since the route Tornio-Levi that we had to cover that evening to stay for the night was ca 300km then unfortunately we had to cancel it. Since there was no time then we also skipped the dinner and held a proper rally of ice cream and frappe in Tornio trade centre (Rajalla På Gränsen) in Robert’s Coffee. Ivanka had 3 strawberry ice creams and us me and Estella Elisheva both had 2 frappes. Yum, a severe calorie strike. The prices, however, were higher than in the capital city Helsinki – waffle ice cream with one ice cream ball was 3.50 eur and one large frappe with whipped cream was 7.10 eur. After that we started off towards Levi – first along the Finnish-Swedish border to Kolari.

Ahh, what a pleasant journey from Tornio to Kolari and from there on to Levi — peaceful, calm — no speeding cameras, no ugly buildings. Quiet country life and picturesque view! Children with rucksacks were coming from country school, across the street there were cows on the meadow. Such beautiful views. I remember thinking to myself that now finally I am here in the North and can see the local life here… And it is so great! The road and the railroad run along the state border and from time to time one can have a glimpse of Sweden over the waters. Both on the Swedish as well as the Finnish banks there are nice little villages.

Our journey went mostly along the E8 road: Tornio -> Rutosaari -> Kukkola -> Aapajoki -> Karungi -> Kankaanranta -> Risudden -> Armassaari -> Ylitornio -> Haapakoski -> Rahtu -> Kuivakangas -> Maaherra -> Juoksengi -> Turtola -> Korpikoti -> Pello -> Lempeä -> Oranki -> Sieppijärvi -> Kolari -> Ylläsjärvi -> Kittilä -> Sirkka -> Levi

On the way there was also Aavasaksa – a 242m high mountain in Lapi county Ylitornio municipality, that has been selected by the ministry of environment among the 27 national landscapes in Finland. As a fun fact it is known about this mountain that the French Academy of Science, led by Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, completed geophysical measurements there in 1736-1737, that confirmed the theory of Isaac Newton, according to which the Earth was flat. At some point I discovered that we were almost out of gas and I was struck by panic – here you go with your nice views and landscapes – I already imagined myself knocking on a local farmer’s stable door and asking whether he had gas in his tractor from which to bargain half to me. Iccccc… Yet in Ylitornio there was ABC self service gas station and gas 95 cost 1,614 per litre.

The next stop was the Arctic Circle (Napapiiri)! How cool is that?? 😀 We parked the car and obviously again took some photos for the social media like we do on every step. Estella Elisheva posted a video to her Insta story (@Estella.Elisheva) and I posted to my Insta feed (@helenareetennet) where one could follow our entire journey in live. For those of you who snoozed that instant – no worries. The full overview of the trip, in four languages, will be published in NordenBladet portals (NordenBladet.ee; NordenBladet.com, Ohmygossip.fi and Ohmygossip.se). The present blog is fifth in line and it pictures the fourth day of our 12-day adventure. 🙂







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Once we arrived in Kolari it was already dark outside. Also, I was exhausted from driving. For one day more than 500km of driving would be more than enough, especially when you are coming from another four days of driving. I was comforting myself that in Levi we would remain for many days so that I can be calm and have a rest. Well, in Kolari we experienced a most beautiful moment in our lives – the road sides were full of reindeer, lots of them were right on the road so I dared drive no more than 20km/h… Soooooo totally cute! First we were slightly scared that, uh oh, reindeer on the road, but then Estella Elisheva who is such a lover of wildlife already started taking pictures with them in five minutes. FROM THIS MOMENT BEGAN our miraculous real life fairy tale of Lapland! ?✨❄ How we finally got to Levi and what enormous surprise awaited us there that same night – I will write about that already in my next blog! Hugs!

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Helena-Reet: With children on a road trip around Finland (VOL4: Journey from Vöyri near Vaasa and through Kokkola and Kalajoki Oulu and the evening in SPA) + PHOTOS!

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Monday morning (October 22) was again sunny and beautiful in Finland. Our lovely little rent house that we got via Airbnb was filled with sunshine and a wonderful view to the lake opened from the window. We had breakfast and at around ten started off from Vöyri to Oulu. Like I already described in the previous blog (read HERE), Finland’s west coast is very beautiful and it just invites one to spend a vacation there – be it then in Turku, Vaasa, Oulu, Kemi or somewhere in smaller towns in between these cities. Beautiful views to the Baltic Sea, beautiful pine and fir forests, lively little villages…

First we headed along E8 (Vöyri -> Kaitsor -> Karvat -> Oravais -> Ytterjeppo -> Kovjoki -> Pedersöre -> Edsevö -> Lepplax -> Kruunupyy e. Kronoby) to Kruunupyy where I had a hasty business dinner in Botnia hotel (Kirkkotie 8). In Botnia one can have a super favourable smorgasbord – 9EUR per person). Kruunupyy is exactly between Edsevö and Kokkola. The next time I spend time there I definitely wish to see the Larsmo area. From Edsevö turn to left and take road nr 68 (Edsevö -> Sandsund -> Jakobstad -> Larsmo -> Hästgrundet -> Gertruds -> Bosund ->Kuivakanta -> Nuolipuro -> Kokkola). There is an abundance of small islands and lakes – around a couple hundred in one bunch for sure. I can imagine how beautiful pictures of nature one could take there! Also it would be a great place for everyone who likes to take a walk in the forest, ride a bike, go fishing, canoeing or go for a boat trip. There is plenty to discover and there are plenty of activities to do there!

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From there we continued the journey from Kronoby -> Kokkola -> Vitsari -> Peltokorpi -> Maunumäki -> Marinkainen -> Ala-Viirre -> Himanka -> Rahja -> Siipo -> Kalajoen Hiekkasärkät -> Meinala -> Kalajoki. The road was full of traffic cameras and it made me think about the possible fines that might have been sent to me by the end of the road trip (until today there are luckily none…. huh! 😀 )

In Kalajoki I once again had a meeting and we visited a shop where I would like to launch the sale of Elisheva & Shoshana pharmacy cosmetics series (handicraft soaps, bathing salt, etc). Kalajoen Hiekkasärkat and Kalajoki are a tourism centre with a beach line of ca 4.5 km, there one can find an adventure park, swimming centre, golf fields, a hotel, camping, restaurants, shops, etc. In the surrounding there are kilometres of pine forests! We got a nice vibe from the place – a beautiful an cool place!

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From Kalajoki we headed on to Liminka (Kalajoki -> Vasankari -> Yppäri -> Pyhäjoki -> Parhalahti -> Siuvatti -> Piehinki -> Haapajoki -> Arkkukari -> Raahe -> Pattijoki -> Revonlahti -> Liminka) where we visited the Liminganportti centre, took a brief coffee break and I also let my eyes rest from driving – it was around 300km back to Vöyri where we started off and yet another 30km to reach Oulu. In Oulu we drove directly to the hotel since the kids were eager to go to Eden SPA (Holstinsalmentie 29, 90510). We enjoyed ourselves there for many hours and then had supper in Aro restaurant – I had an Alla Casetta pizza (15.90), Estella Elisheva had Nizza salmon salad (14.90), Ivanka Shoshana didn’t want anything while she had already eaten in Liminka. Oulu is a place where I would definitely like to go also in the summer – the Nallikari resort in Toppilansaari and the sand beach are so inviting, whereas even now in autumn it seemed really nice. The Finns are eager to visit SPAs and all the SPAs are thus cramped with visitors. Now having visited so many of the bigger SPAs in Finland as well as the SPA hotels, I am already kind of an expert on SPA culture and I can quite convincingly assure you that there is a fine market niche for SPAs in Finland. In the Nordic cold climate a warm swimming pool and hot sauna suit so well!

We got back to our hotel room quite late, I still did some work in my computer, then took the kids in a nice cuddle and fell asleep. For the next day we had planned many meetings and a long trip from Oulu through Kemi, Haparanda and Kolari to Levi (over 500km).

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Helena-Reet: With children on a road trip around Finland (VOL3: Vaasa – ruins of Korsholm castle, Mannerheim, Airbnb renthouse etc) + PHOTOS!

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – After the exciting morning in Tampere (read about it HERE) we started off towards Vaasa. It is ca 260 km from Tampere to Vaasa. Most of the distance I covered on E12 road yet here and there we turned off from the main road to see the around. On our route we crossed Teivo, Ylojärvi, Rakkakoski, Kalalahti, Hämeenkyrö, Kyrökoski, Järvenkylä, Kostula, Jouti, Kilvakkala, Mansoniemi, Riitiala, Parkano, Jalasjärvi, Jokipii, Luopa, Kurikka, Tuiskula, Koskenkorva, Jakkula, Laihia, Helsingby and Runsor.

In about two hours time we took a small lunchbreak on the way and then headed on again. While many people have asked about the gas prices and the road taxes, then I will add these here. Petrol E95 costs ca 1.56 eur in Finland, E98 1.64 and diesel 1.45 – these are Neste prices. The tariffs may vary a bit from station to station but in general these were the prices almost everywhere. There is no need to worry about being trapped on a road – there are plenty of petrol stations on the roads and most of them enable self service (you pay with the card and fuel. To my knowledge there are no road taxes in Finland, at least on our trip around Finland we never crossed a fee based road and we did travel numerous large highways, smaller roads and village roads. However, there were many speed controlling cameras.

Vaasa is a town on Finland’s west coast in Pohjanmaa county, the narrow part of Merenkurkku (Kvarken) where Finland and Sweden are separated by a mere 80 km. About a quarter of the population are Finnish Swedes. It is a pleasant seaside industry and university town. I really like Finland’s west coast, there is plenty to see and visit. The history of Old Vaasa dates back to the 14th century. Ca 4 km from the current city centre of Vaasa there are the Old Vaasa ruins (Kauppiaankatu 5, 65380 Vaasa). There is also the castle of Korsholm that apparently belonged to a wealthy Swedish politician and magnate Bo Johnsson Grip.

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The best known sightseeing in Vaasa is the Statue of Liberty, 14 m high and weighing 3.6 tons, located in Vaasa market square (Hovioikeudenpuistikko 15, 65100 Vaasa), created by the sculptors Yrjo Liipolan and Jussi Mäntysen. The statue also depicts the 30-year-old Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim that studied in St Petersburg military school and served in the Russian army and who has been featured in history books as Finland’s most famous commander and statesman, the commander-in-chief in three wars and a two-time statesman. Mannerheim is the man who not only conquered back the territories lost by Moscow peace treaty but who also led the white army in Finland’s Civil War and all of Finland’s armed forces in Winter War and had the greatest merits in maintaining Finland’s independence.

The Nordic countries have such beautiful old towns! I like the historical market places and central squares, houses with beautiful architecture, cobble-stone pavements in the old town. There is history in every step. We took photos and Estella Elisheva posted to her friends the live-videos in her Insta story (@estella.elisheva) as well as Snapchat. During the entire journey we posted live also to my Instagram account (@helenareetennet). It was so sweet that whenever there was a longer pause, the acquaintances started inquiring by phone: Where are you? Is everything alright? etc… 🙂

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Then we went shopping and I bought something to eat for dinner. I had booked a lake house via Airbnb about 20-30 km in the direction of Oulu in Vöyri and we decided to cook at home. While staying in the hotel we usually eat out or dine in the hotel restaurant. For me finding accommodation via Airbnb was something new, earlier i had just once stayed in Israel but then there were many people in a room and it was arranged by someone else. So for me it was a new experience and I was quite happy about it.

Should anybody wish for purchasing a luxurious summer house in Finland then it is definitely worth considering the surroundings in Vöyri. Maxmo, Tottesund, Brudsund, Särkimö, Österö, Oxkangar, Ulot, Kvimo, Lilloxkangar, Kaitsor, etc… Overall, the region on the banks from E8 towards the Gulf of Botnia is simply wonderful!


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Helena-Reet: Around Finland on a road trip with children (VOL2: Impressions from Tampere – sightseeings and a lot more) + TRAVEL PHOTOS!

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Tampere, at first glance, is an ordinary big city – the chimneys are fuming, cars are racing by and people are bustling to and fro. In the morning while taking a walk through the city we could see a broken bar window and there was trash thrown on the ground from Saturday night. Yet taking into account that it is the second largest city in the country, the general impression was still that it is a sweet and peaceful place.

Tampere (Tammerfors) is located between Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, which are connected by Tammerkoski canal, running through the city centre and dividing the city into two – eastern and western Tampere. I have heard that each side is breathing in their own rhythm and many local people that have been born on one side needn’t ever go on the other side. Also, the famous ice hockey teams working on either side are competing against each other – Tampere Lynx and Tampere Tappara.

Without choosing sides and without background information, I found myself in western Tampere during my first visit to Tampere. We arrived in Tampere on Saturday evening (read about it HERE) and we didn’t hurry to get to know the nightlife. First, of course, because I was travelling with children and also because I find a good night’s sleep very important. While in my youth I was able to go straight to work or to school from a party then today I prefer a peaceful visit to the SPA in the evening, a pleasant dinner, a movie, or a book.

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Estella Elisheva was the first to wake in the morning. She had set her alarm clock so that she could work out 40 minutes before breakfast. Then we went to eat and already at 9 a.m. we went for a morning walk in the city. A lot grand and beautiful architecture met the eye and I liked the way the water bodies and parks succeeded one another, forming an integrated unity. There were hundreds of restaurants at hand as well as shops and hotels, music and concert halls, theatres and cinemas. We were walking, taking photos for NordenBladet and Insta (see @helenareetennet) and before we noticed it was 11 o’clock. At that time I was like fivepence in Sokos department store (Hämeenkatu 21, 33200 Tampere) going up the elevator to the second floor to visit Marks & Spencer (M&S) store where one can buy clothes even if one is not pursuing a modelling career nor intending to do the catwalk in a swimsuit.

There are many young people in Tampere thanks to two univesities and two polytechnics that are also offering higher education (from the total population of 234 441 there are 40 000 students) and the city is famous for its active cultural life. By the way, the well known writers Väino Linna, Kalle Päätalo, Hannu Salama and the poet Lauri Viita originally come from Tampere. In Tampere Ristimäki there are the studios of Yle TV2.

There are numerous sightseeings in Tampere worth visiting. Already the museums and art galleries are really for each preferance. The best known museums are Muumi Museum (Yliopistonkatu 55); the museum centre Vapriikki (Alaverstaanraikki 5); Finnish Ice Hockey Museum (Alaverstaanraitti 5); History and Work Museum Työväenmuseo Werstas (Väino Linnan aukio 8); History of Media Museum Rupriikki Media Museum (Alaverstaanraitti 5); Emil Aaltonen Museum (Mariankatu 40); Tampere Lenin Museum (Hämeenpuisto 28); Sara Hildén Art Museum (Laiturikatu 13); Amurini Employee Museum quarters or Amurin Työläismuseokortteli (Satakunnankatu 49); Spy Museum (Satakunnankatu 18); Tampere Art Museum or Tampereen taidemuseo (Tampere-talo, Yliopistonkatu 55). An interesting place for nature lovers as fans of esoterics would certainly be Tampereen Kivimuseo (Alaverstaanraitti 5), that displays stones and minerals originating from more that 80 countries, gathered by and granted to the museum by Paavo Korhonen. With children it would be interesting to visit besides the Muumi Museum also the exhibition dedicated to Haihara doll in Vapriikki museum centre – “The Doll Museum Jubilee Exhibition“. More info about Tampere as well as Finnish museums in general can be found on the page museot.fi.

Also, among the sightseeings another most known and visited is Tampere Cathedral (in Tuomiokirkonkatu), designed by Lars Sonck in romantic style and decorated by frescoes made by Hugo Simberg; then Pyynikki park and panorama tower (Näkötornintie 67); 167,9m Nasinneula tower designed by Pekka Ilveskoski (Laiturikatu 1); the great conference and concert centre Tampere Hall or Tampere talo (Yliopistonkatu 55 PL 16), etc. It is also worth while to visit the Finlayson region or Finlayson alue (Finlaysoninkatu). As homework I have taken notes that I wish to see Tampere Market Hall (Hämeenkatu 19) that is considered to be the largest indoor market in the Nordic countries, and Tampere Tallipiha Stable Yards (Kuninkaankatu 4b) that is located in the rooms built in the 1880s by the factory owner Wilhelm von Nottbeck for his horses, the rooms have now been finely renovated and built into a shopping centre. The centre accommodates plenty of interesting handicraft boutiques.

I will soon visit Tampere again in relation to business matters and then I will be able to find out new places there. I find it great to have my favourites in every city – the favourite hotel, the favourite restaurant/caffee, etc. At the moment I cannot put my finger on anything particular, since we were mostly passing by. It would be interesting to visit the Särkänniemi amusement park with children (Laiturikatu 1), where besides the merry-go-round there are also an aquarium, planetarium and a small zoo. This time we only took photos of it.

In the afternoon we headed towards Vaasa as the next chapter in our “Trip around Finland“. The road was full of traffic cameras and therefore the journey was a bit less pleasant than coming from Helsinki to Tampere. The GPS kept beeping. However, about Vaasa you can already read from the next blog post!






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Helena-Reet: With children on a road trip around Finland – DONE! (VOL1: Tallinn-Helsinki-Nurmijärvi-Riihimäki-Hämeenlinna-Tampere) + PHOTOS!

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – I can say nothing but WOW! I am surprised myself that I undertook this “crazy” thing and carried out a tour of 12 days with children around almost all of Finland. The entire journey was even cooler than I could imagine. We witnessed and experienced so much that it is tricky to describe all of it at once. I could start a similar or even lengthier road trip this moment – and the same I can say about both my children. All the three of us are entirely superbly thrilled about the trip! It is so cool to be travelling with them, finding out new and exciting traits about their characters, listening to their ideas and plans for which the everyday schoolday, the extracurricular activities, the workday doesn’t usually leave that much space.

We started off on 20 October in the early morning. Viking XPRS departed at 07.00 from Tallinn and arrived at 09.30 in Helsinki. I bought two-way boat tickets already in August, the moment I stumbled upon the idea of travelling and also I thought that buying them early would entail a discount. I paid 157 EUR (tickets to and fro, vehicle, three passengers and a cabin), yet soon enough it turned out that the trip would be longer than initially planned and also that the tickets would be less expensive a week before the departure. So I annulled the previous tickets (I always purchase the 6 EUR insurance that enables me to cancel and/or change the tickets). I bought new tickets, this time one way tickets, so that the return wouldn’t be “an obligation”. A4 Seaside Standard cabin + car + 3 people, the sum total was 65 EUR. I always travel in a cabin since 2h30min aimlessly wandering in the boat would be very tiring for me and it seems a waste of time. The cabin gives you some privacy, is peaceful and adds the possibility to extend the morning sleep or also take a look into the subject of work.

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At 09.30 we were in Helsinki in the harbor located at Katajanokanlaituri 8 and as the children wished we headed in the first place to Starbucks (Esplanadi 39, 00100 Helsinki) – when you exit the harbor and drive to Pohjoisesplanaadi Academic Bookstore (Akateeminen kirjakauppa) then it is in the same building. We ordered Grande Latte (5.10), Grande Strawberry Cream Frappuchino with whipped cream (5.50) and Grande Mango Frappuchino also with whipped cream (5.80).

Then I switched on my Garmin GPS. As I have a very old model then I prayed that it wouldn’t let us down during the travel, and we headed towards Nurmijärvi. (HERE you can read more about Klaukkala village and Nurmijärvi). We drove around in Nurmijärvi, and by the way we also visited Aleksis Kivi’s birthplace and memorial. Riipilä, Reuna, Klaukkala, Luhtajoki, Palojoki, Alhonniittu, Karhunkorpi, Raala, Jäniksenlinna, Nukari, Suomies, etc… all sweet small countryside places. The more up north, the more there are forests, the more meadows, and privacy.

Further on we drove through Hyvinkää and stopped in Riihimäki as we wished to pop into FLOW Kosmetiikka factory-store to see how the making of nature friendly soap is done in Finland. We had a box of “Elisheva & Shoshana” handmade luxury soaps in the car with us and I thought since we were already the neighbourhood then why not say hi to “colleagues” and find out more about their soap assortment. Unfortunately they were exactly on the same day away at a fair.

In Riihimäki we also decided to dine – for the great joy of the children in Hesburger. We ordered double cheese burger menu (Kerrosateria) 7.90, Megaburger 6.90, Cheese burger 2.60 and large French fries 2.70.

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All full, our tiny car turned towards Hämeenlinna. We decided to visit Häme stronghold (Kustaa III:n katu 6, 13100 Hämeenlinna) on the banks of Vanajavesi lake, dating back to the Middle Ages, that is functioning now as a museum. Hämeenlinna is the oldest town is Finland’s mainland and until the 19th century among the most important towns in Finland. Hämeenlinna is the place where, provided a broader time schedule, one might spend days. The best known sightseeings in Hämeenlinna besides the Häme stronghold are the stronghold’s cannon museum, prison museum and Hämeenlinna art museum. By the way, this is also where the world renown composer Jean Sibelius was born and lived until the age of 20 – also the composer’s birthplace is open for tourists (Hallituskatu 11).

At around half past four we started off towards Tampere. It is 79km from Hämeenlinna to Tampere via E12 Road (around an hour driving). I drove without any stops directly to Tampere to manage to go to the Ilves SPA in the evening so that the children could go to bed at a normal time, since all of us had woken at 5 in the morning. The hotel SPA was sweet cozy and peaceful, besides us there were just two more people. After swimming and sauna Ivanka Shoshana started playing with the dearest toys taken along in her Pippi Longstocking rucksack, she told her Baby Alive doll and Penny Ling what she had seen during the day. Estella Elisheva was watching a video from Hans something in her cell phone while I briefly did some work in the computer. The hotel also did a surprise gift to us, the room service catered champagne, Karlfazer sweets, strawberries in chocolate and also beverage for the children. As I asked what all these were for, since we hadn’t ordered anything to the room, the maid announced that it was from the hotel to the VIP guests. 🙂 Nice! You don’t say – it made me feel delighted. Many thanks! Our room was high up and from the window there was a wonderful view. Starry Tampere is charming!

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In the next blog post the day in Tampere and our journey to Vaasa!

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Helena-Reet: Packing for the journey to Finland… about to find out how many belongings a small car can accommodate

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Already this Saturday I will commence a major road trip to Finland with my children, planning to round practically all of Finland. I have arranged many meetings, also there are Estella Elisheva’s several photoshoots in the schedule for her Instagram account (@Estella.Elisheva), her homepage (EstellaElisheva.com) as well as for OHMYGOSSIP teen platform (see the website HERE, the Instagram account HERE).

The travel program will include various SPA visits, plenty of restaurants and hotels, meetings with friends and business partners, visits to offices, supervision of estate (there is a tiny plan to buy land and estate in Northern Finland), and on top of that a loooot of driving.

Now that the first Elisheva & Shoshana care cosmetics series products have been launched for the market, I am hoping already during this journey to discuss various cooperation opportunities. The product wrappings (stamping, print, final touch for the boxes) were ordered from Tallinn from the printing company Joon.eu and they should be arriving any day now. Then I need to complete the wrapping of the handmade soaps into the boxes, to be taken with me along to the journey. While E&S products are all premium class and targeted for a consumer that will seek classical style and high quality, then I would first and foremost consider apothecaries as the resellers. We have enormously emphasized the choice of ingredient compounds and we see the products as belonging to the series of apothecary cosmetics. Our products would be described by key words such as honesty, efficiency, and quality. We have also indicated possible allergenes on the product cover, which in some cases would be 0.0001% probability of being contained in it. Most of our products already on the market and those to be launched any minute have been created for people with gentle and sensitive skin. Our slogan is: “So Gentle, So Pure!”. Keeping this in mind, we create and compile all our recipes. The key ingredients are natural and have been grown, collected and dried by us in most part.

So there is a lot to be packed for the journey. Two weeks clothing for three people, bags, footwear, also samples of the products (several boxes/baskets), school books (assignments are to be completed despite being away from school), the violin, training kits and SPA garments, hiking equipment, skiing supply, Ivanka’s toys, laptops, small vehicle TV screens, etc… the list is so long. Besides I will be taking a big box full of food and beverages for picnics. And then for myself Saku GO non-alco light beer – this is among my favourites lately! One enormous suitcase is already full and I even haven’t properly started packing yet. I have decided to travel with the smaller car (it consumes less petrol, considering the long distances that we will cover), yet the downside is that there is less space in it.

As of today, our journey trajectory would be the following: 20 October – we will stay in Tampere overnight, in Original Sokos Hotel Ilves, 21 October in Vöyri near Vaasa (I have rented an entire house there from the Finnish Swedes), 22 October in Oulu Bereak Sokos Hotel Eden, 23-24 October in Sirkka Levi Hotel SPA, 25-27 October we are in Rovaniemi (haven’t decided yet, whether I will rent an entire house or we will be staying in the hotel… I’ll decide when we get there), 27 October I am planning to stay overnight in Kajaani or Iisalmi in a quality hotel (again, I’ll decide when we get there, whether I bother to drive that long), 28-29 October we’ll stay in Kuopio ovenight, in Original Sokos Hotel Puijonsarvi, 30 October is still an open end, however I believe that we’ll be in Jyväskylä, 31 October will be a day spent in Helsinki and we’ll be heading back to Tallinn on Viking Line. Those of you who will be travelling in the same places at the same time and wish to discuss our cooperation, make sure to contact me – write to me on FB or drop me an email to info@nordenbladet.com! Lots of sunshine! Hugs!

Helena-Reet: Being a witness to several success stories… or on the way to unicorn company

By
Helena-Reet Ennet
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NordenBladet – Last ten years I have thought that my life is a non-stop spurt – I have been working in media (have managed the web pages of NordenBladet and OHMYGOSSIP, that are operating in 17 different countries), at the same time being active at all levels – I have written and translated news, interviewed a lot of people, visited and reflected on various trade fairs and events, organised galleries, retouched photos, designed banners, sold advertising spaces, written promotional articles, enlisted cooperation and found cooperative partners, advertised all the trademarks belonging to the brand, built, designed, developed webshops and web pages, represented all the trademarks in international trade fairs, given interviews and held conferences, given lectures, developed the social media of various brands, designed and planned a clothing and accessories brand, signed some contracts with shops and department store chains… this list is very very long!

In short, I have had 15-17-hour-long workdays, working in two computers at the same time and at a pace in and such hard to exceed. And doing all this in a way that my kids are my first priority. My timetable is set in strict compliance with my daughters’ lesson plans and trainings – however, there are quite many of these recreational activities – I spend about 2-3 hours in my car every day, either as being a driver or just waiting for one hobby activity to finish in order to take my daughter(s) to the other one. The alternative would definitely be to take a driver or sign a contract with a taxi driver, but I like to drive a car – I think and plan my activities, invent new ideas, give my brain and eyes a different work. Moreover, I want to be with my children when they come from their activities and have the most powerful emotions – when they want to talk about what or how they did. I love my daughters very much, and I want them to know and feel that I am always there for them. I wish that besides the knowledge they actually felt that they are the most important ones in my life.

As you can imagine, this kind of motherliness affects children greatly. My older daughter Estella Elisheva is talented on all fronts, in everything she undertakes. She studies in Russian-speaking school (Tallinn Jewish School), thus she clearly speaks both Estonian and Russian, she already speaks English at a normal level too (it means that she can express herself well and say what she needs to say, though she could expand her vocabulary) and she also works on her Hebrew (she has studied it for 5 years). Estella has 3-7 trainings a week, depending on a week, she goes to music school, where in addition to the violin she started to take piano lessons, she plays in a band and in an orchestra. She wakes up at 6.16, and she is at school until 3 p.m., she finishes with her trainings and music school at 8 p.m., after which she studies and practises until 10 o’clock. Ivanka Shoshana, who is autistic, and was really as 5 kids in her childhood, has made great success by now. I have actively taken her to concerts, events, recreational activities – involved her in everyday life, taken care of and loved her – and it all has borne fruit! In other words, the non-stop spurt in dealing with kids and professionally.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BevY9zalB-r/?taken-by=helenareetennet

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmvqS1rFCwS/?taken-by=helenareetennet

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmd4gNgFfGT/?taken-by=helenareetennet

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnQIRu2FK14/?taken-by=helenareetennet

https://www.instagram.com/p/Boeu3wAlff4/?taken-by=helenareetennet

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoPZ1zKnOyi/?taken-by=elishevashoshana

I sometimes feel as a super-mum and super-woman, because I really do and manage to do a lot – a large part of it thanks to my careful planning. I take my time to think through what and how to do and so lay a firm foundation for all endeavours. At the moment I am also setting on foot the brand named Elisheva & Shoshana – the trademark and company I created for my daughters already years ago, aiming to do something all together, to involve Ivanka Shoshana to the activities as well, to have our own project, something totally “ours”. Previous weeks I have been busy with starting up the care cosmetics brand named E&S. It is highly encouraging that people have a strong interest in this project. I have been contacted by Amazon England and likewise by dozens off boutiques all over Scandinavia. Currently, I feel like I am simultaneously thinking about several things – honestly, I do not know how it is possible. The first sales packages will be printed this week and on Saturday, when I am going to start a big trip around Finland with my daughters (read about it HERE and HERE), I can indeed already take along the first boxes of E&S products. So awesome! Everything happens at full speed and goes uphill – it is great to witness the success of several brands. Where is, there is more to come! Like clockwork! Yay.

Featured photo: On the way to unicorn company – from a tiny and simple home office (maybe even rather a one-person enterprise operating at the kitchen table) which during the years has grown into a considerable media monopoly and an internationally operating company that brings dozens of different brands together under one roof. My aim is to expand this privately owned company into a company worth a billion dollars, that is to say into a Unicorn company – as this start-up is named after a venture capitalist Aileen Lee.

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