Transport systems badly hit again!

Dreadful weather conditions continued in Finland on Wednesday, with a fierce blizzard complicating life in the southern and central parts of the country. In places up to 30 centimetres of snow were recorded. Traffic on the main roads was badly hit, as were rail and sea connections, but no serious accidents were reported.

The rail traffic between the cities of Lahti and Lappeenranta came to a three-hour halt at 8:30 in the evening when the gusty winds caused some trees to fall on the track. Six of the evening's departures ran late because of this. 
The snow cover is expected to stay on the ground in the coming days, for the weather forecast predicts the temperature will stay below freezing. The heavy snowfall, however, seems to be over for now.

     
The blizzard started on Tuesday, when warm moist air from the sea met with a cold continental front. 
While the coastal areas received both rain, sleet, and snow, further inland a heavy snowfall turned the landscape white. 
The municipality of Kalvola in the Province of Häme, for one, had received 29 centimetres of snow by Wednesday morning. 
"This doesn't happen every winter, that's for sure", says meteorologist Matti Heinonen from the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
     

In places the blizzard made for chaos on the roads. The Pirkanmaa Emergency Exchange was notified of no less than 130 collisions in a 24-hour period. The City of Tampere simply did not have enough vehicles equipped with snowploughs to deal with such a heavy and abrupt dump of snow. 
Trailer trucks stuck in the snow and slush were a particular nuisance on many of the highway stretches in Southern Finland. Trucks jammed up traffic for several hours on Highway 3 in Hämeenkyrö, Highway 10 in Tarvasjoki, and Highway 12 in Savitaipale. 
Some of the express ferry departures between Helsinki and Tallinn were again cancelled because of the treacherous weather conditions. 
Train timetables were affected in Tampere and Lahti. Because of the electrical switches that kept freezing up, every other departure between Helsinki and Tampere had to be cancelled. 
The faults were repaired in the afternoon and today, Thursday, all the trains should run again as normal, the state railway company VR assures users.
     

Fixing the power lines that were damaged by falling trees will take longer, however. Thousands of households in the Provinces of Finland Proper and Northern Savo may have to manage without electricity even through Thursday. 
The mail delivery services are also struggling with the snow and slippery roads. "We received half of the winter's snow in one night. What is that all about?" postman Veikko Pasanen from Lappeenranta laughs, surrounded by chest-deep piles of snow.
     

According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute the snow will not melt right away. Temperatures in the region of -5 to -10 degrees Celsius are predicted for southern and central parts of the country. 
The forecast for Lapland is 15 to 20 degrees below freezing.

The last month has seen Sweden gripped by farmer fever.

TV4's Bonde söker fru (The Farmer Wants a Wife) has proved a barnstorming success and has already overtaken Idol 2006 as TV4's most popular programme.

Over 1.5 million Swedes plonk themselves in front of the telly twice a week to watch four lucky farmers interact with a bevy of potential wives.
It all began in May when viewers were presented with eight farmers and asked to write to the one they most admired. The four farmers who got the most replies are the ones who will continue to grace our screens until late November.

Once Andreas, Marcus, Mikael and Per Martin had cast a critical eye over their fan mail they in turn selected a group of favourites. These female admirers then came to the farm to try to win the heart of their farmer of choice.

But were these single women ready for life on a farm? Would hearts melt when they encountered their favourite farmer in the flesh? Would the farmers regret the whole thing and wish they were back with their pigs and potatoes? Or would love blossom and wedding bells ring?

Enough people were interested in finding out to make the whole endeavour more than worthwhile for TV4. Nor did the channel walk blindly into the project. The Farmer Wants a Wife has already achieved a top rating for channels in Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The series has now passed the half-way mark and the farmers have managed to separate the wheat from the chaff. They are each left with four potential wives.

Lars Höök from the Federation of Swedish Farmers has long understood the lure of the farmer. In 2001 his organisation launched a farmers’ calendar, which went down so well with punters that it needed to be reprinted three times in its first year.

He is planning to watch The Farmer Wants a Wife for the first time today.

"I have heard it is quite good. It is not like your average reality show. It is more serious and the intention seems to be to make a good quality programme," Höök told the Local.

"The impression I've got is that they portray farming as it really is. They do not try to make a fool of the farmers, who are just ordinary guys who would like to find a wife"

Höök has some theories regarding the concept's popularity.

"The farmer has a cult status in society. In a globalised world, where everything is moving so fast, people look for things that are stable and mature. And it doesn't get much more stable and mature than a farmer."

The growth in farmers' popularity is not all that new, according to Höök. He points to the success of the Swedish film The Guy in the Grave Next Door, a sort of farmer-meets-librarian romantic comedy, which is still doing well on the rental charts four years after its release.

"Then I think that after 9/11, when there was so much focus on terrorism and fear, a lot of people went back to basics. In a complex world farming is understandable to people."

Finally, Höök reminds us that Swedish urban development came quite late.

"There is a little farmer in all of us," he said.

"Sometimes that farmer gets bigger in our hearts. It comforts us."

The big freeze at Harriniva!

Lapland is already enjoying temperatures at night as low as -25 and is looking amazing.

River Muonio that flows past Harriniva is just starting to freeze and the hotel is planning to build its igloo in the coming days.

You learn something new everyday.......

In Finland, especially as you head north towards Lapland hunting is a way of life. Not the pointless shooting at anything for fun hunting but the lets stock up the freezer for the winter variaty. At this time of year it is mainly elk and bird hunting. 

Each hunting club is allocated a set number of elk each year that they are allowed to hunt. This varies dramatically year to year with the powers that be using a formula and doing counts in sample areas to estimate the elk population. The hunters then get together usually at weekend during the season keeping strictly to their allocation. For many it is the socialising rather than the hunting that appeals.

So now for the new part. It was only yesterday that I discovered that to gain a hunting licence each hunter must take a test every 3 years to ensure that they are skilled enough to carry a gun. The test involves shooting 3 moving targets. Many hunters take the test annually, I can only assume this is to reassure themselves and their hunting companions. 

At this point I am usually asked if they hunt reindeer and just to clear that up the answer no. The reindeer are semi domesticated animals that roam through northern Finland and Lapland grazing freely.  

Iso-Syote, amazing weather and stunning views!

After a flight via Helsinki we arrived in Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. It was then a gentle two hour drive south to the amazing fell area of Syote.

Unfortunataly pictures will have to follow so you will have to take my word as to how amazing Syote looks. At breakfast in the hotels panoramic restaurant we just watched in awe as the sun rose over the opposite fell and sat on top of the blanket of mist in the valley, truely breathtaking.

The trees, hotel and cottages are already covered in a pretty layer of frost and snow. The temperature waivered between -8 and -10 all day with bright sunshine and crystal clear skies. The safari guides were already out preparing the snowmobile roots for the coming season and the snow cannons were on the slopes.

If Juha and Katarina at the hotel Iso Syote have their way you will soon be able to admire the views for yourself from their webcam. It will be worth getting up early to see those sunrises.

The locals mentioned that they had already seen Santa out doing some pre-season training with his reindeer. It appears that the amazing summer has left them a little lazy and above their prefered flying weight. Nice to know that it isn't just humans that have to get in shape for the festive season! I will let you know if we see him or the northern lights.

The Times of India reports.

Finland is wooing Bollywood producers. Finnish Tourism Board is arranging for familiarisation trips for our film-makers to igloos, Santa country, Lapland, Northern Lights and the Midnight Sun. More importantly, the board plans to facilitate Bollywood units there so that the experience is hassle-free.

Similar initiatives by Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland and Poland have transported these countries to our cinemas and into our homes. Expectedly, the number of Indian visitors to these countries has been steadily going up.

So have shop sales. Great Britain has gone a step further. UK's Bollywood trail invites visitors to retrace their favourite movie sequences. Pan to India. Forget marketing Incredible India as a moviemaker's destination.

Even the few foreign film-makers who come to this country at their own initiative mostly because the film theme or storyline demands an Indian backdrop have had to retreat hastily after hitting roadblocks in the form of red tape, erratic schedules, lack of technical support, and overcharging.

Faced with poor service and non-availability of efficient facilitators, foreign crew tend to turn their sights to less problematic Asian or south-east destinations like Thailand and Korea.

It is quite possible that things have improved since Richard Attenborough made Gandhi here nearly 25 years ago, but clearly not enough to attract more Hollywood film-makers to shoot in India.

Tap into the network of cameras across Finland and Lapland to experience the quiet life!

A Finnish website set up primarily by the authorities to monitor weather conditions on their roads allows you to get a glimps of Finnish weather and life. Until not many years ago staff in a network of cabins along the main routes would call in weather updates but now the cameras along with other roadside technology allow authroties to decide when the snowplows should be dispatched on any given stretch.

The first thing that hits you is the lack of traffic, especially when you look at the cameras in Lapland. You will also be able to see that Lapland already has a decent covering of snow, 30cm has fallen in recent days.

To link to the website click here.

A position it has held since the index started 4 years ago!

Finland ranked first in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006, published Tuesday by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands share first place with Finland, with North Korea coming last at place 168.

Finland has been at the top of the ranking list every year since the publication of the first index in 2002.
At the opposite end of the spectrum on the Press Freedom Index, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Eritrea bask in the questionable acclaim of being ranked as the most blatant violators of freedom of expression and freedom of speech.

Denmark, which belonged among the leaders in 2005, is now ranked 19th, owing to journalists having received death-threats because of the Muhammad caricatures. The United States was ranked only 53rd (in 2002 it was still in the top 20 countries) and France could place no higher than 35th, although it, too, was in or around the top 10 just four years ago.

The press freedom index is based on evaluations made by journalists, researchers, lawyers and human rights activists.

As temperatures plummet, lakes start to freeze and the snow appears.

Hotel Iso-Syote, a wonderful hotel set on of one of Finland southern most fells, just below the Arctic Circle, is enjoying the best of both worlds - bright sunshine and the arrival of winter. Temperatures are now regularly dropping below -10 which is vital at this time of year to ensure that lakes and swamps freeze before the arrival of the heavy winter snow.

The ski slopes tend to open mid November and the first husky and snowmobile safaris set off in early December or ealier if snow conditions allow.

Syote enjoys some of the heaviest snowfall in Lapland with the trees you see in the pictures being transformed into snow pyramids. The image below was taken last December from the hotel overlooking the ski lifts. The views from the hotel and cabins are breathtaking what ever the season.

For further details of spending Christmas in this Winter wonderland click here.