Arctic

It's been a relatively lazy day today. We've taken full advantage of being in an AirBnB (i.e. with a proper living room) to have the sort of chilled day we would have had if we had been 'at home' in Helsinki which - after the travelling we've done in the last month - is entirely reasonable. We went out this morning for some coffee, and then to visit the Arktikum. Excellent and informative displays, including presentations of academics researching various aspects of arctic life. Too much to take in on a single visit. It's also a striking building, both inside and outside.

Afterwards, we wandered back along the shoreline past the place where the Northern Lights probably would be visible in the evenings, if there weren't thick banks of cloud (and very little solar activity...). Oh well. There has been a little bit of fresh snow coming down in the last 24 hours, and that keeps everything freshened up underfoot. You get that sort of squeaky noise under your shoes when you walk along the freshly groomed paths. Woe betide you stepping off the groomed bit, though. Your foot sinks  quickly into the deep soft snow. The snow also deadens all sounds quite remarkably. A relatively busy road runs right by the Arktikum, but you can barely hear any sounds of vehicles.

When we got back into the town centre we headed back to Roka, where we also had something to eat on Friday and had an excellent lunch - also good value. The rest of the day is being devoted to reading, and in my case preparation for tomorrow's lecture. I've been freshening up my powerpoint slides, and adjusting my approach as my primary audience tomorrow will be relatively inexperienced undergraduate EU law students.

I've done a rough and ready edit of some pictures and put an album on flickr.