On the website of weekendhike.nl we fond a nice city walk of Utrecht. The walk was organized by Klaas van Gelder who has lived for a long time in Utrecht. We were with 7 persons and had a great time. We tried to climb “De Domtoren” but it was fully booked for that day. So we continued on the walk.
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After explaining that my little brother is also in finland for the xx time I decided to make a split in the website postings. The posts of Henry in Finland will be reachable from the Finland links visible on the right, in the section Finland Links.
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Once again, many days have passed since writing the last blog. I’ve been busy my project. I had to create the connection from Microsoft Robotics Studio to a server which was encrypted with the AES Encryption method. After days of debugging I finally managed to encrypt and decrypt text messages from the server. I had other things on my mind, my report, that needs finishing as well.
Last week my parents visited me. We stayed in a nice holiday cottage in the dunes near Kalajoki. With stunning sunsets at Kalajoki and a few city trips to Kokkola and other cities I can’t remember. Made use of the sauna in the cottage almost every evening. Visited Santa clause in the Santa Claus Village near Rovaniemi. Its a big commercial place, but it was nice although it was really quiet. Who expects it to be busy in the beginning of may 
Celebrated Rinze his birthday on Wednesday 6th. I got a present as well because my birthday wasn’t celebrated properly in Tallinn few months ago. So I got a nice glass and other bottle Finlandia, which i can add to my collection 
We went to the smoke sauna again near Alavieska. It was a bit more expensive than last time. We paid 5 euros now instead of the 2/2,50 last time 
Nevertheless the sauna was nice and we could see the smoke sauna in the sun. Last time we went the sun was already set.
Last week the 24 liters of cider was ready for bottling. Pictures in the gallery and maybe a stop motion movie later. Visit my parents again in Kalajoki for the weekend. Had a nice hiking trip and a BBQ with a nice sunset again. Thats it for now, hopefully more later.
For photo’s visit this link
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So today with this great weather we decided that we would check out the flower show would start in . Yess your have read it good. There is a town that carries the same name as our street 
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Today with a great sun and no clouds we took our bikes and went on a great bike trip to Henschotenmeer just a few kilometers from our flat. Henschotenmeer is a lake that is just 10km from our flat. Biking in the cool forest is quite nice. I have also found a nice site where you can find nice routes to bike. At the moment there are only three provinces in Holland Friesland,Utrecht,Gelderland.
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Today Dorota and I decided that we wanted to go to Belgium. Visiting a city and checking out the Beer and Chocolate in Belgium (The proper belgium stuff). We went to Gent in Belgium. Gent is a great city to visit but don’t try to visit the city in one day. That’s what we did and we haven’t seen everything that was there. There are great restaurants, bars, clubs, and very nice architecture in the old city. And ofcourse we have checked out the ‘Chocolaterie’ where there was a glass floor in the shop so you could watch the master making the bonbons.
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Today was a great day. We have been celebrating koninginnedag and this year the queen visited Makkum and Franeker. We though that it could be nice to see the queen in real life. So we went to Franeker. There where a lot of people and all trying to get a better view of the royal family pushing and pulling, it was not a nice feeling but we had the experience. Never the less I had a great time and was able to make some pictures! .
On our way back from Franeker to Zeist we heard on radio that the concert in Amsterdam was still going on so we decided to drop by and check it out.
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Like I’ve said in the previous post, last Wednesday I participated with Lieven in the wheelbarrow race (“JÄYNÄPÄIVÄ”). We had to do several things at each checkpoint. You could bribe the jury with alcohol and candy.. and because the style is also a factor we changed our normal clothes to something special.
Because of the increasing temperature in Finland we decided to go to Lapland last weekend. We rented a cottage in Ylläs We had allot of fun, did some cross country and downhill skiing and we rented a snowmobile for a few hours. We made a route through the woods across a frozen lake to the other side of the ‘mountain/hill’ Yllas. To return the snowmobiles we went over the mountain Yllas. Going up was not really a problem, steady with the throttle and the snowmobile did the rest. It was beautiful weather, the sun shining in the sky. We took a small break at the top and then return home. Going downhill was adventurous. I didn’t need any throttle, gravity did the job. When you touched the brake of the snowmobile, the caterpillar track locked up, so the rear started to slide and you had to counter steer it to control it again.
To prevent going too fast I had to brake like without ABS. It was fun
And the car could slide as well
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Sorry for not posting more frequently. Many events have happened since the last post. Our 3 polish roommates have returned to Poland. We bought a Toyota Carina II from 1991. ‘Toyota built quality ’
In the tuesday evening we went to cross country ski on a track in the south of Ylivieska. We tried the local swimming pool as well. When you are in the swimming pool you can pay a visit to the sauna too.
On Wednesday of last week our Dutch teachers (Sibbele Oosterhaven en Han van Dulken) visited us. They stayed only 2 days, so we didn’t have much time to talk about the project because they were invited for other events at the university. Keeping a good relationship between Netherlands and Finland. Also that Wednesday evening we had a good bye party because 5 Germans were leaving. They had stayed here for 6 weeks. During the party we noticed 3 new faces. Antoine, Vacant and Maxime are French and come from the Calais area.
The next day I had together with Mika and Sibbele a good discussion about my project. They had a good feeling and were satisfied with my work. I’ll add some info about the project in a few days.
In the evening we invited Sibbele and Han to visit our apartment and have a dinner together. We made a nice lasagne and drank a bottle of wine. The University reserved the sauna in the hotel close to the swimming pool. The same hotel where Sibbele and Han were staying. Other Finnish teachers were invited but they never showed up. So we had the whole sauna and whirlpool for ourselves.
I can check ‘Downhill Skiing’ off my to-do list. We drove with our Toyota 20km to the south. There was a slight drizzle in the morning and afternoon, so our expectations weren’t that high. The place looked quite closed but once we entered the property they opened it for us. There was a small slope and a ski lift.
Never stood on Downhill Ski’s before so its a new experience and totally different than cross country.
I tried some different technique to get the hang of it. My right knee didn’t like the V shape braking pose. Due to a kneecap stretch few years ago. Anyway, so my first downhill went rather fast and crashed almost into the building standing at the bottom of the slope. Missed it with a few meters to spare. Phew Of course there are some pictures and movies, but I have to upload them…[Finished]
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Some weather news: Last few days/weeks were too warm for the snow/ice, so most of the snow is gone here. But now…. Its snowing again, the temperature at night are below 0 Celsius and during the day its 1 or 3 degrees. On Wednesday I’m going to participate in the traditional “JÄYNÄPÄIVÄ”, also known as The Wheelbarrow Race!
I hope I can upload the photo’s and movies in the next couple of days. Evert is still busy to edit the curling movie, so please have some patience!
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On Thursday we hired ski’s from a colleague at work, so we could ski in the weekend. We tried the ski’s in the evening on an illuminated track. But at 22:00 the lights went out, so we had to return home with help of some moonlight.
The next day we (Evert, Rinze, Lieven and me) left Ylivieska on cross country ski’s to Kekajarvi. A Finnish guy took our bags by car to Kekajarvi.. We stayed in 2 cottages with ~20 exchange students till Monday. We had a lot of fun. Been to the sauna. After the sauna jumping into a lake and back to the sauna again. We played some curling on the frozen lake. The movie will be released in a few days when Evert finished the editing of the video.
On Sunday morning the neighbours were driving with a snowmobile on the lake and they took us 1 by 1, 1 lap around the lake.
When you are in Finland you have to try Ice Fishing. And of course you can see a movie here:
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After the ice fishing the same guy who brought us to Kekajarvi arrived on a snowmobile He offered a ride on his snowmobile! So I couldn’t say no to that after what I had experienced in the morning!. The movie can be seen here:
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I had a great time and a nice Easter 2008 with you guys, we did some crazy and funny things! and tomorrow is an ordinary work day again.
ps. I haven’t seen any F1 yet, so i have to wait till the download is finished.
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