Fantastic Finland Experience!!

2001-2 was a great lifetime experience for both Heidi & Laurie. It gave them the opportunity to live in Scandinavia Finnish style.

This was a fantastic experience exploring the arctic country while working for a Finnish smart card company. Based in Espoo (20kms west of Helsinki) Heidi & Laurie lived in a small apartment in Suna. Heidi explored on her mountain bike while Laurie enjoyed with his electronic piano.

Everyday Heidi geared up for the ride into work. One embarrassment she had was cycling home one evening in sub zero temperatures and sliding on the ice a couple of times. Apart from a sore backside, she decided to fit studded tyres & then continued to cycle to work in rain, hail, sun, snow or ice. Laurie took the comforts of the black Saab with heated seats!

Finland gave Heidi & Laurie the ability to travel and meet the locals. It also gave Laurie the opportunity to visit his Swedish relatives whom he had never met before.

With a company office in Kuusamo in the north of Finland, each month Heidi & Laurie would drive 1,000kms to the Arctic Circle & spend a week working & enjoying the beautiful snowy arctic countryside. Needing some exercise, Heidi even skied 17kms to work across frozen lakes from a cottage on the edge of Lake Saapunki. Laurie found the skidoo (snowmobile) a much better option to see the local countryside.

Seeing the Arctic circle with 24 hour sunlight as well as seeing the arctic winter was a fantastic experience.

The memories & friendships Heidi & Laurie made in Finland will remain with them for a very long time.