Looking for a bike? Try the Poliisi

In my search for a cheap and good bike I have been looking at different options. They have been from random people with fliers in the student buildings, to Huuto (the Finnish version of Ebay), to others like the repaired bikes at Aurinkotehdas. I have even considered buying from Amazon.co.uk, where I actually asked the Finnish customs officials at Tulli if I would have to pay additional import taxes (the answer to that was no).

However, later I found out that the Police Stations all over Finland organize auctions (huutokauppa) in order to get rid of different items that are either confiscated or lost and never reclaimed. The biggest of those auctions is the bike sales.

Christmas in Finland

inland is home of Santa Claus. He apparently lives in a city of Rauvaniemi in Lapland (the north part of Finland). To see a more real view of what santa is, take a look a the following video:

As I mentioned before I am very fortunate to have family in this country so far from my own. I was lucky enough to be able to spend Christmas and new year with family.

One of the things that keeps surprising me about the finns is the way they are very shy/humble about everything, nothing is extravagant or colorful or loud. It is very practical in a sense and I'm actually starting to like it. Nevertheless, it was impacting at first.