Ähtäri Zoo & Kangasala - Finland in the Autumn

When your partner is from a different country, you tend to start travelling a lot more in your own country than before. All of my most recent updates have been about Hungary and now this one is about Finland. In October 2013, we first decided to go on a day trip to Ähtäri Zoo. We had planned this trip together with Marta from Italy , who was in Finland as a Comenius/Erasmus + assistant language teacher at the time.

Ähtäri is approximately 150 km from Tampere, and since it's located pretty much in the middle of nowhere, we went there with the car. The zoo itself has 65 animal species at the moment, mostly those typical for the Nordic countries. It's really nice - you practically wander around in a forest and meet the animals as you go along. It was my first time in Ähtäri, too, and I really liked it. You're outside all the time so if the weather is chilly, make sure you wear enough clothes or carry an umbrella.

Julcsi and Marta, excited about going in :D!

A wolverine.

A snow leopard - not one of our most typical animals :D.

A reindeer.

Awwwww!!!

A lynx in the middle of his/her meal.

Elk.

Bears are probably the main attraction of Ähtäri Zoo.

I'm more used to seeing these ones in Hungary!

An arctic fox <3.

Afterwards, we went to Virrat to have pizza before taking Marta home and driving back to Tampere ourselves. It was a lovely day!

Another mini roadtrip we went on in October 2013 was to Vehoniemi in Kangasala, Finland. Kangasala is right next to Tampere and it's a really pretty place with beautiful nature everywhere. Though let's face it, beautiful nature is practically the only thing Finland has to offer :D. Still, Kangasala is somehow especially pretty with its lakes and forests. Vehoniemi is a cool place to visit if you have a car because there a) you can go up a lookout tower to see pretty views FOR FREE, b) you can visit a museum of old cars FOR FREE, and c) you can have a delicious munkki, or donut there.

The lookout tower - Kangasala has several other ones, too, by the way.

SUNSHINE!

Another really lovely day! After Vehoniemi, we went to the "city centre" of Kangasala to see Kangasala church and the famous Verikivi, or Blood Stone, which is in the wall of the church. The stone leaks something red that resembles blood, and they say it's because it was used in the execution of a girl called Kaarina. Kaarina was involved with someone too noble for her and because of this, their love wasn't acceptable. To this date, the stone bleeds the blood of poor Kaarina, executed as a witch (read more about the story here).