We first of all I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
As some of you may know, my partner and I recently returned for a 3-week whirlwind tour of Northern Finland, Helsinki, London, Windsor, Bath and Paris.
This started with loads of planning, weather forecasting, aurora borealis forecasting, location scouting and general tourist-type route planning for a various activities somewhere mid-2013. We boarded a Qantas flight to London, Heathrow via Dubai on Thursday the 19th of December for the 14-hour haul to Dubai before the 7-hour leg to London. A 4-hour wait at Heathrow ensued, followed by a 3-hour run to Helsinki, Finland... but this wasn't our final destination.
After staying a night with family near Helsinki we headed back to the airport for the final 80-minute flight to Kittila, Lapland above the arctic circle.
Upon getting off the plane into -6 degrees Celsius weather, we saw the sun set for the last time for a few days in brilliant pinks and oranges as we crossed the tarmac, we knew this was a magical place.
We headed to our cabin, or "Mokki" as it's called in Finland, and took in our surroundings... perfect white powdery snow on every surface and a starkness and crackle in the air one can only know if they've visited the far north.
We'd been studying aurora and solar activity patterns for weeks prior, and conditions looked good to be able to photograph the elusive lights, if it wasn't for the omnipresent thick low cloud cover which proved to curse us at almost every turn.
After a few days or exploring, skiing (I won't be doing that again), eating, sleeping, an amazing Lappish Christmas feast, photography and general snowy fun, we walked through a snowstorm into town on Christmas Day, boarded a bus for Rovaniemi and headed off to see Santa Claus, or "Joulupukki" as he's know in the arctic. What a spectacular day. Both of us excited as little kids!
A quiet day followed on boxing day with us watching the skies. We were booked to head out to a frozen lake in the middle of nowhere to try and capture the northern lights! Small patches of blue began to show in the sky and we got excited, headed into town, and headed out to the lake. While clouds drifted in and out, we waited for the lights. Someone behind us yelled out that they'd captured them on camera, so I began firing the shutter... even though not much was evident to the naked eye. Sure enough, there was a small band of colour visible over the northern horizon. We stuck around until the meagre display ended, and headed back into town for the 2km walk back up the hill to our cabin.
The following days had us driving reindeer, ice fishing, travelling back to Helsinki with my partner's family, and taking in the sights of this beautiful northern city.
Shortly after new year, we headed back to London. By the time we'd caught our black cab from Paddington Station to our hotel it was time to get some sleep. The following day we negotiated the London Underground for the first time to Marble Arch and boarded a small coach to head out to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath.
The following days had us rushing around the London Underground taking in as much as we could, and a meeting with a friend we'd met on our tour of the USA and Canada in 2012.
My partner had been hinting at a surprise for weeks prior to our trip, and the day had finally come. We headed towards Kings Cross station and I began to wonder might be going on. Shortly after we boarded a Eurostar train to Paris... a belated birthday and Christmas surprise!!!
We toured Paris for the day, taking in all the sights, eating the food, visiting the Louvre to see the amazing array of art on display, and taking in the stunning beauty of Notre Dame cathedral. Quite simply the best birthday/Christmas present ever!
The following days had more sight-seeing, including Madam Tussuad's, the London Dungeon, and fascinating Jack the Ripper tour in Whitechapel and a visit out to the Warner Brothers studio to see the Harry Potter sets and displays. Both being mad Harry Potter fans, this wasn't something to miss and we found the whole experience amazing!
Our last day had arrived. We checked our bags at the hotel storage and headed off on our last London adventure. This involved basically a mad rush to try and get to as many sights as we could before we needed to head out to the airport, including the Tower of London, Platform 9 3/4s, another visit back to Whitechapel and visiting the Temple Church. Exhausted, we boarded the Heathrow Express back to the airport and boarded the first flight of our long trip home.
I truly think now that travel broadens the mind and opens the eyes, I really have the bug (but not the finances) to do more of it. We had such an amazing time, and despite being gutted about not getting a decent shot of the aurora, all else considered, a wonderful trip!
Onto new business... as you may or may not know, I've retired my old Wix page, and developed/launched an entirely new website: http://www.seanfarrow.com.au
It aimed at marketing my purely limited edition, fine art landscape photographs in a professional setting. The site launched in late January 2014... so head on over and have a look, we take credit card and paypal!
Until next time...
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