Despite the cold, and the snow, we've managed to keep ourselves pretty busy. On Friday evening we went for an evening stroll before finding a lovely little restaurant for dinner. The reindeer tenderloin was delicious.
Yesterday, we explored the city centre, walking to the railway station, before heading down to the kauppatori (market square), where they were having some kind of event. Whilst it wasn't entirely clear what was happening, there were reindeer, so we took a closer look.
I got to stroke a reindeer - their fur is incredibly soft - before we set off in search of a bowl of soup for lunch - salmon for Ros, smoked reindeer for me - in the rather lovely kauppahalli. But we were still hungry, so we fortified ourselves with a reindeer sausage each before we set off back to our hotel.
On the way, we found that the road was closed off with barriers, so Ros asked someone with a fluorescent bib on for an explanation. Her answer was that there would be reindeer racing in ten minutes. Well, we weren't going to miss that, so we found a good spot and settled down to watch.
Reindeers race pulling someone on skis, and they're pretty quick too. But soon it was time to take a break, as the temperature was beginning to drop, and the wind pick up - a bad combination when the temperature is below zero to start with.
The afternoon was spent at the Pohjois Pohjanmaan Museo (the Museum of Northern Ostrobothnia), which has more labelling in English than I had expected. It's not the most exciting exhibit I've seen, but it does give you a good idea as to how Oulu became the city it is now.
Dinner was at a Viking restaurant, with all the wild boar I could eat (and I can eat a lot of wild boar).
And so, now we're on our way to the Arctic Circle, with Santa Claus, reindeer and the Aurora Borealis on our agenda. Yes, it is minus 8 degrees outside, plus the windchill (making it about minus 16 degrees) but we're fairly hardy, and how bad can it be?...
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