Oulu

It's been more than three years now, since I moved to Oulu; a small, quite, snowy, cosy and very homely city in Northern Finland...200 KM from the Arctic Circle. I still remember my apprehensions and those of my family when I decided to travel to this part of the world on a work assignment. Lets face it, Finland is not an America or a Britain or France, one of those 'magnificent' places you grow up hearing/reading about and always cherish a desire to visit. My only fleeting recollection of Finland before I was asked to travel there was in 6th grade during my Geography class. The text about "6 month summer and 6 month winter" was all that stayed and I still cannot remember if it was Finland or Norway that was under discussion. Plus there were these stories about how cold it can get there, how you had to drink alcohol to survive in that country (me being a teetotaller) and Polar bears in the Finnish jungles.

Thankfully most of the predispositions have proved to be untrue! All except the cold weather. It can get cold, yes very cold in Oulu. In my first year itself I experienced -30 degrees temperature in February and the experience was one to remember. Frosty eyelids, frosty hair, blue lips and frost-bitten lips is not something you expect from a 10 minute walk after all. Over time I started to enjoy the cold weather though and specially the abundance of snow (Oulu sure has lots of it). Seasons changed and the winter turned to spring, to summer, to Autumn and back! Four disctinct, but beautiful seasons of Oulu.