russia & finland in a week

	Gearing up for the cold weather in Roviniemi Finland...Lappland.
	Being educated about reindeer. Sad fact: Not a single reindeer is free and they are all owned by a human.	Woman wearing traditional Sumi clothes.
	Our sleigh ride through the barren country side.
	Students warming themselves by the fire.	Me at the Arctic circle!
Husky pups.	One antler reindeer.	Huskies pulling a sleigh around a small track in the woods.
	We had Santa Park all to ourselves and caused a bit of mischief.	Being elves and making cards.

	The frozen river with sign stating it was dangerous, though we rode snowmobiles down the frozen river for hours.	Sunrise on the river.

	Many, many, many hours playing in the snow. Rolling down the hills, snowball fights...if it had snow, they played in it. Glad they had those snowsuits!
	Gearing up for a snowmobile ride down the river.
	Dinner in an igloo! Frozen tables, seats, walls and frozen US!


	Warming our bones after dinner in a teepee around the fire and telling ghost stories.
	We finally made it to Russia which was very grey and gloomy by comparison but some learning had to be done and so began the MAD museum race.
	First stop was the Peter and Paul fortress.
	Steeple of the Peter and Paul Church.
	Peter the great with his shrunken head. Touch his right hand for wealth and his left for love.
	Some interior shots at the Fortress.
View from Fortress	View from Fortress	We now enter St. Peter's Cathedral.

View of our hotel from on top of the cathedral.	View of St. Petersburg from on top of the catherdral.
Snowball fight on the roof of our hotel.
	Russian folk show.
	St. Peter's in the day light with a blue sky...a rarity.	Detail of the fence to the Russian Museum.
	Cathedral of Spilled Blood. The most beautiful church in all of St. Petersburg.


Elton John once played here. They had to remove a few doors to get his piano in using a crane.	At Catherine's Palace.	Outside of Catherine's Palace.
	The Amber room...all of the walls are made from various kinds of Amber.
	Back to Helsinki Finland. Cathedral on the hill where I wandered when the students got stuck on the ferry without me. Oops.

	Another cathedral while wandering. I do'nt know the names of these as I didn't intend to see them.

		The Church built in to a giant bolder. Pretty neat.