Narpes

Liz and I took off for the long trip to Narpes early in the morning. This would have to be by car, so we rent a car and took off. The trip itself was 5 hours total but there was a small stop that we made in Tampere, at there Mall for lunch. It was a surprisingly big mall

After making our stop in Tampere which was a little over a two hour drive from Helsinki, we took of and left for Narpes. We arrive in Narpes at around 5pm, although you wouldn't have thought that we arrived that early because at least an hour earlier the Sun had gone down and the city itself was very dark and you could tell that it was night there.

I found the hotel, that we stayed at to be incredible, the workers were kind and super interested in the fact that we were from America. They also loved that our family was originally from the town. On top of that they were super helpful, and made sure that we found the church made it everywhere safely. The food was also incredible, I had a steak with carrot bacon, which is a great idea. Carrots and Bacon, are two of the best things ever so combining the two is such a good idea. The steak sauce that was used tasted just like Grandma's Chicken Supreme, and I felt like I was in heaven. It made me so happy to taste something that reminded me of home and one of my favorite meals. My dad says it is because of cumin that they used, but I say it was because Grandma knew how to cook, and so did these people.

Now for more reminisces of back, apparently my Great Grandpa, would always say that the north shore reminded him of home, and I agree. Narpes reminded me of home and Duluth. The snow covered trees. snow basically everywhere, and the general feel that you get from the town it feels like Minnesota. I can tell why Minnesota, is filled with Scandinavians now they felt like home being there and it looked like home.

So Liz and I decided to walk to see the main attraction in Narpes the Church

It was a beautiful building although you could see and feel the Lutheran design of the church going on. It was relaxed, and subdued, but it was a building that was beautiful in its own special way.  

Liz and I then went to walk around to see the Cemetery, I made an attempt to find some Portfors, and other relatives but it was too dark to see and the cemetery was too big to search the entire cemetery at night. Although we did find something interesting.

It is hard to see, in fact I'd say its impossible to see, but this is a memorial to those Narpes citizens that died abroad after emigrating to other countries. This is basically a memorial to my family and specifically Great Grandpa Gunner. That would end the day in Narpes. 

After waking up too late the next day and almost missing breakfast, we had what Liz called the best Breakfast that we had. From there we went back to the church to see the inside. 

  There is the church in the day light which I think does it more justice, also the road is frozen solid so just walking here to take the picture was a task.

Now for the inside of the Church.

The Altar

The Organ.

The place where the Priest stands I think, to be honest I have no idea what this is called. but the paintings on the outside I thought were really cool. 

So sort of log of the town or maybe the Church itself, its hard to read what they wrote also some of the words when I was trying to translate it either don't exist according to google translate, or don't make sense when translated. 

Well from the old homelands Liz and I made the long journey back to Helsinki, this time we took the fast route along the coast instead of the scenic route through the country side. and made it back to Helsinki around noon. Which gave us enough time to rest quickly, and then get ready for the walking tour that we were going to do.

The tour was awesome, our guide Casper, made up amazingly for the fact that our last guide got hurt the day before our original tour. He did an awesome job telling us the stories of the area, and explaining to us why things were like they were, and the background information about Helsinki. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures on this tour, I was thinking why take more pictures of stuff I had already seen. it was a mistake. If I find any pictures that I did take I will upload them in whatever post I am working on at the time.

For our next stop I will take you on a tour of the city of Stockholm and the islands that make up the city.