Rain at Marbella

It has been raining today as well and I haven't been out much. Just a little stroll by the beach front. It was empty, deserted, as you may imagine in december rain. Temperature was pleasurable though, +15C, and it was easy to imagine this place at sunnier weather, crowded by tourists and locals, all enjoying the sea breezes and the fun in the sun.

Today was not the day for that however.

Rain at the Gibraltar

The plan was to go at the Gibraltar today but as it was raining bucketfuls, it was pointless. There would have been no views at all. Instead we drove onwards and encountered windmills.






Finally we arrived at a small town called Tarifa, the southernmost point in mainland Europe. It has a long history, a Moorish invasion at year 710 and so on, but I must admit I had never heard of the place before. Anyway, the wind never stops there and neither do the waves. It was somewhat strange to look at the surfers in the water, it never would have occurred to me to go swimming in that weather, but then again, they were planning on getting wet regardless so why not.

Marbella

Arrived at Marbella today, on the south coast of Spain, will be spending the Christmas and the New year here. Holiday shots of differing quality expected for the rest of the month. I'm not at all pleased with these but I blame it on being exhausted from the trip. Wake up call was at 3.30am, plane took off at 6am. Hopefully tomorrow's pictures turn out better.

Christmas tree

...but not exactly

Foggy morning

I took these photos last week on my way to work one morning but never got around to posting them at the time. A calm foggy morning. I didn't have an awful lot of extra time but I did stop my car specifically to take these pictures. It was an enchanting moment, the reflections on the still water combined with how everything disappeared in the mist made me wish I had had more time to spare for photography. Instead I had to hurry onwards. Maybe another day when the light is right.

Green diamonds

These photos are brought to you by Ikea which already put all the seasonal decorations on sale. 50% off of all Christmas lights - a week before Christmas, I think it was very generous of them. The lot was almost sold out when we went shopping yesterday, but a couple strings of greed diamonds were left.

News flash

If you can read Finnish, the picture is self explanatory. If not..

Depicted is the leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat this morning so it is official: it is dark in Helsinki these days. "Kaupungin päivä on lyhyt ja hämärä" is Finnish meaning "the city day is short and dusky". The sun is above horizon barely six hours in Helsinki. In Oulu, a more northern town, the day only lasts for four hours and if you move further north still the sun doesn't come up at all.

The article was about the negative effects of darkness, such as depression, weight gain, constant tiredness. It said that although only 1% of population in Finland can be diagnosed with major seasonal depression, about 40% of those above 30 have some of the adverse symptoms at least. November and January are the worst months, December is a little easier because of the Christmas spirit, candles, artificial lights etc. Whenever there is snow it helps by reflecting the little daylight there is, but as a result of global warming or something else it seems that we have less and less proper white snow each year. When the polar darkness sets, people sleep 1-3 hours more than they do during summers and still don't feel refreshed in the mornings, and they seem to crave more food in general and sweets & chocolate in particular. Plus they avoid exercise and prefer to stay indoors just nesting.

Well, nothing in the article was news exactly, the same story appears in papers each year around this time. We are still somewhat at nature's mercy, the yearly cycle affects us no matter how much we fight it. Maybe the root of the problem is that we fight. In the agricultural Finland few decades ago people accepted the nature's rhythm, they were busy sowing and reaping in the summer but when the winter set there was not much that could be done except sleep. These days we are expected to be active and cheerful all year round and who's able to do that, without daylight, all our hormones and internal clocks telling us that it's night?

The photo in the article shows the main street in downtown Helsinki at 10am. The dawn is breaking and the sun is slowly creeping up but on the street down below, between the buildings blocking the rays of light, it is still pitch black.