Hanging Out Downtown.

It was a really nice day yesterday so we decided to go hang out in downtown Oulu. This wasn't a well planned excursion, so we didn't leave until about 3p. When we got there, we first had a hearty and healthful lunch at Hesburger (the Finnish version of Burger King). We followed that with a stroll through the market square and examined the wares being sold by the local shopkeeps. Unfortunately, a lot of them were already packed up and gone for the day. Here are some pictures of us posing with the statue of the rotund policeman in the market square.







Near the market square is the public library, so we decided to check out their selection of books in english. We were also going to get library cards while we were there, but forgot to bring our passports with us as official identification. We browsed for a little while and I decided that they had a decent collection of novels from both major genres (science fiction and other). We also found the graphic novel section but it was minutes before they were going to close, so we didn't get a good look at what they had.

After the library, we headed for the park and the little cafe located near the center of it. We each had a baked good and a cup of tea while sitting outside and enjoying the weather and scenery.

Here's Becky happily knitting a pastel sock in the sunshine with her cup-o-tea.



Here's the scenery near the terrace of the cafe.





Here are a couple of shots of the fountains in the Oulu River.




Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera died so I didn't get any pictures of the beautiful flowers throughout the park. I also didn't get pictures of the U.F.O. landing, the clown handing out 500 Euro bills, or the cloned velociraptor eating children. We may head back to downtown today since it's supposed to be nice again. If we do, I'll bring some freshly charged batteries and capture all the excitement.