January 11: On This Day (Journaling Challenge)

credits:
CCM January 2017 by the Lilypad

journaling (google translate)
We have chosen a pretty good year for our stay in Finland. Unaware, really planned it was not anyway. Finland became 100 years old on 6.12.17 this year. Not so old for a country. Before that it would belong to Sweden, sometimes to Russia, then to Sweden, Russia, Sweden, etc. Only then 100 years ago did peace come. At one of the castles, we were able to understand the time before the 100 years very nicely. This is, depending on who has ruled in Finland, has been raised so high that it is suitable to fend off the respective enemy. So it was once pulled up the eastern and sometimes the western side. Finland's actual shape has not changed so much. They had to give up access to the sea to Russia. This is a pity, especially because Russia is not part of the EU and you need a visa there. But Norway is beautiful too and Norway is by the sea. Of course, there were smaller celebrations, photo exhibitions, banners, flags and all that throughout the year, but the real birthday was on 6.12. celebrated. Without us. We were just in Lisbon. You can not plan everything so great. We were pretty annoyed. After all, the tower of Belem was illuminated in white & blue and I had my Matti with me. A little bit of Finland in Portugal.