a day in ranua

 Back when I was at my mum's in Lapland I went on a church trip to Ranua and it was a good day.

Growing up church trips were basically the only time we went travelling and they always felt like a good time. I do enjoy solo travel and doing whatever I want to do whenever I feel like it, but I actually also like pre-arranged (bus) trips where everything is organized for you and all you have to do is show up. It's a different kind of vibe, but something that's nice once in a while. It being a church trip, we obviously visited a church but also went to a museum and the wildlife park as well as for food (always an important part).

 The museum is a historic house museum that used to be the vicarage. Although the building is from the beginning of the 20th century it is currently furnished as it would've been in around 1940. I love houses like this. It's somewhat similar to my grandparents' house and other houses of older people I've known, so it's always lovely to see things that are familiar (like the old sewing machine as I now own my grandma's old one!) but at the same time see how different things are now. I love how historic houses can feel both like they're so far away from the way we live now in some ways and very similar in others. And everything is so pretty!

 I was really excited to go see the polar bears as the last time I visited one of them was still a tiny cub but they stayed inside and I didn't really get to see them properly. And although I was excited, I still feel a certain way about zoos but am not quite sure where I stand. (I want to see the animals but don't support keeping them in captivity and suppose I would like to see zoos shut down as soon as the animals currently in them die so that new ones aren't either captured for or bred in them?) I quite like Ranua, though, and it is a wildlife park instead of a zoo, so maybe there is some kind of technical difference. What I like them for is that they often have animals like deer and elk etc. that are injured or orphaned and the park takes care of them for the time they need and then release them back into the wild. There is, of course, those that have been captured at some point or that have been born in captivity as well. So it's neither all good nor all bad. Most of the animals in the wildlife park are native to Finland and it is cool to see them. This time I was mostly here for the polar bears, though.

They also had (and still have, I think!) an environmental work of art installed in the park that I quite enjoyed. It encouraged thoughts and action towards protecting and conserving nature, especially the arctic with different phrases in different languages and against the arctic nature it was pretty impressive. In addition to the ones in the photos below ("I choose hope and action over apathy and guilt.", "I choose to use renewable energy." and "I choose to not buy things I do not need.") others were for example "I choose to travel sustainably." and "I choose to eat less meat." with additional information about each subject. I liked it. And I liked my whole Ranua day.