today, i updated my gallery code. it now features a “pop-up version”: if you click a photo, it will be shown with a black background, and as soon as you click anywhere, you’ll return where you just were in the blog. you can still use something like firefox’ double click to open the photo in a new window, and the “fullscreen” viewer includes a link to the image file (and instructions on how to get rid of the fullscreen view as well as a copyright notice). if you don’t like the new viewer, you can explicitly disable it by using the new settings menu in the sidebar. there, you can now also more prominently toggle whether you want to see the thumbnails always in colors or not. finally, changing the thumbnails now also works without javascript enabled.
i’d be happy about a bit of feedback, in particular if the new gallery fullscreen viewer works in your browser. i so far tested it with firefox, konqueror and chromium, so it should also work with safari and chrome, but i’m not so sure about the internet explorer… in case it doesn’t work (and if you’re using the internet explorer, also please in case it works) tell me your browser and its version number so i can investigate a bit… (in case you’re using an old internet explorer, you should better change to a newer version or a different browser, as it is very broken anyway.)

today i flew back to zürich, via frankfurt. on the second leg, i was sitting at a window, and after some time, a beautiful cloudy sunset scenery presented itself to me, which i have to share with you:

after diving through the clouds, it wasn’t that beautiful anymore, instead it was grey, cool and looking rainy… but well, vacation’s over, isn’t it?

the last days, i’ve been travelling back south, arriving at helsinki airport tomorrow to fly back to zürich. when i started driving south in lapland, it was still ruska time:

(these shots are from the first time i the clouds broke open and let sunlight through on my way south, after having seen a dense cloud cover for the last whatever many days.) the farther south i got, the less colorful the landscape got. but then, there were other interesting things to see.

vikajärvi.

on my way north, i drove directly from kemijärvi to sodankylä, hence missing vikajärvi, the town i stayed in for 10 days last year in march. but on my way back south, with my first stop-over being kemi, the best way was going straight through vikajärvi. i couldn’t resist to get a better view of some places during fall:

compare the first photo to this one, and the place where i shot the last two photos is depicted here. everything looks quite different, eh?

kemi.

my first stop-over was kemi, finland’s northernmost city at a coast to an ocean. (it is located at the bothnian bay.) here are a few impressions from a stroll to the old harbor:

lumijoki: bay of bothnia.

continuing the next day to vaasa, i did a stop in varjakka near lumijoki to get another, more beachy view on the bothnian bay:

unfortunately, the weather got bad around that point, as on the way to varjakka and back there were a lot of nice views…

(lumijoki lies in pohjois-pohjanmaa, which roughly translates to northern northland. considering that there is a lot more north of it, the name is quite a fail :) )

öja.

somewhere before vaasa, i took a small detour and visited the island öja. unfortunatley, the weather was still not very exciting…

from vaasa i continued further south to turku.

turun linna.

when arriving in turku, i was too early to check in into my hotel, so i drove in the direction of the harbor to see some sea. but then i saw turku’s castle and decided to take a closer look at it. the castle was built over 700 years ago and is still mostly intact. one can nowadays walk through a maze of rooms and enjoy many great views, on both medieval and renaissance parts, and there is also a prehistoric exhibition running. it’s definitely a great place to visit! here are some impressions:

turun tuomiokirkko and surroundings.

after dropping my stuff off at the hotel and refreshing myself, i went to see the tuomiokirkko and its surroundings. here are some impressions: