The lovely traveling^)

I love traveling. That's my conclusion after being abroad over three weeks^^' After the competitions in Germany we drove to Austria and the Alps!! For me who never has been in Austria.. only driven once in a while through it.. It's awesome!:)

Well, I must admit. It would be a place worth of living.. some longer times:) Like my dear Östersund!! The landscapes are brilliant.. some mountains, not a big city life. Well, dunno if I would like it in a longer run but anyways:) The sun was shining most of the days so that we could do trainings in shorts!!! wow.. And in the meanwhile it was pouring rain and only a couple of plus degrees in Finland. eh, I was a bit glad to hear that:D

Two weeks passed very fast.. and once again I didn't want to leave. (That's not the first time, though) I could do many good skiing trainings up there.. at the glacier. 2700 meters above the sea. WOw.. I' m sure I'll come back next year!! if not earlier;)

Among the trainings I had one sponsormeeting and some other "unofficial meetings":)) I got thousand fancards.. eh so Who wants one card, me and riffle in the front, so just say:DD It's just so ridiculous that I have such things^^' I'm not so "proffs" yet:)
So some shopping I did as well.. hats, jeans (totally too expensive, but i took them anyways:D) in Austria the shops are open only from 8 to 12 am.. then 2,5 hours "rest" and then once again.. I found it a bit funny.. compared to Finland where shops are open nearly around the clock:D And well yea, In Austria the youngsters at the age of 16 are allowed to buy alcohol.. to vote at the same age.. then drive the car at their 17's.. and buy whatever at the age of 18!!! unbelievable!:D

Anyways the trip there was sooo awesome:) there were also lot of other teams as canadians, russian, Austria biathlon teams and so on.. well, funny thing. I had a "date" with a local boy.. one gorgeous biathlete:) And now it seems it could lead somewhere.. eh. dunno:)) these are always the questions... try or not to try.. I'll try. Always when I feel like that..^^)

The season is coming soon. only 4 weeks and we'll run the first races.. then who knows where I'll end up. My goal is to qualify to IBU-cup first.. the maybe even Worldcup.. the season starts in Östersund!!! so all that would be more than awesome:)) we'll see...

I arrived here to Joensuu on Sunday.. and it was freaking cold!!:D minus grades and snow.. compared to warm and lovely temperature in Ramsau:) but never mind. Now we can ski here in Kontiolahti at the cooled track.. 3,5kilometers!! well, feels quite nice. And above all my coach is more than happy to see me in the trainings here:D He was already worrying if I'm coming back at all,).. Well, it was near.. so near that I didn't continue my trip to Barcelona for a few days...:)) Having a nice rest .. with this cute austrian boy:)) he would have even paid my flight.. but then well. I came back here for some reason 0_o. But no worries.. he's maybe coming here for a trainingcamp next week:))

Next week I'll do one exam in Swedish.. although, that should be a piece of cake.) On wednesday I'll drive to Vuokatti to make some tests.. or a test..:) We'll see if there has been some progress during the year.. It should be, anyways...^^'



Returning back here later..:)
Take care!
xox

all around Europe!

Deutschland über alles..^^' or not.)

Last weekend we had summer biathlon World Champs in Oberhof, in lovely Thüringen. I must say the ladscapes were brilliant and I did enjoy the atmosphere in that tiny village!:)

Our journey started on Wednesday when we headed to Helsinki, just planning to fly to germany early in the morning. Then sitting in the car three hours before we found our way from Frankfurt to Oberhof... Well, I didn't realize it was soo small city^^) But they really live for biathlon!! And how I know it? well, Every single day when we had rollerskibiathlon races there were about 6000-8000 spectators! and it felt like WOW... i just try to imagine how it feels when there's 6 times more people in the winter!!!

So arriving on Thursday evening, then we were already "in fire" on Friday afternoon.. Dunno what I was thinking, but I got a bit nervous before the relay... eh. starting there next to world's best female biathletes, in front of thousands of people.. without having checked the trackproperly, or even tried to shoot to metal!! and here we come. the results! First loop only 15 seconds behind Magdalena Neuner, world's fastest skier..(biathlon):D one penalty loop with 8 bullets, and cosh.D i was the last.. very ashamed..embrassed and so on.. óh dear. And after all I had my german sponsors there as well. so I was reallly really ashamed.

Luckily I could normalize my skiing and shooting during the individual races. In sprint ending up to the place 9 with 2 penalties... which I did sooo slowly, and having difficult rollerskies as well!!:/ i hardly stood up there!!:D Luckily I was still so "high" on the resultslist.. I must say it was a surprise!!
well, Next day in pursuit I could do even better!!:)) I'm quite satisfied with the place 7.. World Champs. And I still got the feeling I was disappointed. Maybe because I was still far away from my normal shooting times, and even on the track I could have done otherwise. But nevermind, now I'm on the way where I should be, and I got this revansch what I wanted. After horrible Junior World Championships in Canada in january^^

so well done. Not bad, not good. Now I'm at the training camp in lovely Austria, training together with finnish biathlon A-team. I must admit that the landscapes are even better here!!:)) soo awesome. And what else... I've seen many friends here!! Italy, Austria.. and you name it:D Nice too see biathlonfriends before the season starts and everybody's going back and there.. trying to qualify to IBU-cups, Worldcups and Olympic games.. For me the first point is to qualify to Idre and IBU-cup.. maybe I'll be fit and also ski in Östersund!!:)) who knows.. never..:D

i just came from sauna, sitting there as an only woman, rounded by ten good-looking canadians, and some others:) then swimming and eating. Altough I'm tired after skiing over two hours on the glacier I'll go and see my Austrian friends now:) Tomorrow is rest day and I'll meet my sponsor and get some autographycards:D Anybody want?:D

so keep in touch. returning back later with some photos:)

Viele Grüsse! Eure Laura