Winter in Germany

Winter in Spain

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Winter in Poland - Michał Mielnik, class 3f

Finnish winter by Rune Pönni, class 9C

Finnish winter starts at different times in different parts of Finland. But you could roughly say that in Southern Finland it starts in December and in Northern Finland already in October. The "beginning" of winter is counted from the day the first snow arrives. The temperature also differs between south and north. In the southern parts the temperature is about from 0– -17°C and in north it's about -20– -25°C. It's pretty cold anyway so we Finns must have a warm change of clothes.

Winter is very important to the Finns. The winter is quite long in Finland so the Finns have lots of time to do all kinds of winter sports like skiing, skating and slalom. In the past the skiing has been a quite important travelling form in winter in Finland. Nowadays people don't move that way to travel but skiing is very popular sport in Finland and Finns have won some remarkable competitions like Olympic skiing.

Skating is also popular and ice hockey. Many young people like to play ice hockey and it's a common hobby among Finnish youngsters. Finland has also many good ice hockey players and Finland has also won many world championships in ice hockey. But ice hockey isn't the only way to skate. In Finland you can also go skating to a frozen lake! You can travel much longer distances than on a normal ice rink. It's really great.

There is also a quite special "sport" that some Finns like to do in winter. First they make a hole in ice called avanto. Then they warm their sauna and go swimming in the cold water. This is called "avanto swimming". After the cold swim Finns go quickly to sauna to warm their cold limbs. It's really refreshing though it sounds quite grazy (not that I had tried myself). Obviously this can only be done if you have a sauna beside a lake because you would freeze after the cold swim if you didn't.

In the Southern Finland where I live we don't always have much snow so skiing isn't always possible here. But the norther you go the colder it gets and there is more snow. In winter vacation many Finns go to Lappi, the northest part in Finland, to do all kinds of winter sports. In Lappi you can also see reindeer and even Santa Claus because his office is located there.
Well I hope you got some kind of figure of what Finnish winter is like and maybe even learned something. But I think I should stop now so that I won't steal more space from here. Thank you for reading this.

The Magic of Winter in Finland by Maria Efimova, class 9 C

Many Finns, especially small children, love winter. It’s not only beautiful but it also gives the opportunity to do things you would be unable to do in the summer. Some people may say they hate the winter because of the cold but most of the Finns have loved it at some point. I myself am one of those people who like it. To me there are only few things that are more beautiful than land covered with snow.
In Finland the snow falls usually in the end of November but lately we have had to wait for it until second half of December. First snow can fall as early as middle October but it usually melts away in few days. Snow falls, of course, earlier in Northern Finland than in south. As a matter of fact the winter is actually longer and colder in north.
In the past few years the winter has become a lot warmer. Ten years ago the temperature could drop down to -20 degrees in Helsinki, nowadays it usually stays between 0 and -10 degrees. There have been a few times when it was as cold as -17 degrees in Helsinki and most of those times were Saturdays… In the Northern Finland it has been as cold as -30 degrees or less.
During winter it’s possible to do many things that are impossible in summer. You can often see little kids building a snowman or playing in the snow. Ice skating on natures own ice on top of rivers and lakes, ice swimming, skiing in the forests, and playing ice hockey outside are a good example of the kind of activities that are only possible during winter. At least I can’t imagine myself doing any of them during summer…

Winter in Poland by Alicja Niczyporuk, class 2i

Winter in Poland by Kasia Bujak, class 2h

Winter in Poland is beautiful. All is covered by snow . Houses , trees and bushes have white caps . On frosty days snow is sparkling in sunshine.

Winter in Holland by Robert

The Big Change

The Dutch winter takes as long as in any other European country, though it feels like it takes twice as long.

Dutch nature isn’t very overwhelming in wintertime. Nevertheless, we were able to skate on the ice for some days past winter. In winter our fields are frozen, as are the trees, as are the ditches and dikes. That’s why it’s far more interesting to tell something about the Dutch people’s behaviour caused by the change in weather. (Winter is no excuse though, for the funny behaviour among our people since there’s something to tell about us every very season)

The final cold months appear this funny, because human behaviour doesn’t synchronize to nature. Or maybe, that’s exactly what it does in an extreme way. In February, March and April temperature often stays below 10 degrees, but people love to dress like it’s summer already. If you’re a lucky tourist, you might see people in armless t-shirts and short pants wearing winter caps, scarves and gloves. A rather funny view, but somehow, we know how to keep it fashionable. Probably the freezing temperatures makes us stay indoors the whole winter thinking of what to wear when the first sunbeams will flow over Holland again.

There are some Dutch traditions in this time of the year as well. Such as selling tulips, the famous flowers being sold on every single corner of each Amsterdam street in a thousand different colours, flower bulbs in Nijntje covers, bought by adults as well and when the weather allows again we travel everywhere with our extreme number of bicycles, which are stolen, given, taken and dumped in a vicious circle! We all massively visit the so called ‘ giant garden centres’ to buy tens of plants, statues and hundreds of flowers. Even in a credit crunch these things are the most important things in our minds. Which to me, is a very beautiful, but rather funny tradition. We all love it! The thing is that we feel winter in our heads and feel spring in our hearts.

The attached pictures are taken in Amsterdam and represent some of these traditions.

Winter in Poland by Kasia Woźniak, class 1i

Winter in Poland usually is white.
It feels very nippily and unpleasantly. In winter kids often play out of doors: they go on sledges, throw snow-balls. Personally I don't like winter.

Winter in Poland - Kinga Rahim, 1b

Winter in Poland - Małgosia Maj, 1b