I've just booked a flight to Finland (Tampere) on the 23rd December.

I'd like to stay in Lapland for 3-4 days, hopefully see the Northern Lights, break an ankle skiing, ask Santa why he never brought me that shiny red bike, etc.

I checked out Levi near Kittila and that looked great. Unfortunately the train ride is 10.5hrs from Tampere and then another 100kms by bus, and every hotel seems to be full anyhow.

I have to pass through Helsinki on the way to Estonia afterwards, where I may or may not spend the night, but I'm thinking probably not because I can sleep on the slow-going heavy icebreaking ferry (which I am booking because they cancel all the fast ones if the sea freezes over - crazy shit).

After New Year I'm going to Latvia (ending up in Riga for the flight home) for 3-4 days as well, and I know even less about Latvia than I do about Finland.

So if anybody has anything to say about Finland or Latvia in terms of what and where is good to do, I'd be very pleased to hear it!

Well, in the middle of the winter the only reasonable things to do will be skiing or drinking. If I wanted to go to Lapland I'd take a flight. In the skiing resorts there's plenty of bars and clubs.

Most of the cities are small and boring. Tampere has one street of bars with decent action, Helsinki has a better selection.

The only casino in Finland is located in Helsinki. Early in the evenings there is either no games at all, or tournys with usually 50€ buy-ins with retarded small M structures. From 9pm or so the ring games are opened, usually the only stakes available is 1-2NL or 1-2 PLO. If you arrive late you often gotta wait a while to get to sit down. The casino closes at 3am.

In Estonia and Latvia, stuff is cheap which is good. Tallinn has a casino where I hear they play Dealer's Choice with often some funny games. If a new guy comes in, the regulars always pick the game he seems to have the least experience with.

Oh yeah and many Finns go to Estonia and Latvia to bang some hos.

I went on a week long boondoggle to finland when I worked for Nokia. Started and ended the trip in Helsinki. Spent the rest of the time here: http://www.tahko.com, a ski resort around 450km north of Helsinki.

The best thing I did in helsinki was go to a really good russian restaurant, I think it was Bellevue. I had bear stew, reindeer and caviar. One of the best meals of my life.

The stone church (I think that's what it's called) was pretty impressive.

In Tahko I rented a snowmobile for a few hours. Good times. Also took a driving course put on by Audi. Got to drive an A4 on a frozen lake with a driving instructor for an hour.

This was all in March though. I think it will be darker, and definetly colder in December.