I kid you not. Probably further as that's as the crow flies. But before we get to that...
On Friday in BsAs we went to la boca as intended and strolled around taking in all the beautiful bright colours and vibrant atmosphere to match. Caught a tango show out front of a cafe (one of many) as we sat and sipped coffee on a day far too hot to be drinking hot drinks. Got a couple of photos with the dancers (for a tip) plus many many more photos around the area. The colourful area is surprisingly small, and outside of that it gets a bit grotty and not a nice place to be at night just as our hostel kindly let us know, otherwise we might've stayed longer. Had a look around the market there, one guy painstakingly cut out the features of coins and there were a few nz ones including an old penny, bit pricey for us though. Saw the famous football ground (that elton john and james blunt had played at the night before, they were busy doing the cleanup when we walked past so got to peek in through the doors at least). On our way to la boca we went to the national museum briefly, ate lunch in a plaza, saw loads of wicked graffiti, old guys playing chess and a stunning blue and white russian orthodox church as well. Apparently it is disrespectful to turn you back and especially sit with your back facing a russian orthodox church.
That evening a few brazilians that we'd been chatting too at the hostel invited us along for a drink at a dutch bar that played decent music, a rarity in SA i believe - turns out heineken in argentina tastes really good, tho MUCH better value from the supermarket like everything (28 pesos vs less than 5 pesos/litre). Had some delicious freshly made (better have been for the wait) spinach and cheese empanadas there too. Fun times.
We decided that if there were beds available we'd delay our departure another day as the brazilians had mentioned a place in town that also played good music that they were going to on saturday night. Also wanted to check out the saturday markets at the plazas in Palermo. So glad we lucked out on the bed situation by being early to rise (australians got kicked outta the bunk room tho) as the markets were great - got a toe ring and "reserved" the prettiest dress as we didn't have enough cash left after our delicious lunch at Krishna (ate too much once again). After a much needed siesta and a friendly chat over an al fresco dinner with great cheap wine and giant heinekin we hit the town with said brazilians at SICK club (interesting taxi ride to get there, driver had no clue, kept asking people on corners for directions and even turned the wrong down a one way street! and dropped us off a few blocks past the place then tried to get a 5 peso tip when mathias had known exactly where it was the whole time, what cheek!) Turned out mathias had somehow got us on the door or got us in for free at least. Anyway had a great night dancing dancing dancing to good music (for the most part, got a bit 80s for a while), got to bed about 7am with check out that morning...
k gotta run, too much to catch up on but more to do to add to the catching up-ness
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Friday, 23 January 2009
palermo viejo/don't cry for me argentina
We're hoping to head peru-wards tomorrow, tho haven't actually done anything about it so may not become a reality, but figured i'd try catch up while i have the chance.
So tuesday we arrived in palermo (suburb of BA - we're staying in palermo hollywood to be exact) which had been recommended by several sources and deservedly so. Finding/getting a bed in a hostel took up much too much of the day and ate into precious optimal siesta time again. We went to a lovely little french café "Oui Oui" for a late lunch (actually prob not late by argentinian standards at all) - DELICIOUS especially the traditional homemade lemonade (giant jug for 8 pesos) and the Crépe Dulce de Leche: Dios mio! Think we just kinda crashed at the hostel for a bit after that. Then tried to go see a music thing we'd seen mentioned in a spanish paper but wound up at the wrong plaza as it turns out Plaza San Martin de Tours is not the same or that close to Plaza San Martin, frustratingly found it on the map the following day! But it was a pleasant evening sittin the plaza san martin for a while nevertheless.
Wednesday was spent meandering around the gigantic park areas in west palermo flitting from one patch of shade to the next. Thank god for trees! Checked out the Jardin Japanés which was lovely. Forgot the camera tho. Got my first bit of burn for the summer :S not badly tho as i did sunscreen it up, you can just tell the patches i missed. We then tried to go take in some tango in Palermo Soho but once again our plans were thwarted as the restaurant was the only one in the lively neighbourhood that did not look open for business in the slightest. So we wandered around in the vain hope they might open next time we passed and stumbled upon an amazing little heladoria with so many delicious flavours of icecream. I got dulce de leche granizado and jon got chocolate italiano. Delicioso! then ended up sittting on the hot rocks of Plaza Cerrano (??), absorbing the atmosphere eating empanadas and listening to a busking drumming group in the balmy evening. Notice a theme here?!
Yesterday was all about Recoleta. Went to the super famous cementerio de la recoleta where eva peron and a bunch of presidents etc are buried. It is an incredible experience and an incredible place as those who have been there will know. It's like a little village with streets and houses for the dead and you can even see the coffins/urns for many people. I wasn't the only one thinking it was a little pompeii-esque.
Came back to rest our very weary feet and tend to some more missed sunscreened spots then we went to the restaurant recommended by lonely planet as the place to go if you only go to one steakhouse in argentina, which is the plan as it's extremely unvegetarian huh, but when in argentina do as the argentinians. And it was quite the experience! I got the dish recommended by the waiter, a ribeye steak which turned out to be at least 3 times the size of my fist. Jon got the Argentine steak which was also a very generous serving (2 slabs of decent sized steak) and these were only the medium sized portions! The most amazing part was all the side dishes - 16 different rammikins (sp?) full of all sorts of delicious flavours to tempt the taste buds, plus plenty of complementary bread, a bottle of mendoza red wine, and complementary champagne with dessert - how we managed to squeeze it all in i´ll never know! We did a pretty good job of finishing it all up tho the walk home was far from comfortable :P And i'll be very happy not to eat steak for a very very long time, good one to go out on i reckon. Oh and we arrived for dinner after 11pm and the place was packed, got a table within 5 mins and didn't finish til 2am! plus the best waiter ever. And paper tablecloths with crayons supplied. The only downside was being sat next to 3 australian girls who sounded more like Kath and Kim than I have ever heard before and didn't even attempt a word of spanish to the waiter - just slow, condescending english.
Today we are off to see the sights of La Boca - very excited! better get the show on the road.
Weather update:
The days have been getting progressively hotter and hotter... not sure how hot, also getting muggier and stickier. Tho i hear it's a stinker in nz too. no wonder the night life is where it´s at, it's the only time of day you can bear to do anything remotely energetic. The hostel atmosphere here is getting warmer and warmer too, lotsa chit-chat with gorgeous people from EVERYWHERE :)
p.s. almost every single road in BA is one way. A few of the main ones aren´t and we've even seen one that is two way only between certain hours of the day! Makes it very easy to walk around but I imagine i'd have a near impossible time if i tried to drive here.
p.p.s. On thursday night we could have gone to see Elton John and James Blunt play at the massive football stadium here for a measly $60NZD-ish- how bizarre would that have been?! A little gutted we didn't...
p.p.p.s. Most things here are actually surprisingly comparable to what the price would be in nz, i had thought it would be much cheaper. The exceptions are public transport and alcohol bought from a supermarket (including hard liquor!) is DIRT CHEAP (that doesn't mean we're drinking it like it's goin outta style!)
So tuesday we arrived in palermo (suburb of BA - we're staying in palermo hollywood to be exact) which had been recommended by several sources and deservedly so. Finding/getting a bed in a hostel took up much too much of the day and ate into precious optimal siesta time again. We went to a lovely little french café "Oui Oui" for a late lunch (actually prob not late by argentinian standards at all) - DELICIOUS especially the traditional homemade lemonade (giant jug for 8 pesos) and the Crépe Dulce de Leche: Dios mio! Think we just kinda crashed at the hostel for a bit after that. Then tried to go see a music thing we'd seen mentioned in a spanish paper but wound up at the wrong plaza as it turns out Plaza San Martin de Tours is not the same or that close to Plaza San Martin, frustratingly found it on the map the following day! But it was a pleasant evening sittin the plaza san martin for a while nevertheless.
Wednesday was spent meandering around the gigantic park areas in west palermo flitting from one patch of shade to the next. Thank god for trees! Checked out the Jardin Japanés which was lovely. Forgot the camera tho. Got my first bit of burn for the summer :S not badly tho as i did sunscreen it up, you can just tell the patches i missed. We then tried to go take in some tango in Palermo Soho but once again our plans were thwarted as the restaurant was the only one in the lively neighbourhood that did not look open for business in the slightest. So we wandered around in the vain hope they might open next time we passed and stumbled upon an amazing little heladoria with so many delicious flavours of icecream. I got dulce de leche granizado and jon got chocolate italiano. Delicioso! then ended up sittting on the hot rocks of Plaza Cerrano (??), absorbing the atmosphere eating empanadas and listening to a busking drumming group in the balmy evening. Notice a theme here?!
Yesterday was all about Recoleta. Went to the super famous cementerio de la recoleta where eva peron and a bunch of presidents etc are buried. It is an incredible experience and an incredible place as those who have been there will know. It's like a little village with streets and houses for the dead and you can even see the coffins/urns for many people. I wasn't the only one thinking it was a little pompeii-esque.
Came back to rest our very weary feet and tend to some more missed sunscreened spots then we went to the restaurant recommended by lonely planet as the place to go if you only go to one steakhouse in argentina, which is the plan as it's extremely unvegetarian huh, but when in argentina do as the argentinians. And it was quite the experience! I got the dish recommended by the waiter, a ribeye steak which turned out to be at least 3 times the size of my fist. Jon got the Argentine steak which was also a very generous serving (2 slabs of decent sized steak) and these were only the medium sized portions! The most amazing part was all the side dishes - 16 different rammikins (sp?) full of all sorts of delicious flavours to tempt the taste buds, plus plenty of complementary bread, a bottle of mendoza red wine, and complementary champagne with dessert - how we managed to squeeze it all in i´ll never know! We did a pretty good job of finishing it all up tho the walk home was far from comfortable :P And i'll be very happy not to eat steak for a very very long time, good one to go out on i reckon. Oh and we arrived for dinner after 11pm and the place was packed, got a table within 5 mins and didn't finish til 2am! plus the best waiter ever. And paper tablecloths with crayons supplied. The only downside was being sat next to 3 australian girls who sounded more like Kath and Kim than I have ever heard before and didn't even attempt a word of spanish to the waiter - just slow, condescending english.
Today we are off to see the sights of La Boca - very excited! better get the show on the road.
Weather update:
The days have been getting progressively hotter and hotter... not sure how hot, also getting muggier and stickier. Tho i hear it's a stinker in nz too. no wonder the night life is where it´s at, it's the only time of day you can bear to do anything remotely energetic. The hostel atmosphere here is getting warmer and warmer too, lotsa chit-chat with gorgeous people from EVERYWHERE :)
p.s. almost every single road in BA is one way. A few of the main ones aren´t and we've even seen one that is two way only between certain hours of the day! Makes it very easy to walk around but I imagine i'd have a near impossible time if i tried to drive here.
p.p.s. On thursday night we could have gone to see Elton John and James Blunt play at the massive football stadium here for a measly $60NZD-ish- how bizarre would that have been?! A little gutted we didn't...
p.p.p.s. Most things here are actually surprisingly comparable to what the price would be in nz, i had thought it would be much cheaper. The exceptions are public transport and alcohol bought from a supermarket (including hard liquor!) is DIRT CHEAP (that doesn't mean we're drinking it like it's goin outta style!)
Thursday, 22 January 2009
maailman toisella puolella
¡Hola Blogi! ¿qué tal?
Hmm i guess i'll begin at the beginning-ish and see how far i get. So arrived in BA on sunday, found a shady spot outside to sit and wait for jon to arrive then we caught the local bus into town (for free cos we only had notes and it only takes coins so the driver just kinda waved us on) after waiting for over an hour for it to arrive and watching several buses of the same number drive on by for no apparent reason. Found the hostel in town that Natasha had recommended and booked ourselves in for 2 nights, then strolled around a surprisingly closed town, more so than expected, and got some dinner. The choice was pretty much pizza, pizza or pizza which was also a surprise, and super cheesy pizza at that. And our first taste of argentinian beer (1L bottle for $14 pesos = around $NZD7 which we later discovered retails for around 3 pesos in the supermarkets!). Day two was spent meandering around town. We heard of a free tour in the morning but couldn't find it at all at the place it was supposed to start from so we did our own walking tour with a little help from the guidebook i cleverly managed to pick up at the airport. Best thing was probably the cathedral in plaza de mayo, besides being harrassed in spanish about we still don't know what. There is a lot of incredible architecture in Buenos Aires, really beautiful ornate buildings everywhere. Went to eat at Café Tortoni, apparently the father of all cafés in BA (according to the ever knowledgable guidebook), had an interesting salad and our first taste of dulce de leche icecream - i'm totally hooked! Went back to the hostel for a much later than intended siesta, then wandered around the streets again (once again very closed for business for the most part) til the early hours. The following day we decided to shift to Palermo, best decision ever though not so straightforward as planned. Walked through the hot hot heat fully laden with packs then figured out the subway system and got to palermo to do a heap more fully laden hot hot heat walking around the streets of palermo trying to find a place to stay. The 2 hostels we tried here were pretty much invisible - you really have to know where to look to find them, (even with an address, we only had that for one), which we didn't but with a little help from the locals we made it. The first was booked out except for expensive single rooms but the second had space and is perfect and beautiful and lovely and wonderful and home! It's called La Casa Fitz Roy (has a very flash website should u wish to check it out) and it is great. Although our food keeps shrinking or disappearing altogether. Palermo itself is pretty great. The greatness might have to wait for another post tho...
Hmm i guess i'll begin at the beginning-ish and see how far i get. So arrived in BA on sunday, found a shady spot outside to sit and wait for jon to arrive then we caught the local bus into town (for free cos we only had notes and it only takes coins so the driver just kinda waved us on) after waiting for over an hour for it to arrive and watching several buses of the same number drive on by for no apparent reason. Found the hostel in town that Natasha had recommended and booked ourselves in for 2 nights, then strolled around a surprisingly closed town, more so than expected, and got some dinner. The choice was pretty much pizza, pizza or pizza which was also a surprise, and super cheesy pizza at that. And our first taste of argentinian beer (1L bottle for $14 pesos = around $NZD7 which we later discovered retails for around 3 pesos in the supermarkets!). Day two was spent meandering around town. We heard of a free tour in the morning but couldn't find it at all at the place it was supposed to start from so we did our own walking tour with a little help from the guidebook i cleverly managed to pick up at the airport. Best thing was probably the cathedral in plaza de mayo, besides being harrassed in spanish about we still don't know what. There is a lot of incredible architecture in Buenos Aires, really beautiful ornate buildings everywhere. Went to eat at Café Tortoni, apparently the father of all cafés in BA (according to the ever knowledgable guidebook), had an interesting salad and our first taste of dulce de leche icecream - i'm totally hooked! Went back to the hostel for a much later than intended siesta, then wandered around the streets again (once again very closed for business for the most part) til the early hours. The following day we decided to shift to Palermo, best decision ever though not so straightforward as planned. Walked through the hot hot heat fully laden with packs then figured out the subway system and got to palermo to do a heap more fully laden hot hot heat walking around the streets of palermo trying to find a place to stay. The 2 hostels we tried here were pretty much invisible - you really have to know where to look to find them, (even with an address, we only had that for one), which we didn't but with a little help from the locals we made it. The first was booked out except for expensive single rooms but the second had space and is perfect and beautiful and lovely and wonderful and home! It's called La Casa Fitz Roy (has a very flash website should u wish to check it out) and it is great. Although our food keeps shrinking or disappearing altogether. Palermo itself is pretty great. The greatness might have to wait for another post tho...
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
kani kani kani
There are an awful lot of rabbits in Helsinki. Hiding in the shrubbery. Surprisingly so.
Anywho to polish up finland - the penultimate and ultimate days! On thursday we were planning on going to Kiasma (modern art gallery in Helsinki) with a few friends (potentially juuso, otto, stippe...). Kiasma morphed into a pancake party instead, Otto and Juuso came over to Milka's and then both fell asleep for a couple of hours while milka (and i sorta helped) cooked up a pancake storm, much better result i reckon! Think i managed to not leave the apartment at all that day :p The following day (friday the 16th) I finished packing up my stuff to send home - took a bit of effort to get the zip done up not to mention a fair dollop of cash to send it away that afternoon :S
Met up with Kiira for lunch in town then to Stippe's place for a dinner party of sorts. She had cooked a delicious white lasagne with three different types of cheese! YUM! Cut Milka's hair then headed back into town for iceskating in rautatientori and hot choc with tons of whipped cream and chocolate hail at M-Bar with Kiira again - perfect - then back to Haapaniemi to go see what we thought was gonna be Komposti Kopla playing live finnish reggae but turned out to just be computerprogrammed english reggae but still real fun while not quite realising our expectations.
Saturday was day zero. Milka and i watched the last episode of the L word season 5 (extremely important that that fit into the schedule!) then Veera, milka's sister, came over for a late brunch of everything delicious, milka even produced some pulla/korvapussi from the freezer. Veera was embarking on her trip to nepal that day too, starting with a ferry to Tallinn. Then it was onto my last tram ride to catch a bus to the airport to fly me to the other side of the world and summer sunshine! Which is where i am now, but more on that later :)
Flying when you're even vaguely still a bit sick is a fairly painful experience tho. But flying into London at night totally makes up for it. Also saw the lights of amsterdam on the way over - no red ones though. The landing in a windy London was a bit scary however and worthy of the applause it got! Flying over Brazil is spectacular (stopped in Sao paulo for around an hour). Testing out my minimal spanish on the very handsome argentinian sitting next to me was interesting, with his equally minimal english! The end.
Anywho to polish up finland - the penultimate and ultimate days! On thursday we were planning on going to Kiasma (modern art gallery in Helsinki) with a few friends (potentially juuso, otto, stippe...). Kiasma morphed into a pancake party instead, Otto and Juuso came over to Milka's and then both fell asleep for a couple of hours while milka (and i sorta helped) cooked up a pancake storm, much better result i reckon! Think i managed to not leave the apartment at all that day :p The following day (friday the 16th) I finished packing up my stuff to send home - took a bit of effort to get the zip done up not to mention a fair dollop of cash to send it away that afternoon :S
Met up with Kiira for lunch in town then to Stippe's place for a dinner party of sorts. She had cooked a delicious white lasagne with three different types of cheese! YUM! Cut Milka's hair then headed back into town for iceskating in rautatientori and hot choc with tons of whipped cream and chocolate hail at M-Bar with Kiira again - perfect - then back to Haapaniemi to go see what we thought was gonna be Komposti Kopla playing live finnish reggae but turned out to just be computerprogrammed english reggae but still real fun while not quite realising our expectations.
Saturday was day zero. Milka and i watched the last episode of the L word season 5 (extremely important that that fit into the schedule!) then Veera, milka's sister, came over for a late brunch of everything delicious, milka even produced some pulla/korvapussi from the freezer. Veera was embarking on her trip to nepal that day too, starting with a ferry to Tallinn. Then it was onto my last tram ride to catch a bus to the airport to fly me to the other side of the world and summer sunshine! Which is where i am now, but more on that later :)
Flying when you're even vaguely still a bit sick is a fairly painful experience tho. But flying into London at night totally makes up for it. Also saw the lights of amsterdam on the way over - no red ones though. The landing in a windy London was a bit scary however and worthy of the applause it got! Flying over Brazil is spectacular (stopped in Sao paulo for around an hour). Testing out my minimal spanish on the very handsome argentinian sitting next to me was interesting, with his equally minimal english! The end.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
viimeimen viikko
the days are slipping away here in helsinki. Arrived on monday evening to be greeted by a Milka hug :) then had the evening to myself as she had plans. On tuesday I wandered round town trying to do a spot of 'christmas' shopping. Got accosted by one of those makeup people in the malls who turned my face a putrid shade no face should be then lost my hat in the process of trying to de-yellow myself and spent the next 20 minutes or so trying to relocate it, which i eventually did. Then went to Stippe's who cooked us up a delicious makaroni-laatikko - so yum! (had a couple of ingenious ingredients incl. honey, chocolate and a dash of strawberry jam) Yesterday I walked around town again in the semi-sunshine and went to hakaniemen kauppahalli. i love looking round kauppahallit! think this was by far the biggest i've been in, two storeys! Then Milka cooked up a delish soy spag bol, she's very generous with her spices! Last night we went to get our dose of finnish hip-hop (at the same place i saw the finnish modern folk band play - quite a different vibe!) Milka's sister's boyfriend's brother was playing so it wasn't just because of our undying love for hip-hop :p quite bizarre listening to hip-hop in a different language i find "pelti kii" "gangsta paska" "liikun vain yösin" "mä haluun naisen, joka juo vain limonaadi" "pese selkä, pese pese selkä!" a selection of lyrics i sorta understood (and prob wrote incorrectly :p). Drank some delicious warm glögi with the extra warmth of koskenkorva. It's been fairly warm outside too, around +3 most times i've looked - even saw a +5! definitely doesn't have that sharp wintery feel. Supposed to be back to -10 by friday tho. Just 2 days left in this fair land...
Sunday, 11 January 2009
hyvästi ylämylly
On my last full day in ylämylly we had a bit of an "ulkopäivä". Went skiing for a couple of hours with juuso, marjo and peppi at a nice little skifield called mustavaara, which as far as i can tell translates to black danger - not a fitting name in the slightest, 20km north of ylämylly (at least i think it was north... can never get my bearings here). Was pretty windy at the top but mucho fun-o. Peppi and i also did a bit of sledding down quite a steep hill while marjo used my skis, handy we have the same size feet. Then marjo heated the cheese sammies she'd brought over the fire in a little teepee shaped hut at the bottom of the field. When we got home it was straight back out to do that other weird variety of skiing - 5km cross country just down the road through peaceful forest. It's really fun on the downhill patches but i just don't get the uphill and there's as much of each. Also ate salmon at every 'meal', including some experimental salmon/tofu patties which succeeded scrumptiously (for future reference ingredients were: grated carrot, left over cooked rice and salmon, block of soft tofu, an egg and seasonings). So all in all a good day to go out on. Back to Helsinki tomorrow!
Saturday, 10 January 2009
here goes nothing....
Päivä Suomeksi - VARO: sisältää huono suomea
No niin, tänä aamuna mä heräsin erittäin aikaisin (kuudelta!), vaikka menin nukkumaan liian myöhässä (kahdelta aamulla :s). Mun piti hoitaa pepin koska kaikki muut oli joko työssä tai koulussa (lauantaina, epäreilua vai mitä). pääsin nukkumaan vähän aikaan vielä sohvalla mut ei riittää! mulla on myöskin nuha siis mua tosi väsyttää. No sitten pelasin pari pelit pepin kaa ja katsotiin telkarin. sen jälkeen marjo ja minä käytiin kaupungilla. Käytiin ihanan kirkon ympärillä, emme päässyt sisään koska se ei ollut auki. Sitten käytiin ostoksilla, marjo osti parin päidän ja mä melkein ostin toisen marimekon päidän, mutta odotan helsinkiä. myös pahat pojat mut oli liian kallis minusta. sen jälkeen me käytiin syömässä jossakussa nuudelen paikassa, jossa oli tosi hyvää ruoka. meilla oli ihan täysit mahat! kun tulimme kotiin minä ja juuso teimme vähän lumityötä pihalla. yritin tehdä lumiukon mutta ei onnistunut, sitten teimme enkelit :) ihan loistavaa. nyt mulla on märkä peppu :p ja sen jälkeen mä yritin kirjoittaa tätä... höh
:D
No niin, tänä aamuna mä heräsin erittäin aikaisin (kuudelta!), vaikka menin nukkumaan liian myöhässä (kahdelta aamulla :s). Mun piti hoitaa pepin koska kaikki muut oli joko työssä tai koulussa (lauantaina, epäreilua vai mitä). pääsin nukkumaan vähän aikaan vielä sohvalla mut ei riittää! mulla on myöskin nuha siis mua tosi väsyttää. No sitten pelasin pari pelit pepin kaa ja katsotiin telkarin. sen jälkeen marjo ja minä käytiin kaupungilla. Käytiin ihanan kirkon ympärillä, emme päässyt sisään koska se ei ollut auki. Sitten käytiin ostoksilla, marjo osti parin päidän ja mä melkein ostin toisen marimekon päidän, mutta odotan helsinkiä. myös pahat pojat mut oli liian kallis minusta. sen jälkeen me käytiin syömässä jossakussa nuudelen paikassa, jossa oli tosi hyvää ruoka. meilla oli ihan täysit mahat! kun tulimme kotiin minä ja juuso teimme vähän lumityötä pihalla. yritin tehdä lumiukon mutta ei onnistunut, sitten teimme enkelit :) ihan loistavaa. nyt mulla on märkä peppu :p ja sen jälkeen mä yritin kirjoittaa tätä... höh
:D
Friday, 9 January 2009
mennään elokuviin
Just got home from seeing 'Rööperi' with arto and marjo, a finnish film based on life in a bad part of town in helsinki in the 60's-70's. Understood maybe about a third of what was said (actually probably more cos about a third was made up of swearwords alone) but got most of the story. There was a lot of blood.
Early morning tomorrow as i'm babysitting cos the big kids've got school - on a saturday!??!?
Early morning tomorrow as i'm babysitting cos the big kids've got school - on a saturday!??!?
Thursday, 8 January 2009
seikkailuminen
Think i'll take my -13 degrees over your +39 any day, though i'd definitely settle for a happy medium. Hard to imagine that it's almost 60 degrees warmer on the other side of the world.
So to try recap a fairly eventful week and a bit...
Caught the bus to Kuopio last tues 30/12 and headed straight to mäkipirtinkatu 16A. All the busses are still exactly the same, kuopio itself looks very much the same except for one new shopping centre next to my school that i think is probably what was being built when i was there last. It's handy when you need to find something in a hurry and it's right where you expect it to be. However the bus ride to mäkipirtinkatu that i have taken sooo many times was strangely unfamiliar.
I was in kuopio until sunday and was supposedly staying at mummolassa (= at the grandparents) but only stayed the night there the first night. Did go there nearly every day to eat though :P and give my finnish a workout! voi että se oli vaikeaa mut hyväkin. Was lovely to see mummo and ukki again and to visit my old home. It's changed a bit but not as much as i might have expected.
On the 31st i headed into town and after a fair bit of dillydallydisorganisation we made our way out to haminalahti where, thanks to Ere's super organisational skills, new years eve was to be spent in the company of many old friends and several new ones too, chatting, eating good food, drinking good drinks (including pear kopparberg helen! what a guess), gazing into the fire when the electrics all went out for maybe an hour or so then realising how much smoke was hanging around inside..., watching human pyramids be built and topple onto mattresses, singing and dancing and later discovering splinters in my foot from doing so, racing outside for long enough to burn our sparklers, pop the champagne bottle, wish one another a hyvää uutta vuotta then realise how cold it was and pile back indoors to head for the sauna!! Strangely enough the sauna (and the "spirit of the sauna - löylyn henki") was the only thing i remembered about haminalahti from the time i went there before, which apparently i did and there's photographic evidence to boot.
By the time all that had been accomplished it was close to 6am and well and truly time to hit the bunks for a few hours of what could barely pass as sleep. Got up at 11 to discover a beautiful blue sky to welcome in the new year with the few remaining beautiful people (some of whom had even had the foresight to bring something edible for breakfast - joghurt, a mandarin and oven fries it is!). Then a carload of us (minä,milka,maiju,annika,john/migreeinimies,juuso-tohishouse) made our way back to milka's mum's place in town where we sat around having a neverending picnic in the lounge for many hours. Milka's family arrived later on and milka's mum cooked us all delicious pasta to add to the picnic.
The next 60 hours or so consisted of spending a few hours at each of 4 places in a rather cyclic fashion with a cycle of similar people!
1/1/09: From milka's we went to mikko (milka's cousin) and hilla's lovely cosy abode that i managed to not get a single photo at much to my dismay. Then back to milka's to spend the night
2/1/09: From milka's back to mummolaan via a marimekko sale and a beautiful new top for me, thanks aunty rachel! Juuso-veli was also now in kuopio so hung out with him and mummo and ukki and their fridge for a few hours then back into town to find antti's place and a sauna full of finns. and a spaniard. and a youtube cat ninja. and a simply cool card game coloretto. then onto mikko and hilla's till the wee hours - tuning in and out of finnish conversation floating around me. back to milka's for the night.
3/1/09: M&H's again for some nerdily cool new card games (dominion was actually cool, race for the galaxy was mostly just confusing despite being on the winning team!). then mummolaan. then pack all my stuff real quick and race for the bus, dawdle to the next bus cos missed the first by seconds, back to antti's where folks were playing games again. then onto milka's where the games continued (dominion and citadels - played in your choice of swedish or bad indian accent) and were followed by far too long on youtube until only juuso, milka and i were left and eventually decided to go to bed in time to get 4 hours sleep before i had to be up to catch a bus back to ylämylly.
phew.
Mandatory update on the weather over this time period: mostly beautiful sunshiny days with a rough average temp of -10 (saw -8,-13 and -15 from memory). One grey snowy day on the saturday, experienced the snot-freezing-temps for the first time again, and snow is sooooo beautiful when it's this cold!! Every flake of it.
Arto, Marjo and Peppi (minus her 2 front teeth) picked me up from the bus on sunday (now -18) and it was straight onto lappeenranta, a 3 hour drive south, getting very close to the russian border (hence how i saw russia). Marjo's sister Arja lives in lappeenranta and the occasion was her daughter nina's 30th birthday. So hung out there for a couple of days, went for lunch at the greek restaurant that nina works at (very finnish greek if you ask me, the buffet lunch was anyway) and wandered around town a little (as much as arto ever could just wander!). Lappeenranta has a lovely town centre with an old church and graveyard and war memorial as well as an outdoor street mall area with a guy playing one of those wind up music boxes that really shoulda had a monkey playing miniature symbols. Sweated it out in their real wood fire sauna for a while and played some sing star and ate delicious food and drank some salmiakki cream liqueor that tasted much better mixed with some irish cream i decided. And now we're all back in ylämylly, kids are back at school, more beautiful crisp days to counter your sweltering ones! Got in from a walk well over an hour ago and my legs are still feeling a bit frosty. Phones actually work slower when it's this cold.
So to try recap a fairly eventful week and a bit...
Caught the bus to Kuopio last tues 30/12 and headed straight to mäkipirtinkatu 16A. All the busses are still exactly the same, kuopio itself looks very much the same except for one new shopping centre next to my school that i think is probably what was being built when i was there last. It's handy when you need to find something in a hurry and it's right where you expect it to be. However the bus ride to mäkipirtinkatu that i have taken sooo many times was strangely unfamiliar.
I was in kuopio until sunday and was supposedly staying at mummolassa (= at the grandparents) but only stayed the night there the first night. Did go there nearly every day to eat though :P and give my finnish a workout! voi että se oli vaikeaa mut hyväkin. Was lovely to see mummo and ukki again and to visit my old home. It's changed a bit but not as much as i might have expected.
On the 31st i headed into town and after a fair bit of dillydallydisorganisation we made our way out to haminalahti where, thanks to Ere's super organisational skills, new years eve was to be spent in the company of many old friends and several new ones too, chatting, eating good food, drinking good drinks (including pear kopparberg helen! what a guess), gazing into the fire when the electrics all went out for maybe an hour or so then realising how much smoke was hanging around inside..., watching human pyramids be built and topple onto mattresses, singing and dancing and later discovering splinters in my foot from doing so, racing outside for long enough to burn our sparklers, pop the champagne bottle, wish one another a hyvää uutta vuotta then realise how cold it was and pile back indoors to head for the sauna!! Strangely enough the sauna (and the "spirit of the sauna - löylyn henki") was the only thing i remembered about haminalahti from the time i went there before, which apparently i did and there's photographic evidence to boot.
By the time all that had been accomplished it was close to 6am and well and truly time to hit the bunks for a few hours of what could barely pass as sleep. Got up at 11 to discover a beautiful blue sky to welcome in the new year with the few remaining beautiful people (some of whom had even had the foresight to bring something edible for breakfast - joghurt, a mandarin and oven fries it is!). Then a carload of us (minä,milka,maiju,annika,john/migreeinimies,juuso-tohishouse) made our way back to milka's mum's place in town where we sat around having a neverending picnic in the lounge for many hours. Milka's family arrived later on and milka's mum cooked us all delicious pasta to add to the picnic.
The next 60 hours or so consisted of spending a few hours at each of 4 places in a rather cyclic fashion with a cycle of similar people!
1/1/09: From milka's we went to mikko (milka's cousin) and hilla's lovely cosy abode that i managed to not get a single photo at much to my dismay. Then back to milka's to spend the night
2/1/09: From milka's back to mummolaan via a marimekko sale and a beautiful new top for me, thanks aunty rachel! Juuso-veli was also now in kuopio so hung out with him and mummo and ukki and their fridge for a few hours then back into town to find antti's place and a sauna full of finns. and a spaniard. and a youtube cat ninja. and a simply cool card game coloretto. then onto mikko and hilla's till the wee hours - tuning in and out of finnish conversation floating around me. back to milka's for the night.
3/1/09: M&H's again for some nerdily cool new card games (dominion was actually cool, race for the galaxy was mostly just confusing despite being on the winning team!). then mummolaan. then pack all my stuff real quick and race for the bus, dawdle to the next bus cos missed the first by seconds, back to antti's where folks were playing games again. then onto milka's where the games continued (dominion and citadels - played in your choice of swedish or bad indian accent) and were followed by far too long on youtube until only juuso, milka and i were left and eventually decided to go to bed in time to get 4 hours sleep before i had to be up to catch a bus back to ylämylly.
phew.
Mandatory update on the weather over this time period: mostly beautiful sunshiny days with a rough average temp of -10 (saw -8,-13 and -15 from memory). One grey snowy day on the saturday, experienced the snot-freezing-temps for the first time again, and snow is sooooo beautiful when it's this cold!! Every flake of it.
Arto, Marjo and Peppi (minus her 2 front teeth) picked me up from the bus on sunday (now -18) and it was straight onto lappeenranta, a 3 hour drive south, getting very close to the russian border (hence how i saw russia). Marjo's sister Arja lives in lappeenranta and the occasion was her daughter nina's 30th birthday. So hung out there for a couple of days, went for lunch at the greek restaurant that nina works at (very finnish greek if you ask me, the buffet lunch was anyway) and wandered around town a little (as much as arto ever could just wander!). Lappeenranta has a lovely town centre with an old church and graveyard and war memorial as well as an outdoor street mall area with a guy playing one of those wind up music boxes that really shoulda had a monkey playing miniature symbols. Sweated it out in their real wood fire sauna for a while and played some sing star and ate delicious food and drank some salmiakki cream liqueor that tasted much better mixed with some irish cream i decided. And now we're all back in ylämylly, kids are back at school, more beautiful crisp days to counter your sweltering ones! Got in from a walk well over an hour ago and my legs are still feeling a bit frosty. Phones actually work slower when it's this cold.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
koskematon venäjä
I have now seen Russia! From a distance, look but don't touch. A few times actually.
Also a lot of Russians. It's one of their big holidays so they come in droves to eastern finland, and all the finns comment and perhaps complain a bit about how many russians there are around the place. Flocks of them. Judging on their history though it's not that surprising that the finns don't all jump for joy at the sight of them. Apparently they look and dress very differently - i'm not so good at noticing it though!
At some point soon i shall have to update blogi on my last weeks worth of adventures, which could be a bit of a mish.
In the meantime i hope all you out there in blogi-reader-land had a delightful new years and celebrated however you saw fit :)
Also a lot of Russians. It's one of their big holidays so they come in droves to eastern finland, and all the finns comment and perhaps complain a bit about how many russians there are around the place. Flocks of them. Judging on their history though it's not that surprising that the finns don't all jump for joy at the sight of them. Apparently they look and dress very differently - i'm not so good at noticing it though!
At some point soon i shall have to update blogi on my last weeks worth of adventures, which could be a bit of a mish.
In the meantime i hope all you out there in blogi-reader-land had a delightful new years and celebrated however you saw fit :)
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