euro 2009

Hello and welcome back, another glorious week of adventures to enthraw you with... After arriving into Helsinki at 10am I was ready for some relaxing finnish culture. Sauna... maybe... I met with Harri my CS host at the ferry terminal and we headed to his apartment in the centre of helsinki. Was a long walk, or atleast when you are extremely hung over it feels like very long walk and also when you are carrying about 30kgs of weight... Why did I shop for heavy winter gear so early.. haha But apart from that.. We made it to his apartment and I felt the need to sleep the first day away. I met the other cs'er there who was from israel... I refer to her as the quintessential example of a sloth... in the kindest way possible.. haha Won't bore with her details.. Lets just say she has no money and shouldn't have been traveling beacause I was sick of her eatin my food... hmmm yeah that about does it. Anyways, Harri.. I hope she left eventually... Ok.. moving on.. I spent about 3 days in helsinki walking the streets and immersing myself into this very different culture. I was at first unsure about what the finnish would be like... I felt they would be much like the other scandinavian countries.. But no way... they are very different.. they sound very different and they act... well they act kinda the same.. but they are so much different culturally. I learnt a lot about the finnish in the short time I was there.. I never even knew they were occupied by both Sweden and Russia at periods.. Hence the reasoning behind their very russian sounding accents... But don't tell the Finnish that..They hate when you say that... I found out the hard way... hmm lol.

So I spent a few days exploring, hanging out with my host harri and just tlaking as per usual... I think thats pretty much all I do these days is talk... and talk and talk... blaaaahhh blaaahhh blaahhh... i even get tired of me talking... But when you have a story.. you gotta tell it right... hmm maybe... So I visited the zoo on my of my days through the city.. i walked about 15 klm for that day trying to find it... but i found it.. it was on a small island in the harbour.. and I was under the impression it would have Moose... its finland.. ofcourse they have moose... Ah no... no moose.. everything else.. even kangaroos but no flamin moose... I love moose.. but then when i witnessed a reindeer nearly climb a fence.. i figured maybe that why they don't have moose..because they just cant get high enough fences... These animals are smart and they will find a way out... Lucky they live on an island... But yeah it was a nice day.. It only rained well... ok the sun only came out for about 10 minutes but it was nice when it did... So once my journey was complete in helsinki... it was time to head to Tampere.. Tampere is located about 2 hours north west of Helsinki and is situated on a strip of lands between 2 beautiful lakes... Rather splendid... hmm Yeah its a nice city in other words... Lots of old factories originally owned by a scottish dude names finlayson who started the cotton industry amongst other factories in the area.. which till operate today... They have very distinct Chimney stacks towering over tampere which are unique to the area. The first night I stayed with Mario... Now Mario is not Finnish.. he is a student from Portugal.. but he hosted me anyways and we had a great time together.. We hung out with his friend Salla (i think) and a weird Chinese/Singaporean/Australian migrant to sweden who now lives in Finland...I know try explaining that one when your hungova... We visited salla's house first for uncooked carrot cake and coffee.. and salla's house is really cool.. it is very old and has secret rooms within it hidden behind cupboards used during world war 2 to hide jews from the Gestapo. I have never seen one of those before, and it was very interesting. The next day, Mario and I walked around the city looking for a pirate costume as he was doing the turku to stockholm cruise, similar to mine and they were traveling with 80 other students from their uni... They had a pirate them onboard one of the nights so they needed to dress up... Needless to say we didn't find anything.. But I am sure Mario got something eventually. I only stayed with Mario the one night then stayed with Miina and her Family for the second night I was in Tampere... And what a great family she has... We met in the City first and headed out to her home... When I first met Miina, I was thrown by her eccentric clothing... She is a great person and right from the beginning we got along great... Miina is a little quiet but I made up for that by just talking... and.. well talking some more.. think she was looking for the mute button after a few hours... Miina is unique in the way that she has a range of talents... she is a singer, plays musical instruments, and is part of a circus... Now this is what made my expeirence in tampere unique... How many people get to say they have been to a circus school... although I didn't do a lot there except watch everyone else... I did attempt juggling.. which i must admit.. i am getting much better at since I had loads of practice with apples in estonia... There was tightrope walking, aerial rope climbing, juggling and i have never been so impressed by jugglers... it was amazing to see this... While I was in awe of these people... Miina and her friend where practicing a balancing trick as you do when you are part of a circus.. And one slip... Miina came crashing down and injured her wrist.. I felt horrible because she said that never happens.. she has been doing this for about 5 years... So yeah, I think I cursed her.. But she was ok after that.. Well I hope so at least... Miina and her family live in one of the old cotton mill homes... with views over the lakes and tampere.. the house has been renovated and has such an amazing character to it... With low ceilings... angled walls and narrow staircases.. this place was unique... Photos don't really do justice. Although my time in Tampere was very short... My memories of that place, the people, Mario and Miina they made it a place to remember for life... I left tampere headed for Helsinki again in order to catch my cruise to Tallinn in estonia.. With the baltics on the horizon... I was closing one adventure and preparing my liver for another...