| Bariloche |
[Jan. 2nd, 2012|11:41 am] |
Hola todos! Our trip to Bariloche and El Bolson was absolutely wonderful. Because of volcanic ash, we took an overnight bus from BsAs to Bariloche. It was super comfortable and there were lots of really bad movies, including "The 12 Men of Christmas." haha I didn´t even know movies this bad existed, but I´ll admit I did watch all the way to the end!
In Bariloche we stayed at Martin´s friend´s place. It was awesome to have a home like that and the use of his car as well. Muchas gracias Andre! We went directly to El Bolson the first day and to our cabaña where the wedding reception would be the next day. It was so peaceful and lovely. That night we had some Jauja (a gelatto store), I got cinnamon (my favorite flavor) and dulce de leche (to make it truly argentine). Yum!
The wedding was at a lovely little church tucked away in the foothills of the Andes. At the reception we had lamb and beef asado (bbq) slow-cooked all day on a fire... fantastico. Everyone was so nice, speaking English with me and always making sure to include me... I had such a good time. Everyone I met from INVAP (Martin´s old company) was super awesome, so as a prof I´m going to start up an exchange program so I can come to Bariloche again :)
On our way back we stopped at El Tronador-- we saw the glacier on top of the mountain, a black glacier in the valley, and did a short hike up to a view of the valley. It was so beautiful. The next day in Bariloche we hiked up to the refugio on Cerro Lopez. It was probably the best view I have ever had on a hike-- I finally understand why Patagonia is the favorite destination of outdoors fanatics world round. I can´t imagine snowboarding down these mountains with a view like that... I´ll be back sometime in winter! Especially because then there won´t be any horseflies... those were not fun. So here is a picture of the mirador (view):
(That´s Martin´s from his phone... more of my pictures to come once I get home.)
The next day in Bariloche we hung out, went shopping, went to the beach... The ash cloud from the volcano had returned and we could see very little of the mountains, so I felt super grateful for the gorgeous day we had had the day before.
Just after the sun set, at 10pm, we went over to Andre´s parents house for new years dinner. Argentines eat late! but this was a perfect way to ring in the new year. The food was excellent, and the company even better. We had champagne and capirinhas (a brazilian drink, my madison friends know it!) at midnight, and then headed into the town for some dancing. We went to a house party, a club, and a bar, enjoying new years the real argentine way-- until well past dawn :) It was awesome, especially because all the people were so happy and having fun. All Andre´s friends were wonderful, especially the two who danced swing with me to jailhouse rock and grease songs... oh my gosh so fun. And I definitely slept well on the bus that afternoon!
So we then took another overnight bus, and now we´re in Mendoza. From my awesome front-row seat on the top of the double decker bus, I had great views of the landscape and saw a guanaco (like a llama), some ram-like animals and some birds that were like upright roadrunners with long necks... very cool. Tomorrow we go for a wine tour and hopefully the day after that we´ll see Aconcagua-- the largest mountain outside of the himalayas.
buenos dias, next update will be after the trip is over! |
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| feliz navidad |
[Dec. 24th, 2011|07:32 pm] |
Buenos tardes everyone, from sunny Buenos Aires! It sure doesn´t feel like Christmas eve, since I´m not with my family, and it´s 80 degrees! but the streets have been nearly empty, and there are Christmas trees in the hotel lobby and restaurants, so it must be Christmas afterall.
We arrived this morning at 9am after an overnight flight from Dallas. I fell asleep right out of Dallas and woke up over Bogotá-- that was neat. I´ve never been to S America before. So far it just feels like Paris or Rome, just the buildings aren´t quite as old, everyone´s speaking Spanish, and it´s a little dirtier. We walked all around after we checked into our hotel, and saw Av 9 de Julio and the signs for Madres de Plaza de Mayo. We got a cafe con leche and an alfajor (yum) at cafe tortoni, and came back recoleta where our hotel is to wander around the touristy market. As we headed back to our hotel, we saw some tango dancers-- after their dance they tried to entice us out and everyone scurried away =)
We´ll be headed to dinner soon after a rest, and to church in the morning at the cathedral across the street. Merry Christmas everyone! |
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| Lisboa |
[Jul. 1st, 2010|04:08 pm] |
After a relaxing few days on Faro beach, I had two days left in Portugal to enjoy Lisbon. Lucky for me I had met Dana, a friend of Rui's who lives in Lisbon, and Rajesh, another friend who was visiting Lisbon as well. Dana generously offered me a place to stay. Rajesh and I took the train up to Lisbon on Tuesday morning. Upon arrival in Lisbon, we went for lunch. When Dana returned home, we put our stuff away and went directly to the Castelo!
Over the course of the next two days whenever someone asked me what I've done in Lisbon, once I answered "We went to the Castelo" the person would say "Okay good. This is the most important." The Castelo de São Jorge (Castle of St. George) is built on one of the many tall hills overlooking Lisbon and the bay. It offers a beautiful view of all the areas of the city, along with lots of neat places to climb up old castley stairs and peek through slits in the castle walls. They also had a periscope, and some of the castle staff did a demo for us, giving us a 360 degree zoomed in view of the city.
That evening we went to Dana's friend's house to watch the World Cup-- Spain v. Portugal. We enjoyed a very nice meal, wines, cheeses, and desserts-- but not a good football game for Portugal. Despite the loss, we went out afterwards to the Baixa district, and there were still plenty of people out on the streets. Apparently there are always plenty of people out there, even on a Tuesday night.
Wednesday morning I went to the Center for Modern Art at the Gulbenkian Museum. I got a little lost on the way there, after getting off the subway; I asked a few people if they knew where I should go and all of them were tourists! Finally someone gave me the idea to go into a store and ask a worker there-- duh-- so she directed me the right way. Most people spoke some English, and my "Fala Inglês?" was apparently good enough for asking if they did speak English, because everyone was quite accommodating.
After the CAM I met my advisor's collaborator Mario at IST (Instituto Superior Técnico) for lunch. I called him to let him know I had arrived, and he told me to take the elevator to the 10th floor; as I hung up and then stood in the elevator lobby I realized that they were working on the elevators and they weren't moving anytime soon! I started up the stairs but luckily Mario called me when I was about on floor 3; the stairwell doors were locked so I would have been stuck when I got up to the 10th floor. Mario met me downstairs and we went for lunch.
After lunch I went back to my temporary home and met Rajesh for a trip to Belém. This is a town just west of Lisbon, and right on the water, where there is a beautiful monastery and other monuments. After visiting the monastery we got some Ola ice cream-- the stands were everywhere so it is hard to resist! On the way back we stopped at a tile store. Many of the building facades in Lisbon were covered with beautiful tiles, and so we stopped by Santana ceramic tile store which has been open since the 1800s. There were many beautiful tiles, and it was fun to imagine the large patterns that were made with each small tile as a mosaic piece.
That evening we went to hear some Fado music. Fado is the classical style of Portugese music-- and very moving. We first went to Casa de Linhares at 8:45pm for a reservation; the restaurant had walls like a castle, and was rebuilt from a building which fell in the 1755 earthquake. In fact a series of underground tunnels did connect the Castelo to this room. They seated us, served us appetizers, and took our order. Just after our waiter left the room, the lights dimmed and two guitarists and a female singer dressed in black with a beautiful shawl came to stand in the dining room.
Fado singers have an almost mournful, deep and emotional voice. I could feel the emotion of her songs through her voice, despite not knowing what the words meant. She sang three songs for us and then the lights came back on and we continued to be served. Throughout the night, new singers came out to sing for us every so often. We spent three hours there and it was quite a lovely experience.
The next morning before I caught my flight, I went for a walk and looked in the bookstores for Maisy books in Portugese for my nieces and nephew. The first store I went to didn't have the books, but the owner directed me around the corner to another store. I found them there, and the store owner wrapped them up for me in special paper. This is my lasting impression of Portugal-- the people exude warmth and friendliness, and they take good care in the things they do, including taking care of you. |
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| A Portugese wedding |
[Jun. 29th, 2010|11:59 am] |
Have you ever met a bride and groom who went to the beach a few hours before their wedding? I didn't think so.
Friday night I left Cambridge and got on a plane to Faro, Portugal, in the Algarve. These are the very southernmost beaches of Portugal, and my friend Rui grew up here. He and his wife Denise are both friends of mine, and I was so blessed to be invited to their lovely wedding!
Faro is a city near the beach, and then a bridge connects to a very long peninsula with a long, beautiful, sandy beach. I stayed in Rui's childhood home on the peninsula, one block from the beach. On Saturday morning we awoke to the sounds of set-up; outside the caterers were putting up the tables for the evening's reception. Denise asked me if I wanted to go to the beach with them-- on their wedding day, really? She wasn't worried about sun burn, getting back late, or anything like that. Denise and I joked with Rui that she better be back early because it would take us at least an hour to get her into her dress.
We went to the beach, and the water was a color I had never seen before, brilliant and more green than the ocean. I went for a swim as far as I felt like going into the huge open sea. When I got back Rui said I went just past the shark line. Okay he was kidding, but there are sharks, just further out.
The wedding ceremony later was at a beautiful cathedral (Sé) in the old part of Faro. There were about 30 guests at the wedding. After we were all inside, Denise waited with her father outside the cathedral doors.
The wedding was mostly in Portugese, with some English and a little Dutch. I knew when they said the Our Father, though, of course. I considered saying it in French to add another language to the ceremony, but I couldn't think fast enough...
As we greeted Denise and Rui outside the cathedral after the wedding, we heard some marching band music starting up. A young group of about 40 children were playing a march and they were headed through the old town of Faro! We watched as they drummed and trumpeted-- in my mind, it was in celebration of Denise and Rui's marriage.
Afterwards we went back to Rui's house where the reception was set up for us. There was juice, wine, and Caipirinhas, a Brazilian cocktail. The evening was beautiful and everyone was so friendly... Plus the food was delicious-- fish for the main course, of course!
The next day we spent some more time at the beach, ate leftover shrimp, bread and cheese from the night before, and watched some world cup soccer. In the evening we went for dinner nearby and had more grilled fish-- again, outstanding. Monday Rui took us in his boat to collect mussels from the side of the bridge. There were millions, literally-- not a delicacy to the folks around here. We got two buckets and then spent a couple of hours cleaning them so that we could eat them for dinner that night.
Before dinner, around 8pm, Denise and I went for my final swim. The water was nice and the beach was practically empty. It was so nice to get a chance to talk with her, wish her congratulations, and go for a swim just me and her. I'm so honored to have had the chance to share her wedding weekend in such a beautiful place.
The evening meal was the perfect ending to my time in Faro. Delicious mussels, a garnish of fresh tomatoes and peppers, more delicious bread, and grilled fresh fish (of which I could not get enough!)... Rui said this was his favorite part, to spend time with friends and family around the table, eating that which we prepared ourselves from start to finish.
I left early the next morning on the train to Lisbon. |
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| Cambridge UK |
[Jun. 25th, 2010|06:33 am] |
On Sunday I arrived in Cambridge for a week-long workshop. I stayed in a dorm near the workshop, and after I checked in the first thing I did was have (a mediocre at best) dinner in the cafeteria. I hadn't seen anyone yet that I know, so I went for a walk after dinner.
I was staying on the west side of Cambridge, so to get into town I walked across the river. There is a lovely walking path from where I was directly to Trinity college, Clare college and King's college, crossing over a bridge to get there.
It wasn't late, but as it was Sunday, everything had closed at 4pm. There were still a few people walking around, but literally not even the Boot's pharmacy was open. I headed back around 8:30pm. The sun didn't set till around 10!
The next day I attended some of the workshop. The first three days of the workshop were for an area that I am not familiar with, and it was soon obvious that I would be lost in all of the talks. So some of my colleagues (Walter, Matt and Mark) and I spent some time chatting in the lounge area, and in the afternoon I got some work done. That night we went out to eat-- I was glad to not eat at the cafeteria again-- and my friends all got fish and chips. I got a bap-- a burger-sized sandwich, mine with brie and mushrooms. Walter and Matt had hired cycles (i.e. rented bikes), and the option of cycling around sounded lovely. As I was considering going into town first thing the next morning to hire a cycle for the day, Walter told me he wouldn't be needing his and I could borrow it. So I cycled home from the pub and went to sleep.
Tuesday was a fun day. I cycled around a bit and then cycled to Walter's talk at The Computer Lab -- University of Cambridge's computer science, engineering and maths department. Then I cycled back to Trinity for lunch with my advisor's sabbatical sponsor, Nick.
We first met in his office, which is in a part of Trinity which was built in 1520. There were signs warning visitors not to enter the buildings, but I walked right past, in through the clock tower.
The walls of Nick's office are stone walls and a foot thick; the doors to his office are four feet wide and rounded at the top, made of wood panels. The back door leads to a garden-- about sixty square feet of grass surrounded by flower gardens, all very well manicured of course, and with lawn furniture at the far end for a place to work in the shade.
Nick took me to lunch with Trinity faculty. We ate in a large hall that has been the dining hall since it was built in 1610. Newton had a meal there, I suppose! We sat at long wooden tables that could seat about 60 people, and we went to different food stations in the room to get different courses of our meal. I started with gruyere cheese-- I've never had one that tastes as good as it tastes in Switzerland, and this one came the closest!
At one point Nick pointed out to me a small man sitting one table over-- the president of the royal society, Martin Rees.
That evening after doing some work, I cycled to the Rice Boat for dinner, to meet the people I had seen at the Computer Lab in the morning. We had a delicious south indian meal and fun conversation. I gave Walter his bike back and walked home.
Wednesday was our last day before the real conference began, so I finished some more work and then my colleagues and I again went to enjoy a part of Cambridge-- we went for scones and tea at The Orchard in Grantchester. This has been a tea garden since the late 1800s. I recommend the trip for anyone visiting Cambridge! |
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| an angelino |
[Dec. 22nd, 2007|06:47 am] |
Here I am in Los Angeles, sleeping on my old futon.
When I went through customs in New York, the passport officer said Welcome Home. That felt nice. I did feel like I am finally coming home, finally coming back to real life other than a fantasy travel life. I know that both of them are real life, but that is how it feels.
As we were landing in Los Angeles, I watched out the window at the lights of the city... beneath us for 30 minutes or more before landing. It really is an amazing sight. You don't see anything like that in Europe.
My friend picked me up and we had salad for dinner. I wasn't hungry, but I was trying to get on schedule. I couldn't even think about eating the tomatoes because they were a sickly faded red color. I think I'm going to grow my own tomatoes in Madison if I can!
Yesterday I finished packing up the crate to be shipped to Madison. We finished early, and almost everything fit! I have just a few awkwardly shaped things with me in the van. It was a beautiful day. The sky is really clear because it has been raining. On the drive back from the storage in Commerce, west on I-10, I could see clearly all the way to the Hollywood sign. So many palm trees everywhere towering above all the buildings. There was a clear view of the mountains and the hills on either side. Then we ate at apple pan, and I went down to Main street and Pico and walked around. The beach was lovely, the sun reflecting brightly in the ocean. The temperature is about 65 degrees these days.
I will really miss Los Angeles. It's hard to believe that I'm leaving already. |
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| last weekend in Finland |
[Dec. 22nd, 2007|06:29 am] |
For my last weekend in Finland, I had dinner with my boss, went to Turku, and had dinner with Pilvi and Teemu once more (until the next time!). (once again, pictures will have to come later.)
I was glad that during my last week I managed to finish the report I had been working on. It wasn't anything special, but at least I have written up all the work that I researched the last 5 months.
After my last day, my boss met me at Ahjo, a bar inside a hotel. All the seats and tables were white-- for some reason it felt very Finnish to me! We talked a little bit about the internship and then went to dinner nearby at a restaurant called Villa Thai. It was very nice and for the first time I ate a king prawn which arrived in tact! I had to take off the head, the legs, and the armor ha ha. The whole meal was quite good.
The next day I went to Turku to meet up with a girl who I had met a few weeks earlier. She is traveling to India in spring, so it was nice talking with her about that. When I arrived, we first went to the Turku Cathedral. There was a Christmas tree out front that was almost the size of the Cathedral itself!
The girl I met is an art student in Turku, and she lives with a family, including a 7-year-old boy named Otto. While we were eating dinner at her place with two of her friends, Otto was endlessly entertaining us with the broomstick as a guitar and other various tricks. At one point he started cutting some candles with a small knife, and I learned some vocabulary: I wanted to ask "Why?" which is "Miksi?" and his response was "Mitä miksi?" which means literally "what why?" Must have been obvious to him :)
After dinner we went to a bar (I will insert the name later when I find the paper where she wrote it down for me). It was a really nice place, easy to talk and enjoy the company. Another girl joined us who is also going to India.
We then went to a club where they played lots of indie rock and american oldies songs. I really enjoyed that club, mostly because everyone was so nice and friendly.
In the morning, my new friend slept in, so we didn't get to do much. We talked and ate breakfast, and then we went to a market of things made by art students, and then walked around in the center a bit. I had some packing to do, so I left around 3pm.
I packed up all my stuff, and then I met Pilvi and Teemu at their place for dinner. They have such good taste, the place was really beautiful. Pilvi had stretched some designer fabric over wood in a canvas-shape, and that was really lovely. Also I got a demo of their wake-up light! It slowly brightens the room with sun-like light... and even plays bird noises if you want!
The dinner was so delicious-- a perfect way to leave Helsinki. Salmon with two sauces, potatoes, broccoli with some cheese and berry pie for dessert. We went for a walk afterwards through a park near their house, and from the top of a hill we could see all the lights of Helsinki. Then I got on a bus and finished up my packing before falling asleep.
I flew to Zurich the next day. Upon arrival I went to ETH, a university there where my friend is a professor. We talked and then went to dinner with all his students. That was fun. As we were walking to dinner, we passed a lot of booths selling sweaters, christmas ornaments and the like. When we got near the raclette booth, the smell really hit me-- a smell once familiar that I hadn't smelled that for two months. oh man. I already knew what would be my last dinner the next night :)
I really enjoyed being back in Switzerland. Looking around, hearing the sounds, smelling the smells I really felt like I was in Switzerland, and it has such a special and unique personality. This is the great part of living somewhere-- you really know the personality inside yourself. It's not just a thought, it's a feeling.
My last day, I closed my postfinance account, bought some more chocolate, had a sausage and roll for lunch, and went to the Kunsthaus art museum. There were some lovely exhibitions. A really nice woman in the contemporary art section recommended that I go to the police station to see the painting on the walls. Staisey's dad had mentioned this before, so I thought it was a great idea. It was really beautiful. (photos to come!) I visited my friend's lab one last time, and then got that raclette dinner I had been waiting for.
Finally on 19 December, I headed to the airport to leave Europe... 10 days short of 6 months, I was finally on my way home. |
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| Happy Independence Day |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|12:02 pm] |
I don't have the pictures up yet, but last Thursday was Finnish independence day! The Finns got independence from the Soviet Union in 1917. Lenin was a big supporter of Finnish independence... learned that one from the Lenin museum :)
Since we had the day off, I had lunch with a co-worker and his wife. She had smoked reindeer lunch meet, mashed rutabaga, and beet salad. Rye bread here is common, which may seem like bad news for non-rye-loving Laura... but I like the taste much better than rye bread in the US. Also, my co-worker had me try a piece of fish that was kept in a jar with some kind of tomato sauce. It wasn't bad... but I only had one!
Afterwards they drove me around Helsinki old town. That used to be the center of the city, but at some point someone decided that there were problems with it as the center and so the city was moved. The buildings in the old town looked like red brick industrial buildings, similar to the buildings in Tampere.
In the afternoon I went to the Women's Christmas Market at Wanha Satama. There were so many lovely things!! I had to communicate via sign language at times, but I kind of enjoy shopping that way :)
I went home to rest a little bit, and while I was there I saw a parade of people outside the window! They were passing by for at least 15 minutes, carrying torches and singing songs. The wife of my co-worker is Finnish, and she told me that the tradition is to light two candles in every window from 6-7pm. Then you can go outside for an hour and look at all the candles. She told me that while she lived in LA, she would go walking on Independence day to see if any Finns lived in her neighborhood!
That evening I met Pilvi and Teemu for a movie-- Eastern Promises. These two are friends with my friend Matthew, and they showed me around my first weekend in helsinki. Anyway, the movie was mostly in English, but the subtitles were in Finnish-- which proved to be a challenge when the actors started speaking Russian, haha. It's okay, the movie was not all that deep or metaphorical and I think I didn't miss anything. Plus, I knew when they said "Thank you" because I recognized the Finnish word "Kiitos" in the subtitles!
Before the movie we went next door and bought some candy to snack on. We could take one plastic bag and fill it with all the candies we wanted for a single per-gram price. My favorites were special Finnish candies which usually include some black licorice flavor. For example, they had a small licorice-chocolate-sandwich candies and a soft mixed mint-and-licorice candy. I also liked the chocolate covered dried strawberries.
Friday night I prepared for a ferry trip to Estonia the next day, but unfortunately when I arrived at the ferry station, everything was canceled because of inclement weather. I might try next weekend, but if not, next time I'm in helsinki :)
Instead I just slept some more and had a lazy Saturday. Sunday afternoon I met Pilvi again for more Christmas markets-- the Design market and the Student's Christmas Market. Pilvi tells me that they have the same stuff every year, but she goes anyway. We enjoyed a coffee in the Stockmann before she headed back home. Then I met Petri again for a trip to the Ateneum Museum of Finnish art. We only had one hour, so we went directly to the Finnish collection. I really enjoyed this museum... I think part of it was because there was a lot of really spectacular art that I had never seen before. I didn't take pictures of all the pretty paintings, because I wasn't supposed to, but I did snap this one for you:
When Petri saw that he said, "That isn't Finnish." But we were on the Finnish floor, so I looked at the tag and in fact, it said the artist was from Finland. Skeptical, he also looked at the tag-- and laughed saying "His last name in Finnish means 'Estonian.'" Ha.
While I'm on art, I'll also share this one with you from Kiasma. The artist was a finalist in the Carnegie Scandanavian art prize. Sheila and I went to Kiasma the night she arrived.
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| North of the Arctic Circle! |
[Dec. 4th, 2007|05:01 pm] |
This weekend I went to Rovaniemi and Oulu with Sheila! We saw Santa, rode in a reindeer sled, and walked in the snowy forest... let me tell you about it!
So on Thursday morning, we started by visiting the Sibelius monument in Helsinki. It's really a beautiful monument, perfect for a a musician. He is a famous Finnish composer. I actually hadn't heard of him before I came here, but my mom had :) And the week before I had the chance to see his music played at the Finlandia auditorium just 5 minutes walk from my apartment.
Sheila spent the day at design stores while I was at work, and that night we got on our overnight sleeper train to Rovaniemi! This is a town just 8 km south of the arctic circle. It's quite far, the fast trains go in 9 hours, but our overnight train was 12 hours. It left at 7:30 pm so we had plenty of time to hang out in our berth!
I've never been in a bed on a train before. I was really excited. I couldn't stop thinking of agatha christie and murder on the orient express! We had an end cabin but I wonder if other cabins connect with doors... so you just wouldn't know how the murderer got in.... hmmmmmm
We woke up before the train arrived at 8 am in Rovaniemi. It was still dark outside. We made our way to the hotel to leave our bags. After a leisurely and delicious hotel breakfast, our first order of business was to see Reindeer! It took some time to figure out that the reindeer and husky "safaris" were all booked, so we just went by ourselves to Santa Claus Village via bus. The Arctic circle line was painted on the ground inside the building, but we didn't realize it until we crossed!
Pretty soon Sheila asked the tourist information how we could see a reindeer-- and it just so happened that we could pay 1/6 the price of the safaris if we just wanted to do almost all the same reindeer stuff on our own. So we walked over to the reindeer farm and lined up for our sled ride. The owner gave us instructions on how to brake or speed up using the rope, and off we went!
Our reindeer was named Sukkri (or something like that) and he was very nice and gave us a good ride around the track. He still had both sets on antlers on his head, but he will lose them sometime soon. The reindeer grow back new antlers every year. There were about 15 reindeer on the farm. One of them was white, and the owner said "He's a little stupid but we keep him because he's white." Sheila wanted to pet the reindeer, but was advised against it, especially on their head-- they don't like it. They stay in packs, however unlike horses and cows, the reindeer never touch each other and in general they don't like to be touched. The absolutely most interesting thing we learned about the reindeer is that they're not bred! They won't breed in captivity, so the owners tag them and then let them go into the forest during spring. Every fall, they go back out into the forest, recapture their reindeer, and retrain them to pull the sled! They also get to keep the offspring of their own female reindeer.
After the sled ride we each got our very own reindeer drivers license and had some hot berry juice inside a tipi. We walked back to Santa Claus Village for some shopping and lunch. At this appropriate time I tasted my first reindeer meat-- in sausage-like form on top of a pizza. Here's a picture of sheila and me along with a picture of the arctic sunset.
 
At about 2:30pm, night had descended, and we realized we hadn't even seen Santa yet. We headed over and filled out a form to get official santa visitation cards. The long walk to Santa's office was an interesting one-- there were lots of bridges, icicles, clocks the size of the room and other cool decorations to entertain all the people who are waiting in line! But we lucked out big time, because there was no line when we arrived. We had to wait for one person to finish, and then the elf invited us in. We talked to Santa and told him what we wanted for Christmas. He was a nice guy and he had some really cool shoes. No photos allowed, so I don't have one of those to share with you.
We took the bus back to Rovaniemi and asked at the tourist office if there was any other way to get to the wilderness the next morning. Unfortunately, nothing was really available-- our planning was a bit too last minute. So I went to the Marttiini Knife factory to look at their displays, and Sheila did some shopping. We had a dinner of lettuce and cheese sandwiches with food from the grocery and watched some Finnish TV in our hotel room, including funniest home videos-- which were the American videos with Finnish commentary-- too bad I didn't know what they were saying! This also included a strange piece where the host of the show stood in a dimly lit room and sang a metal/rap song into a mirror for about 5 minutes as some of the more stupid home videos were being shown. I *really* wonder what that was about.
The next morning as Sheila caught up from her bad jet lag, I went into a forested area near Rovaniemi for a little wilderness. It was cold, but the trees were really beautiful. I managed to find a path to an observation tower, from which I could see the town and all the snow-covered trees from above.
 
Near the town there were also some lighted trees. (Remember to click, there are a few more pictures to see there!)
I met back up with Sheila, we had lunch and then headed to the train station for our two-hour train to Oulu. In Oulu we dropped our bags off and had dinner at a Thai restaurant. It turned out it was the Thai King's birthday, so there was some traditional dancing that night. Afterwards we headed to the theater for a Finnish kid's musical! It was called "Rupert the Rapper and Aunt Deep Freeze" and it was pretty hokey. We could basically tell what was going on, and the kids' dancing was great. The girl next to us explained the details at intermission and the end.
The next morning we went for a walk around Oulu, which is made up of many islands connected by several street and walking bridges. We saw the Oulu cathedral, some frozen lake, and even some ice fisherman!
We stopped for a bite to eat in Pannu, a restaurant inside Stockman department store, and we got to taste glögi, which is Finnish mulled wine with spices, raisins and almonds. Our train back to Helsinki left after dark-- 3:30pm-- so on our six hour ride back we played cards, took naps, read and chatted. Yesterday she went to Fiskars when I came to work, and in the evening we did her final round of shopping, dinner at Kosmos, and a drink in the Arctic ice bar made of ice.
Sheila left this morning. I'm really glad she was here to experience some of Finland with me. This Thursday is Finnish independence day, and then I only have two weekends left... I shall make the most of it! |
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| Busiest weekend yet |
[Nov. 27th, 2007|11:18 pm] |
It was positively gorgeous weather on Saturday! Okay... a little cold, but the sun was bright and no clouds in sight. I met Petri, a friend of the girl who rented my room to me, to do a little exploring. We started at the Onion Church, where the gold tops on the towers look like onions:
We went through the outdoor market by the ferries. They sell scarves, hats, socks, and other sundries to all the tourists hungry for specialties. Nearby is the covered market, Kaupahalli. In there they were selling mostly food-- and lots of strange stuff I had never seen before! Although, one booth was selling bottles of spice that you can buy in the US grocery stores... still, that was the exception. I saw some strange fish pastries, other Finnish specialties, and even reindeer kebab!
Since the day was so sunny, we decided to take the ferry to Sumenlinna. This is an island right near Helsinki-- it takes about 10 minutes on the ferry to get there. I took this picture as we approached. It was noon when we went over... note the sun's position!
The landscape of Suomenlinna was really lovely. I imagine that in summer, it's a great place to be. Petri told me that there are people everywhere having picnics there in summer. The island has a fortress which was built in 1748 and was the sight of many military struggles.
 
The photo on the left shows the typical Finnish landscape. Many places I've seen are made up of this kind of rock. The church that was built into rock which I described in my last post was inside a hill of this rock. Also, Petri told me that the whole sea freezes in the winter! At that point you can walk or drive to Suomenlinna island :) Only the big cruise boats can crush through the ice.
After dinner, we went back to Helsinki and headed to an arts and crafts fair. One of my Nokia coworkers mentioned it because his wife had a booth there. It was wonderful! There were so many nice things to see, most of them homemade. An old woman was making yarn and showing off the things she wove. She couldn't speak English so Petri helped me buy something from her. We wandered around looking at all the crafts-- glass decor, candles, lots of places with homemade yarn. I tried some porridge-- it was alright. Petri said no thanks, that they were served porridge every day in the army, and he doesn't need anymore. In Finland the army is compulsory for men before the age of 27. However, you can also do civilian service instead-- you just have to serve longer.
The best part of the crafts fair was at the end. I was searching everywhere for scarves, and I could only find places selling yarn so that you could knit the scarf yourself. Well in the last minute before close, I gave up on the scarves but noticed in front of me something beautiful that I thought I would like to have. The seller told Petri-- one minute before closing, you can make an offer on anything you see! So I gave him a price 2/3 the original sticker price, and he laughed but said yes! He said he was happy to do business with an American. That was fun :)
On Sunday I went to Tampere, Finland's second largest town. It was snowing a lot, but that was okay by me because the forecast was for rain! As I walked out of the train station, a Japanese guy asked me where the library is. I told him I didn't know, but if he was going to the Moomin museum then I would go with him. We managed to find it (after a woman gave me directions in French) and I really enjoyed seeing all the Moomin dioramas and sketches. The pictures are so simple, but tell a story. It reminds me of old Winnie the Pooh. One big difference, though, is that the Moomins regularly face some pretty devastating life trials. The stories are grim, but in the end the family and friends face the difficulties together.
I next caught the bus to see Pyynikki ridge. The bus driver told me where to get off and I walked through the forest to the observation tower on the ridge.
I could see Tampere from the observation tower, though the view was obstructed by the snow. I went to eat in the cafe at the base of the tower and had one of the best donuts ever there! Everyone was ordering coffee and one warm sugar donut from the pile at the cash register-- that's a must when visiting Tampere!
I got back on the bus-- had the same driver-- and headed to the Lenin museum. The south of Finland, including Tampere, was the "red" part of the civil war in 1918. Lenin lived in Finland during some of his exile, and it was in Tampere where he did some of his writing and met Stalin. They also had a nice Sputnik exhibit for the 50th anniversary!
From there I walked back to Keskustori, the center square of town, and through the old industrial area. There were lots of red brick buildings along the river which used to be factories. I then walked to the Tampere cathedral and sat in the warm, quiet church for a little bit. There was an amazing painting behind the altar... this photo doesn't do it justice.
Now it was starting to get dark. I walked over to my final museum-- the Spy museum! This was another good one. They had things used by spies and history of espionage. They had a microphone where you could talk and alter your voice, books and lipstick containers which could hold recorders or film, invisible ink, encoding machines, night vision goggles... a ton of stuff. They also had some stories written about spies from the past 70 years, and a map with people who are known to spy, marked with a colored tack to show where they spied and for whom.
I went for a little walk and soon stopped at Plevna for dinner. It's a brewery which was recommended to me, and it was good! I had chicken and rice, which I enjoyed-- though the vegetables were pretty awful. I think most vegetables in Finland are not so good. I've learned to avoid the tomatoes in the salad bar... I had a wheat beer which was good, and then I topped it off with dessert! Another recommendation-- ice cream and tar sauce!
The sauce is actually made from tar. It tasted strange, but not bad, and I could imagine it grows on you :) It was a little bit like rootbeer, but with another sharp kick, kind of like how varnish smells, haha.
On my way back to the train station I took this picture in Keskustori of the Tampere Christmas tree.
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