So I've been back for a little over a week.. and although it is good to be back home, I miss a few things about my new-found Finnish culture.
So! Here are a few of my favorite things...
…from Norge (i.e. Norway).
The lakes and ponds in Northern Lapland and Norway are BLACK. It’s unbelievable, and as you can imagine, have spurred on several myths and stories that are part of Saumi legends and folklore.
Beating Kevon to seeing the fjords of Norway! (Haha!) And they are breathtaking by the way…
Making friendship bracelets, playing Nintendo, and sharing iPod earbuds with Megan like we were in 7th grade all over again.
Sara wearing her awesome headband... with reindeer and campfires and the word “Finland” emblazoned on it. She feels it’s her best purchase, and I could not disagree… and even more so, because I would never want to disagree with a finnish ninja.
Driving by all the lonely, sweet, and salty windblown houses, fishing boats, and churches along the coast of northern Norway. There is a certain romantic, hearty feeling one senses as they view these homes. What a different life the people who live up here must live… and yet, as I am learning on this trip.. there are still so many similarities (my deep moment for the post).
Going for a relaxing sit by the Arctic Ocean to watch the sunset at 11:30pm... for THREE hours! In the summer, the sun sets, but never goes below the horizon in Alta, Norway. We watched as the sun touched... and as it began its ascent again at 12:00am… crazy beautiful! This is something worth taking a trip to see in your lifetime.
Finnish home cooking… I will never look the same way at a beet patty in my life. Other yummy things included on the menu: steamed potatoes and reindeer stew.
The fact that I just took a 20 some hour bus tour in 36 hours… yet enjoyed it. Don’t know if I ever want to ride in a bus again, but I’m sure that statement will come back and bite me in the butt later.
…from Helsinki.
Sitting in a restaurant patio the firs t night in Helsinki, and realizing/ feeling for the first time this trip that… Hey, I am in Europe! …Apparently this Nepalese restaurant on the square is what I had envisioned myself doing when I finally got here…
The mixture of fantastic architecture. Russian, Swedish and Finnish mix! So interesting. One of the goals on my list is to visit the glorious Russian Greek Orthodox church… but I may have to settle for just exterior photos.
Free public wifi – which is especially hilarious on the tram… So just in case you can’t find a café that will meet your needs, just hop on the tram and ride around the city until all your internet needs have been met. I may try this yet.
People watching in a reggae music playing, organic, college age coffee shop in downtown Helsinki. Not a favorite thing: paying 2,60€ for a tiny cup of coffee, which I better enjoy, because refils are a mere 1,50€... sheesh.
Nepalese food in Finland.
Hearing seagulls before I fall asleep, and remembering that I am near the ocean, when in fact I only feel that I am the middle of a foreign city.
Merimekko. Period.
Gas station coffee that actually tastes GOOD. Only a 1,60€… what a steal. (I’m feeling a bit coffee robbed in Finland, by the way… the gas station has been the cheapest by far. I may or may not be spoiled by our cheap coffee in the US.)
That there is darkness at night in Helsinki. One can look forward to dusk, about three hours of this "darkness," and then dawn on the other end… and I am supremely happy to be able to sleep again.
For the last time, moi moi,
R. Gray
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
London: The Whirlwind Tour
Bonjour fellow followers:
let me start off by apologizing for the lack of blogging as of late. i have a lot to say so sit down..get cozy..and stay a while. we have been on quite the tour of the UK. so here's a wrap up.
sara and i flew from Helsinki to London for the second leg of our eurotrip. we met up with two of my BFFs (Morgan and Kate)at the airport. this was a challenge in itself because:
a. we don't have any communication devices.
b. we are in a strange country.
c. kate and morgs were jet lagged and very weary.
d. we didn't have a meeting spot.
so sara and i landed and we got grilled by passport control. who was a very angry man with a british accent...but don't let the accent fool you..he was an arse. for a few minutes i thought we were going to be denied into the country based on a miscommunication. moving on.
we finally found morgs and kate and they were scared we didn't make it. so we celebrated and hugged and then we had to tackle the next challenge which was....finding a way to our hostel. 75 pounds (if you know the conversion rate..do the math...it blows) later we arrived safetly at the Palmers Lodge Hostel.
our hostel was really nice and the people there were very friendly. we met people from Australia, Romania, England, Korea ummmm i forget where else. anyway we were in a 12 person all female dorm which was fine...except for the girl next to me had a very nasty cold and had the strangest coughs ive ever heard.. obviously i did not get any sleep to her overly snotty self. by day three i wanted to punt her. i blame her for my chronic blood shot eyes.
this is the front of our hostel. this is sara jumping for joy.
so we all decided that we were going to spend one day and go to every big touristy spot we could. here are the highlights in a photo montage.
this is Buckingham palace. there were a crap ton of people just standing at the gates. crossing the street was quite the ordeal. there were these little guards that made you walk completely around the side of the street in a single file line. he would point and say (in a british accent) "follow the rope please. ma'am please stay to the side!" i was never very good at follow the leader.
this is us by the statues across from the palace.
this is kate and i recreating the statues above us.
this is also part of the monument...i wish i knew the name of it...moving on. im squishing a man with my monster fingers.
this is us doing the obvious signifier of OSU. please note that i am wearing a pink tank top that ties at the top by my shoulders...this information will come in handy for the next picture.
this is me realizing that my tank top just came untied. shit.
this picture is for my dad (an avid follower of this blog). this is the queen's limousine. a rolls royce phantom iv...they only made 18 of these for royalty and heads of state. the queen got style.
so my pictures of our day stops here due to a dead camera battery. but we went to big ben, Westminster abbey, the TATE modern art museum, and hyde park.
the next part of this story will be dedicated to the luggage mishap...please enjoy the reenactment.
sara and i switched bags for the trip to the airport. she was rolling mine and i was rolling hers. this entire trip i had been warning sara, "hey sara! don't drag your luggage down the stairs" (clunk clunk clunk)
"hey guys! we have to catch the jubilee line all the way down to london bridge! oh look! we gotta get on this tube (aka the tram)! hurry! hurry!" as sara shuffles in last..climbing the tube. NOTE: on our journey we have seen multiple people get squished in between the doors of the tram..very scary and we wanted to avoid this at all costs.
*grunt* doors are beeping, warning the passengers that the doors will close in five seconds. *grunt again* with a couple of tugs to save my luggage (megan's luggage) i pulled and i pulled and i heard *snap* *tear* then a small asian woman comes out and presents the wheel from the bottom of the suitcase.
"megan. i am so sorry."
with no wheels and the bottom threatening to rip...i carried my suitcase, my life, all the way to edinburgh. i carried a 30 pound child across the country. needless to say...my arms are still hurting today.
exhibit a. hanging on.
exhibit b. the bleed.
exhibit c. the contents.
that is all for now. the other ladies will be blogging soon.
moi moi,
megan
p.s. - i officially turned in my master's thesis yesterday : ) now it's time for vacation...needless to say there was a pub crawl after my submission.
let me start off by apologizing for the lack of blogging as of late. i have a lot to say so sit down..get cozy..and stay a while. we have been on quite the tour of the UK. so here's a wrap up.
sara and i flew from Helsinki to London for the second leg of our eurotrip. we met up with two of my BFFs (Morgan and Kate)at the airport. this was a challenge in itself because:
a. we don't have any communication devices.
b. we are in a strange country.
c. kate and morgs were jet lagged and very weary.
d. we didn't have a meeting spot.
so sara and i landed and we got grilled by passport control. who was a very angry man with a british accent...but don't let the accent fool you..he was an arse. for a few minutes i thought we were going to be denied into the country based on a miscommunication. moving on.
we finally found morgs and kate and they were scared we didn't make it. so we celebrated and hugged and then we had to tackle the next challenge which was....finding a way to our hostel. 75 pounds (if you know the conversion rate..do the math...it blows) later we arrived safetly at the Palmers Lodge Hostel.
our hostel was really nice and the people there were very friendly. we met people from Australia, Romania, England, Korea ummmm i forget where else. anyway we were in a 12 person all female dorm which was fine...except for the girl next to me had a very nasty cold and had the strangest coughs ive ever heard.. obviously i did not get any sleep to her overly snotty self. by day three i wanted to punt her. i blame her for my chronic blood shot eyes.
this is the front of our hostel. this is sara jumping for joy.
so we all decided that we were going to spend one day and go to every big touristy spot we could. here are the highlights in a photo montage.
this is Buckingham palace. there were a crap ton of people just standing at the gates. crossing the street was quite the ordeal. there were these little guards that made you walk completely around the side of the street in a single file line. he would point and say (in a british accent) "follow the rope please. ma'am please stay to the side!" i was never very good at follow the leader.
this is us by the statues across from the palace.
this is kate and i recreating the statues above us.
this is also part of the monument...i wish i knew the name of it...moving on. im squishing a man with my monster fingers.
this is us doing the obvious signifier of OSU. please note that i am wearing a pink tank top that ties at the top by my shoulders...this information will come in handy for the next picture.
this is me realizing that my tank top just came untied. shit.
this picture is for my dad (an avid follower of this blog). this is the queen's limousine. a rolls royce phantom iv...they only made 18 of these for royalty and heads of state. the queen got style.
so my pictures of our day stops here due to a dead camera battery. but we went to big ben, Westminster abbey, the TATE modern art museum, and hyde park.
the next part of this story will be dedicated to the luggage mishap...please enjoy the reenactment.
sara and i switched bags for the trip to the airport. she was rolling mine and i was rolling hers. this entire trip i had been warning sara, "hey sara! don't drag your luggage down the stairs" (clunk clunk clunk)
"hey guys! we have to catch the jubilee line all the way down to london bridge! oh look! we gotta get on this tube (aka the tram)! hurry! hurry!" as sara shuffles in last..climbing the tube. NOTE: on our journey we have seen multiple people get squished in between the doors of the tram..very scary and we wanted to avoid this at all costs.
*grunt* doors are beeping, warning the passengers that the doors will close in five seconds. *grunt again* with a couple of tugs to save my luggage (megan's luggage) i pulled and i pulled and i heard *snap* *tear* then a small asian woman comes out and presents the wheel from the bottom of the suitcase.
"megan. i am so sorry."
with no wheels and the bottom threatening to rip...i carried my suitcase, my life, all the way to edinburgh. i carried a 30 pound child across the country. needless to say...my arms are still hurting today.
exhibit a. hanging on.
exhibit b. the bleed.
exhibit c. the contents.
that is all for now. the other ladies will be blogging soon.
moi moi,
megan
p.s. - i officially turned in my master's thesis yesterday : ) now it's time for vacation...needless to say there was a pub crawl after my submission.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Helsinki: The City I Haven't Really Seen
Well once again I am beyond in the blogging realm. It has been extremely difficult this week to get anything done in this blog and just in general…we have no time for anything.
I really don’t have anything to speak too much about. We hardly get let out of the cage so Helsinki continues to be a mystery to me.
The top 52 most interesting facts about Helsinki:
1. It is bigger than I was anticipating.
2. They have a large tram and metro system.
3. People do not jay walk. It is not illegal…people just don’t do it.
4. There is public wi-fi in the center square.
5. There is A LOT of shopping here. I mean stores everywhere.
6. Marimeko is huge.
7. Metal has it’s own special culture.
8. The mustache, fohawk, and man-pony are all live and well here.
9. The teen population all consists of hipsters.
10. Open containers are A-OK.
11. They have an island that I can’t pronounce or spell which is similar to Put-In-Bay.
12. Finland has hands down the best strawberries I have ever eaten.
13. There are open markets everywhere = no need to buy produce at grocery stores.
14. Their street signs are in Finnish and Swedish.
15. Finnish Kebab is completely different than U.S. kabab.
16. There are at least three huge multi-level malls all within a block of each other.
17. Beer is expensive.
18. The sun almost sets for three hours a night.
19. There are seagulls everywhere. And they will eat your ice cream right out of your hand.
20. Cider beer is better here.
21. Everyone smokes but all institutions are smoke-free.
22. Hostel Academica will nickel and dime you for everything.
23. Washing your laundry in a laundry-mat costs 5euro and 8euro to dry plus 1euro for one scoop of detergent.
24. Hesberger is the equivalent of Burger King.
25. I have seen 3 McDonald’s.
26. Diet Pepsi = Pepsi Max.
27. There are public saunas.
28. It costs .50euro to use a public toilet.
29. People recycle their bottles and cans for money. It’s not just for bums.
30. Nalgen or re-useable plastic water bottles are not used here…everyone just re-uses their regular bottled water containers.
31. Finland has extremely clean tap water.
32. Most people speak English.
33. Nudity is not a problem.
34. Taxis are Mercedes and BMWs.
35. Everyone bicycles everywhere.
36. When standing at any location in Finland there will be at least three ice cream stands in sight.
37. Postage stamps are expensive.
38. The mall food court items are really fancy.
39. Most Fins have summer cottages.
40. The average Fin is in college for 7-8 years.
41. Hygiene is not an issue.
42. Cookies = Biscuits.
43. Fins love their Lady GaGa.
44. Leggings and Ts are the dress of choice for most girls, especially studded ones.
45. Stores have to stop selling alcohol at 9pm.
46. The downtown center looks like New York at rush hour…minus jay walking.
47. The streets are clean. No trash.
48. Gypsies dress in Renaissance style clothing.
49. There is no universal law for doors. It is hard to tell which way the door opens which has caused many embarrassing moments.
50. There are really small locks on doors where you have to turn the lock to open the door. This is very confusing and easily looked over.
51. The exit signs for a building are green with a white man running, an arrow pointing down, and a white rectangle.
52. Smurfs have made quite the impression in Finland. Smurfi candy, pop, decorative wear ..you get the picture.
for now fellow followers,
megan
I really don’t have anything to speak too much about. We hardly get let out of the cage so Helsinki continues to be a mystery to me.
The top 52 most interesting facts about Helsinki:
1. It is bigger than I was anticipating.
2. They have a large tram and metro system.
3. People do not jay walk. It is not illegal…people just don’t do it.
4. There is public wi-fi in the center square.
5. There is A LOT of shopping here. I mean stores everywhere.
6. Marimeko is huge.
7. Metal has it’s own special culture.
8. The mustache, fohawk, and man-pony are all live and well here.
9. The teen population all consists of hipsters.
10. Open containers are A-OK.
11. They have an island that I can’t pronounce or spell which is similar to Put-In-Bay.
12. Finland has hands down the best strawberries I have ever eaten.
13. There are open markets everywhere = no need to buy produce at grocery stores.
14. Their street signs are in Finnish and Swedish.
15. Finnish Kebab is completely different than U.S. kabab.
16. There are at least three huge multi-level malls all within a block of each other.
17. Beer is expensive.
18. The sun almost sets for three hours a night.
19. There are seagulls everywhere. And they will eat your ice cream right out of your hand.
20. Cider beer is better here.
21. Everyone smokes but all institutions are smoke-free.
22. Hostel Academica will nickel and dime you for everything.
23. Washing your laundry in a laundry-mat costs 5euro and 8euro to dry plus 1euro for one scoop of detergent.
24. Hesberger is the equivalent of Burger King.
25. I have seen 3 McDonald’s.
26. Diet Pepsi = Pepsi Max.
27. There are public saunas.
28. It costs .50euro to use a public toilet.
29. People recycle their bottles and cans for money. It’s not just for bums.
30. Nalgen or re-useable plastic water bottles are not used here…everyone just re-uses their regular bottled water containers.
31. Finland has extremely clean tap water.
32. Most people speak English.
33. Nudity is not a problem.
34. Taxis are Mercedes and BMWs.
35. Everyone bicycles everywhere.
36. When standing at any location in Finland there will be at least three ice cream stands in sight.
37. Postage stamps are expensive.
38. The mall food court items are really fancy.
39. Most Fins have summer cottages.
40. The average Fin is in college for 7-8 years.
41. Hygiene is not an issue.
42. Cookies = Biscuits.
43. Fins love their Lady GaGa.
44. Leggings and Ts are the dress of choice for most girls, especially studded ones.
45. Stores have to stop selling alcohol at 9pm.
46. The downtown center looks like New York at rush hour…minus jay walking.
47. The streets are clean. No trash.
48. Gypsies dress in Renaissance style clothing.
49. There is no universal law for doors. It is hard to tell which way the door opens which has caused many embarrassing moments.
50. There are really small locks on doors where you have to turn the lock to open the door. This is very confusing and easily looked over.
51. The exit signs for a building are green with a white man running, an arrow pointing down, and a white rectangle.
52. Smurfs have made quite the impression in Finland. Smurfi candy, pop, decorative wear ..you get the picture.
for now fellow followers,
megan
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