Suomi on paras!!

Hey all... greetings from Helsinki, Finland!!

So after spending a couple of lovely sunny days with Sophia in Hamburg, I jumped on a plane to Finland via Denmark. Copenhagen airport is nice, at least for the first couple of hours... I got quite bored towards the end of my stopover. Walking around and around waiting for my departure gate to show up on the screen...

I arrived in Helsinki at about 11pm, and kinda watched the sunset from the plane.. even after sunset, it's still so light! The wonderful Iida, her mum and dad and little sister Hanna, came to pick me up from the airport and drove us to Iida's apartment in Espoo, a little way from Helsinki. We chatted about so much, we really just clicked back in to Belgium mode... as if we hadn't been apart for 4 years. We talked until the early hours of the morning until we had to call it quits so Iida could get some sleep before getting up super early in the morning to go to work.

Bus ticket in hand, I went into Helsinki and wandered about trying to orientate myself. I had no real idea where I was or what I wanted to do in Helsinki, I had a tourist guide in Swedish which had a map in it. I wandered about the shopping centres, shop after shop, it was really fun just window shopping, being mistaken for a Finn and being spoken to in Finnish and just smiling politely when I didn't understand a word of it. I met up with Iida after she finished work and we went out for dinner and kept chatting. I really have no concept of time here in Finland, because it is so light for so long - even when it's dark its not really dark. I think I would like to live here in the Summer, but definitely not in the winter when it is the opposite... always dark.

I accidentally stumbled upon the National History Museum and that gave me something to do, wandering around looking at artefacts and pictures from different points in Finland's history.

Iida had the day off on Wedneday so we went on an adventure, trying to find a lake in the middle of a national par- we got lost, but eventually found somewhere nice to sit in the sun and have a picnic and chat. it was really fun. We played a card game, once, before Iida and I had an argument because I didn't understand the rules and Iida didn't understand why I didn't understand, so we put the cards away and sunbaked instead :) Ah, Iida, I've missed you!

Yesterday I woke up at Iida's parents house, after a lovely dinner with her parents, two of her sisters and their exchange student, Patricia. I felt a bit funny, had a bit of a 'visual aura' happening from like when I was younger and got migraines. I thought I'd be ok, before we ran to the train and then my left had and side of my face went numb... uh-oh. So, I threw up on the train, luckily just before the stop we had to get off at, and with vomit pretty much all over me (I caught most of it in some paper towel) I wne to the bathroom, got changed and we went home. I felt really bad, because Patricia and her friends had planned a day at Suomellina, a kind of old fort thingy... just for me. I went back to Iida's parents house and slept the rest of the day.

Hanna and I are going to Heksinki again today and we'll meet Iida after work, and I think Iida and I are going out tonight until my plane leaves at 7am. Should be fun. Lucky I'm feeling better today.

Lots of love, can't wait to see my host family and Belgian friends again very soon :)

I'll be back in Aus in no time at all.

Much love and prayers <3

Ich bin in Hamburg!!

Hey there!

So, a lot of time has passed since I wrote on this blog... and I was too lazy to finish talking about how amazing Hoi An is for making clothes and how sweet it was to ease back into civilisation via Singapore and how amazing my mum is for travelling to SE Asia and paying my way :)

Anyway, I was home for 3 months and now I'm << á l'étranger >> again, this time in EUROPE!

So, after an almost sleepless night (3.5hrs) the night before I left and a lovely, but hectic, day of catching up with people for some last minute goodbyes, I got on the first half of my long haul flight en route for Dubai. It was horrible. Not only was I wedged into a window seat next to an old man whose shoulders imposed on my already limited space, but he and the grumpy 50 year old lady next to him slept all the time so I didn't want to wake them. For those of you who have sat next to me for extended perods of time, you'll know that I fidget. I don't like to sit down in one spot for too long. Unless of course, I'm sleeping. Now, although I may have almost mastered the art of sleeping on all kinds of transport, including motorbikes, tuk-tuks, buses and short-haul flights, the long-haul is something I struggle with. It seems as long as I do not want to sleep, it comes without hassles, but when I want to sleep, I can't. So I wriggled and jiggled (I only used that word because it rhymes... it kind of freaks me out a little) and turned my air conditioner on and off, pushed my seat upright then reclined, sat up straight and slouched, seriously empathising with the patients in hospital that get bed sores for lying in the one place for too long. Hours passed slowly, punctuated frequently with 4-course airline meals and lame songs or movies. I watched a movie that must have been really exciting because I have lost all recollection of it, and also watched the "no strings attached" movie that inondated the Vietnamese and Singaporean TV Ads whilst I was there. It was silly.

ATTENTION: SPOILER ALERT. Boy meets girl. Girl is afraid of falling in love. Boy has sex with Girl numerous times. Boy falls for Girl. Girl falls for Boy. Couple stops having sex. Girl runs away. Girl changes her mind. Girl and Boy have sex again. Girl and Boy live happily ever after. The End.

So at one point both old people next to me decided to get up to go to the toilet, so I seized my chance to stetch my legs and take my long-awaited pee break that I had been too timid to request earlier. Waiting in line, I started to realised it had been quite a while since I had been to the toilet and the air hostesses had been attempting to drown me in the amount of water and juice they had offered me. I got the the front of the line and the seatbelt light came on. Rude. So, being the obedient soul that I am, I returned to my seat without emptyng my bladder. And then the oldies went to sleep. Crap.Well, not actually, I just really needed to pee. Oh well. Another aspect to my fidgeting... trying to cross and uncross my legs in the squishy economy class seats. I think I kneed the lady in front of me in the back every 3 minutes for about an hour. It got to a point when I had to ask grumpy sleepy old lady to move... I ignored the seat belt sign (rebel!) and went to the toilet. I honestly think the Captain just forgot to switch off the seatbelt light... there was no turbulence!! 

So we finally arrived in Dubai. Whee.. I could stretch my legs. My knees clicked and threatened to hyperextend and I could barely stand on the shuttle bus... I found the gate I was supposed to be at and shuffled all the way to the opposite side of the airport to gate 207. I sat on the floor for a while, and finally found a seat where I slept for about half an hour. I woke up about 5 minutes before boarding started, and was puzzled to find no trace of "Hamburg" on the gate. I re-checked the departures screen and saw it now said 224... had I dreamed 207? had I simply looked at the wrong flight? None of that seemed to matter, as I had to power-walk to the other side of the airport to the right gate. I got there just in time... I had about 10 min before the gate closed. Now I was puffed.

A new flight, and as looked at the stupid seat "A" on my boarding pass, I prepared myself for another squishy ride. How relieved I was to find this time there was no seats in front of me, and noone in the seat next to me. Paradise!! A comfy 8 hours flight and I arrived in Hamburg, grabbed my bag and met a beautiful blonde German (Sophia!!) as I exited the airport.

So during my flying time, I ate dinner, midnight snack, breakfast, second breakfast, lunch. I had beef steak, chicken pie, lamb curry, sliced cold non-descript meat (maybe pork) and chunky cold non-descript white meat (maybe pressed turkey)... erk. Lucky Sophia is vegetarian... I definitely needed a break.

We caught the train to Sophia's place and chilled out for a bit before grabbing some dinner (baked potatoes, yum!) and then wandered around the city of Hamburg. Came home about 9pm (still broad daylight) and crashed out for 12hrs, before being woken up in a sweat by the sweltering German summer sun.

We had a pretty chilled morning, some fresh croissants with Nutella for breaky, and I read for a bit while Sophia worked on an essay for uni. Then we went into town to get some lunch (yummy vietnamese coconut and peanut rice and vegies), an awesome ice coffee then we sat/lay on Sophia's Law School equivalent of South Lawn in the sun for several hours with Sophia's best friend Larissa, a gorgeous sporty girl with crazy awesome curls. Sun still high in the sky, it was 6pm and time to grab a quick dinner before going to watch "Der Biber" (Jodie Foster/Mel Gibson - The Beaver), a film about a man with severe depression who uses a beaver hand puppet  as an alter ego to cope with life. It had me in tears.

Went to bed about midnight last night (the sun had finally set) and I'm currently having a lazy morning while Sophia tries to get her essay finished. It's ok though, I stole (she gave me) her internet password so I'm just chilling. It's really nice to not have to do anything. I like just being around people, talking is optional.


This afternoon we're going to hang out at the Port,where Sophia will do some reading and I wil crack open the mini-textbook that I've decided will be a replacement for the 7 recommended readings before uni stats in 5 weeks time. She'll be right, mate. Right??

Tomorrow I'm heading to Helsinki, Finland to see the lovely Iida, whom I have not seen since we said goodbye at the Brussels Airport on 07/07/07. So so excited, I'm so excited (Even though it's Saturday..?)

I heart Europe so much. Less than 3.
Stay tuned for the Finnish of this adventure. Ha ha.