Way up north, in the arctic circle (well almost the arctic circle) where the only sign of life for kilometres in any direction is a few moose and reindeer, there lives two exchange students, Ash and Bev. Ash is from the east coast of Australia and Bev is from South Africa. They had been wanting to come down and see southern Finland so they came down to stay for the long weekend so we could check out some sights around here.
Seija Drove into Helsinki on Wednesday night to pick them up from the train station, she had never seen them before but had no problem in identifying them, the only two loud foreigners with too much luggage in the whole station :P
On Thursday we went sightseeing around Lohja. We went to see the nearby Mustionlinna (Mustio's castle), then to a candy factory, to Risto's friend's house and then to the little town of Fiscars... Yes like the scissors. There we went to the Fiscars company museum and around the beautiful town.
On Friday it was to Helsinki for some casual sightseeing and the like.
On Saturday we had planned to go to Turku (another large city) and we found out that on the same day there was an exchange student meeting there, so we got to meet many of the people we hadn't seen before in a picnic on one of the islands near Turku (i think it was called ruissalo).
And then on Sunday it was back up to the desert with them.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Eesti (On My Mind)
On the 25th of April my host parents, Seija and Risto took me over to Estonia, this time to stay the night and then come back the next afternoon.
So we woke up at the crack of dawn (i think it was about 10 actually) on Saturday and packed the car for our journey. My parents wanted to take the car so that we would be able do do more sightseeing...
After a short and pleasant boat trip we were in Tallinn and after some well needed lunch and some shopping we went to a terrace to soak up some sun (i wasn't drinking obviously). It was beautiful to just sit as the temperature was a scorching +18C. That night we went to an awesome 17th century style restaurant, aptly named 'Peppersack', this is quite appropriate as hanging from the front of the building is a large sack of pepper. The food was delicious.
That night we were checking out the town and watching some awesome karaoke annnd some not so awesome karaoke (it was horrible).
Our first stop on Sunday was Tallinn's beach but we moved on pretty quickly because it was damn windy. After that we found a massive old monastery where the roof had collapsed, it looked quite beautiful. Then we killed some time in the Estonian Botanical Gardens before an awesome lunch in 'Scotland Yard' an English restaurant and then back to the boat home.
"Eesti,
Eesti,
kaipaan sinne
perkelesti"
So we woke up at the crack of dawn (i think it was about 10 actually) on Saturday and packed the car for our journey. My parents wanted to take the car so that we would be able do do more sightseeing...
After a short and pleasant boat trip we were in Tallinn and after some well needed lunch and some shopping we went to a terrace to soak up some sun (i wasn't drinking obviously). It was beautiful to just sit as the temperature was a scorching +18C. That night we went to an awesome 17th century style restaurant, aptly named 'Peppersack', this is quite appropriate as hanging from the front of the building is a large sack of pepper. The food was delicious.
That night we were checking out the town and watching some awesome karaoke annnd some not so awesome karaoke (it was horrible).
Our first stop on Sunday was Tallinn's beach but we moved on pretty quickly because it was damn windy. After that we found a massive old monastery where the roof had collapsed, it looked quite beautiful. Then we killed some time in the Estonian Botanical Gardens before an awesome lunch in 'Scotland Yard' an English restaurant and then back to the boat home.
"Eesti,
Eesti,
kaipaan sinne
perkelesti"
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Pääsiäinen (Easter)
When it came to Easter my host mum told me that their family wasn't very religious and in Australia this would mean that we spend the weekend eating too many chocolate eggs. And while people in Finland also over-indulge on the eggs for Easter they have a few interesting old traditions.
Mämmi (Easter cuisine which looks like s***) is made from mouldy rye and dark molasses and has roughly the same colour, consistency and smell of human excrement. It has been eaten since about the 13th century and is supposed to be the complete opposite of the Jewish sour-dough bread. With a healthy dose of cream and sugar it tastes quite nice but it is still difficult to get over its appearance.
Pääsiäiskokkoja (massive Easter bonfires) were traditionally burned to ward off evil spirits and witches which may come during this time. This tradition comes from the Pohjanmaa region of Finland and these fires are most common there. So on Saturday night we went into Helsinki to visit the one there. It was absolutely huge and within about 10 meters of it was almost to hot to stand.
Virpojat (kids that dress up and wave sticks at you, demanding candy) are children which dress up like witches and evil spirits and then come to your door and wave decorated sticks at you while s´chanting a spell, which usually goes something like this:
"Virvon varvon
tuoreks terveks
tulevaks vuodeks,
vitsa sulle,
palkka mulle."
This is basically wishing you good health and good luck and then demanding candy in repayment for their hard work.
So we woke up on sunday morning to knocks on the door and soon after opening it my host mum, seija realised that we had no candy and had to turn the dissapointed children away. But after a quick trip to the shops we had candy to give to the young'ns when the came.
Mämmi (Easter cuisine which looks like s***) is made from mouldy rye and dark molasses and has roughly the same colour, consistency and smell of human excrement. It has been eaten since about the 13th century and is supposed to be the complete opposite of the Jewish sour-dough bread. With a healthy dose of cream and sugar it tastes quite nice but it is still difficult to get over its appearance.
Pääsiäiskokkoja (massive Easter bonfires) were traditionally burned to ward off evil spirits and witches which may come during this time. This tradition comes from the Pohjanmaa region of Finland and these fires are most common there. So on Saturday night we went into Helsinki to visit the one there. It was absolutely huge and within about 10 meters of it was almost to hot to stand.
Virpojat (kids that dress up and wave sticks at you, demanding candy) are children which dress up like witches and evil spirits and then come to your door and wave decorated sticks at you while s´chanting a spell, which usually goes something like this:
"Virvon varvon
tuoreks terveks
tulevaks vuodeks,
vitsa sulle,
palkka mulle."
This is basically wishing you good health and good luck and then demanding candy in repayment for their hard work.
So we woke up on sunday morning to knocks on the door and soon after opening it my host mum, seija realised that we had no candy and had to turn the dissapointed children away. But after a quick trip to the shops we had candy to give to the young'ns when the came.
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