Better laugh or cry?

Today I was at a housewarming party with some AIESECers. Also the new trainee from Russia (Olga) came with me to the party. So we met Jukka and took the bus together to the party (also we met Thomas in the bus). At the party many AIESECers already have been and even more were coming throughout the evening. And when the evening went on, I really had fun with them... but at some point Olga and I wanted to go back to Hervanta, since we both were tired and then the time came, that I really turned quite sad. I mean, I really look forward to Germany and to see Christian again, but meanwhile it seems to be harder for me this time to say Goodbye to Tampere this time, as if I know deep in myself that I won't come back here for a longer time now since I have to really continue my studies here. So this is the reason, why I want to show you how nice it actually has been for me in the last few weeks.


This is near Keskustori (the city center) at the barrage. It wasn't the best weather to take pictures, I guess, but it definitely was a really nice day. It was my first sunday back in Tampere and I was going to meet with Marianne, one of my friends (she was the tutor of the German friend I came to Tampere with). We met at Café Europa, which is a fancy place especially for internationals to meet at. It really is comfortable with all the different sofas and armchairs in there. There isn't any furniture suiting the next one. So we sat there some hours and talked a lot about different stuff. It really was so nice to see Marianne again. She is a very cute girl and amazing person. :)



This place is at the end of Hämeenpuisto, where I went to find Ulla, who kind of hosted a stand for a city run. It took me ages to actually find her (and I wasn't even near her when I took this picture), but this way I at least saw this place and the park belonging to this fountain. When I finally found her (I searched her over an hour and found later that I walked past her twice already), she and her friend served me special hot chocolate - with mint liquor! I didn't know how much those two girls already had but I guess it was not little. We had lots of fun together there. In the evening I wanted to go to Klubi with them to see a Pink Floyd Cover Band, but I felt so tired and shaky when I went back by bus, that I decided to stay at home that evening. I continued shaking in my bed as well.




This place is really close to the place I stayed (I moved today, since Olga arrived and she got my place in the flat share) at and looks gorgeous! It is just a small lake compared to typical finnish lakes but still it looked so nice! The weather was awesome and I fed ducks and squirrels (we have loads of them here!). I want to have a similar lake in Chemnitz as well! :(
And also the squirrels are really tame here. They come very close to you and want something to eat. I tried to get some pictures of them, but they are amazingly fast! But you will see it later as well.



These are the two crazy friends of Marianne (actually the one in the back isn't one of them - the second one is hidden behind the one in the front). I don't remember what they were doing here, but I guess, Niko wanted to tickle Markus.
I took this picture at an Italian Dinner. Except of the three I was coming with, I didn't know anyone and since I wanted to be polite, I didn't eat much at this Dinner (also there wasn't really much to eat: some toast with ham, two bowls of pasta (one with pesto, the other with some minced meat), and some fruits with Nutella on top). But in the end I had to pay 3.50€!! It really was just little food and for many people - I guess, we were about 20 - and still it was this expensive! And think, what could they actually have prepared with 70€!? Italians are exploiters!




I took those pictures at university. Since autumn already arrived in Tampere, you can see the most amazing colors everywhere. I never know where to look first.



This was at Pakkahuone, when there was the Welcome to Tampere-Event for new students in Tampere. AIESEC also had a stand there and I was there as well for about 2 hours. I kind of liked the gorilla incidentally standing around there.



Here I was at a DVD evening with my former tutors, Jenni and Tiina. Both of them speak German, so this was a German day for me (I already met Tomasz - who is from Chemnitz as well - for lunch and Markus - my former tandem-partner - for coffee), just talking in my native language all the time. :) The day was a really nice one. Lunch in Pinni b, in university, is almost always good, but unfortunately of all things we caught exactly one of those rare days. For coffee Markus and I went to Aamurusko, which is one of my favorite places here in Tampere and where you can have a brilliant hot chocolate and fantastic Munkkis. In the evening we had some really good food and a cute movie (Kiki's Delivery Service) and although I felt a bit ill before at home, my batteries were woken up again at Jenni's place and we really had a cool evening.



Ok, I already told you that squirrels are amazingly fast. I want you to play this little game with me. The game is called: Find the squirrel!




So, just for the case, the game was too tough for you, here a successful picture as well. :)



Well then... I will go to sleep now, since I am really tired. Let's see, when I am going to write again. Maybe the next post is already written in Germany. :/
But still, I really look forward to see my boyfriend. :D

There and back again.

Ok, back in Tampere. After 3 months in Germany it feels weird to be back. But maybe it is still so unreal because the journey was so uncomplicated. It started already on tuesday, when I went to Hesse again, to stay two more days at my boyfriends family. On thursday I first went to Darmstadt by train, then to Frankfurt Hahn by bus and went to Tampere by plane and in the end I was picked up by my scottish flat mate. All worked out just as it was planned and I dodn’t have any problems. I didn’t have to pay extra money because of too heavy bags, I didn’t have annoying seat neighbours (quite the difference... some nice and crazy guys from another organisation called „Round Table“ going to some kind of a conference. They entertained me the whole flight and even invited me to something to drink. All the other times I had some really fat people sitting next to me squeezing me into the very last corner), our plane didn’t crash into any houses (since it was 9/11), and so on. So altogether I had a nice (and a little bit exhausting day).
The place where I am staying the next 3 weeks is really nice. The first night here I slept extremely well and I hope it will be the same today. ;)
Today I went to Keskustori – the city center – to meet Tiina, my former tutor and Germany-loving friend. We had some real good food in a Mexican restaurant called „Pancho Villa“ and afterwards we met Jenni (my other tutor) for a coffee. I didn’t think beforehand that the weather would be so cold already. It is mittens-time!! And after I got a running nose I thought it better to stay home and have some tea. I don’t want to risk a cold in the short time I am here. ;)
So well, let’s see what will happen the next few weeks.

Adventures and new friends

The last week of august I visited the family of my boyfriend. We stayed one week there (in Hesse) together and had some really nice trips to Darmstadt, Aschaffenburg, Frankfurt and several other smaller places. And guess what... it is a cool region. I got to know my passion for figs, we have been hunted by flying aunts and dung beetles, we saw some funny clothings of people in a metal club and got squeezed in between thousands of people during the so-called Mainuferfest in Frankfurt.
And also I found a new good friend, called Gustav (nickname „Gustl“).


Let me intruduce you to Gustav. :) He is a lion!


Flying aunts as far as the eye can see.
This was at the donjon of Breuberg. The have been quite nice there, but at the Otzberg they were quite nasty. Christian had to fight them.




We tried to behave in the churches. Sometimes it was hard to resist.


He tried to eat my ear!


Another lion in Darmstadt. He was really cool.


:) Isn't this nice? A fantastic desktop background, I would say.


They didn't attack us, but the dung lying around.


Miltenberg - a wonderful little town in Bavaria having a picturesque Old Town.

What a beautiful place...

I love Tampere. And that because of reasons I want to show you through some pictures that I have have made lately. I think you will understand me, once you have seen the pictures.

It seems so empty...

I have packed! Almost all my stuff is in bags now. Kerstin will leave today and go back to Germany. She will take some of my stuff with her in her car and thus I will stay in my little room with just the necessary stuff for the last week. The last week? It sounds odd. Better not listen to that words... I don't want to grasp the idea of what it means...

Two days in Stockholm

Last weekend Liane, Julia and I were in Stockholm, the maybe most beautiful city! The journey started in a chaotic way, since we missed our bus, which goes differently on saturdays. Still we could catch the train and we were off to Turku! In Turku then we indeed almost missed the train then.. At the main train station the trains were so completely tight in the schedule, that we just had about 2 minutes to get the one to Turku Harbour. But we got it and just e few minutes later we could already see the Viking Line - the ferry which would take us to Stockholm.
Our room was minuscule, but nice. And we had a mirror instead of a window even as we had a cabin above the water line. Already 5 minutes after we took step onto the ferry we could see masses of people with more masses of alkohol under their arms. Unbelieveable - how fast can you be to get yourself alkohol??? It was loud, it was crowded, but all in all a really nice experience. As I have already had a travel by ferry with Kerstin when I came to Finland, the vibrations were not new to me. After a short and not restorative sleep we arrived in Stockholm and already the first step out into the harbour told me, that this is a beautiful city!
But well... let yourself being convinced by some pictures... :)


Some of the streets really looked awesome. Luckily we didn't lose our ways. :)

So nice!!! Just like in a fairy tale. Where is the bunny walking along saying, he doesn't have time?

The harbour. I felt like having a swim.

Me. Obviously. :D

Another possibility to jump into the cooling refreshing water, since it really was a hot day. I actually got some tan there!

I love that picture.

Pispala

Gone mad now? Guess, it's Vappu!

On wednesday and thursday we celebrated something called Vappu. As I understood, it was the Finnish labour day on thursday and every year whole Finland is going crazy on Vappu. And you really saw the changes immediately: Suddenly there where masses of people in the city center, the Hämeenkatu (the main street in the city) was completely blocked, there finally was a market at the market place (!), and the Finns where also drunk in the mornings, not just since early afternoon. ;)

Wednesday evening we had a nice little party with AIESEC. We had the so-called Vappu-Sauna. It seems to be a tradition, to go to sauna every Vappu. So we had our sauna on the last floor of a building of Hämeenkatu and we had a wonderful view over Tampere. It was fantastic. Of course we ate a lot and drank as much as well... We also had a little program for the audience. 9 people of us entertained rest of the people with some Improvisation stand-ups. It was fun!
Afterwards (after we left the sauna and went to the bridge where a statue got a hat, which is quite a boring things to watch), we went to the friends of one of our people and continued our night there. We had self-made music there, more alcohol and we played a game called Mölkky. You could compare it with a form of bowling, if you are really imaginative. But the main point is: I won! :D I crashed them all!
The next day we all met again at Tammerkoski (the river) for a picnic. And of course also there have already been masses of people. This had one major reason: All the new students of the Technical University of Tampere were supposed to be baptised. In the Tammerkoski. So we sat there and this wonderful view on hundreds of new students, all in there overalls (a Finnish students tradition - every department or field of studies has another color for their overalls, and then there are certain kind of parties, where all the students wear these overalls and get signs which they can sew onto their overall), waiting to be dipped into the freezing water of the river. This baptizing lasted for hours. They started at 1pm and where still not finished at 4pm. After some time, Anja and I decided to get us some icecream. So we went and fought our way through the market and got our icecream. We went to Laukontori then, where the harbour of Tampere is located, had a coffee in one of our favorite coffee houses, and in the end went to Hervanta (the part of Tampere, where the Technical University is) with some friends. There we ended our day with more fun and another party.

Naistenlahti

When I came home this evening from a friend living in Lukonmäki (we celebrated the orthodox easter with pancakes, something I am not able to pronunce, chocolate cake, and eggs, of course!!), I had to stop on my way. I really like this factory, which is situated not far form Lapinkaari. It always has this really nice lights in the nights.

Pori? What is Pori?

Saturday we had another adventure. Liane, Julia and I went to Pori, the 10th-biggest town in Finland. It is a cute little town near the Baltic Sea with some really nice places around. We visited a wonderful church (the most beautiful I’ve seen in Finland yet), a nice little shopping mile, and the green island near the city centre. And I had my first ice-cream this summer. It was chocolate, of course. 2€ a ball. But it was worth it! So I had my ice-cream, Julia some hair in her face whenever we wanted to take pictures at one of the bridges, and Liane got some cool new shoes. Thanks to Julia and me, who pushed her into a shop. :D
So, all in all the day was really nice, with a lot of sun and a lot of pretty places to see.