New Year´s Eve in Tampere
Ok, so sorry for not posting for so long that my parents thought we were dead or disappeared or (insert horrible fate here). Just been busy/lazy.
So, to make up for it, here is a longish post with photos!
So. Last post we were in Rovaniemi, and I was complaining about my inability to understand Finnish, but ability to speak it. That hasn´t changed much, but we´ve done lots since then.
Fist we spent some time in Helsinki with my friend Aki. This was over Christmas, so we didn´t go out too much because everything was closed. We mostly stayed home, watched DVDs, played Singstar (a playstation karaoke game) and ate and drank an awful lot. Aki was very disturbed by the lack of snow, especially considering that parts of Australia apparently had a white Christmas, but Helsinki didn´t. Weird.
Next we (finally!) headed to Tampere, my old home town in central Finland. I still love it! On the first day we met my friend Satu (who you may remember as our host in Turin, Italy, where she teaches English) and Aaron´s boyfriend Jaakko for drinks at a very cool Irish pub called O´Connells. Wow, that was a long sentence.
Anyway, we had a great night playing Pictionary (Satu and I won, of course) before meeting Aaron´s bus. He´s been with his family in the Philippines for the past three months.
Since then, we´ve been staying with Aaron and Jaakko, with the exception of NYE and the night before.
Aki came from Helsinki and Anu came from Switzerland on the 30th. It´s the first time we´ve all been together since I visited Finland in April of 1999. We did miss our other two friends Joanna and Heather, but this was still quite a major reunion for us. So, photos!
This is us in the hotel room on the first night. From the left we have Aki, Oscar, me, Anu, Satu and Aaron.
Aki and Anu had a bit of a snooze (due to a hangover and a headache respectively) so the rest of us headed to the corridor to have a party involving wine and cheese.
Later, the others woke up and we had a bit of a party. Eventually, Anu and I went to sleep, Satu went home to prepare her gift for everyone and the boys went out to Cafe Europa, a VERY cool bar furnished with antiques.
The next day started with a trip out to Jaakko´s place, where everyone minus Satu chilled out and watched Black Books (a British comedy sometimes known as the funniest show no-one ever saw. By the way, thanks Kit, you´re the best! We have to meet up and watch Bill some time)
We then went for dinner at Haralds, a Viking theme restaurant close to where our hotel was. The food was good and Satu distributed the presents- a beanie for each of us embroidered with a nickname. Here we are all wearing them back at the hotel (there is only one photo at the restaurant)...
Yes, my beanie does say `The Bitch´. Don´t I have lovely friends?
We played a game devised earlier by Aaron. Each person told three stories about themselves, one of which was not true, and we all had to guess which was the false one. Aaron had a prize for the best story teller, which went to Satu. It´s a towel embroidered with an in-joke, which Satu proceeded to wear for pretty much the rest of the night.
That Satu is a classy girl.
Towards midnight we went outside for the countdown. There were lots of people around.
From there, the night got progressively less classy.
I went to bed eventually, like the sensible young woman I am. Some went out to a variety of clubs and after parties, and a good time was generally had by all. Let´s leave it at that.
The next day Aki and Anu went home and the rest of us spent the day recovering. Our plans now are to spend a few more days in Tampere, head to Helsinki for our flight, spend two nights in Amsterdam then take the long, horrid trip back home. It will be nice to be back, but we´re heading straight back to work and will have a lot to do for a while, so I apologize in advance to any of you who expect us to visit in the next couple of months- highly unlikely.
Smoochlets to all.
So, to make up for it, here is a longish post with photos!
So. Last post we were in Rovaniemi, and I was complaining about my inability to understand Finnish, but ability to speak it. That hasn´t changed much, but we´ve done lots since then.
Fist we spent some time in Helsinki with my friend Aki. This was over Christmas, so we didn´t go out too much because everything was closed. We mostly stayed home, watched DVDs, played Singstar (a playstation karaoke game) and ate and drank an awful lot. Aki was very disturbed by the lack of snow, especially considering that parts of Australia apparently had a white Christmas, but Helsinki didn´t. Weird.
Next we (finally!) headed to Tampere, my old home town in central Finland. I still love it! On the first day we met my friend Satu (who you may remember as our host in Turin, Italy, where she teaches English) and Aaron´s boyfriend Jaakko for drinks at a very cool Irish pub called O´Connells. Wow, that was a long sentence.
Anyway, we had a great night playing Pictionary (Satu and I won, of course) before meeting Aaron´s bus. He´s been with his family in the Philippines for the past three months.
Since then, we´ve been staying with Aaron and Jaakko, with the exception of NYE and the night before.
Aki came from Helsinki and Anu came from Switzerland on the 30th. It´s the first time we´ve all been together since I visited Finland in April of 1999. We did miss our other two friends Joanna and Heather, but this was still quite a major reunion for us. So, photos!
This is us in the hotel room on the first night. From the left we have Aki, Oscar, me, Anu, Satu and Aaron.
Aki and Anu had a bit of a snooze (due to a hangover and a headache respectively) so the rest of us headed to the corridor to have a party involving wine and cheese.
Later, the others woke up and we had a bit of a party. Eventually, Anu and I went to sleep, Satu went home to prepare her gift for everyone and the boys went out to Cafe Europa, a VERY cool bar furnished with antiques.
The next day started with a trip out to Jaakko´s place, where everyone minus Satu chilled out and watched Black Books (a British comedy sometimes known as the funniest show no-one ever saw. By the way, thanks Kit, you´re the best! We have to meet up and watch Bill some time)
We then went for dinner at Haralds, a Viking theme restaurant close to where our hotel was. The food was good and Satu distributed the presents- a beanie for each of us embroidered with a nickname. Here we are all wearing them back at the hotel (there is only one photo at the restaurant)...
Yes, my beanie does say `The Bitch´. Don´t I have lovely friends?
We played a game devised earlier by Aaron. Each person told three stories about themselves, one of which was not true, and we all had to guess which was the false one. Aaron had a prize for the best story teller, which went to Satu. It´s a towel embroidered with an in-joke, which Satu proceeded to wear for pretty much the rest of the night.
That Satu is a classy girl.
Towards midnight we went outside for the countdown. There were lots of people around.
From there, the night got progressively less classy.
I went to bed eventually, like the sensible young woman I am. Some went out to a variety of clubs and after parties, and a good time was generally had by all. Let´s leave it at that.
The next day Aki and Anu went home and the rest of us spent the day recovering. Our plans now are to spend a few more days in Tampere, head to Helsinki for our flight, spend two nights in Amsterdam then take the long, horrid trip back home. It will be nice to be back, but we´re heading straight back to work and will have a lot to do for a while, so I apologize in advance to any of you who expect us to visit in the next couple of months- highly unlikely.
Smoochlets to all.