A week in Crete

Hello dears,

I got back home from Crete today. I had absolutely fantastic week in there with my friend. We arrived in Chania on 20th August, after we had booked on our hotel we went straight to the pool area to enjoy of the sunny day. On the evening we had a dinner in the seaside. It was nice to watch the sunset while enjoying of yummy food. I absolutely love Greek food. I even bought some local spices at home so I can cook Greek food at home too. Greek meatballs are heavenly good! Anyhow, after our dinner we went to Bamboo bar to have drinks and then we went to back to the hotel.
 On Sunday we spend almost whole day at the beach. My back really didn't liked it. Even I always use sun protection factor 50 I got sunburn. My back looked really bad on Sunday evening. Good thing was that we went to Chania on evening to have a dinner so I bought aloe vera olive gel for sunburns. Thanks to it my back isn't red anymore, and I can actually sleep on my back again. Hurrey!
So on Sunday evening we had dinner in Chania. We ate in a restaurant called as Tamam. On the restaurant was a cat sleeping on the chair and it was really cute.

The cat of Tamam restaurant

After our dinner we walked around the Venetian harbour and we saw another beautiful sunset.

Sunset in Chania

On Monday we made a day trip to Elafonisi beach. Which is awesome place and also very very beautiful. I love it. The clear water and white sand. If you ever go in Crete you should visit in Elafonisi, you will love it!  I had chance to go snorkeling in Elafonisi. It's good place to go snorkeling. I saw lots of different kind of fishes.

Enjoying the day in Elafonisi

Elafonisi beach

Another photo of Elafonisi beach

On Tuesday we spend the day in Chania. We did some shopping, walked around the city and enjoyed the sunny day. One thing what I really like about Chania are the narrow streets. Venetian harbor looks very romantic.

A details of Chania

In Chania

On Wednesday we had another beach day. We went another beach coz we wanted to go snorkeling again. Again we saw lots of fishes. I even saw big fish hunting the little fishes. 

Can you see group of a little fishes?

On Wednesday evening we went to train trip to the mountains. We visited in winery. We had a chance to do wine tasting in there. Which was a lot of fun. We also visited in monastery. From the monastery was really nice views, and I saw another great sunset.

Wine tasting. Personally I'm not a fan of rose wines.

A view from monastery

Another view from monastery

The sunset

On Thursday we spend half of the day at the pool. I read a book and enjoyed a good weather. Only negative thing about the day at the pool was a Swedish couple who had lots of fun doing some body shaming. They seemed to have fun to make fun of the way I looked on bikinis. I really wanted to say something to them about their behavior. But I didn't, mostly coz I was really annoyed. When I am annoyed I might say nasty things so I thought it's better not to do anything.

On Friday we visited in archaeological museum of Chania. I liked that museum a lot. But again, I'm interested of archaeology so it was prefect way to start to day. I also learnt something new. I didn't knew much about Minoans before visiting the museum.  After visiting the museum we did some more shopping. I'm glad that I bought some really nice leather products from Crete. Like a new bag and sandals. We had lunch in a nice restaurant in Chania. It was the first restaurant where they had Finnish menu. Which was kinda suprising.

A lunch in Chania

 

 

Friday evening we went to a huge market to buy some souvenirs. I also found a birthday present to my stepsister. Woohoo! When we got back to the hotel we drank a bottle of sangria and sat on the terrance. After bottle of sangria we had dinner at the hotel. When we got back in our room we packed and drank white wine. We finished packing around 1am.  I was so tired so I went to bed. Unfortenally I wasn't able to sleep well coz I kept waking up, just to check how much time is it.

 

When I got back home I put all my stuffs on hot sauna. Just to make sure that if there was any bugs on my suitcase that them are dead before I unpack. I should take the suitcase off the sauna soon. Then  I will go to in sauna to relax. My plan for the evening is to make pizza and watch tv. I just wanna stay at home and relax now.

 

Till next time! 

Let's humppa!

Hello dears,

Yesterday I had a pleasure to spend an evening in Somero, a dance hall called as Esakallio. There performed Underground Rock Orchestra and Eläkeläiset

Since the concert was in Somero, my friend bought us combined ticket with the bus and the actual ticket to the concert. So our journey to Somero started from Helsinki around 7pm and we were in Somero about 30 mins before concert of Underground Rock Orchestra. We had enough time to go to the toilet and have a drinks. O boy, and we were lucky with our drinks. I must say that I am quite picky what comes to drinks, especially beers. I pretty much drink only Weißbier so luckily they had 2 bottles Weißbier left in the bar. Woohoo! After the drinks we went to see the concert a bit closer. I really liked the concert of Underground Rock Orchestra. A big plus was that I finally saw M.A Numminen on stage.

Underground Rock Orchestra

After the concert we had a little time before the concert of Eläkeläiset so we went to back to the bar coz my friend wanted to have another drink. I just wanted to sit coz my legs were aching. Here comes a free tip for everyone- highheels aren't the best shoes to wear in a concert.

We saw something really scary in Esakallio, wax dolls. Creepy wax dolls. Or what do you think?

What did I said?

 Eläkeläiset was AWESOME! People went scary during the concert. I saw people dancing "letkajenkka" around the dance hall. Somebody even picked me on the jenkka line. So I found myself dancing letkajenkka in Somero. It was quite fun! I haven't danced letkajenkka for a long time. Probably last time when I was on 7th grade. My friend just laughed when she saw me and others dancing letkajenkka. I was glad that I wore my vintage dress. After all when you go in a dance hall you should wear a dress.

What do you think about my dress?

Anyhow, the concert of Eläkeläiset was very energic and lots of fun to watch.

Eläkeläiset

As a live band they are just great. If I have a chance I'll go to see them again. A good music, a better mood. :)

After the concert the bus was waiting us. I was quite tired but yet still I couldn't sleep in a bus. I was at home around 4:15am and went to bed around 4:55am. It sucks that I couldn't sleep any longer coz we had thunderstorm here this morning. So now I am quite tired, I gonna try to have some sleep when I have finised writing this blog update. It's not normal to me stay up so late. Good thing is that I am on vacation so I don't have to wake up early on Monday morning.

Till next time!

Waffle towels with embroidered border

Hello dears,

As some of you know that I like to buy and make Christmas presents before December, well my friends I have already 3 Christmas presents for my relatives. 2 of them I have even wrapped. A couple days ago I got the idea of selfmade waffle towels with embroidered borders. So yesterday I cycled to draper's and bought a meter of grey waffle fabric.  So basicly what I did was I cut the waffle fabric in half. Now I had two pieces (two towels) Then I desinged the embroidery pattern. I had black and white string at home so I used them. One piece I made pattern with black string and another with white string. When the patterns were ready I finished the raw edges by sewing. That was pretty much all. Sounds easily but it took 4-5 hours to finish both towels.

Finished!

Now when the towels are ready I can wrap them on the paper. My next project going to be knitten mittens. I going to make a pair to my brother ...suprise, suprise, as Christmas present. First I just have to find where I have put my knitting needles....

Till next time!

Happy name day!

Hello dears,

In Finland, people not only celebrate their birthdays each year, but their name days as well. My name days are on 20th and 21th July. In Finland we have a bit different calendars than other countries, each day somebody celebrates their name day. I found this link, it's a name day calendar you will also get information about the names. What I really liked was the directions to pronounce the names. For example name Jonna is pronounced as YOH-nah. I freakin' hate it when people doesn't pronounce my name correctly. Once in the States a salesperson called me as "Yong na" What the...?!?! Not even close, do I look like Asian? But that's all about that subject...

Name days are often celebrated with pastries. I made blueberry pie to my co-workers. They loved it!

Blueberry pie!

I was quite touched when one of my friends gave me a little present, a reflector. Since I do live in Finland, there's use for reflector pretty much half a year. Two of my co-workers bought me salty liquorice ice cream for coffee break. Very sweet of them <3 It feels good to know there's people who care about you.
Happy name day to me! Or as we say in Finnish "Hyvää nimipäivää!"

Till next time!

Blueberry picking

Hello dears,

I went to pick blueberries in Nuuksio national park today. It was absolutely fantastic weather to go pick berries and in general be outside. Not too hot and sunny. Well at least when I was in Nuuksio. It rained when I was coming back home.

Last week when I went to Nuuksio with my sister and my niece I found a good spot to pick berries. So today I went there to pick berries. It took about 2 hours to pick 3 liters of blueberries. I don't have a clue is it long time to pick 3 liters of berries but I really did enjoyed it.

3 liters of blueberries

I wish I would have had a bigger bucket. I just have to go again in Nuuksio to pick another 3 liters of berries, but that can wait. At least couple weeks. It was quite tiring to walk around the national park wellies on my feet. But it was worth it. I also found a few chanterelles and forest strawberries. Since I didn't found many chanterelles I gonna make a yummy omelette of the mushrooms I found today. 

The catch of the day

When I got back home I cleaned the blueberries. I took 3dl of them away for a blueberry pie. rest of the berries I put on the freezer so I will have berries for winter. My wild guess is that before the winter comes I have ate all the blueberries...

Blueberries are ready to go in the freezer



When I was cleaned the berries I made a blueberry pie. I must say it's damn good ( I'm eating it while I write this blog update ;) )

The pie is ready!

Now I need to rest a bit. I feel really tired coz lots of walking in middle of nowhere, or maybe it's the sauna that makes me feel tired. Anyhow, till next time!

Tuska Open Air Metal Festival!

Hello dears,


Yesterday I went to Tuska Open Air Metal Festival with my friends. It has become as tradition for us to go there every year on Saturday. This year wasn't exception. We have missed Tuska only twice. First time when we went to see Rammstein and last year when we went to see Faith no more.
Anyhow, we met in Sörnäinen, in Helsinki. I was a bit early in our meeting point (coz my moaning sister, argh) so I went to calm my nerves in a local bar. In the end we met the terrance of the bar.

It's a beginning of a beautiful day!

We had a brunch in Kallio and after the brunch we went to the festival area. First we walked around the festival area to see what's happening. Personally I wanted to find out where Germany-Italy football match is displayed.

The highlight of the evening

This year we had actual timetable. Usually we have missed most of the bands coz we have sat on the drinking area and just talked. We did a lot of talking this year too but also managed to see the bands like Turmiön kätilöt, Thunderstone, Anthrax and Stam1na. I had to leave middle of the gig of Stam1na coz as fan of die Mannschaft I HAD to go to see Germany-Italy match. Which was quite hard decision to make coz Stam1na is one of my favorite bands. Meanwhile my friends watched the rest of gig of Stam1na and some of the gig of Ghost. They came to see the football too coz the gig of Ghost wasn't that good. So we watched the rest of the thriller together.



Our timetable.

Kippis! Cheers! Prost!

 

The old gas bells of Suvilahti

It's mojito time!

Turmion kätilöt

 

Anthrax

 

The singer of Stam1na.

It was another fantastic day in Tuska. I had a good time there with my friends, saw great bands, and even better football match. Next year again!

Till next time!





A summer day in Nuuksio national park

Hello dears,

My sister and my niece are staying a couple nights at my place. Today we made a little day trip to Nuuksio national park. I must say I'm really proud of my niece. She walked about 10km without moaning. Unlike my sister. It's a bit amusing that 6 year old kid doesn't moan at all but her mother does. Anyhow, I tried to ignore her moaning. I do enjoy a lot walking, well hiking in a forest and it's quite mood killer when somebody moans "when we are out of the forest". I was about to ask her why she wanted to go in Nuuksio first place if she only gonna moan all the time, but then I thought it's better not to start to argue about it with her.
Anyhow, Nuuksio. It was lovely sunny day, temperature was around 22 celsius degrees. Pretty much it was perfect weather for hiking.

Map of our route from Kattila to Haukkalampi

We started our hiking trip from Kattila. Near to Kattila is a lovely meadow full of flowers. I have always loved that area. Meadows looks so beautiful. 

Meadow full of flowers

From Kattila we walked to Haukkalampi. We took a bit longer route to Haukkalampi coz the views were much better there.

 

I saw blueberries, ate some and now I wanna go to pick blueberries for winter.
 

We walked throught the swamp

What a lovely blue sky!

A typical Finnish lake view. I love it!

When we were in Haukkalampi we had a break and ate some of our snacks. The plan was to make a fire and grill the sausages. My niece wanted to grill marshmallow but when we got the grill spot there wasn't any firewoods. At least I didn't found any. So we had to eat cookies and fruits.

A view from our lay-by. Breathtaking isn't?

After eating we walked back to Kattila, we took an easier route back to Kattila coz my moaning sister.

A view of Haukkalampi. It's full of pond-lilies.

Still 1,0km to Kattila! Hurrey!

It was a nice hiking trip, even I had to listen my moaning sister. Now we're back at my place. Rest of the day we gonna relax. Make a good food and watch TV or play boardgames.

Till the next time!!!