"It seems" I didn't write anything the next day after all. It's been like what... almost 3 weeks since the last update. And actually, I'm not even gonna try catching up on that, maybe later I can fill it in from my diary, but now it's just too hard, so much is happening.
Now I shall just happily report that we (Sami, I and a guy from Berlin who we named "Jonathan") almost-safely made it to Berlin on wednesday with these 2 Russian guys driving a tiny Mercedes, doing 170 km/h in the autobahn, rear door totally smashed from right-hand side which barely kept close and was sealed from wind with a plastic bag. :D Found the ride from this really popular german carpooling website which -in general- can be concidered safe. This guy anyway was to begin with one and a half hours late (enjoyed every second of it in front of mcdonalds when it started pouring rain), and for some reason russian guy named Vladislav when in the original msg was some german guys name on it. Now that I think about it my cousin Ute DID say something about the guys german -accent being strange, now it all makes sense. (Btw. thanks a million again Ute and Sara for making things happen and helping out in general!) So, we got in anyway since there wasn't that much other options, Sami had a flight to catch on the next morning and the train being ridiculously expensive for my budget anyway. I'd rather slept under a bridge than did that really. To Dortmund we ended up after getting stuck with hitchiking in Venlo, Netherlands and running out of time gradually. Anyway, all ended up well and the even the russian guy was pretty chill in the end, just reeaally tired after driving 12 hours continously (??). So, now I'm staying at friend's place in the awesome neighbourhood of Kreuzberg, Berlin, come to say hello if you're about!
Today I was very pleased with myself (and the cafe) for managing to wash all mine and some of my host's laundry in the local "cafe" (bar actually) -laundry (believe me, can get rather tricky without any instructions other than german), such a handy place anyways: http://www.waschcafe.de/. 3,50 € for the washing, 0,50 drying, 1,50 a pint of beer. I looove Berlin! Not to mention food which is like about half of the finnish prices.. Anyone willing to move in with me here? (Not a rhetorical question)
Over and out. Keeping it short -> this way i might be able to keep up with happenings, little by little. Enjoy life everyone!
ps. Sami if you're reading this, get on with booking the flight back, so much shit to see in here. :D
perjantai 22. lokakuuta 2010
lauantai 2. lokakuuta 2010
Eurotrippin' -10: The Netherlands, part 1 or something?
It's been just about a week now since I left Tampere, Finland on a very hazy saturday morning after a night-out. Day 1: (don't worry kids, it won't get as detailed as the first day -story is)
Since I was such and sharp guy and had prepared myself well for getting up, I kinda had to take a taxi to make it to the airport in time (30€, cheers. Here, let me put the money where it came from. So ironic!!11) on top of everything else drama that took place that evening. This kind of things just really tend to happen in my case, instead of 2 € buss ride I obviously prefer that. Low-budget travels, huh!
Anyway, somehow made it through the flight and get to enjoy the worst headache in a while at Bremen airport, Germany. Curious (and hungry) as I was, had to try finding a place serving something more than piece of bread for 6 euros, so I started walking around for a bit only to find out there's probably nothing else than office buildings within 10 kilometers. After few hours of waiting I got to the buss taking me across the border to Groningen, Netherlands where I was about to meet a friend of mine. And so I did. We spent a nice afternoon doing a little tour in Groningen and having a dinner at her mum's (awesome) place, which happens to be a house built in a boat (someone can inform me if there's some proper term for that). Unfortunately I didn't have time to (or didn't realize it on time) take photos from inside because that's where it really gets awesome. Got few pictures from outside anyway and will probably publish one after I've uploaded those (if my friend agrees of course). You see I'm still looking for my usb-cable for the camera and only photography -stores that I've bumped into till now seem to have devoted themselves only for Nikon -people for some reason. (To be honest that makes me feel like shitting bricks).
Based on the little glimpse I got to see of the city and heard from my host, I would have to say it's very much worth paying a visit. Impressive buildings and the traffic was really chill, especially when just arriving to a new country I had never visited before. Shitloads of people riding their bikes, scooters (about half without helmet's on their heads) and skate(or long)boards on their very own lanes and kinda as equals to the cars. So the traffic at least is in my opinion very different from Finland and caused me a lot of confusion at first. I've been after all biking almost the whole time I've spend here and it probably would've been quite different to get into without the years of experience on pretty much anything with wheels on it that I do.. but definitely it's worth it, love the idea and would like to see this thing happening in Finland too. What's yet to discover though is that how the F do they find Or get their bikes down from those huge bike-storages on every railway station? Just put Amsterdam on Google and first thing you'll probably find is a picture of these.. things.. with bikes on them. Absurd looking system that is but apparently it somehow works, I suppose?
Alright enough for tonight, just had to get the load of my back or at least reduce it a little. I'll get back to this probably tomorrow, lots of stuff I don't know about, so I wonder and you get to read and laugh about it!
G'dnight or goede nacht as google translate told me it is in dutch! Slaap lekker.
Since I was such and sharp guy and had prepared myself well for getting up, I kinda had to take a taxi to make it to the airport in time (30€, cheers. Here, let me put the money where it came from. So ironic!!11) on top of everything else drama that took place that evening. This kind of things just really tend to happen in my case, instead of 2 € buss ride I obviously prefer that. Low-budget travels, huh!
Anyway, somehow made it through the flight and get to enjoy the worst headache in a while at Bremen airport, Germany. Curious (and hungry) as I was, had to try finding a place serving something more than piece of bread for 6 euros, so I started walking around for a bit only to find out there's probably nothing else than office buildings within 10 kilometers. After few hours of waiting I got to the buss taking me across the border to Groningen, Netherlands where I was about to meet a friend of mine. And so I did. We spent a nice afternoon doing a little tour in Groningen and having a dinner at her mum's (awesome) place, which happens to be a house built in a boat (someone can inform me if there's some proper term for that). Unfortunately I didn't have time to (or didn't realize it on time) take photos from inside because that's where it really gets awesome. Got few pictures from outside anyway and will probably publish one after I've uploaded those (if my friend agrees of course). You see I'm still looking for my usb-cable for the camera and only photography -stores that I've bumped into till now seem to have devoted themselves only for Nikon -people for some reason. (To be honest that makes me feel like shitting bricks).
Based on the little glimpse I got to see of the city and heard from my host, I would have to say it's very much worth paying a visit. Impressive buildings and the traffic was really chill, especially when just arriving to a new country I had never visited before. Shitloads of people riding their bikes, scooters (about half without helmet's on their heads) and skate(or long)boards on their very own lanes and kinda as equals to the cars. So the traffic at least is in my opinion very different from Finland and caused me a lot of confusion at first. I've been after all biking almost the whole time I've spend here and it probably would've been quite different to get into without the years of experience on pretty much anything with wheels on it that I do.. but definitely it's worth it, love the idea and would like to see this thing happening in Finland too. What's yet to discover though is that how the F do they find Or get their bikes down from those huge bike-storages on every railway station? Just put Amsterdam on Google and first thing you'll probably find is a picture of these.. things.. with bikes on them. Absurd looking system that is but apparently it somehow works, I suppose?
Alright enough for tonight, just had to get the load of my back or at least reduce it a little. I'll get back to this probably tomorrow, lots of stuff I don't know about, so I wonder and you get to read and laugh about it!
G'dnight or goede nacht as google translate told me it is in dutch! Slaap lekker.
The epic prologue
"Erkka-reppureissuilla" is Finnish and basically means "Erkka's backpacking" and that's what I'm about to do for still undefined amount of time with no solid plans really. Started 25th of September and probably taking about 2 months, or at least as long as I'll run out of money. This is anyhow the way I planned it, let's see what happens in the end.
This is also in a way the first time in my life that I've had the opportunity take my time and travel as long as I will. After I finished my 1-year lasting civil service for the government at the Helsinki University (this is something we must do in Finland if one is not willing to do the military-service. The 3rd option being: spend your time in jail or otherwise released from the service), I started to work for about 2 months as a cabdriver for my dad at my hometown and filled in my savings that I required for the travels. Before this I was studying for about 5 years continuously completing the "double degree" on audiovisual -communication studies in vocational school and high school at the same time. That's the short of it how I got enough of the whole "everyday is exactly the same" -routine.
"Kaukokaipuuko" simply means "Wanderlust?".
So here's the antihero of our story in Brussels:
This is also in a way the first time in my life that I've had the opportunity take my time and travel as long as I will. After I finished my 1-year lasting civil service for the government at the Helsinki University (this is something we must do in Finland if one is not willing to do the military-service. The 3rd option being: spend your time in jail or otherwise released from the service), I started to work for about 2 months as a cabdriver for my dad at my hometown and filled in my savings that I required for the travels. Before this I was studying for about 5 years continuously completing the "double degree" on audiovisual -communication studies in vocational school and high school at the same time. That's the short of it how I got enough of the whole "everyday is exactly the same" -routine.
"Kaukokaipuuko" simply means "Wanderlust?".
So here's the antihero of our story in Brussels:
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