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I know you’ve been waiting for this :p Finally, my report of my Finland 2008 vacation. Tales of a land of trees and lakes and expensive alcohol. Not that that stops the Fins .

pictures!

Wednesday – My flight was ok. I sat next to a talkative guy who was going to China for three months. Thankfully the flight was short, and getting my luggage was easy. Reetta and Johanna came to pick me up, and we drove to Johanna’s place in Iggy, her car. We basically just dumped my suitcase and headed out to Helsinki, where we had a couple of drinks at ‘Bierhuis Rotterdam’, and then we went to an Argentinean (?) restaurant called Maya, which served the best strawberry margarita’s ever.

Thursday – Thursday was a day for exploring. We went out into Helsinki early in the morning. We walked around for a while and saw the Icebreakers, Urho, Sisu, Kontio, Voima and Otso. Some of these words mean Strength, and others mean Bear. I think it’s kind of sad that none of them is called Karhu, which also means Bear, and is a Finnish brand of Beer. It started raining when we got to Helsinki, and it kept raining the entire time. We ate Sushi, and went for a tour of the helsinki harbour, during which Reetta decided that the Swedich officer who was in charge of Helsinki back in the day was an incompetent asshat for losing Helsinki to the Russians. I can’t disagree with that . Then we ate pizza and went to see Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Who is hot. But Finnish subtitles are very distracting, especially when some of the actors have a thick Spanish accent, and you can’t quite follow, and then you look at the subtitles and you expect to read something that makes sense. And Finnish doesn’t

Friday – We took it easy on Friday. We watched a movie at Johanna’s place, and then we went on a little car tour of Espoo, where we saw the houses of the obscenely rich people. Then we went to the boat on which we’d be taking a cruise to Stockholm. We met Reetta’s mom and sister, and then… there was alcohol. I don’t quite remember ever being as drunk as I was Friday evening in my life. Except for maybe the first time I was ever this drunk. Reetta and Johanna were awesome for taking me back to the cabin, trying to feed me pizza (which made me throw up more) and for forcefeeding me water (which I then proceeded to throw up as well. go me.) We also hooked up with this bachelor party, who had one of the conference cabins which had it’s own sauna. We decided to leave those guys again when there were naked Finnish guys bouncing through said cabin. Fins. Gotta love ‘em.

Random observation time: Fins all speak decent English, and I do not look like a Fin. Hangovers suck! There are lots of drunken Finnish people in Finland and Sweden. Must be a Nordic thing. Island in Finland are all rock, no sand. Helsinki was built in the middle of a forest. So is the rest of Finland. Hangovers suck! Johanna gets seasick if she doesn’t drink. Reetta doesn’t like wine. huh? or Fish. Therefore Reetta is not a tr00 Fin. Even though she looks like one.

Saturday – Was hangover day. Apparently we went into Stockholm, but I don’t remember much of it. We went on a bus tour, which was fine as long as it was driving, but when it stood still it just made me want to keel over and die. Stupid hangover. It sucks. I didn’t get over the hangover until i took a nap.

Sunday – We went back to Johanna’s place after getting off the boat. We watched some movies, ate pizza (ew, too much garlick) and passed out. Zzz.

Monday – Monday was dedicated to the ridiculously long trainride to Jyväskylä. Three hours! my flight was shorter! ugh. Then in the evening there was my very first table top rp, which was sweet. I made a feral character for a Warhammer rp, called Grimlock. Grimlock smash! He was a tank too <3

Tuesday – This started out as laundry day. Then we did more rp’ing. (an Abberant game this time) and we explored JyväskylÄ for a while. They don’t do boutiques in Jyväskylä, only malls.

Wednesday – Reetta’s father dropped of the car which we used to drive to Tampere for Tamperfest. Reetta’s dad is a total hippie. Seriously, kelly, you have nothing this man. We were supposed to see two shows during Tamperfest, but we got distracted by a pub which played good music, so we hung around there. We missed Poets of the Fall, which as supposed to be a good band, but… eh… too many emo kids out and about anyway. We drove to Viala (?) to meet Reetta’s sister Sunna, where we ate loads of strawberries, and enjoyed her wooden sauna. Sunna looked very pretty and pregnant, one of the few naturally smiling Fins I’ve met.

Thursday – We woke up at Sunna’s place, and then we went to the Sarkaniemi amusement park. This was very amusing indeed. We saw a dolphin act, went on some great rides (Seriously, the Tornado ride Owned me.) Then we drove back to Jyväskylä.

Friday – We went swimming in a lake near Reetta’s house, which freely translated means something like ‘lake doom’. Actually, I went swimming, Reetta thought it was too cold. Like I said, not a proper Fin . Then in the evening we went to see Wanted, which is all sorts of awesome. You should definitely see this movie.

Saturday – We made me an Ars Magica character for a roleplaying game on Sunday, then we rented a couple of movies and watched some firefly. Hitman and Rise weren’t particularly good. You don’t have to see these movies. Firefly you do have to see. And you have to give it to me for my birthday. Yes you do. You know you want to!

Sunday – Sunday was mostly dedicated to playing Ars Magica with Teemu, who has a very complicated name which I thought was spelled like Teimo. Fins… Anyway, the game was fun, and the character I made turned out to be a complete asshat. Then when we got back we watched some more firefly. Which you want to get me for my birthday. yes….

Monday – Reetta and I went for a picnic my lake doom, which was very entertaining. Then we visited Reetta’s mom, who had made us a traditional Finnish meal, which was surprisingly like a traditional Dutch meal. Then we used her sauna, which was awesome. Reetta’s feet died during the walk to the lake. Proof that no one should wear klompen Also, the girl who worked at the icecream stand where we went to get icecream looked utterly devastated about the fact the had to get us icecream. Seriously, the weight of the world was on her shoulders, and if she had to put just one more scoop on the icecream she would just die. Also also: Tommie (Reetta’s husband) is secretly a woman, and he and Reetta share 1 brain during apples to apples. Oh, and Baileys is nice.

Tuesday – I snoozed while Reetta fed her popmundo addiction. Then we went for a drive with Reetta’s mum’s car. I drove . We went to a ski jumping hill (they actually do that in Finland) and we saw the place where Reetta got married, which also happens to be the place where Bilbo Baggins lives. Then we watched Underworld II and went on a dinner cruise on the big lake between Jyväskylä, Tampere and Helsinki. The cruise was great, but dinner sucked a bit. The fish had way too many bones in it. Then we played some more apples to apples and had more baileys.

Wednesday – After getting soaked in a torrential downpoar we started the drive to Helsinki. I drove the entire way, for which my ankle kind of hates me. We met up with Johanna at her place, and then went out to eat at the same restaurant we went to the first day, because of the strawberry margarita’s. Then we went to Sling in for more cocktails, and afterwards we met up with Pat, a friend of Johanna’s. With him we went to ‘the society of pigs’, where we had more drinks & talks. We ended up going home being more than a little tipsy. Good times

Thursday – Woke up feeling a little groggy (duh). Said goodbye to Johanna, who had to go to work. Sad sad. Then we went to Helsinki to do some touristy shopping, and we had Sushi again. Then Reetta took me to the airport, and at 16:30 she went back home, and I waited for my flight time to arrive.

All in all this was a very good and relaxing vacation. Finland is quite pretty, if you like trees and lakes, which I do. Also, it was just great to spend time with Reetta and Johanna.