Sunday, July 31, 2011

Random Bike Trips



I've used the bike only for a couple of times here in Finland, and I can say that it is scary and annoying to bike out there. Why do people let children run how ever they want to on the streets?

I miss riding an old bike on the Dutch streets; no hills, no people, but at least it's safer to leave your bikes on the sreets over here! Well anyways here are some pictures from our random bike trips with Janne last autumn.

1.9.2010

For the first week we didn't do anything except for being at home, visiting school occasionally and partying in the centre. It got depressing, since it felt like that's what Breda was only about; I needed to go explore the city better to find something new. So with Janne we decided to just bike around with no destination.

but before that some food in ikea..

..with my fat mates!









evil head


Seeing many new sides of Breda really cheered me up. And this was also the trip during which me and Janne made the deal of starting our beer tasting club.

3.10.2010

Hot as a summer day, we headed off to another unknown destination with our bikes. By the way the Dutch like to give names to their bikes. I didn't do that, but Janne's bike was called Gloria.

This time our trip took around 5 hours, and during those hours we found a forest(!!!), accidentally entered another city, admired the country side and had deep conversations.


didn't do it, cause there was water waiting :(

i learned that swans have only one partner, so i believed this to be a widow


preparing for halloween?

oops!






marathon in breda


Saturday, July 30, 2011

Suosähly -11

23.7.2011

After being almost a couple of weeks back in Finland again, it was time for me to head off into the nature to get myself a pair of smooth legs. Basically it was that time of the year again for swamp floorball national championships. It had been a few years since I last participated, so it did me also good to do something really Finnish; a sort of welcome back.

It was really nice to see some of my former floorball team mates, and before that I really hadn't talked that much Finnish in a while, which could be heard. And it was seen during the first match that I haven't been a goalie for a while (e.g. almost throwing the ball into our own goal). But the field was difficult too, since you didn't sink at all, and I tried my best to cover the goal with my leprechaun body. We lost 5-0, which a couple of goals were contradictable (high stick, players being in the goalie's area, referee a douche..).



But the first games are always the warm up games, because we won the next match 1-0 and got to sink a bit into the swamp. Basically that meant that we just had to win the next one and we'd be in the play-offs.




And so we did, with 5 or 6 goals to 0. We even sank more, which meant smoother legs. Though most importantly we qualified into the knock out rounds! My third time being in the competition, but only first time to make it through.




 First half we won with 3 goals or so, felt kind of confident of winning the match, but this time the swamp was against us. All the players sank until the waist, and as a goalie I couldn't really do anything, but to watch how the balls flew to the upper corners. In addition we had the same douche referee, who didn't let us change sides after being forced to play for the golden goal. So we had the worse side for the rest of the game, which finally lead to a 5-4 defeat.







The whole team felt disappointed. A lovely tournament ended in a bitter way. But for sure if I'll have the chance, I'd return next year. But not wearing retired grandpa clothes.



Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Can't Stop

8.7.2011

”I will stay only until 2”; Jordan said when he promised to spend the last party Thursday with me in De Boulevard. Then he promised to go to the Speel for only a beer. Then I had to wake up already at 8 to go to Den Haag for a museum tour, but I accidentally turned off my alarm clock, so I had about 30min to brush my teeth, check Facebook, if Jara replied my message to pick up the museum cards from her place and then to the train station to meet up with Maria. 

Jara did not reply my message, so I assumed I could just go to her place and knock on her window. However Jordan did post a message of still being awake at 6am. Goed gedaan jonge. After picking up the museum cards I made it just on time for the train, which Maria didn’t believe I could do. I tend to call her a pessimist, after which she claims she is not, then I ask why so much anger -> raising voice telling that she is not angry-> me saying relax -> she threatening me. We’re going to have so much fun this autumn! <3

Naturally I felt horrible, and the goal for the day was to simply survive. I can blame Jordan for it a bit; he just kept pouring more beer in my glass. But hey Jordantje I had a blast, even though you were clearly suffering in Boule (;

The train trip took ages, when we arrived to Delft, where Maria wanted to see the churches where the Dutch royalties and famous painter Vermeer are buried and climb the tower. I’m really lucky that I climbed the Nieuwe Kerke’s tower in autumn already; for sure I would have died trying to do it on that day. I on the other hand had a look at the army museum and the museum where Willem of Orange (the first king of Holland) was killed. They weren’t that special, but when you get in museums for free with the card, then you get in for free.



stairs where he was killed

While walking on the streets of Delft I heard some weird language, which first sounded like Spanish, but for my shock was Finnish. Basically a mother telling her son that she doesn’t want to eat anything sweet now; “Nikkelnakkelmakeaa”. That’s how it sounded, and that’s how international students try to speak Finnish.

After our quick stop at Delft we headed to Den Haag. The first museum we visited there was the Mauritshuis, which had the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer. The museum was only two floors, and perhaps not worth the 10€, which normal visitors had to pay (meaning non-museum card holders ;P). But seeing some famous paintings of Rembrandt and the Girl, it was worth visiting. That was the first time I realized how beautiful the painting was. Posing like a model today, I wonder how she looked like in real life. For me that piece of art contains a hundred times more mystery than Mona Lisa’s smile.




The second museum was the Gemeente museum, which is huge with a lot of paintings like Picasso, but I didn’t get to see any paintings, since I got stuck in the “exploration” area. A lot of interesting facts of the universe and interactive stuff. I didn’t even remember that we were supposed to go see paintings, though it doesn’t matter, been there done that. 

yummy kibbeling while waiting for the bus






                                         already extinct gigantic elephant bird




But this? ->




How many can say that they’ve caused a volcano to erupt in a museum?

 Third and the last was the Foto museum, which was just the next building. 


Before we entered the first exhibition room I noticed that they were playing Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Can’t Stop video on a small TV. I had been playing that video for the last week on my laptop, and realized that the exhibition is going to be about the person, who inspired that video. Oh boy did I get excited!








 Now that was fun.

We were supposed to visit the beach, where I spent the first of January, but I was too tired for that. So the last thing we saw were some interesting giant sculptures from China.

 maria usually doesn't do funny pics, but now she got really excited



Finally when I started to feel awake, it was time to go home. I survived, the most fun museum tour yet.

PS. Jara did not receive the message of picking up the cards, so I guess she was quite scared in the morning of someone knocking on her window.