What I Did On My Holidays?

A.k.a Four-Day City Marathon.

The Berlin trip is over, I'm back to home sweet home with overflowing laundry basket and a distinct look of being lived in by a tenant who's not been arsed to take the vacuum cleaner out for a while.

Plus it's raining outside. Raining, I tell you! Water, not snow!

I want my climate-controlled, clean and tidy hotel room back, thank you very much.

After all the waiting and biting of fingernails, when I finally got to the airport on Monday I had to control myself not to join a young gentleman, who had not yet celebrated his second birthday, in his Sunday best, expressing his joy of seeing aeroplanes by running in a wide circle and making impressive "prrrrt!" sounds.

It snowed when I got to Berlin. In fact, it snowed all through the week, except on Friday (when I had to leave the city) the sun came out and the weather was just perfect. Nevertheless, as I decided to live life to the maximum and took a taxi from the airport to the hotel, my first impression of the city was a pretty one - snow falling gently, lights on windows, and the taxi driver's choice of classical tunes made for an impressive experience.

Berlin is an awesome city. No matter where I went, there was something worth seeing. On Tuesday I took a look at the west side of the city, walked down the Kurfürstendamm shopping street and took a look at the KaDeWe department store, which has the most impressive food court I've ever seen. I also took advantage of the relatively tourist-free time to walk the Unter den Linden down to the Brandenburger Tor, turned around and couldn't stop grinning as I saw the Fernsehturm looming over the buildings.

Wednesday had me wailing and gnashing my teeth at the Saturn music store at the Alexanderplatz. I mean, every single CD I've been lusting after was there. I looked left, there were neat piles of pretty albums, just waiting for me, I let my gaze fall naturally to the right, and there were more! I must have spent an hour there, clutching a pile of CDs in my clammy hands, running from aisle to aisle, trying to decide what to buy and what to leave behind. In the end I opted for In Extremo's Sünder ohne Sügel, Megaherz's Herzwerk II, Corvus Corax's Cantus Buranus (arrangemets can be made for those unpatient to wait for the Amazon.de order) and Janus' Nachtmahr - which has to be the most beautiful CD case ever made.

At least I got to hold the rest of them for a while. Still, I'm surprised the staff didn't throw me out for fondling the albums in public.

I had planned on taking the lift up to the Fernsehturm's top, but took one look at the queue and decided to admire the symbol of DDR's might and power from the outside only. I went for a walk in the Nikolaiviertel, and ate at Zum Nussbaums which offers food as German as it can get. It was delicious, but had at least one kilo of butter in it. I almost left permanent dents to the ground as I left, and after several hours of non-stop walking still wasn't hungry. If you ever happen to find yourself there, try it out. Excellent food and excellent beer.

It is very reassuring to find out that after 2 years of learning a language I can now confidently walk in a restaurant and order myself a meal. After 2 more years, who knows, maybe I'll have advanced so much that I can order a dessert as well. But really, I spoke German to people, and instead of being laughed at, got understood. Amazing.

And because of a band I like I had to look for a certain U-Bahn station (where parts of Mein Teil video were shot), and a building in Schlossplatz (where the video for Ich Will was shot). And while in Schlossplatz, looking at what remains of the Palast der Republic, where DDR's rulers sat in their time, I had a good thought about history and where it has lead us.

But back to the modern times. I did sample the famous kebabs, as I promised. A good kebab, yes, as kebabs go, but I still think that the kebabrulle special med ost you get in Skåne is the best. Must be the added factor of spending ten days camping on what must be the soggiest field in Sweden which makes anything a) made by someone else b) you can eat indoors and sitting on a proper chair taste divine.

I also sampled the famous beers. Goodness gracious me. The selection in the small corner shop near the hotel had me biting my lower lip, and had I had room in my bag I'd have brought some over.

Thursday Berlin was hit by a good, old-fashioned blizzard. I tried to brave it, but after a couple of hours (and after my legs simply refused to take another step unless it was towards the hotel) I gave up, went to my hotel room and spent the evening looking at movies dubbed in German.

I went to the Deutsches Historisches Museum to look at some medieval goodies, but to my embarrassment got lost in the building and ended up walking in a circle between 2 exhibitions and the museum shop. In frustration, once I had located the front door, I escaped. The Gemäldegalerie, on the other hand, made up for the disaster. It has an endless supply of art beginning from the 12th Century, and I spent an informative couple of hours there, nose pressed to the paintings, trying to figure out the secrets of seams, headdresses and fastenings of the past centuries. Too late I found out that taking pictures was allowed - I had left my camera with my coat.

On Friday the city exploded with people coming to celebrate the New Years. Two thirds of the Italian population had moved in for the single purpose of blocking every single way. Traveling alone, I must have gave the impression that I was somehow a part of the native population as I was stopped at least four times and asked for directions. I took a walk around the Museuminsel and too soon it was time to head to the Tegel airport (if you take a really good look at the picture, you may see the bloke at the end of the corridor thingy, playing Mozart on a keyboard. Lovely, I must say).

On the flight to Berlin we had this big, shiny job of an aeroplane, with small videoscreens popping down from the ceiling, giving us real-time info on our altitude, ground speed, local time in Helsinki and in Berlin and so fort and so forth, complete with air hostesses dashing back and forth the aisle radiating concern over the passenger's sufficient coffee intake and pampering us in all ways possible. Also, you could donate all your extra coins to Unicef and thus help educate young girls in Nepal, a campaign Finnair has till March, if I'm not mistaken.

On the flight back, however, we were crammed into a small can of sardines which I thought was a blast from the past until the captain proudly proclaimed it to be one of the brand new planes Finnair has just bought. Really! Had there been any video screens there, they'd have smacked us over the head. But before the air hostesses begin their dashing and pampering, when the plane, small or big, takes off from the Tegel airport and the cabin lights are lighted, it faces the wrong way and has to make a slow curve over Berlin in order to get on the right course. If one is lucky enough to be seated on the right side of the plane, and has chekced herself in early enough to get to choose a window seat, when the plane dips to turn, one is treated with a sight which can only be described as fuckin' A.

All my money is gone, I'm still tired and my brain is only half-way home, but goddamn, it was so worth it. I don't think I'll complain too loudly if I happen to find myself there again.


Oh, and it's the last day of the year. Have a happy next one!

Berlin piccies.

Merry Christmas!

Here I am, full of food and good holiday spirit.

Originally I was supposed to spend the night at my parent's, but my sister and her fiancé generously offered to drive me home and I decided I sleep much better in my own bed than on a narrow spare mattress.

Food has been eaten, in copious amounts, fun has been had and all the proper christmas traditions carried out. The grandparents are visiting us, and my uncle and his family came also over for the dinner which all amounted to a good, old-fashioned christmas. J, sister's husband-to-be, who every christmas plays Santa for his little nephews had a little surprise for us as he after the gig showed up in full Santa gear, distributed our gifts, made us sing christmas carols and all in all pulled off a very credible show.

I got
- perfume (City Glam by Emporio Armani, love it) from my sister
- socks, a Berlin city guide, a sauce ladle and ingredients for a sauce from my mother
- a lottery ticket from my dad (didn't win anything)
- a ceramic object d'art, a very beautiful small round jar in which I'm told one can store either salt or thoughts from uncle's gf who does these things for a living
- some self-made candy from St (took it to the dinner and people almost gave standing ovation, so thankies!)
- an embroidery frame, which Santa promesed to deliver in the near future from E.

So I am a very happy woman right now.

I leave you with some more pictures of Miska, the famous cat of my parents, who spent the evening either at the table waiting to be fed (see above), or under the christmas tree enjoying a refreshing drink or just looking after the presents. The cat population of our family is growing by one on the first of January when sister and J are adopting a 2-year-old female Manx, although this one comes with a full-length tail.

There's a Fast Show marathon on telly going on, I'll better stop this and give it my undivided attention.

I'm Free!

School's over for this year! Woo!

Well, actually the final lessons were yesterday, I was supposed to sit an accounting exam today but couldn't go as I had a doctor's appointment which took longer than I had expected. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the mystery surrounding my left arm is beginning to dissolve.

After much electric shocks and probing with sharp objects the doctor announced that most probably the old trouble has not raised its ugly head, it's the scar tissue which has attached itself to the nerve and is pressing it and I'll just have to learn to live with it; another operation would just mean more scar tissue. He told me to give the arm a few days' absolute rest which is turning out to be a surprisingly difficult task. Also he asked me if I lean on my elbow, and I was like yeah, don't everybody? He was surprised that no one had told me before that its something I should avoid and is quite likely one of the reasons why the poor arm is behaving as it is. I just wish someone had mentioned this a few years ago...

But I'll get to hear the final results of the examination on January and until that I'll just try to support the weight of my head without the help of my left elbow.

I finally got round to do some christmas shopping today and surprised myself by not buying every single shiny object I saw. In fact, I only bought one piece of christmas tree decoration (and as I haven't got the space to get my own tree, haven't had for years, I have no idea why I keep on buying them) because it just was too pretty not to buy. Only a few odd things to get and then I'll be all set for some exessive eating and enjoying life in general.

Right now, off to bath.


Today's favourites:
Danzig: Black Angel, White Angel
Rammstein: Te Quiero Puta!

Manners maketh man

Congrats to E for successful navigation through the Kafka-esque world of university and graduating!

Christmas is only a bit more than a week away, and so is my trip to Berlin. I have already started to fret and imagine all the worst case scenarios - I manage to catch a bad flu, the flights are either cancelled or that I miss the plane, that the hotel has never received my reservation (the worst fear, as the reservation was done through a booking system and not straight to the hotel - though my sister has had good experiences booking hotels through it before), and so on. Just like the "OMG we forgot to shop!" dream I see every time I'm supposed to cook large amounts of food.

Speaking of christmas, me and A sought out some extreme experiences the other day and went to a service organized by our school as part of the christmastime celebrations. For some reason I like singing hymns, I guess the heir to the Coca-Cola Company might get the same feeling singing some of the more bloodthirsty communist marches. Anyway, there we were, punishing the believers with our gift of noise and singing our hearts (and possibly some other organs as well) out, when right in the middle of it all, someone's cellphone rang. Like, what?

After a decade or so of having the damned things around, you'd think that some parts of the unwritten etiquette would have sunk into the brain of even the slowest of thinkers? Or is it that the older generations have neglected to teach some manners to the younger ones, as I think it was a teenager whose phone it was. And not so long ago, during the touching final moments of Harry Potter, a young boy not only answered his phone but talked pretty loudly to his mother.

What is going on? Do we need to start all over again with the public discussion of proper conduct of behaviour with cellphones? And this time I would like to include in this topic of discussion some people's habit of inflicting all the co-passengers in a bus to all the details of the talker's sex life or the lack thereof/diseases/retarded bosses and colleagues. I. Do. Not. Want. To. Know.

Whatever happened to common sense? Sheesh.

This year's Best SMS Award goes to H, however. I left work today, heard a bang, rounded a corner and saw a car on fire right in the middle of the road. I don't know what had happened, it was an older car and had obviously stopped at traffic lights and then for some reason KA-whoosh!! but anyway there it was, merrily on flames. Imagine a pyre. Of course I had to share this once-in-a-lifetime experience and reported it via SMS to H whose response, though it consisted only of one word, somehow captured the entire scene: Benzin.

Truer word has seldom been spoken.



To fit the mood:
Rammstein: Zerstören
Kotiteollisuus: Käärmeenpää

Complete lack of interest

I should be writing a book analysis. For some reason I can't concentrate on it for one bit, and I only have 1 page to do. The deadline is of course tomorrow. This complete lack of self discipline is unwanted, though somwhat expected after a too busy couple of months - combining work and school is an unfortunate necessity which thankfully will be over soon. I'll knock on wood, my sister was on the verge of graduating when she found out that someone at the school had blundered and accidentally given her more credits than she had actually studied and therefore had to take a few extra courses and of course postpone the graduation.

Otherwise, this was a good weekend. Got home from an event to find a christmas tree in the corridor and spent a pleasant couple of hours avoiding even thinking about the book analysis (oh, the book itself is muy interesting, Richard Sennett's The Corrosion of Character. It's about how the change of work ethics and culture affects us children of the modern capitalism. Recommended reading, definitely) and watched some cheap but oh so relaxing sitcoms on telly.

With the benefit of hindsight I think I can safely say that I have been a pretty stressed creature throughout the autumn. I apologise if I have been more annoying and/or scatterbrain than usual. In good news, the second half of my summer holiday which I never got the chance of having in summer will begin on 27th. After that, I only need to worry about one German course and the bachelor's thesis and getting a new job. So yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not a flamethrower! I might actually pass for an adult human being in the near future.

I do not recommend stress. It's not good for you.

The analysis doesn't seem to be writing itself no matter how hard I want it to, so back to work...

Soundtrack of the moment:
Some Robbie Williams song. The MTV is on, and his video is currently playing. Pretty decent pop song.

Happy B-day, Finland!

A thousand smiles upon that anonymous blogger who gave me advise in how to get my bookmarks back after Firefox discarded them. Thank you!

Happy independence day, my fellow inhabitants of this small, weird and currently rather cold and slippery country! Don't eat too much, and here's hoping your sense of style will recover after watching the presidential party on TV. I'm glad I don't have to be working there tonight, it was an amazing experience, but once is quite enough in one's lifetime, thankyousoverymuch. Next time you see me there, I'll be an invited guest :P

Here's the evidence of snow I talked about a couple of posts back. The snow was there only for one day, but on my way from school to home I saw 2 snowmen. It's a good thing I happened to have my camera with me, otherwise I might have missed the winter completely. What happened to the winters we used to have when I was a kid? Or am I just becoming senile? I remember having vast amounts of snow, clear, crisp days and bright sunshine, not this un-weather of today.

I withdraw the question about becomig senile, as I seem to be unable to talk about anything but weather the answer is obvious. Sorry. Anyway. The Futurama-a-thon I've been waiting for just began on Subtv, I'm off to be entertained.



Today's top choices:
Massive Attack: Angel
The Scaramangas: Eight And A Half
The Scaramangas is A's other half's band and a highly recommended to be checked out.

1st December

One month to go and it's officially good bye this year, welcome the new. What happened to this year? It just started, didn't it? And now it's almost gone, 12 months of our lives lived and lost. So far it's been a good year, but we shall see how it looks like after 31 days.

I haven't bought a christmas calendar, so in compensation here's a random christmas-related picture to get people in the mood. I wish we had snow, too, not this stupid wet gray horrid sludge we've been having lately - there was snow the other day, I saw it and have photographic evidence to back me up, but it's all lost to the sludge.

As far as preparations for christmas go, I haven't done anything yet. On Friday, though, I have planned to do some shopping (not any presents, though, because it's Santa who makes them, not me) and cleaning.

Soundtrack:
Pink Martini: Hang On Little Tomato; Donde estas, Yolanda and Sympathique