December so far

Christmas is so near! Only two more days and I will be on my way to Finland. Craazy! I couldn't be more excited about wednesday. Also, it turned out that one of my friends living in here is also flying to Helsinki on wednesday and we are on the same flight! So I even have company for the way back. 

Thanks mumsie for sending me this

Still, before I can leave Groningen for two week, there will be at least a group presentation, a lot of other school work and stressing about packing. Kind of panicking if I will manage to do everything in two days. December has gone by faster than I thought. I was waiting for christmas and visiting home so much, that I thought that the next 18 days would be the longest ones ever. But for once, a lot of schoolwork has been for my favor. Only 2 more lids to open from my Fazer christmas calendar!

Snowing at last in Groningen

Last week I was working on getting christmas gifts sorted, and happily I managed to buy most of them or at least I know what I would want to buy.

On Saturday we visited Bremen for the christmas market. 7 hours in Bremen consisted of glühwein(yuck), awesome carousel ride, medieval christmas market and a visit to Primark. I managed to do some christmas shopping, but not as much as I hoped... My plan was to visit Amsterdam yesterday, but I kind of slept in and suddenly it was four o'clock in the afternoon. Oh well, I just have to be very productive and get things done in Tampere. As last week I got a message asking weather I would like to work for a couple of days during my stay in Finland.. And knowing me, of course I accepted the offer. So five days of my 2 week holiday will be spent at work.

Today I basically have a day off from school, but I still need to finish one presentation and then in the evening is our last floorball practice. 

Exploring Holland: Day in Den Haag

On Saturday it was time to do a little day trip again. I have had so much going on at school and everything so I feel like I haven't had time or energy to travel around.. There are still some places to see before I am ready to return to Finland!

Local Politie? 

Our ambitious plan was to catch a 9am train as it takes like three hours to get from Groningen to Den Haag. Surprisingly(knowing my sleeping preferences..) we left the house at 9:30 and made it to 10:46 train. By that we arrived a little late, around two o'clock and actually got to spend only a few hours in there as we had plans for the evening in Groningen. Once again, we had no plan whatsoever on what to do, see or experience in there so we just wandered around the center.

At some point we realized we hadn't eaten at all and at least my stomach was feeling very angry at me. So we headed to find a place to eat. Out of all the restaurants, we chose the slowest one in town when it comes to service but the location was nice, a great place for people-watching ;-)

I had somewhat high expectation for Den Haag. I don't even know where or from whom I had gotten my image for the town, but it was totally different what I thought. Maybe we should have done a little more research on what to do, but for now I can only say that it was a nice trip but probably we could have spent the day way more efficiently. I had fun though, we made some new friends (Russian tourists) and it was a nice getaway for a day. Maybe not totally worth the 6 hours traveling by train.. I really don't have anything to say about the town, soo maybe I will just end it here. Next weekend we are heading to Germany and maybe also to Maastricht or some other place in Holland, so hopefully a little more enthusiastic report on those ones.

Happy Independence Day to Finland

On Wednesday evening at a group meeting we were scheduling our next meeting and one of the group members mentioned that on Thursday it would be a very bad weather so maybe we shouldn't meet then. I didn't think that it would be anything too bad, a little more wind and rain, maybe even snow. But on Thursday as I woke up, it was raining like no other, the wind was super fast and the weather did not look very tempting.. So i was more than happy to stay in. 

In the evening, we were so bored and Amyra asked if I would like to go see the new Hunger Games movie. And so we did. It took me a while to get into the whole HG hype. During the time the first movie came out, I watched it online and was expecting a lot as everyone was talking about it so much. After the horrible 1,5 hours I was not convinced - how can someone be so excited about a movie where people are kept in a trap underground eating each other.. Not until a few weeks ago I realized that the movie I had seen was not what I thought it was. Instead of Hunger Games I had watched Hunger.  

Right after that relatively embarrassing realization I made amends and gave over two hours of my precious time for the actual Hunger Games. And let me tell ya all - totally worth it! Usually I am not that into the whole action-figthing-guns-and-fire type of thing on movies(openly sucker for romantic movies), but this time it didn't bother me at all. I was immediately hungry for the second part ;-)

So, yesterday I Finally got to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I had heard somewhat a lot bad things about the movie, that the ending was not good at all, and there would be too much of the battlefield bit. But for me, that was not a problem at all. I think it was a perfect continuum for the first part and left anticipation and excitement for the third part. I even cried, twice. Also, How gorgeous is Jennifer Lawrence?!

Our way home from the city was not so romantic then again. The storm had come even worse, the wind was gusty and it was even hailing. But as soon as we got back to Korno, it started SNOWING! We witnessed the first snow raining down, and it was a happy moment have to say. This morning as I woke up and looked out and down, I was so happy to see a thin, white layer on top of the grey ground.

It took me a loong time to write this post as at the same time I am sticking into my traditions and watching the handshake-event this time from Tampere. #Linnanjuhlat I mean.

Sleepless Nights

I don't feel like sleeping, so #bloggingtime.

I have had a pretty tight schedule at school for a few weeks now and will probably have until christmas and then in January again. I don't have any exams in January, so that means a lot of homework and other (group) assignments.

Tomorrow luckily I get to enjoy a day off from uni, or at least from Zernike as one meeting got rescheduled for next tuesday. That doesn't mean that its going to be a lazy day - just made a to-do list of twelve points. Time to be productive. Apparently some storm is hitting Groningen again, so I am glad to just stay inside and deal with all the boring stuff, maybe light up some candles and enjoy the winter.

Have to start thinking about christmas present also. It is always as hard to thing about good gifts to give for your loved ones.. Something useful but not boring, meaningful but not too over-the-top. Hopefully Groningen has some sweet things to offer on that area. Next weekend I really want to go somewhere, The Hague or Utrecht maybe, so that might be a good opportunity for some gift hunting. On the 14th we are also going to Bremen for a christmas market, and then on 18th I am already flying back to Helsinki!

Thanksgiving dinner ....

Yesterday I started to pack for christmas. As in packed my summer clothes and stuff that I really won't be needing anymore. And oh my.. It feels like there is as much clothes and stuff in my room as before packing. I honestly do not know how I will empty this room. Stressful. I guess I have to add another dash point to my list: find out the rates for sending moving boxes to Finland.

Christmas lights

Exploring Germany: Frankfurt and Heidelberg

Lastly but certainly not the least, I was headed to Frankfurt. At Frankfurt central station my mum was waiting for me in front of my platform and I was sooooo happy to see her <3 I didn't want to cry but I would be lying if I said no tears of happiness were unleashed(:-D).

Once again we got acquainted with the chinese block while we walked to our hotel. Mum had arrived earlier than me, so she already had checked in and knew the route to the hotel. We had a really nice room with, once again, a corgeous view. Those hotel sheets and fluffy beds were so heavenly! 

Even though I was so tired from everything, we headed to the city to walk around a little bit. Our hotel was close to the Main River, and the surrounding were beautiful with the autumn leaves on the ground. I wasn't really up for shopping, but we walked trough a few stores trying to find something for father's day. And once again, I tried my luck in one store to find the Alexander Wang bag.. No luck for me this time either! The city area of Frankfurt was kind of odd - there were some old building with the traditional german design but then again a lot of new, modern high-rise buildings. In the evening we had a nice dinner at a restaurant on the other side of the river. The place was called 36 grad and I must say, it was a really pleasant experience. It looked very youthful in a good way, the menu was awesome and the decorations of the place were fab! I wish I had more pics from there, but it was so dark that it was practically impossible to take good pics. The restaurant was full the whole evening and the atmosphere was relaxed yet fancy, so a great location for a dinner or get together with friends.

mamma <3

As I arrived to Frankfurt on Friday and we had basically seen the "important" things in there already during the first day, on Saturday we decided to do a little day trip to a city near called Heidelberg. Mom had got some recommendations on visiting there and I also had one extra day in my InterRail ticket so it was perfect. We took breakfast with us from a cafe at the Chinese block and took a train there.

In Heidelberg we headed straight to the old town, as that is basically the only thing worth seeing I guess. And it was the cutest place. The old town area was quite big so it took a while to walk around it. There was so much to see, so many cute buildings, stores and cafes. The best part of the day however was the castle. Located uphill from the city, there was this gorgeous castle with the most amazing view. There were even people fencing in the yard of one of the buildings, haha.

Across the river there would have been some sort of a philosophy path, but we decided not to go there after all. We did some shopping, tried to find souvenirs and had sushi for lunch. After wandering around enough we literally run to catch the train -which was late of course. 

The next day was time to say farewell to mummy. We went for a morning walk by the river, checked out and headed to the train station. I felt so sad to leave her again for another two months and even writing this makes me miss her and all my family so much.. But I was also happy to start my travel back to Groningen, even though it was a long one. I had my backpack full of finish treats(Pätkiksiä, joulusuklaata, Marianneja...) also, so that comforted me a little ;-)

Oh yeah, and there was a marathon in Frankfurt that Sunday so the station was filled with runners getting ready and loading their carbs :-D

Dream a little...

Usually when asking gifts I don't want to ask too pricey or "fancy" gifts. I don't want my family to spent so much money on my gifts, and usually I am myself saving for something I really want. And somehow I think that if I really want to have something more expensive I have to save up for it myself and pay it myself. That way it feels more "earned". Of course I wouldn't mind getting these wanties as a gift, but I would never expect it!

If I could ask for anything, my list would look something like this..

Alexander Wang / Chanel / Chanel / Alexander Wang / Givenchy

Proenza Schouler / Marni / The Row

Proenza Schouler / Givenchy / 3.1 Philip Lim

Saint Laurent / Saint Laurent / Rebecca Minkoff

Burberry Brit / Acne / Burberry London / Burberry Prorsum

Oscar de la Renta / Anndra Neen

Givenchy / Rag & Bone / Rag & Bone

Current/Elliott / Chalayan / Saint Laurent

Exploring Germany: Bamberg

From Berlin I had to somehow get to other side of Germany, to Frankfurt. I had made plans to meet up with my mom in Frankfurt, that was one of the reasons I even chose to go to Germany. As I looked up the train connections between those two cities, it did not look promising at all. All connections included at least 2 or 3 changes and the traveling time did not look too alluring either.. So I decided to stay somewhere in-between for one night and divide the transfer into two legs. After few options I ended up going to Bamberg for one night.

Welcome to Bamberg!

Hotel room view

One of my friends from here knew the town and said I would love it, and actually later on it turned out that another friend of mine actually studies there! So I had some expectations towards the city. Right from the train station I knew those expectations would be fulfilled. During my walk to the city and my hotel, I could not keep looking around with my mouth probably open in amazement. It is an old town, so everywhere you look you can see old buildings in pale pink, baby blue, white.. When approaching the city, I had to cross a river and the view from that bridge over to the city in a starting afternoon sunset was just beautiful. Oh yeah, and even the train ride to there was epic, such beautiful views with all the mountains and valleys..(or is it just Holland which makes me see hills as magnificent..) What a pity the battery from my camera died in Berlin so I only have pictures taken with my iPhone.

There weren't that many places available for accommodation, but I decided to splurge a little and reserved a room from Hotel Central. From pictures it looked really nice, but I thought the price was a little over the top considering the timing etc. But when I got there, I was happy to pay the 69€. The room looked newly renovated and my view was real nice. The hotel was also very quiet and the price included a fairly good breakfast.

I arrived there somewhat later in the afternoon as the train ride took me 4,5 hours. I got a map from the reception and went to explore the city. I heard that the old town part of the city was really nice. But to me, the whole city center looked like an old town, in a really good way I mean! So many pretty houses and somehow the atmosphere there was just so different from anywhere else. The old town was located in a hill. At 18:00 suddenly all the churches started to ring their bells, and let me tell you it wasn't just two bells but more like 100. This town probably had one church per each inhabitant. After recovering from that shock, I climbed up to the highest point(that I could reach without going to people yards at least) and the view from up there was amazing. Sun setting and a nice brisk autumn weather redden my cheeks.. 

On my way down from the old town, I went trough a garden of this big church. There were signs but they were in weird german so I am not sure what they said, but I assumed that it was allowed to use the path. When I got down almost to the road I was heading to, there was this super scary shack between me and the road. There was no way of going around it so I just had to go trough. The door was open, but inside it was totally dark. You can imagine me all alone with my vivid imagination in an old church's  garden in Germany.. I was pretty scared. But luckily I survived, but it took a few minutes for my heart rate to recover. Now that I think about it, it seems silly but oh well... :-)

After this interesting experience, I tried to find this one beer I was told to bring from Bamber - apparently the best beer in the world or something.. But somehow, I could not find it from any store. I had a nice dinner and went to bed quite early. The week had certainly taken the toll out of me and I was super excited to see my mum the next day!

The next day, I continued my journey early in the morning, straight from breakfast headed to the train station and off to Frankfurt. From the smallest shop in Bamberg, at the station I even found the beer I was looking for. A nice start for the day!