Goodbye Finland!

It's my last day in Finland and tomorrow morning I'll sit in an airplane to Germany.
I definitely had a nice summer here although the weather wasn't always very summerly. Sari and Tommi became like friends to me and I'm sure we'll stay in contact. And I will miss the cuddly Arttu and the alcohol I was having every night! :-P Here I have seen the prettiest sunsets, became fascinated by taking pictures of nature, and used every chance to go swimming in one of the 187 888 lakes of Finland.
I just think it's a pity that I could never really communicate with the boys because they only speak little English and I don't speak Finnish (and language courses don't take place during the summer)! However, I think I did a good job as the first au pair in this house anyway...so good that my host parents will get a new au pair in September! :-P
But there is one thing I definitely will not miss: picking up dead, squashed, but still warm mice from the kitchen floor which were brought in by Klaara, the cat!!!

Medieval Times

Lots of Finns regularly go to Tallinn (Estonia) because the boat cruises are fairly cheap. However, Finnish people don't to go there for sightseeing, but for alcohol shopping. But I heard that the old town of Tallinn is very pretty and that's why I wanted to visit it (and my friend Päivi gladly came with me).
The day started out with rain (as so often in Finland). During the 3-hour ship voyage, it continued to rain and even got worse. The entertainment on board wasn't much better than the weather: the dance bar turned out to be a place for people aged 50 and above who like dancing waltz and the singer with this giutar sang mostly boring songs. So we continously were fighting not to fall asleep.

When we arrived in Tallinn, it was raining cats and dogs and it was super windy at the harbour. My host parents' storm-proof umbrella got partly damaged and our moods were a bit cloudy because it looked like it would never stop. However, we fought our way through the rain to the information to get a proper map and when we stepped outside, the rain had stopped and the clouds began to move away. And without an umbrella one could see so much more of the beautiful town.
Since I have never really heard anything about Tallinn or Estonia, I didn't know what to expect. But I had never imagined such a beautiful, medieval town!!! Most of the buildings from the eleven and twelve hundreds are still there and were kept in a good shape, you can hear medieval music at lots of places, and you can see lots of small alleys. So, in the 6 hours we had in Tallinn we saw: the 600-year old town hall, the Viru Gates, St. Nicholas' Church, the Olde Hansa: a medieval restaurant (Unfortunately, Päivi didn't want to eat there.), St. Olaf's Church, parts of the town wall, the Dome Church, the Stout Margaret Tower, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and the Toompea Castle (a modern one though) with its tower.

Supposedly, you can have very good meals for small money in Tallinn. Well, not in the tourist-filled old town though! It took us quite a while to find a restaurant with half-way reasonable prices. (And since we only had 6 hours, we didn't want to walt to the new part town and back just for some food.)
The time went by way too soon and back on the ship, the music was just as bad as on the way to Estonia. However, it did get exciting again. The ship needed 3 hours to Tallinn, but 3,5 hours back to Helsinki. And that only left me half an hour to get from the harbour to the bus station. However, the buses don't leave from the harbour every 5 minutes, but have quite big gaps in between. So, when we got off the boat, we ran to the bus. But after we got on, another 50 people wanted to take this bus as well and it was getting later and later. The bus left 10 minutes late and my time to reach the bus station had shrunken to 20 minutes. The bus was supposed to take about 10 minutes to reach the train station and from there it's another 10 to get to the bus station. But luckily the bus took a different route which was much closer to the bus station and after squeezing out of the bus and a fast walk down to the buses, I had just made it in time!

A night out!

When I heard that my friend Maike from Germany is also working as an au pair in Finland, I thought it would be great if we could meet and go out in Helsinki. Helsinki is so expensive that so far I hadn't been there for partying. But since I live so close, I wanted to do it at least once.
So, Maike and I met in Helsinki. At first, we sat down in Kamppi (the area in front of the bus station) and had the two beers I had brought with me. However, while drinking we realized that we are the only people with beer in our hands and were wondering if it's even legal to drink in pubic in Finland. (Because it was in Ireland and who would have believed that???) So, we went up to some police men who are always standing around Kamppi and they told us that on Kamppi it is indeed forbidden, but if we only went 20 m back from where we were standing, then we can drink there. So, confused-looking we walked 20 m and sat down on some dirty-looking steps. Later that night we were looking for a club called Rocktown (which didn't seem to be very popular because people in Helsinki didn't really know it) for
quite a while, but we gave up and went to a street where there are lots of bars just side by side. There it was the first time in my life that I paid 6€ for a beer (0,5 litres) and although I knew in advance that it would be that expensive, it still hurt quite a lot!!! (In Germany, that amount would cost 2,80€ in a bar.) By the way, yesterday I found out that Rocktown doesn't exist anymore and that now there is a club called Happy Days which doesn't have anything do to with rock. Since Maike had already been in Helsinki the whole day, she had done some research and knew in which bar there would be some good rock music. So, we went to a club/bar/restaurant called Virgin Oil, paid 10€ and saw some very good Finnish rock bands. I, of course, have already forgotten what they were called! :-P
We knew that our bus wouldn't leave before 4 am and it was only 3. So we decided to have another beer which surprisingly was quite a challenge. The closest bar was already closed. So, we went to On the Rocks (something my host mom has recommended) and I walked through the door and my ID wasn't checked because when I go out I wear quite a lot of make-up and that seems to make me look older than 17 (which is what most people guess when I do not wear make up). But since Maike is smaller, the bouncer wanted to see her ID. So I was waiting for her inside because I knew that she was old enough anyway. However, then the bouncer made a sign that I should come out and told me that my friend wasn't old enough to go in. We both were confused again because Maike is already 21. But the bouncer told us that for this night they had raised the age limit to 23. What an odd age!!! (And I though the US was strict with their age limit of 21!) So, the next bar we tried was also closed. But finally we found a bar/club that was still open and I could have a cider for 5,50€ (which still hurt)!
Back at the Kamppi bus station we realized that all the doors to the inside (where the buses are leaving from) were closed until 5.30 am. So, we asked another police men and he told us that our bus would be leaving from another bus stop just around the corner. We walked there, but couldn't find the bus number on the bus schedules of any of the bus stops. We asked another police man and he told us that the bus into the direction of Nummela leaves from inside the Kamppi and he was even friendly enough to tell us how to get there: through an elevator on the side of the bar (without any signs on it that it would bring us down to the bus stops). We were down at the bus stop 3 minutes before 4 am and were surprise how full this bus was at that time of the night. Of course, it was packed with young people who went partying in Helsinki for the night.
When we arrived at the closest bus stop to my house, my host mom picked us up by car at 4.30 am!!! But she said that it was a good thing to do because it was practice for the future because when the boys are older, they'll be partying every weekend and will want to be picked up from somewhere in the middle of the night regularly.

A weekend without electricity and running water? No, thanks! :-P

Tommi's parents have a summer cottage about an hour away from Tervalampi. However, it is very back to the basics, i.e. no electricity and no running water (just an outhouse). And when my host parents offered to spend a weekend there during the summer, I wasn't so thrilled because I insist on my morning shower! But I did at least want to see it and when Tommi told me that he'd just drop off some stuff and would only stay there for an hour, I went with him. After 15 km of driving on a highway which only had one lane in each direction (and would never be considered a highway in Germany), we turned on a small road where we did not meet another car for the next 20 minutes. From the small road we turned into an even smaller gravel road which later on turned into a very narrow dirt road with high grass growing all over it. If I didn't know Tommi that well, I would have had second thoughts about bringing me there.

Of course, as every good summer cottage in Finland it was located by a lake and it looked very cosy. And while Tommi worked doing some construction, I went to the sauna and then swimming in the lake. It was filled with spring water and after even after drying my hair, it smelled like that very fresh lake water!

On our way back, it was starting to be foggy and I was able to take some very amazing pictures!

Ouch!!!

I have sore muscles everywhere in my body. It even hurts at places where I didn't know that I have muscles!!! What happened? No, I didn't have a car accident or anything bad. I went horseback riding! When I was still at school, I used to go 4-5 times a week, but with entering university I had nearly completely stopped. But I still love horses and here in Finland lots of people own horses, just like the friends of my host parents. So, I asked if there is the possibility to go for a ride. Most people here have a Finnish breed called Finnhorse. Those horses were bred to serve people: to pull carriages, pull agricultural equipment... That's why they are really gentle and like being around humans and since they are used to being outside, they don't get scared easily. So, riding them is not a big challenge: you just sit straight and hold on!
We went through the forest and really stony terrain with the horses, but they don't mind. And since we did quite a lot of trotting and I'm not used to horseback riding anymore, my muscles are really sore now. But nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and I hope that in New Zealand I can do it more regularly again! I'd mostly be interested in vaulting though. I used to be in a vaulting group and took part in competions with them...it was so much fun!!! If you don't know what vaulting is, check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aZTj-MDAYw (Of course, I cannot do all those things the girl in the World Equestrian Games does...but a few! :-P)