Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Well, here I am. I've finally got an opportunity to catch up. We left Joensuu on Friday and arrived in Helsinki an hour later - definitely my kind of flight, I was only able to read the in-flight mag before we were already landing. We went out to dinner in Helsinki at a restaurant called, VIA. Now, for lunch this place is really good and relatively affordable; but for dinner, this place is awful. If you aren't ready to order when they come to greet you, you will not be eating for many hours, and of course, we were not ready. The food finally came 2 hours later and they had got my order wrong. It was tasty, but after two hours waiting for the food and holding back from eating all the bread, they could have served me tuna from the can and it would have tasted like heaven.
We spent the night at Antero's place in Espoo, which is 30 minutes away from Helsinki and went back to town the next day for some shopping. We cut the shopping short because, first of all we are coming back to Helsinki and there will be plenty of sales and two, the place was an absolute madhouse. There is really only one main shopping area in Helsinki and everyone was there. It was worse than Macy's on 34th Street. Well, maybe not worse, but close.
We arrived in Turku later that Saturday night and had a relaxing evening. Sunday K and I went to our friends, Juha and Annakaisa's to have fondu. It began to snow when we left, at 6pm and continued and continued and continued. When we were waiting for a cab after leaving their place, 1:30 am or so, there was over a foot of snow on the ground and each step we took was a chore to lift our legs out of one foot of snow and to place it into another foot of powdery snow. It was hysterical. The cab was a little late and K and I cleared a circle in the snow where we could stand and wait for the cab to come. We felt so bad for the cabbie, having to drive in weather like this that we offered him to stay with us until the snow abated. He refused, thank god, and as we slept, another foot of snow came down on Turku. Which lead to Monday morning and a first for me.
The cars were completely covered in snow, as was the driveway, and since Anneli needed to get to work, the guys needed to get to work. Shovelling snow in the bitter cold is certainly good for a hangover, it is also pretty fun. All the old guys in the neighborhood were chatting with each other, talking about how this is nothing, and they remember when it would really snow. It took more than 4 hours to get the driveway ready and by the time we were finished, there was a wall of snow on the side of the street that was 5 feet high. The weather has remained pretty chilly, but it is supposed to warm up soon and rain, which is probably the worst thing that could happen, because all that snow will melt and flood the place.
We opening gifts tonight and will be going to the movies tomorrow night to see The Lord of the Rings. I'm very excited about this. A cool thing about movies in Finland is that you get to select your seat beforehand, so you can arrive when you want and there is no frantic search for the best seat in the house upon arrival - although there is some fun to that frenzy. We had to buy the tickets a week ago, so that we could have a good selection. Timo will be coming with us, which marks the 2nd time in 3 years that he will sit in a movie theatre. The first was for the first LOTR movie. I don't know what happened for the 2nd of the movies.
That's about it. I hope everyone has had and will have a wonderful holiday. I miss you.
hb
We spent the night at Antero's place in Espoo, which is 30 minutes away from Helsinki and went back to town the next day for some shopping. We cut the shopping short because, first of all we are coming back to Helsinki and there will be plenty of sales and two, the place was an absolute madhouse. There is really only one main shopping area in Helsinki and everyone was there. It was worse than Macy's on 34th Street. Well, maybe not worse, but close.
We arrived in Turku later that Saturday night and had a relaxing evening. Sunday K and I went to our friends, Juha and Annakaisa's to have fondu. It began to snow when we left, at 6pm and continued and continued and continued. When we were waiting for a cab after leaving their place, 1:30 am or so, there was over a foot of snow on the ground and each step we took was a chore to lift our legs out of one foot of snow and to place it into another foot of powdery snow. It was hysterical. The cab was a little late and K and I cleared a circle in the snow where we could stand and wait for the cab to come. We felt so bad for the cabbie, having to drive in weather like this that we offered him to stay with us until the snow abated. He refused, thank god, and as we slept, another foot of snow came down on Turku. Which lead to Monday morning and a first for me.
The cars were completely covered in snow, as was the driveway, and since Anneli needed to get to work, the guys needed to get to work. Shovelling snow in the bitter cold is certainly good for a hangover, it is also pretty fun. All the old guys in the neighborhood were chatting with each other, talking about how this is nothing, and they remember when it would really snow. It took more than 4 hours to get the driveway ready and by the time we were finished, there was a wall of snow on the side of the street that was 5 feet high. The weather has remained pretty chilly, but it is supposed to warm up soon and rain, which is probably the worst thing that could happen, because all that snow will melt and flood the place.
We opening gifts tonight and will be going to the movies tomorrow night to see The Lord of the Rings. I'm very excited about this. A cool thing about movies in Finland is that you get to select your seat beforehand, so you can arrive when you want and there is no frantic search for the best seat in the house upon arrival - although there is some fun to that frenzy. We had to buy the tickets a week ago, so that we could have a good selection. Timo will be coming with us, which marks the 2nd time in 3 years that he will sit in a movie theatre. The first was for the first LOTR movie. I don't know what happened for the 2nd of the movies.
That's about it. I hope everyone has had and will have a wonderful holiday. I miss you.
hb
// posted by Howard @ 4:19 PM 
