Well My Time is Up

Here I am, 4 months later. My time in Europe is up, I guess time does fly when you're having fun. Let's see I have made it to 5 different countries (Finland, Sweden, Germany, Estonia, Italy). Plus multiple different cities (Tampere, Helsinki, Turku, Stockholm, Tallinn, Frankfurt, Munich, Rome). I pretty satisfied with all the different places I went. I got to experience a lot in the time I was here, saw so much history that I never thought I would see, and I was able to eat authentic Italian and German food. It seemed that most of time I couldn't believe I was there and doing it. I got to touch the Colosseum, see the glockenspiel in person, ice skate in Sweden, and see a Finnish hockey game. I got to have reindeer for Thanksgiving and get to travel around Europe with one of my best friends. Absolutely incredible. I hope to be back someday and see more and different countries. I also hope to see a different continent, but that will be a different time.

Now for going home..I'm looking forward to it. Getting to see my friends and family again will be quite a treat. I will enjoy this nice break until I have to go back to school and work, good grief, let's just say it won't be like Europe at all. Eugene ain't Europe. But I will get to see the basketball season, and watch cable, but still obviously no Europe. I will adapt once again to my surroundings and environment and I will be back to doing some nice blue collar studying and work.

I will be leaving Finland with snow on the ground and about 20 degree weather. Right now it looks like Finland, or at least the image people of have of Finland. I will also be leaving behind good friends I have met from all around the world, and the memories I made with them. But maybe I will see them down the road somewhere, maybe in Europe, maybe they come to the state, who knows. As it is time for me to move on it doesn't mean I will forget my time, I will never forget. And from now on I will be a proud Finn, even though I'm Norwegian..I hope everything goes smoothly in my travels on the way back, hopefully way better than on the way here..I will see you guys back in Oregon!!

Moy Moy Finland

Rome

Well the anticipation was killing me the whole week. I couldn't wait to get to Italy. The previous night my departure it was hard to sleep. On Thursday morning I took the 730 train to Helsinki then took a bus to the airport and got there at about 1045. So I didnt board until 1 so I just grabbed a little to eat and hung out until board. I went from Helsinki to Frankfurt, than to Rome. Once again I was spoiled by the Lufthansa service. Its a great way to fly! When I got into Rome I made my way to the train where it was suppose to be the quickest and easiest way to get to my hostel. I made it to termini, which was the main station, and made my way to my hostel at about 8-830. Finally, after that long day of travel I met up with Sean and grabbed a bite to eat.

The restaurant we went to ended up being our favorites. We went there more than a couple of times. We walk into the restaurant where the owner greets us with, "prego, we have table for you, prego". He stole me over with that great service. It seemed so stereotypical of what a Italian restaurant owner greets each person and gives you a "home like" feeling. Just great. I started with having cannelloni and then Sean and I split a Margaretta pizza and a bottle of the house red wine. So good!! Food was amazing! Just great. But after dinner Sean and I retired for the night to get to the monuments early the next morning.

The next day was an unreal day. After walking for a while we stumbled upon the Colosseum, which once you see, you can't believe its right there. It's like from a movie or something. Just unreal. Going into the Colosseum was so cool. We had a guided tour, and the everlasting information that just poured out, there was so much to grasp. After the Colosseum we went to the Forum, and saw the Arch of Constantine. Everything was so cool. We were probably in the same area for about 4 hours but it never seemed like it. With all the things to see and all the pictures to take the time just flew by. After we spent a good chunk of time there we made our way into the direction of the Pantheon. We stopped at a restaurant in the area where we were greeted the same way, and had some amazing food. I had some traditional spaghetti and meat sauce and Sean had some lasagna. Had a taste of his and it was like my mom's home cooking! I would have to say my mom's is a bit more cheesier. But any ways, the Pantheon, there was a huge group of people. Which I should add, Rome is a pretty hectic city, lots of people, lots of traffic, hear the sounds of car horns anywhere. I have never been to NYC but I have a feeling that it was like this. The Pantheon had so much to look at, there is an opening at the top of the dome, so if it rains, it pours into the middle of the Pantheon.

After the Pantheon we made our way to the Fountain of Trevi, and got some gelato on the way. I got some biscotti and almond combo of gelato. It was of course "to die for!" As we made it to the fountain, it was night time, a busy area once again, and as you see this very cool sight I just can't believe the circumstances I was in. I'm eating gelato in Italy, in front of this unbelievable sight. "So this is my life". Thats all you can say.

After we made it back to our hostel and cleaned up a bit we went out to eat once again. Went to our favorite place again. This time I got risotto with marinara sauce and then Sean and I once again shared a pizza with spicy salami. Now this pizza was the best I ever had! The meat was so good. You could tell it was hand crust, your fingers are covered in flour after you handle the pizza. Just so good. Man there will be a picture of this pizza. After dinner we made our way out in the town. As we stumbled upon a local hang out where everyone just hangs out outside in this square. Some bars. And we got by with Sean's Spanish, because it was more useful than English. Mingled with the local Italians.

The next day held a different destination. We went to Vatican city/museum. We made it to that part of town it was definitely not as hectic. Less angry people on the road. Our first destination was the Vatican museum. Which was filled with art, sculptures, and history. So much to look at and you can spend so much time in there. It is the biggest museum in the world after all. We also made it through the Sistine Chapel, where you're not suppose to take any photos, but I snuck in a couple. After spending a lot of time in the museum we made our way to the most famous spot. Over where the St. Peter's Chapel is. The biggest chapel in the world. Sean was destined to go to the top so we made our way up there. 551 steps to the top. Where you take a windy, narrow, cramped stairwell. If you were claustrophobic I would not recommend you could go up. But once you get to the top it is quite a sight. You can see so much of Rome. Plus it was a perfect day and the sun was setting. It was just perfect timing on our part. When we decided to go down and actually go inside the chapel you see why it is the biggest one in the world. You are just taken by the art. We even attended mass! How many people can say they have attended mass in the biggest chapel in the world. Grant it was in Italian and we didn't know what was going on, but we can say we have done it. On the way back we made it to the Spanish Stairs, where a lot was going on. There was a huge group of people and a band was playing music, and then marching around the area. I got some sweet photos of that as well.

After we made it back it was time for dinner again, mmmm. I had the rigatoni this time with meat sauce, and then Sean and I split a Italian sausage pizza this time. Very gooood! If I lived in Europe, I would be fat and poor..Well maybe. After dinner we went to a wine bar. You know when in Rome. We had a bottle of this dessert wine, that to me almost tasted like a cool cider, but it went very well with the cheesecake we ordered.

It was time to go out and so we decided to drink like the Romans do, and had some Limoncello. Tasted like lemonheads with a kick, a 30% kick. They said it was a traditional Italian liquor. We made it to a dance club and once again mingled with the local Italians, also met some other Americans studying in Rome.

The next morning came very quick. I had a 635 am flight out. I made my way to the airport smoothly, and had my boarding pass in hand, until I realized I forgot my passport back in the hostel locked up in Seans bag. I had to push back my flight and pay the fee...That was a hard thing to get over. I agonized over that the whole time home. Very frustrating. But I was able to go back and sleep a little then eat again and made it back to the airport. Everything else went smoothly but it was a long day of traveling. I didnt get back until Monday morning. Where I went back to my room and slept slept slept.

So now here I am with one week left. After that traveling experience and a whole burnt through my wallet I am looking forward to home. I'm getting everything ready to go this week and hope this time my travels go smoothly and harmlessly. I will try enjoy myself this past week cause I know it might be my last time in Finland. It will be nice to be home for the holidays and to see family and friends. Some more home cooked meals and relaxing. Soon enough I have to go back to reality, school, work...Man its been a nice Vacation with a little sprinkle of class. But I know what I want for Christmas good food, family, holiday spirit, and maybe a little bit of cash haha.

Until next time,

Moy moy

THE dinner of Thanksgiving

I bet you were wondering "what did Mitch eat for Thanksgiving dinner?" Good question. Since turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, gravy, rolls, pumpkin pie with cool whip topping, maybe some side of fruit, devil eggs with a paprika topping, side salad, and course the vegetable appetizer that my mom puts out 3-4 hours before the actual dinner wasn't available to me I had to improvise. As I told you earlier I was going to have a traditional Finnish meal or close to it. After finding an appropriate restaurant I wanted to make my experience very Finnish. So I started off with a drink that I guess was very Finnish, or so said the waitress, it was a berry flavored sparkling wine/cider with fruit inside and some vodka. It was a warm drink and very delicious, also quite spendy$$$. As for the meal I had smoked reindeer over a bed of pasta in a cheese and onion sauce. It also had some greens topping the dish. It was different to say the least. The smokeyness came out a lot and the meat was lean but some what tough. Quite the combo though with the pasta, usually reindeer is complimented in a stew traditionally, but with a budget in mind I couldn't afford the Rudolph cut so I settled for Blitzin..

Just another thing I can check off my list, I had reindeer on Thanksgiving day in Finland. Check. You know I couldn't have ever imagined experiencing a situation like that, but life is full of surprises. Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it's now a countdown to Italy! I can't wait. The warm weather, the food, the history! So excited. So until then I will just be hanging out trying to learn some Finnish (goodluck Mitch).

Moy moy

Happy Thanksgiving

To be honest I have counted down the days to Thanksgiving. Why? I'm not quite sure, because no one knows anything about it here, it doesn't exist. There might be some other Americans here but I don't really no them. The friends I made here are from all over the world, no Americans, one Canadian though. So none of them really know how important this holiday is. The tradition of coming together as a family, or having an annual football game with your friends, the feast you can indulge yourself in. To describe what Thanksgiving is like to the Europeans I tell them its like Christmas but without Santa Clause and presents. Which for me, Christmas hasn't been about the presents, its been more of the spirit of Christmas, the family, the food, and yes a little bit of Santa Clause. So being without my family and friends for Thanksgiving is hard, but I have to realize what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for having the opportunity to be in Europe, live in Europe, meeting people from all over the world, learning in Europe, traveling around with my best friend. I can be thankful for that. I can be thankful for my parents helping me get here. I can be thankful for a caring brother and sister. So although I can't celebrate this traditional holiday with my family and friends, I can dedicate this day to all that I'm thankful for. Its funny how you never realize how much you appreciate something until you don't have it.

Now as for what I'm going to do on this day, I am going to go out to eat and have some traditional Finnish food. What's traditional Finnish food you might ask? I don't really know..But I will find out and I will eventually find out how to cook it. Also, hopefully I can find a way to watch some football and of course talk to my family at some point. So enjoy the 3 F's that Thanksgiving is all about, food, family, and friends. I will look forward to Christmas! Go ducks!

Moy moy

Stockholm was a 'chilling' experience

Good ole Sweden. What a weekend it was in Stockholm. It started at 5 am Thursday morning, I woke up to catch my 556 am train to Turku. I was already packed and had everything I needed, the only thing I was missing was sleep. I really couldn't sleep the night before, mainly cause of excitement, which I always get when I travel. The train ride went smoothly and I hopped on my ferry to Stockholm.

The ferry ride was going to take about 10 hours, now we boarded at 845 am in Finland and was suppose to get into Sweden by about 730 am their time. The ferry is giant, has a bunch of slot machines, video game systems, a night club, karaoke bar, cafe, tax free store, and plenty of bars of course. Enough to keep you occupied for the time being. I spent most of my time either playing video games, cause i never get to in Finland, or trying to sleep. I was pretty unsuccessful sleeping so I tried to read magazines and books. Once we were in viewing distance of Stockholm I went outside to the nice, cold, and dark weather to view the city. It was pretty cool to see the city at night with the bright lights from the water.

Once I got off the boat it was time to find my hostel. Stockholm is split up into islands that are connected by bridges. The middle island is old town where the Royal Palace is located among most of the Swedish restaurants and bars. I walked through old town and caught a glimpse of Stockholm during the night time, which isn't hard to do since it starts to get dark up here in Scandinavia at about 330 pm. Continuing my trip to the hostel I went to the city hall which is a very cool sight because it lays right next to the water (dont worry i have pictures). After that I went to the hostel to get some rest and ready to meet Sean, as he was flying into Sweden at about 230 pm on Friday.

When Sean arrived we started to do some sight seeing. We went into the town central where all the shopping malls were. I had heard of a park in central city where there was ice skating, so we headed out there. We found the outdoor ice skating rink, it was pretty cool, mainly because i had never been ice skating outside, or even had seen one outside. I was a little bit rusty at first but got the hang of it, just like riding a bike. We spent about an hour skating enjoying the nice evening, but we knew we had a reservation at the ice bar that we couldnt miss so we headed out. We walked around in central city where there was alot going on. So many lights and stores. Mainly just H&M stores. Now those for you who don't know H&M is a very popular clothing store in Europe and in the U.S. It was started in Sweden, so they have these stores at like every corner, just like Starbucks but even to a further extreme. They were just everywhere I don't know what distinguished each store to the next. But anyways we went back to our hostel to make some food that we got from the grocery store. Stockholm/Sweden is a pretty expensive place, they have the Swedish Kronor for their currency. Once we finished eating we headed to the ice bar.

The ice bar was connected to this hotel. It's called the Absolut ice bar, so it belongs to the Absolut vodka company, which is Swedish for those who didn't know that. You have to make reservations in advance to get in, and it's 17 euros for entry plus one drink. Once we got in, it was pretty cool. Everything was ice. The walls, benches, tables, the bar, cups, just everything. Now they limit you to 45 mins per group, but as the time went on my hands got to be freezing cause, I mean, the cup was ice so it was holding a block of ice. Plus it is kept at -5 degrees celcius in there so its pretty hard to warm up your hands. Everything on the drink menu included vodka so we settled for the 'Absolut Cog'. It had lingonberries in it, plus there finest Absolut vodka. It was a very 'cool' experience and if you ever go to Stockholm you got to check it out.

After that we came back to the hostel to figure out what we were doing that night. We talked to a local girl that worked there and said there was places near by. We ended up choosing the Lemon bar, which was "very Swedish" she said. We waited about 20 minutes in line before we could get in but we were able to talk with some Swedish guys and girls. This is where I found out Gunther, this joke of a pop singer, was Swedish because there was a picture of him up in the bar. Once we got in we went downstairs to blasting music in Swedish. This made it a very unique experience because Sean and I could have easily been the only non-Swedish people in there. Every song was Swedish, except for two "i would walk 500 miles" and "take me down to paradise city", but other than that. We met some people and enjoyed the night. After this we made it back for some sleep, which wasnt very much, but much needed.

The next day morning we made it to our other hostel which was located in the central city and dropped off our stuff. We decided to go to a couple of museums during the day that were recommended to see. The first museum being the Vasa museum, which is the world's only surviving 17th century ship. It was preserved for 10 years before its museum opening in 1990. The boat was very detailed, there was so much craftsmenship that went into that boat. It was King Gustov and it was suppose to pick him up in Poland but it only lasted 20 minutes into sea outside of Stocholm before a large gust of wind knocked it over. Later they found out it was top heavy and not built well...But this was a nice history lesson for us about Sweden, since we had a guided tour and watched a video, we came out educated about some Sweidsh history.

The next stop was the Nobel museum. This was located in old town. By this time it was 330 and getting dark awesome...But once again inside carried a lot of information. A lot about Nobel winners, and had some important artifacts. Like Galileo's first telescope, and the document of the first patent. Plus controversial winners who didn't accept the Nobel winners, but once you have been chosen as the winner, if you accept it or not they don't change it.

After our exciting trips to the museums we made it back to our hostel for a much needed nap. We enjoyed some dinner after the nap and met some people all over the world traveling as well. A big group from Sevilla, Spain (where Sean is studying), Belgium, Australia, Holland, and even Cleveland Ohio.

We made our way out to another enjoy the night life once again, and we found a nice place to say the least. The cover charge was 16 euros...Yeah they take there clubbing very seriously in Sweden. But I will confirm the stereotype of beautiful Swedish women is true. There are lots of tall good-looking blondes. Once again in this club as well I heard the song "i would walk 500 miles" song. The Swedes love that song, so when I got back home I looked it up and the band "The Porclaimers" were Scottish. I guess they just love that song.

On my trip home from Stockholm I met these two men who made my trip home very interesting. One man born in Stockholm now lives in Finland, named Magnus, is a professor of the Swedish and Finnish language, plus a pastor in his city. He spoke 5 different languages. But that wasn't the only thing the man who he was traveling with, Originally born in Johannesburg South Africa, then lived in London for 10 years, is married to a Finnish women so he is citizen in Finland, also had lived in Portland Oregon the past year and was going back in December. Unbelievably small world. In Portland he is a pastor for a Finnish cathedral for a small Finnish community that lives in the St. John's area. There is also a larger Finnish community in Astoria. But his name was Patrick and he knew how to speak 8 different languages...Um wow...South African, English, Welch, Finnish (which tookk him 2 years to learn), Swedish, Danish, German, and Spanish. He said he could understand Estonian as well but i'm not counting that. Anyways I sat by him on the train ride from Turku to Tampere and he gave me a cultural lesson on Scandinavia and Finland. He made 2 hours go by in 15 minutes. Plus, I got to learn some Swedish and Finnish. Not much of course. But it was amazing running into these two nice gentlemen, just totally capped off my trip.

Since then I have made it back and caught up on sleep that I was deprived of the whole weekend. Sean and I agreed that Stockholm wasn't what we expected, it was that much better. Its a beautiful and elegant city that carries a lot of history I didn't know about. There is a reason why its the capital of Scandinavia. But as for me I have a test on Friday than my next trip will be to Rome, Italy on December 3rd.

I hope to be spending Thankgiving with some new friends and be eating the famous Reindeer I hear about over here. But i'm sure I will be blogging before then.

Moy Moy

My first Finnish league basketball game

Saturday morning was my first league game of the season, because I was in Munich last weekend I missed the first one. Our team is made up of one Finnish kid about my age, 2 Finnish guys in their early 30's, really old Finnish guys, and then 4 young international students (including me). Besides myself there is two Italian guys and a French guy. The team we played was definitely younger than us on average, which could of gave them an advantage. The old guys didn't really play because for obvious reasons. I was playing a lot a bit rusty, had a bad time from the foul line.. But I managed to still keep my sneaky and crafty ways that they weren't ready for. Despite the rusty trips to the line I was able to have a productive scoring and rebounding. I did injure myself in the first half which I hope to recover from soon, but I ended playing in the 2nd half because of foul troubles from the younger guys and couldn't rely on the old guys.. The guys on the other team were better than I expected, they were all kinda of thick and played rough. This also caught me off guard, of course the older guys played dirty cause of lack of athleticism. We ended up losing by 6 points or so but it was fun, our next game is next Monday so I hope I can recover from my injury by then. We will see. This week I have an exam on Tuesday, homework due by Wednesday, then Stockholm bound on Thursday.

Time is flying by now. Im almost down to only a month left, but still have places to see and school to finish. So its time to soak up the moment, causing my moments are running out.

Moy moy

The First Glimpse of Snow

Well this evening marked the first sign of snow in Finland as it started falling around 11 pm Nov 4th. I was caught by surprised as I just randomly looked out my window to a covered pavement of whiteness. I got pretty excited of course but now I realized that it will probably be here for the rest of my time here..Nevertheless it's exciting and now I guess the lake is next thing to freeze!!

Moy moy