A Life in Waiting

I spent from February 25^th until April 8^th in Helsinki.  Turns out old man winter never really showed up this year.  He decided to vacation in a bit further south, in the Germany region.  So Finland was quite dark, unseasonably warm and rainy.  A bit dark too.  I was quite disappointed as Maria’s father Raul, has some very interesting winter toys I was hoping to try out this year.  Think windsurfing on ice with speed skates.  Perhaps next year.

Otherwise the time was spent working with Maria at the Dog Hut and getting certain things with Bluu dealt with.  Not really much fun as there was a lot to do and most days were quite filled.  We did continue on with the tradition of family dinner Sundays and I was also given quite a treat for my birthday.  Maria contacted my mom and got my favorite desert recipe for her mother to make.  Enough to make one a lil homesick. 

All in all a good couple of weeks, albeit a bit stressful.  I am quite excited to be back out traveling again, with a long list of things I want to do.  If I can accomplish just half of them, I will be one happy guy.

Ok, apparently there are a few people out there that actually read this blog.  As surprised as I am, I need to focus now and get as much writing done as possible to keep the death threats from taking effect.  I am putting on myself the task of getting at least one post up on here every day until I catch up with my story to where I am now.  So keep tabs, and feel free to let me know when I screw up.

As it may be awhile before I get caught up with present day events, I figured I would throw out a line or two about where I am now.  As previously mentioned, I am in Helsinki, Finland.  I arrived back here at the end of February, after spending five weeks traveling through mainland Europe.  It was not a planned excursion, but I was finding it a bit hard to consistently be working on the road and also knew my help would be needed at The Dog Hut so I decided the best thing to do would be to come back for a few weeks to get a few things in order.  My bike is waiting for me in Madrid, Spain, where I hope to fly back to in a few weeks.  And just in case anyone was wondering, I miss my bike and the 70+ degrees of Spain!

Ok, so my last days in Helsinki were filled with many emotions, and things I really should be talking about, but as I have put it off for so long I have to breeze through it.  The Thursday after meeting up with Phil I organized a rather successful get together of a bunch of Couchsurfing Finns to sort of say goodbye to everyone.  Not only did a lot of the friends I had already met show up, a bunch of new friends were made.  I have to say almost everyone I’ve met in Helsinki has been amazing.  All people I cannot wait to get together with again once I return in the summer. 

Friday Maria and I met an old friend Pasi out for another entertaining evening.  Great evening and it ended up finishing in a rather large gay bar in downtown Helsinki.  My first experience in one, and must say it was a definitely an experience.  Lot of great people drinking, partying and having fun but with a good mix of what you would expect in the stereotypical gay bar.  I have to say I am a bit disappointed that in the whole time I was there I didn’t get hit on.  I’m just going to assume everyone thought I was spoken for with the company I was in.  If you want more information, you’ll have to ask me one day as I have plenty of stories. 

We ended the weekend with a nice family dinner with Maria and family along with her good friend Annette.  It was a bit sad to say to everyone, but I was pleased to get so much encouragement and wished much luck on my upcoming journeys. 

Monday the 28^th I flew out of Helsinki and landed in Munich early evening.  Met up with my good friend Klaus who was kind enough to take me back in, and here is where I will begin my German adventure.

I really hate to blow by a full week of Finland, especially when there was so much I wanted to discuss.  Hopefully I will find some down time to go back and finish, but I doubt it.  That’s not really my MO.  Procrastinate first, forget later.  Not a great motto, but seems to fit.  So make sure you ask me next time you see me about eating hamburgers with a knife and fork. 

After the fun night out on Friday, the rest of the weekend and beginnings of the next week were more of a relaxed pace.  Saturday afternoon Maria’s cousin Tommi picked me up and we went to watch the local hockey team take on one of its rivals from Tampere, a city up north.  This was not my first hockey experience in Finland so it wasn’t anything new to me anymore, but still a great experience.  The one thing that I still find to be interesting is that during the break between periods everyone heads into the corridors for a beer.  Okay, same as in the states.  The difference is that instead of cheesy little beer stands where you get your beer in a plastic or paper cup, there are full blown out bars on either side of the rink serving beers and drinks as if you were at a downtown pub.  Real glass mugs and high-top bar tables all over for everyone to gather and discuss the previous action.  Once again, just a difference in the social drinking habits. 

After the game Tommi and I parted ways and I met Maria in the center for dinner.  We ended up at this huge Czech restaurant right in the center that was four full floors of restaurant.  A nice evening out in the city.

Sunday was a typical lazy day which ended at Maria’s parents for yet another great dinner.  Seems like every time we go there for dinner Maria’s mother, Aila, uses it as an excuse to try some new recipe.  And it’s worked out in our favor every time so far.  After dinner we sped home so I wouldn’t miss a minute of Conference Finals playoff football that conveniently began at 10 o’clock at night and ran straight through to 5 in the morning.  Needless to say I didn’t do a whole lot on Monday. 

On Wednesday the 23^rd of January, I finally had a chance to meet up with an old friend that lives here in Finland.  Almost five years ago when Ria and I started dating (damn it’s been a long time) I stumbled upon an online group of expats living in Finland, mostly Brits and Americans.  It turned out to be a great source of information over the years on everything Finnish.  And one of the people I met on this site was a kid named Phil from Baltimore that had recently moved to Finland to be his Finnish girlfriend.  They had also tried the living in the states thing, but with little success.  So four years ago, he moved to Helsinki with her.  We’ve kept in contact over the years, meeting up whenever I’m in town and comparing the trials and tribulations of the Finnish woman. 

We met for lunch at a Thai restaurant near our flat in Töölö.  After spilling his water in my lap, he began telling me that he had recently received a nice promotion within Nokia and was explaining to me all about the business world in Helsinki (Don’t worry Mom, I’m coming home.  Just educating myself)  It was good to see that he was finding success as an American in the Finnish business world, something I wasn‘t sure if it was possible.  Definitely opened my eyes to yet another possibility.  (Really, I’m coming home)

As we returned Friday morning from the summer cottage, Maria and I parted ways for the day.  She had to get back to Koiramaja (The Dog hut) to get ready to receive her next guest, a Rottweiler that needed a place to stay for one evening.  So as she went back to work, I headed into the city to prepare for an evening out.  One of the benefits of being a member of a site such as Couchsurfing, is that there is always some happening going on in the city.  This evening it happened to be a game night at one of the member’s new office with his recently purchased flatscreen TV and a Nintendo Wii. 

One of the reasons that I wanted to be in attendance at this meeting, was that I knew a few of the members that would be there and there were a few people that I wanted to meet.  See in the couchsurfing world, as with almost everything else, it’s who you know.  When you begin meeting a lot of the more traveled members of the site, your profile becomes linked to them and thus all the people that they know.  And the more connections you have like this, the more comfortable people will feel having you in their home, or better yet, want you in their home.  It’s a social networking site where you actually meet people, rather than just talk to them on a computer.

The actual game night was not what I was looking for.  It was in a brightly lit room with an almost too diverse of a crowd being too courteous with the game play.  It had an awkward feel to it.  I ended up hanging to the side most of the evening, chatting with the few guys I knew.  After a bit, the party broke up and a few of us strolled down to the local pub and continued the conversations over a few pints.

Now it seems like I am “going to the pub” quite a bit in my travels.  It was mentioned a time or two that it sounds like I’m spending a lot of time doing so quite often.  This is one thing that I feel I should clarify as I have found this to be one of the more common cultural differences.  Back in the states, spending a lot of time in a pub or bar is typically done by college kids or the few older ones that still think they are there.  I would say the majority maybe go out once a weekend or once every two weekends and it’s typically from being out to dinner and not wanting to rush back home. 

But over here, it’s a little different.  Going to the pub is the same as going to the coffee house.  A place to sit down with friends and just talk or a play a game.  That’s right, a game.  For example the one pub we ended up going to this evening, Kaisla, is well known for its large selection of specialty beers and liquors, but also for its relaxed atmosphere.  Dark wood covering the walls, dimly lit lighting and a wall full of board games ranging from Trivial Pursuit to some crazy Finnish games I couldn’t even describe (or pronounce).  So sitting down, sipping on a good stout over a game of Trivial Pursuit is “going to the pub”.