Tuesday, January 31, 2006

CNY in Helsinki

UPDATED: See ZM and WL's blog (GONG XI FA CAI post) for the pictures. =)

Warning: this is an all-word entry.

Went down to Leppavarra to visit ZM and the rest on Saturday. Took the midnight train and I was a little apprehensive cos it was the first time I was taking the night train alone.

I was watching 2 movies in a row on the train. One was Kinsey and the other was a Finnish war movie I borrowed from a Finnish guy who was sitting next to me on the train. Both were great movies!

Kinsey was about this professor who wanted to study human sexual behaviour so much that he interviewed many many people about their sex lives and habits and stuff like that. Although it was hard to get people to open up to him, he finally succeeded through sheer perseverance. He was also unwavering about getting financial support for his work. Kinsey questions what are society’s expectations of human sexual behaviour, asking questions like why is homosexual behaviour abnormal? Shouldn’t sexual behaviour reflect the feelings between 2 people? Blah blah. He put forth several good arguments in the movie which I can’t remember, but it was certainly enough to make me (a staunch homophobic) see his points of argument, but yeah, I am still very much heterosexual, thank you very much.

The Finnish war movie was about the war between Finland and Russia (or USSR at that time) at the point in World War Two. The movie was not very good nor well directed, but at many points, it reflected feelings of men during war. For a film that was made in 1985, I guess it’s good enough. The ending sucks though.

Then I had a shock when I tried to alight at my stop (Pasila) to change trains to Lepaavarra. The door couldn’t open! I ran to another door but it also couldn’t open! Tried to get help from someone but the train started moving. So that was a great way to start my day. Rode the train all the way to Helsinki (luckily only 2 or 3 minutes away) and Wei Ling advised me on how to get a commuter train to Leppavarra. I thought the commuter trains were like the long distance trains I rode on, and that would have been hell cos the trains are so very irregular. Phew, luckily they run every few minutes! Apparently WL had the same experience as I did. I imagine that she must have been quite shocked too.

Anyway this entry is more about how I spent CNY at ZM’s apartment. I have no pictures, sad to say, but it was a really enjoyable 2 days I spent there. ZM can cook very well and I was quite awed by the cooking. Haha!

We went to Sello, the second biggest shopping mall in Scandinavia (according to Ivan) to shop a little, and I got myself an adidas swimming trunks for 5 euros. I also got some cooking utensils for dirt cheap prices (like 1 euro each). Why don’t have we such stores in Oulu man. =S

After that, we went back to the apartment to whip up a storm. Had suan la tang (hot and sour soup), bak kut teh soup (with spare ribs), baby abalone (yeah!), broccoli and other veggies in sauce, baked salmon, what else I can’t remember!
Great food, great company! We even had longans (which cost 18 euros per basket! Haha!) And ice cream, and Coke, and CNY cookies. So much food in such a short period of time. Feeling damn fat now, haven’t been food binging for a long time!! Been a long time since I sat with Singaporeans and had a good laugh. Haiz. Maybe it’s a good idea to come down once in a while. Might help to keep me sane for a while.

At night we went down to the recre room for table tennis, pool and cards. And all the people there weren’t smoking and drinking beer or alcohol so it was a change for once. A lot of Westerners seem to think that smoking is like eating so they are perpetual chimneys with smoke coming out of their mouths, noses and whatever. OK there are some Europeans who think these people are stupid, so I shouldn’t generalize. Weet.

I was playing bridge all night long with Jinfu, Kwang and Daniel (ZM’s housemate, a funny Spanish guy who’s very intelligent.) Daniel picked up the bridge game in a matter of a night, and he’s a great player now! Full of guile that guy.

We went down to IKEA on Sunday, but it was suljettu on sunnutai (closed on Sundays). And the IKEA catalogue showed it was supposed to be open on Sundays from 12-6pm. ARgh. So I lost my chance to get cheap carpets for covering the cold floor of my room, candles for aromatherapy and for getting rid of the cooking smell from my room and other household goods. Aiya, never mind la, I come back some other day when it’s open. It’s only a 9 hour train ride what. And another 9 hours back lo. HAHA! Siao, I think I won’t come down that often unless there’s a special occasion. Waste money waste time (on travelling; the time in the apartments was great!)

Had Chinese food the second night too. Diced chicken with chilli padi (OMG chilli padi is so so so great!) and some other food that was not so worth mentioning. Ah yes, we had chun juan (fried spring roll) too. GOOD GOOD GOOD.

Had to sleep early the second night cos I had a 6.41am train to catch the next morning, but I chatted a bit with Ivan in his room before I realized it was 1am++.

The alarm the next morning was such an ass. So it was bye bye Helsinki and back to Oulu. With a heavy heart, I left Leppavarra.

Good bye my friends, we will meet again. Soon I hope.

P.S.: Thanks to ZM and WL for picking me up at the train station at 9am on Saturday, and for cooking breakfast for me that morning too. And to the rest for being such good company! Life’s never really complete without some kinda of Singaporean company and Singlish. I am proud of Singlish now. My national language, the language that no ang mohs understand, no China Chinese nor Hongkong Chinese or any other people for that matter can understand. You won’t know how it good it feels when in Oulu, I speak something to WL and others around us (the non Singaporeans) can’t understand a single word we say even though we say some English. It’s the way we pronounce and say those words and mix it with Hokkien, Chinese, Indian, Malay, Cantonese and what not.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Went to Raksila to walk around today cos I had to get my train ticket anyway. There's a swimming hall there. I want to see the place so that I can decide if I want to swim there or not.
On the way I spotted 3 giant supermarkets, City Market, Prisma and Euromarket. So I went in to take a look. I spotted these great buys. (didn't buy them though.)

Jeans for 10 euros (S$20)
National jackets of England, Netherlands, Italy and 2 other countries (I can't remember) going for 29.90 euros. OK maybe a little expensive? but still...


Reebok pullover. 10 euros.

I think in Singapore they won't last one day on the shelves.

Then I visited the Uimahalli (swimming hall).


Looks good. But I don't have a swimming trunks. I saw one pair of Speedos at City Market (or was it Prisma) that was going for 13.90 euros. Hmm.. when I have the urge.. hiak.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

CNY in Helsinki

I will be going over to Helsinki to celebrate Chinese New Year with my friends from Singapore (ZM, WL and a few others) from the 27th 28th to 29th of Jan. Should be back by Monday morning. I am not sure who exactly, but someone has offered to put me up at his place, so I have free accomodation there.
To all my family and friends back home, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!


GONG XI FA CAI, WHERE'S MY ANG BAO!

=)

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Sauna

Sauna (sao-nah). A Finnish invention, a must-have for Finnish homes. Normally used as a family gathering spot. A sauna is normally a small room in which there are wooden walls and benches within. A (electric?) stove sits in the centre of the room or at one corner and this is used to heat some stones (not sure if they are special stones or normal stones you see anywhere else) to a very high temperature. A pail of water is always brought into the sauna and its use will be explained later.

Today I went to the sauna at Yliopistokatu 18 (with Manu, my second time*). The blocks are normally referred to by their numbers. Hence my block is just 16. Yup just a block away from 18. (There're no odd numbered blocks here, for some reason.) Since it was so nearby, I put on 1 T shirt and my jacket and a towel and off we went.

*forgot to blog about it the first time round. Hee..

The sauna's opening hours are from 4pm to 9pm. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays (4-9pm) and Saturday (7-9pm) are for men and Tuesdays, Thursdays (4-9pm), Saturdays (4-7pm) are for women. The reason why there are different sessions for men (miehet) and women (naiset) is because you have to be naked in the sauna. Weet! OK you don't have to if you don't want to, but without a towel on is the best way to experience the sauna. Of course there are mixed sessions with both men and women, but I haven't been to one yet. Anyway there's always 4 more months ahead. There'll surely be a chance.

So once in the sauna room, there're 3 different sections (usually). One is the changing room , where you strip. The next is the bathroom where you wet yourself. And of course the last is the sauna proper. The hot room. The heat hits you in the face once you enter. Poof! You can't breathe properly. You feel hot. very hot. You start to sweat. Then someone pours water onto the stones. AHHHH, you think? More bearable? Nope. It starts to get hotter! Cos the water gets evaporated off the stones and makes the air more humid and hot.

The sauna is always the hottest when the water first gets poured onto the stones. There is sort of a heat wave which hits you straight in the face when water is pssssttt onto the stones. In Singlish, sibei song. Actually, depends on how you see it. The first time I went to the sauna, I couldn't take the heat and crawled out of the place every few minutes to get a shower and come back in. But today, I actually was in there for like 15 minutes at 80degC! BBQ human meat! HAHA!

So the correct way to have a sauna session is to strip, shower, get into sauna and steam for some minutes (depends on how hot you can take), come out and shower (cold or hot, up to you), then come out to the changing room, open the window and let the cold wind hit you in the face. After sauna, you become invincible. The coldest wind won't make you shiver. Not one bit. At least for one minute. Then back into sauna and repeat until you get tired of it. Today I had a one hour session. Time passed amazingly fast.

I feel so good after one session. It will be a regular thing for me from now on. I heard it could help me lose weight too.

=)

No pictures now. maybe some other time when there are no naked people inside. Today there was a couple who came in at around 9pm. Naked, naturally.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Estonia (continued; finally complete!)

WARNING: Picture overload. Your computer might crash. LOL.

On the ferry operated by Viking Line. Ferry ticket about 12 euros (student price).



Outside the ferry. Looks damn cold.


Outside the ferry to get some fresh air. The wind was blowing my face until it became frozen. ARGH. Cheeks can't move. Like kena injected with some Botox.

Reached Tallinn in about 3 hours. Was a little tired after the ferry ride. So we reached at about 3.30pm++ and trudged about the city centre trying to look for a comfortable and inexpensive accomodation. After walking aimlessly for a long period of time, we finally found a hostel named Eurohostel, which was located smack in the middle of the Old Town. Very convenient, no need for much travelling about. It was 500 Estonian Kronors (1 euro = 15 kr, 1S$ is about 0.5euro, so go do your math).

O yea, did I mention Tallinn is damn cold. It's very very very cold. I think it's because it's quite humid (I think), but there is no snow around. Suzie said that's because there's a draft of wind that carries the moisture away from the city so it doesn't snow. But the place is still damn cold.

What kinda face is that.

We were tired so we lay down for a bit. Until our bodies were warmed up. Then time for dinner!


Eder took the photo for all of us. Cool eh?
From left: Matt, Suzie, Tracy, Lander, me and Josh.

This dinner was quite expensive so I must take some pictures of what we ate. This was Gumbo soup. Very nice, rice with some meat (I forgot what), but it's nice la. It's supposedly some Estonian cuisine or something like that. 250 kronors. ARGH. 50 euros gone like that, after paying for the hostel and the meal. Well.

Eder's meal. Dunno what salaati with meat. Looks good.

After the meal, the others went to R-Alko to get lotsa alcohol. Mad men. They said the beer and spirits were so cheap, so must buy more. Those beer guzzlers. Haha. I just bought a small bottle of choco-alcohol (21%). Haha. It's sweet I hope. Haven't opened it.

Then after drinking (a lot of) alcohol in the hostel, we decided to go the the local favourite club, Club Hollywood. It's supposedly the favourite club of the youngsters there, and yeah, it lived up to its name. There was a lot of eye candy around. Had fun there, superb music, beautiful people. Was having lotsa fun there, dancing to the cool music. In Singapore, you could almost never hear music that good. I was a little disappointed when the rest decided to leave (cos they were not having fun like me.) I mean when you don't drink alcohol and don't dance, how you wanna have fun in a club? I club cos I like dancing, and I save money cos I don't drink haha. Sorry for this part I aint had any pics. Wasted man. LOL.

Next morning we decided to walk around the Old Town. Enjoy the pictures.


Along the streets of Tallinn.

Town square. The building in front is the Town Hall. Very nice right?

This was the castle in which Rapunzel lived in. Nah joking, this is still the Town Hall, another view of it from the side. Nice little windows.

St Nicholas' Church peeping out from the other buildings. The churches here are very pretty looking.

Sun is setting, uh oh. It's almost 4+pm.

Illegal pictures taken within the Niguliste Church. I didn't know it was illegal until later when I got stopped.


You know the pics are illegal when I take such blurry shots and I can't take better ones. I just had to take this pic. It's of Jesus Christ the Almighty, Son of God being crucified on the cross.

There was this very very famous and ancient and well-preserved painting called the Dance of Death, where Death appeared beside a pope, king, emperor, queen and it pretty much described how death is a leveller of all beings. You come into the world with nothing, you leave with nothing. I wanted to take a picture of it, but damn the security guard was just outside. And I already got a warning. Poof.

Below: these "badges" are just too tempting not to take pics of them. So I die die also must take some pictures. But the quality of these pictures are so bad. =S I din even look at my camera screen, my eyes were on the security guards instead. LOL!



I think this is the Russian Orthodox Church. Yea I think. Sorry it was too cold, I almost died taking these pics, and you can't imagine how much pain I went through to take these pics. I had no tripod with me. All with my bare hands.

Went inside but didn't take any pics cos it's not allowed. Anyway, it was a nice little church. Small nice and cosy. Jesus was everywhere.

I hope this is artistic enough for you all. Seriously though, I think my picture taking skills are not good enough. But the camera couldn't capture the whole of the church. Not my fault. I was twisting and turning the camera around. Still, this is the best I can manage.

Peeks of the castle. I dunno if we got into the castle proper or we were still outside of it.

Look from on top one of the castle peaks. Very nice right? Was worth the climb up the stairs and slopes. But it's very cold up here. Wind's very strong. I feel like I'm in a super duper big freezer which takes up 1000MW of electricity to freeze all the human meat in it.

The stupid chimneys with smoke mar the landscape, otherwise with the sunset, this would be perfect. Walking down from the castle high up. The wind is cold cold cold. How I wish I were in Singapore. Just kidding, I rather be cold than to return to Singapore. At least not now.

Tracy and Matt. Americans from North Carolina.

Josh the nice guy, also from North Carolina. Well so many of them. Suzie the crazy German looking bored for one second. The minute the flash went off, she was back to her crazy self again. HAHAHAHA! She almost never gets drunk. Drinks beer like a camel drinks water.

Waiting for Nate to come have lunch with us. We were all hiding in the basement of our hostel. Who wants to go out and freeze?


Night view of the Town Hall. Has a romantic aura about it.

Had dinner at an Italian ravintola (Finnish for restaurant). Another nice meal, but no pics. Heard that ZM and WL only spent like 50 euros for the whole Estonia trip. I feel very guilty. =S

Next morning we were preparing to leave Tallinn for Helsinki. What a nice 2 days.

Macs breakfast. As I was taking pics, the manager "yelled" (ok la not very loud) at me not to take pics. What! Is this a museum or something? Macmuseum? Macseum? Oh please.

Another church we didn't get to visit.

Tallinn Ferry Terminal.

Our ferry, which we were supposed to take.

So, Estonia was fun, a place of cheap booze and liquor, beautiful people and nice churches. When will my next trip be to? Only time will tell.

Yours truly.

Signed,
Clarence.