Tallinn, Estonia - Worth a visit!

Before going further, my official congratulations to the Team USA for beating Finnish hockey team badly! You were better, full stop.

Then congratulations to the Finnish athletes who performed well, and particularly to the ones who won medals. Women's cross country relay team and individual 30 km bronzes, women's and men's ice hockey teams - yes, Finland recovered from the USA beating and won Slovakia in the bronze game. That one too the hard way by coming from 1-3 behind after 2nd round into 5-3 win!

Let the best team win the Olympic gold - USA with the hamburger stand or Canada with the cheerleaders!

Back to the main topic...

Since the kids had the ski holiday week, we decided to make a mini trip to Tallinn, capital of Estonia in the Baltics. The ferry takes only about 3,5 hours so it is a good way to take a quick break. Unfortunately I had too hectic in the office so couldn't make a longer trip...

Tallinn city centre is beautiful, particularly the old town that has been renovated after the Soviet Union time that ended 1991. Historical buildings, great restaurants, good shopping and in general great people.

I recommend to visit there as soon as possible, since in the outskirts of Tallin and in other places you can still see what the impact of the Soviet Union has been. Very interesting country that has developed a lot since it got back its independence.

Go there before it becomes another European city, beautiful one though - just like Prague!

...back to our trip...

While we stepped into the ferry terminal in Helsinki, we met the first friends and while stepping into the bar at the terminal we net the 2nd friends. Small country, even if we are about the same size as Italy! Italy just happens to have 11 times more people...

I was not bothered by the 1.5 hour ferry delay which was due to bad ice situation at the Gulf of Finland. We had a perfect plan to sit down in the bar and chill out.

What shocked me was something I am still after the years in Belgium not used to - the price of the alcohol;
I bought 2 half litre bottles of soda and 2 mini bottles (equals to a glass) of basic red wine, Gato Negro. The bill was 24 Euros, while the sodas were only 3 Euros a piece...

While enjoying this expensive red, I noticed I could buy from a wine store in Tallinn a 3 litre box of Spanish red wine for 8,20 Euros or a 0,75 liter bottle of Chardonnay for 2,5 Euros. The Gato Negro mini bottles were 9 Euros a piece...

More prices from the shop for the ones interested:

0,375 litre of Vodka is 6 Euros, and if you are a pro they also sell 12-packs of them...

24 pack of Lonkero, the gin based goodie on sale for 12 Euros, normally about 17, and beer around 12 Euros. As comparison, in Finland you can get a beer pack from 19 Euros up. But they are all the basic lager with 4,6% of alcohol - due to a foolish legislation.

For example, Lidl had earlier fantastic German beer in their selection but since the beer develops still in the can, it in some cases went over the legislation level of 4,7% and they had to pull the adds off the shops and destroy them. That hurts!

Onboard the ship the wine was 3,50 Euros and Spanish Cava, the sparkling wine 4,50 Euros. When I asked for a glass of water with the wine, he sold of a water bottle 1,90 Euros since a glass would have been the same. Just to remind you, in Finland the tap water is cleaner than bottled one...

If you wanted to get hammered, the bars had a 0,4 liter pint + 4 cl of Jägermeister for 6,50 Euros.

In the ferry shop a bottle of Pouilly-Fume, a great French white, was on sale 15,90 Euros so you still gotta pay for a good stuff...

During the trip we saw some can-can dancing, watched the traditional ship orchestra perform (better than average) and enjoyed the trubadur in the pub. Not bad at all, played also Jimi Hendrix.

One thing I gotta say as positive behaviour for the Estonian drivers:
They respect the pedestrians crossing the road at the zebra line, even the taxi drivers! I am ashamed to admit than in general Finns push the pedal on the right side when getting closer to the zebra-zone.

Same stupid behaviour is with the queues: most drivers make all they can not to let you come in front of them - behaving like it would be a big loss for them...

The streets in Tallin were not cleaned from the snow at all. You can see that it has been done at some point of the winter, but not recently. And the some of the sidewalks not at all. With that one points in to Finland, but the previous one goes 6-0 to Estonia (funny, I remember these number from the Olympics for some reason...).

All and all, I am happy with the trip, even if there is not much else to do onboard but to shop, sit in the bar or play the games. I barely won my son in a motorcycle game so order in the house is clear for now. Gotta admit though that in Playstation-type of driving games he passed me already at the age of 6, even if he does not play them too much.

Still, it is fun to play with him now and then. Even if he again kicked my but in the car game.

Go to Estonia!

Yep yep yep...

So, the game is already 5-0 after 12 minutes, but when it was 4-0 I decided to take the punishment and did walk around the house. It was cold.

WHAT?
I am sitting by the tv with the laptop on my lap - and it is 6-0. SHAME-SHAME-SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, it is quite cold to do such a distance on snow - but I deserved that after all that propaganda. I actually feel bad about this since before the game I was truly excited to watch the game - what here I am writing to you... After about 15 minutes we got the first true chance to score, but you can't expect too much. Even if one of the best goalies in the world Miikka Kiprusoff takes 4 goals from 7 shots...

PERKELE, now we need some Finnish sisu to play the rest of the game so that we can walk out from the game with out heads up!

US is playing well, but 6-0. Perhaps not the result to describe the skills difference, but the performance in the first round.

Shame-shame-shame...

PS Here is a proof of the walk

It's Hockey Time - going for one more medal!

Ladies and Playboys, Friends and Family, Sports friends and the rest,

Prepare yourselves for a fanf***ingtastic ice hockey game between Finland and USA, the good old America.

Firstly, I must thank you Americans as well as the Canadians who both have contributed to the skills of the stars in Team Finland. Yes, Teemu Selänne - Finnish Flash - was already a great player when he came to NHL and in his rookie season with Winnipeg Jets he won the best rookie award, Calder Memorial Trophyn after clearly breaking the NHL rookie award with 76 goals and 132 points. That is also the (shared) best goal score of Europeans in NHL. Nowadays he has scored most points ever in Anaheim Ducks, where he also won the Stanley Cup 2007 - after 15 years in NHL. He also just became the best ever scorer in the Olympics history...

What about Saku Koivu then? The captain of Montreal Canadians for many years. Unfortunately he got cancer but was able to beat it and came back - and is playing tonight in the Olympics. His younger brother Mikko is a forward for the Minnesota Wild and is the team's current captain, also a member of the Finnish team.

Then we have Niklas Hagman, Jere Lehtinen, Jarkko & Tuomo Ruutu, Toni Lydman, Valtteri Filppula, Olli Jokinen, Kimmo Timonen, Joni Pitkänen, Miikka Kiprusoff, Niklas Bäckström, Sami Salo, Antti Miettinen, Ville Peltonen, Niko Kapanen and many others who YOU DEAR AMERICANS have helped to develop what they are today!

So many thanks and apologies for kicking you guys out of the Olympic Final! No, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics semifinal ice hockey game has not yet started, it is in about an hour, but that is the unfortunate (or fortunate if you look at it from the Finnish perspective, like the women's Sweden - Finland bronze game yesterday) fact that will soon happen.

Oh, I hear some of you disagree but you are too shy to say it out loud? Click the "Comments"-field and say what you have in mind. I say we win ;o)

If for some strange reason you guys trick the game and win, I promise you to walk bare feet around our house the ~200 meters, about 600 feet. The Canadian friends - and Sara who also knows the snow life - know what that means. Cooooooooooold! And I promise to do that without any vodka.

SUOMI - SUOMI - SUOMI - SUOMI...!!!

Let the games begin!!!

No more medals

According to my previous estimation, Finland should not get any more medals in the Olympic games!

Earlier we got the silver from snowboarding and were as good as Kazakhstan. Today we tripled the amount into 3 by having strong team girl power: Women got bronze both in 4x5 km cross-country relay as well as in Ice Hockey.

Congratulations to both!!!

Try clicking the first red&white video-logo & text "Naisten jääkiekko....FIN-SWE: 3-2..." for an interesting finishing of the winning goal on this page.

At the same time I must apologize Swedish friends since it has been a dark day for the hockey fans. Morning started by men's team being dropped out by Slovakia and just now Finnish team left the Swedish team on 4th place. However, in both games Sweden put up a good fight!

Also in Curling Sweden was doing well against China, it seems they made it to the Final against Canada!

Back to the Ice Hockey;
I am afraid that the Finnish Ice Hockey team will perform well and take a medal so my estimation becomes low. Also there is a small chance that Hannu Manninen, Finnish athlete in the Nordic Combined can hold his own in the skiing. He is in fairly good position after the ski jump but you never know...

Then we still have the figure skating, a sport that is always enjoyable to watch.

For women's ice hockey final I wish more luck to Canada - even if it does not matter that much to me who wins. Also USA would deserve to win, but if nothing else then to balance USA - Canada writing (I just wrote about American burger dream McDonalds ;o) )

Enjoy the games!!!

It was McDonalds in disguise...!

Yep, the answer to my previous question was McDonalds. They have faked the Niittykumpu restaurant at Espoo, Finland as a healthy, fancy looking place. The food is still the same but you can enjoy the environment better.

Eli vastaus aiempaan kysymykseen on McDonalds Niittykumpu Espoossa, joka on naamioitu viihtyisämmäksi ja terveemmän oloiseksi.

Can you see the M-sign in the middle of this pic, behind the biiig pile of snow?Hidden, just like the M in the middle of the green apples in the previous post.

Näkyykö Mc-merkki lumikasan takaa? Piilossa, aivan kuin M-kirjain edellisen postin vihreiden omenoiden keskellä.

 

It was surprising how fast two of the 15-packs of nuggets vanished, but luckily I didn't have to eat them by myself...
Thank you for the multiple replies, I guess you are just too shy to talk ;o)

Kaksi 15 kananuggetin pakkaa hävisi aika vauhdilla - mutta oli minulla apurit syömässä niitä.
Kiitos vastauksista, taidatte olla vain liian ujoja puhumaan ;o) Anonymouskin taisi juuri menettää purilaisaterian kun en voi millään tietää kuka on...

Which restaurant - Mistä ravintolasta?

Can you figure out from which restaurant these pictures are from?

Mistä ravintolasta nämä kuvat on otettu?

If you do - or can guess, click "Comments" at the end of the text. 

Eli klikkaa "Comments" jos keksit tai arvaat!

Apologies!

Dear fellow sports followers,

My sincere apologies on behalf of some of the Finnish sportsmen/women in the Olympics! Most of them have performed extremely low in Vancouver until now - with few exceptions (that I will mention later on).

The Finnish Olympic Committee stated as an official target to win 12 (yes, twelve) medals from the games. Quite a lot for a country of 5.3 million people, no matter how good history we have with winter sports. While we are facing the half way post of the games, we have a glorious one (1) silver medal from a (sorry for my bad French) fanf***ingtastic performance by Peetu Piiroinen in half-pipe with his snowboard (if some technical thing was wrong with this pipe-thing, sorry for that but how could I know...).

Also in yesterday's ski jumping, the gold medal went to the best man. Full stop.

We have two fantastic athletes who have made a come-back and have tried to get the glory in the Olympics. Unfortunately the story does not always follow the Finnish wish-list but what can I say. I truly feel sorry for Janne "The Eagle" Ahonen, but also I take my hat off for Hannu Manninen's come-back after a break.

I bet you won't see this with some other athletes and their career plans: Manninen came to Vancouver some days later than others due to his studies. Shit happens, but if the "others" win him, he can go back to the licenced flight pilot work ;o)

Let's come back to Janne Ahonen;

He retired from ski jumping, came back after a year and was hoping to get his first personal Olympic medal. He already has got one from the team thing, but no individual medal despite of multiple wins in World Championships and especially multiple wins from the traditional Ski Jumping Week around the New Year.

To get to the point I started with, I am sooo ashamed how the Finnish cross country ski team performs - and I gotta say I am not satisfied at all with what I saw yesterday!!!

Yep, I fully understand and support that for example in Ahonen's case he should NOT jump 2nd round after hurting his knee in the first competition jump. After 1 year of retirement (while he was competing in the drag racing...), Ahonen has been for now the best Finnish ski jumper in the games! Since I am an optimistic with a positive approach, I can only wish for a better performance in the ski jump team competition. However, I will not hold my breath :o(

MORE SHAME;
Out of the four (4) skiers in the men's cross country ski competition yesterday, 3(!)  out of 4 Finnish skiers decided they are not going to finish the race so the gave up! I better not to say what I feel. Today's headlines say one guy is now on medication, but IF YOU ARE SICK, YOU WON'T START AND GIVE THE PLACE TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO IS FINE!

WHERE THE PERKELE IS THE FINNISH SISU WITH THESE GUYS???
If you are chosen to represent Finns in the games, you better not throw in the towel in the first round!

I'm not going into the details but from a perspective of a Finnish sportsman with a twinkle in an eye, I cheer for Mr Giorgio Di Centa who had the most ridiculous hat in the race (couldn't find a pic)!

If we are lucky, I guess we Finns will get 3 medals in the whole of the Vancourver  - Jos hyvin käy, saamme 3 mitalia! Joo, taisin sanoa tuon itse mutta jos ei tuota saada lätkän/joukkuehyppäilyn jälkeen niin mistä sitten? Curling tiimi voi tietty aina yllättää...

Hyvä Leijonat - Go Finnish Lions, the hockey team! 
TEEMU, TEEMU, TEEMU... Tuo tuli vanhasta muistista mutta Espoolaisena voin iloita sekä esim. Teemun, Jeren että Niken menosta, että ihan jokaisesta tilanteesta jossa voitamme "vihollisen", parhaamme yrittäen ja sitä prkln sisua näyttäen!

Tomorrow it is time for Finland vs Sweden in men's ice hockey, a true Finnkampen and I bet we will see some sisu on the ice. I have made a bet for the Finnish performance; If we win I will get some Marabou chocolate - and if we happen to loose, I will send some Fazer Blue chocolate to Mange in Sweden...

If you don't have the sisu, you better stay home and focus on the other side of the winter sports. Here is an example of a bit different competition which I truly enjoyed :o)

We have a fantastic snow bliz!

We have outside about -15 Celcius and a wind that is at storm level. That makes the actual temperature on-the-skin about -30 C.

This pic is from a road camera near our home, taken today noon.

More snow coming - in addition to the piles we have - and even colder weekend expected. In this map even -36 C for tomorrow morning.

We are down in south with only -20 C... If you are interested, you can check the forecast from here.

If you say it is too cold, I claim that you are not properly dressed, equipped and with a wrong attitude. It is perfectly normal that the water bottle that had some water from yesterday froze during the office day (had the bag again with me for an after-job workout).

I gotta say it one more time since I have been living in the Belgium fall-weather for 5 winter seasons:

I LOVE WINTER!!!

PS Let's see what I will say when all the snow starts melting and we have slid all over. But let's worry about that later and enjoy the winter now!

Only in America...

Some days ago a Finnish newspaper published an article about a new invention from the good old US. And I can tell you guys it was not written to promote a fantastic invention, but more to ask from Finnish perspective the key question "Why?"...

Someone apparently thought it is his/hers breakthrough to American dream and designed a manual snowball machine. A bit similar you can get for the ice cream.

More pics from here, click the numbers below the pic on the web link.

Why did they bother?

I guess it is made to help the same guys who cant boil water or think good food comes in packages via microwave.

And here comes an extra bonus for all my friends who buy one of the snowball machines:

I will give you a good old snow face wash without extra cost - Eli jos joku kavereistani ostaa moisen, lupaan ostajalle perinteiset lumipesut kaupan päälle!

Shortest way to Eindhoven?

Dear Dutch friends,

In the name of Valentine's Day, could you please help me out to find shortest route to Eindhoven so I can make it on time for a date? I can see the road signs, but since I'm not on wheels I could use an alternative route too.

PS I love the down-to-earth approach that you guys have for conquering space from the sea!
PSS If you think this is a joke, check out the source  ;o)

400 - Thank you!

Normally I don't prefer to make 2 posts the same day, but you made me do it;

WE have 400 page visits since Jan 8th so I guess I gotta keep going...

Standard winter weekend...?

Our son has got football (soccer, the European thing) practice on Sundays on outdoor field. Since we are in Finland, this particular field is a heated one with artificial grass. The heating capacity is down to -10C and if the temperature goes below that, the field is closed - just like has happened on few Sundays.

A week ago on Sunday the temperature was ok but since we had a snow bliz, there was too much snow and the pitch was closed...

Last Sunday it was open, since the temperature was only about -3C but I gotta say the wind was freezing. Anyways, we - the parents - took the opportunity, went for a walk during the practice and saw some interesting things. Here are a few of them, together with some nice winter pictures.

Just to remind how this works, if you wish to expand the pic, just click it and it should expand.

Let's start with one from our back yard. In the most recent post I was questioning about the need for the gym -where I did go again this morning before 7 am :o) - but after this pic you might ask yourself if one needs any art inside the house. This is what we can enjoy from our living room.

...and here is one from the front door - just imagine if I was as calm as a horny bunny when this pile fell down right next to me when I was closing the door...

There was an orienteering race going on, and I gotta wonder what gets the people to run in knee-deep snow in the woods. Some parts of the run they could make on the roads but the rest was in the woods. And just think of the first guy to start: he needs to clear the way, make a path and all others just can follow him. Nice.

If you watch carefully, there is a competitor behind the bush in the middle of the pic.

And here is the competition control tower, for some reason not set totally outdoors.

There was also a horse stable where this particular 4-leg monster was at his primary shape since he (or she, didn't check) was running around the corral or what ever you call his fenced outdoor pitch. (Feel free to let me know proper terms via "Comments".)

I am a bit dissapointed with the jacket of the Mr/Ms Horse since I've understood that at least in Finland horse riding is a bit poshy hobby.

The following devices would need some horsepowers in front of them, but for some reason they are here unused and getting rusty while they should be used to clear particularly the ice skates rinks.

These guys and ladies had fun playing in deep snow. When they scored, the cheering was wild and loud - real joy! Well, they have arranged now a World Cup for deep snow football at Hyrynsalmi, Finland where 70 teams compete for the title. This is as stupid as the swamp football World Cup that is also arranged in Finland.

My favorite is still the regular football, even if it is now and then nice to play on snow. Yes, it is back there...

Here is one more nice detail from the routes: a path facing the woods after the orientiering guys and girls. Please note that this one if for running, not for horses. However, unlike in Brussels there is no indication for the bikes so I guess I am allowed to bike there as much and fast as I like...?

To finish the reality, here is a pic taken from out front door one of the fantastic snow mornings. The foot marks are from the news paper delivery and the BIG FOOT marks from me...

As I have stated many times, I LOVE WINTER!!!

Who needs a gym at winter time?

We got again today some more snow and I went outside to do some cleaning. The biggest thing I ended up doing was "broadening" the driveway where we have also parking places. In addition, it is the access to the front doors and garages (which are not that actively used for one or another reason).

During the winter, with more and more snow being cleared aside, the space between the snow walls has slowly become narrower. So narrow that you can barely pass the parked cars - and if they are parked wide, there is no space to do it. Anyways, I worked almost an hour with the shovel resulting with half a meter (about 2 feet) wider driveway and a sweaty shirt. Beneficial physical exercise...

After living the Belgium fall, which they call "winter", for five years I gotta admit I am thrilled with the proper winter with loads of snow. Let's see what I will say when all of it starts melting and we have loads of slid, loskapaska. My dream is that this will stay until early April and then comes heat wave that melts the snow in 2 weeks.

Still, I plan to go to the gym tomorrow before a busy office day.

So much for EuroCup 2012

I just saw the groups for Football EuroCup 2012 and there are two interesting features in it, and one is not the likelyness that we can't make it to the games;

• Finland is in a same group as Holland, and if the dinosaurus Jari Litmanen continues to play - and more important stays healthy - he gets to play in Holland in front of many many loyal fans!

• Another one is meeting Sweden - we'll get a good Finnkampen, Suomi-Ruotsi maaottelu! Might be even so juicy event that I could go to Sweden for the game.

We have in our group Holland, Sweden, Hungary, Moldova and San Marino. The winner of the group and the best 2nd of all groups go directly to the games that are played in June 2012 in Poland and Hungary. The rest of #2's pair up and the winners make it to the games. We gotta beat either Sweden or Holland, and it is not a walk in the park - particularly since our family player is still too young to play...

And all this is of course about the European football, soccer.

Have a fantastic Superbowl day, particularly the friends on that side of the water!

Thank You!

As of 8 January - that is in less than a month - I have had visitors from 22 different countries and today WE got total of 300 visits!!! Yes, it is WE, not ME since I'm just writing...

I hope this is not only due to matching google-words, but at least some of you would stop by due to what the heck I'm saying... Hence, I will keep going until further notice ;o)

Today we didn't go for the BBQ, but settled with the best pizza in town. From where, I hear you asking...
Of course Chez MIKA, home made at out place... I know I have in Italy an anti-lover for our recipe, but then again what do you Italians know about pizza?

So no BBQ, but of course sauna - and part of the fun is to go out and have some fresh air. And some fresh snow for the feet too.

Welcome to Finland - and stay tuned for more blaablaablaa!

PS I think I have not written about Champagne area in France. If I have, I have not tagged it. If I have not, I think you deserve some tips from there, as well as I'm happy to share my experience...

L&D, if you are out there, WE MISS YOU AND THE CHAMPAGNE TIRPS!!!

Winter BBQ - does it work?

I've been thinking about barbeque and particularly if I should take out the Weber and set it up. There is quite a lot snow at the back yard but I could easily clear some space for the grill and go ahead with winter BBQ.

However, I guess I would need to be aware of the cold weather and how it impacts the heat in and around the grill. Hence I'd go for the sausage and meatball option instead of heavy stake and chicken.

Also I might need to re-think the traditional drink. On the other hand I'd have again a perfect natural cooler. All I gotta do is put enough clothes on and either put on flexible gloves to enable handling of the stuff - or big enough that I can just slip them on and off.

I guess I gotta go for it - got already a clear support from my son but the female team members were a bit sceptical...