Scheisse mit Mein Kampf!!!

Apologies for the mistakes in German on this post - or on the other hand not...!

In High school I studied German for 2 years and that is all the academic study with that beautiful-ugly-sounding-language I have for now. On top I have numerous hours and days of on-site visits with the-way-I-like-to-study-languages in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

While writing this the World Cup game between hosting Brazil and Colombia is on with 1-0 for B-team. As I have stated earlier, my favorite is Spain. Yes, it still is!!!

My second favorite is actually Belgium, my former home country, while I still not today trust the team. Sorry my Belge friends! I claimed they would be kicked out in the first qualifying round but luckily I was wrong - and team Belgium was lucky: they played against team USA and - despite of the stunning game by The Goal Keeper of the Year Tim Howard - they managed to go for quarter finals, that is in best 8. Go Belgium!!!

Germany...
Scheisse.
Wunderbar.
Warum?

OK, let's get to business;
"Entschuldigung, das ich zu spät kommen!" was the fist sentence I said in my German lession in the high school.

And the second one...?
"Das weiss Ich leider nicht!"

Sorry for the 99% of the American readers, JFG!!!

...anyway, to the point that I started writing this;
With 1 minute thinking I came up with 2 teams that I do NOT support if the French the team is playing them.

Yep, all of you know the ranking 1 is Russia, but for whatever reason the 2nd team is ...Germany from all the countries in the world. Why??? I can't really say! Likes and dislikes. Blonds vs brunettes. Meat vs veggies. Coffee vs Tea.

Let's remind the basics;
Finland is going to play in the next World Cup - in Basketball in Spain this August!!! Let's keep our eye on that my friends - and trust Brazil will take what's for them to take!

Have a fabulastic weekend you all!!!

PS Mein Kampf is the battle with not having my home country Finland in the games, my 3rd home country Spain out, my somewhat-dislike-Germany-continuing, my 2nd home country Belgium out at next round, while my childhood favorite Brazil just got away with a goal against them and now all of a sudden it is 2-0. Brazil continues!!!

Let the games continue!!!

70 years from D-Day - Normandian maihinnoususta 70 vuotta!

Attention - Huomio!!!

70 years ago, on the 6th of June, the allied forces - mainly Americans, British and Canadian troops - started the invasion in Normandy. BIG thanks for that, since the world would be a lot different without the efforts of those millions of soldiers involved, and particularly those who died on the battle field. About 400.000 of them in the weeks after the invasion, including the German soldiers.

I've been there, in Normandy, and I can tell you it is worth the visit no matter if you are at all interested in war or history or not. If you have a chance, GO!!! There are sooooo many angles to the area and history; museums, cemeteries - also German one, towns and villages, nature, beaches, people, culture, architecture, food, wine, cider...

Wikipedia info about the landings from here.
Other sources for info www.world-war-2.info and www.ddaymuseum.co.uk
For more touristic info check out http://www.normandie-tourisme.fr/
For pictures click the link - kuvia katsoaksesi mene tänne
https://www.google.fi/search?q=mont+st+michel+france&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=AsWQU7joLYjBO5rigLAD&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=965&bih=581#q=normandy+landings&tbm=isch&imgdii=_

Picture: www.history.army.mil

Suomen kielen taitajille vinkkinä: 
Jos teillä on mahdollisuus mennä tutustumaan Normandian maihinnousun tapahtumapaikkoihin, suosittelen sitä lämpimästi! Olen ollut siellä ja voin kertoa sen olevan hyvin vaikuttavaa, huolimatta siitä oletko kiinnostunut sotahistoriasta tai et. Se on merkittävä osa maailman historiaa!

Alueeseen on monia näkökulmia ja koettavaa; museot, hautausmaat, kaupungit ja kylät, rannat, ihmiset, kulttuuri, arkkitehtuuri, ruoka, viini, siideri...

Aloita lukemalla Hesarin artikkeli aiheesta.

PS Älä unohda käydä tarkistamassa Mont Saint-Michel
Remember to check out Mont Saint-Michel

Food tips for Helsinki area

I had again a pleasure to visit the German restaurant Zinnkeller in Helsinki. Food was good, beer was cold and tasty - all topped with great company. I have told you about my favorite dish also earlier, but here it is:

Or was...I had the garlic snails as a starter and they were fantastic too. No photos available as I was concentrating on the meal. Good food by German founder, now in 2nd generation.

Check it out, they have had also several ice hockey national teams visiting so it is tested by many nationalities. GO!
http://www.kolumbus.fi/zinnkeller/

Another tip is at Tapiola, Espoo: www.sushiart.fi
The name speaks for it self, but to clarify: Japanese kitchen and sushi. If you go for takeaway and are driving, you can stop in front.

It's not the cheapest option, while I still have not found anything good+cheap.

One more for the road:
30 meters from SushiArt is Kilim for Mediterranean kitchen. Great buffet and alacarte, genuine kitchen as the owner is Turkish. www.kilim.fi
 

Eisbein lovers live happier!

Guten Tag!

Ich liebe Eisbein. Yes, I love it. Siis rakastan sian jalasta tehtyä herkkua. The best Eisbein in Helsinki you can get at a genuine German restaurant Zinnkeller, that has been here for tens of years and ran by a true German gentleman,Wolfgang W.

Most of the time I eat there - which is not too often - I order Eisbein. The other option is german sausages and meat in various forms. But the Eisbein, that's the thing! You can get it cooked in about 0,5 hours, but if you order it 1-2 days in advance, they prepare it even better.

One word of warning though;
In case you are extremely sensitive to the visual part of the meal, think again before ordering.

More about Eisbein from Wikipedia here - tai täältä. How to cook it? Check from here.

Guten Appetit!

PS The Blues is out of the play-offs. Still, now I'll put on my Blues hat, pipo, and go for a walk on ice. The sea is still frozen in many places...

Battle Mannerheim vs Litmanen

I have seen today two somewhat documentary or autobiography movies, one partly and another fully paid by us, the Finnish taxpayers via Finnish broadcasting company YLE;

• "Kuningas Litmanen" about football player Jari Litmanen

• "Suomen Marsalkka" about soldier and president of Finland Carl-Gustaf Mannerheim
  http://www.suomenmarsalkka.fi/
  

Let's talk about the Marshal first;

It sucks!

The storytelling does not have any clear clue and it goes on for the full 41 mins without any real drama to the viewers.

Looking at ti from a quality point of view, as a movie even I can see it is low quality - and my view is supported by the media reviews as well as it can be seen in the "Making the..." documentary. Perhaps there is a link with the output and the fact that the local producer started his career in this project as a driver. Yes, the man who was the taxi-man for these Finnish guys.

On top, the ones who have studied the history more, have pointed out multiple errors in the fact telling - and honestly I was not able to find anything new from the historical or person point of view. To me that was the biggest dissapointment.

What was this then all about?

Please someone smarter tell me!

...the only motivator I've seen is that the YLE producer Erkko Ego-grower Lyytinen tries to boost his career - and ego. He says we should see the character Mannerheim from another angle. Unfortunately I was not able to link enough as there were too many contradictions and at the same time the content was very weak.

Enough of that, watch it and make up you own mind.

Kuningas Litmanen - King Litmanen;

I recommend it to all who are even a bit intersted in football or sports!

This movie lasted for almost 2 hours and when it ended, I felt like "gimme more, keep it coming...!". When the man himself goes to the places he has lived his football life and is interviewed about things he has never spoken about earlier, there is a clear additional value.

All of us can go to Youtube to watch the goals.

It is not often that you hear players like Xavi, Carles Puyol, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Danny Blind, Ronald and Frank de Boer, or Steven Gerrard talking such positive about another player. Litmanen played his biggest successesin Ajax in Holland, followed by not-that-great periods in Barcelona, Spain and Liverpool, England. He also did visits to Sweden and Germany.

My son is a young BIG football player and a fan, watching the world class players and knows a lot about them. After the movie I asked him "Did you know Litmanen was that good?". He said "No I didn't!".

Go and see it!

Light in the tunnel with Finnish ball sports

Finland's men's basketball team is going to the European Championships in few weeks. It is the first time since 1995 - which is hell of a lot better than in Football where Finland has never been in the games. Yet.

Today they won Hungary and still have one game to play. The game against Portugal will define which will go to the group with Spain, Turkey and Lithuania. Finland has got a win from the first game, hence even if Portugal wins by 12 points then Portugal will get the Spain-Turkey-Lithuania games.

Last Thursday HJK from Helsinki won Schalke 04 from Germany in one of the European cups. HJK was dropped out from Champions League and continued with these. The winner of the game pair will go to the next phase.

The starting point to the games was quite clear: Schalke 04 with 18 times bigger player budget. HJK is an semi pro team, while Schalke 04 is a true professional team - or do you think that Raul would choose any other way? Heck, after the game on Thursday night, many HJK players were on Friday morning at 8 am in the office for their day job. So much for the glory...

Ho, wanna know how the game ended?

HJK won 2-0!!!

If you wanna see th game, it is for a while available online here.

Second part is played this Thursday and I am soooo much looking forward to it!

PS We should not forget that Finland won the ice hockey World Championships this year...!

Breach of contract in Germany

While waiting for the Blues game to start, here is a legal case for you to judge.

A man sues neighbor for breach of contract in Germany: Paid to do it but fails to make friend's wife pregnant after 72 attempts.

In Stuttgard, Germany a court judge must decide on a case of honorable intentions in a sitution where a man hired his neighbor to get his wife pregnant.

It seems that Demetrius Soupolos, 29, and his former beauty queen wife, Traute wanted to have a child badly, but Demetrius was was told by his doctor that he was sterile.

So Soupolos, after calming his wife's protest agreed to pay his neighbor Frank Maus, 34, to impregnant his wife. Since Maus was already married and had two childern, plus looked very much like Soupolos to boot, the plan seemed good.

So Soupolos paid Maus 2500 Euros for the job and for 3 evenings a week for the next 6 months, Maus tried desperately, a total of 72 times to impregnant Traute.

When Maus's wife objected he told his wife, "I don't like this any more than you, I am simply doing it for the money".

When Traute failed to get pregnant after the six months, Soupolos was not understanding and insisted Maus to have a medical examination, which he did.

The doctor's announcement that Maus was also sterile shocked everyone except his wife, who then had to confess that Maus was not the real father of the two childern.

Now Suppolos is sueing Maus for breach of contract, in an effort to get his money back, but Maus refuses to give it back saying he did not guarantee results, only that he would give it his best effort.

...so I guess there is no factory quarantee in this...

Again some Spanish food

I wrote earlier about the Spanish food that I very much love. At the Costa del Sol are so many nationalities represented that surely you can get also other food than Spanish.

If you wish to have British breakfast, you can get it with a reasonable price. Also other options from the British gourmet kitchen are available - and since the competition for the customers is tough, ofter the customer gets the benefit. Or what do you say about the offer below?

For the lovers of German sausages, you also have good options available.

There is also fairly big Finnish community, hence the delicious Finnish cinnemon rolls are made there in Thelman Pullapuoti.

I myself find no reason for going there on vacations. Except when I was living outside Finland. When you are living abroad for a longer period - months or years - you kind of miss certain things from your home country and what could be better than to get some delicious familiar food. That's why we visited the Brussels Seamen's Mission - Brysselin Merimieskirkko now and then. There we we also able to use the library so even more reasons for a visit. We didn't go there for any religious purpose, but to get a taste of our home country.

My main food focus at Spain trips is Spanish food in many forms, one more delicious than the other. And again, normally the price is not the issue unless you go for the fancy places in touristic areas...

One of my many favorites - the sardines - are prepared on the fire for me.

The dish doesn't look that fancy but I can tell you it is goooood!!!

Mix it with Tortilla Española and rinse it down with a glass of ice cold beer in one of the chiringuitos, the beach restaurants.

After that you can go back to the beach and dig yourself a hole for the siesta.

 I still have some cheese and chorizo left, I guess tonight could be a good time for them!

Hyvää ruokahalua!!!

Long live taxi monopoly!

Or not.

Today the Finnish Government decided to increase taxi rates by 4% as of July 1st. Fairly high increase with zero warning time tells me about excellent lobbying by the monopoly industry. The news info says the increase is in line with the cost increase. I don’t doubt that at all – question is always about what you want to show in a report…

I have written about this earlier and I gotta say I am still unhappy with both the service as well as the tariffs. Part of the issue is that most taxi lisence owners change their cars every 3 years – and provide the service with fairly expensive cars.

Earlier almost all cars were Mercedes, but in the past years many have decided to increase their profits and drive cheaper ones. We still pay the same.

Some time ago the driver was from Iran – very friendly man. Some weeks later the driver was from deep Africa, from Gabon if I recall right. His car was a Huyndai that had seem some ass. Plenty of it. It had over 300.000 km in the meter, but that didn’t matter since the driver again had realized he was in a service inductry.

He was studying economics at the Helsinki University and finances the studies by driving the evening and night shifts. He plans to go to North Africa, most likely to Algeria to make a market analysis – having as a target to set up a mobile phone dealership with his friends. I wish all the best for him!

I’m not sure what would be the right solution, but I can claim today we don’t have the best one. Unless you are a taxi license owner. Still, this is considered as part of a transportation solution, controlled by the government so it should be possible to make changes. But please go to Sweden to check how they have done it – and learn from the mistakes.

Few words still about football - or soccer;

Hats off to England and Team USA in the football Worldcup. Both of them had to win to continue and they did it. Team USA lost today their second game winning goal in 3 matches due to a bad call by the referee. It would have been injustice if they would have been out from the games after these...

We have seen some flops in the games – perhaps France as the worst for now. Let’s see how Germany plays in a similar situation tonight.

And the winner is...

...Germany with a song that I rank as "pretty good for a Eurovision song"!

What comes to my favorites: They all were in top 10! I bet you had doubts about my motivators to nominate these countries but as this is a song contest, I evaluate purely the musical aspect ;o)

Who would have thought...?

Who would have put the money on Denmark being the first one to secure the place on the 2nd round at the Ice Hockey World Championships? Not me...

USA has lost both games and again, who would have thought this would happen against Denmark and Germany? Good thing for Team USA is that both games were on overtime so they have 2 points, just like Germany from USA win. Finland has got 3 points from the second game, 1-0 win against Germany. Denmark has got 5 points from clear Finland win and overtime win against USA.

We are not alone with the surprise results: Norway won Czech Republic. I’ve actually been in Norway – England(!) ice hockey game back in 2004 in Oslo. They were playing the B-level World Championships and I took my English colleague to the game, first ever for him…

Last games are today, Denmark-Germany and Finland-USA. If Germany wins Denmark - which already is on 2nd round - either Finland or USA is out from the 2nd round.

Who would have thought...?

Shame-shame-shame for the Finnish ice hockey players!

The yearly Ice Hockey World Championships are going on in Cologne, Germany. Too bad they are now next door from Brussels and we are not there. Or on the other hand, luckily we are not there since it would have been touch to witness the first ever defeat Denmark over Finland. Yes, the piccolo ice hockey country of Denmark won Finland 1-4 yesterday!

It is not any comfort that USA lost their game against Germany, also not-that-good-ice-hockey-nation, particularly since these four teams play in the same qualifying group. These were only the first matches for the teams so let's wait & see how it continues. Tomorrow Finland is playing Germany and I bet the house will be full!

Some fellow countrymen have set up a facebook group that will promise to shave their heads in case Finland will win the championship this year. I'd say their hair is safe - we have won so far only 1 title back at 1995 and this team doesn't seem to be particularly strong...

If you have never been into a proper ice hockey game, I truly suggest to go. It's pretty fun, a good circus!

LET THE GAMES CONTINUE!!!

I found a rival for a 30 cent toilet lady in Belgium

As you might know in most public toilets in Belgium you have an older lady who guards the entry and asks normally 30 cent payment for the visit. This applies also in many restaurants even if you are dining there – not all of them though. I found a rival to these ladies;

A short while ago I was visitng NK department store in Stockholm, Sweden. To enter the toilet, I needed to pay 5 Swedish Crowns which equals to somewhat 50 cents. In Belgium the lady lets you go to the toilet and expects you to drop the coins on a plate on the way out, but obviously in Sweden the culture is not that far yet.

The young lady almost shouted me “YOU MUST PAY 5 CROWNS”, so obviously the money is needed for customer service training…

I guess a good compromise is from German highway stops;

You have an automated entry with 50 cent coin, but you get a ticket that gives you 50 cent discount at any of the highway restaurants.