The Knights in White Denim Tour -AKA The White Trash Tour…
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Haha, thanks! I used to work as a chef in my twenties so I guess I do have gotten the proper training in eating
My appetite and the possibility of an endless supply of good foods to eat wasn't exactly the best combination so I'm really glad it's just a hobby nowadays Still in the middle of a very cold spell (-20 degrees at night which is exceptionally cold at this time of the year even though the days are warmer) but the sun is out a lot. Took a walk down to the seaside again. This is where I used to walk my dog everyday, there's this fairly big park and some nice scenery.
The pics are what they are thanks to my nonexistent photo skills so sorry about that
Went out on the ice towards a small island. This is the view towards the shore from the ice.
A gas station for boats
Hey dude, you should be driving that snow away instead of those logs!
Saw this guy who was out surf-skating on the frozen sea
This is an old army building that nowadays works as an art school
I have pretty much lived close to the archipelago all my life and have spent many hundreds of days aboard boats and on the small islands that are strewn all over. I love the colors and the ruggedness of it, and this picture of the texture of a rock pretty much sums up everything I love about these islands. Probably sounds strange, but it makes me feel warm inside when I look at this pic.
Walked over to Uunisaari which is this small island that has a public beach on it. There's a tiny river that this bridge crosses over
Apparently it's off season right now because the changing rooms were locked
Fancy a picnic?
Spotted this ferry heading for Estonia
..and some dingies and a rowboat that won't be heading anywhere quite yet
Here's another local thing, this is a place were you can come and wash your rugs in the summer (if you don't mind the busloads of japanese tourists that come here just to take photos of finns washing them). I've washed mine several times at this spot.
The café is right next to them and it is named after what we call the "platforms" in finnish - "mattolaituri" is literally translated to "rug/carpet dock".
Just a nice pic taken on a dock
A view over the sea towards an old fortress island. The island still has a (very) small military base and quite a few people living there as well. There's a ferry that's part of the city's public transport that you can take, and in the summer the island is quite a popular place to spend a day boozing on.
A view over the sea in another direction, at the forefront where you see the yacht is the island with the public beach. Quite many people out on the ice as well.
At the top of this hill is an old observatory and it's quite a popular place for kids to play.
Thanks for reading!
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Yeah well, lost in translation I guess :). In Finland (and the other nordic countries) carpets that cover the whole floor (like the ones that are commonplace in central europe and the states I guess) aren't very common. Some people have oriental rugs of course and those can't be washed in sea water (even though the water in the Eastern sea is bracken, ie has a fairly low salt level) and I guess that those washing stations hail from an era when mostly cotton rugs like the one in the picture below were used in the home.
We also have this special pine soap that is used when washing rugs.It's surprisingly difficult to try and explain some parts of our culture that we take for granted and have special words for without sounding utterly moronic by the way
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I get you and appreciate that you are interested. I am myself quite interested in getting to know cultural quirks when I travel, and trying to explain stuff that is self-explanatory to oneself and strange to another is always a challenge. But I guess that it's that stuff that separates people from different cultures nowadays since the current "global" culture is pretty much the same all over the world.
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..and oh yeah since we're on the subject of culture, finns generally never wear footwear inside the house which foreigners usually find very strange (and I, vice versa find it very strange to wear shoes indoors - especially combined with all-floor covering carpeting
). If it's really cold we use woolen socks. Old people use slippers -
@Jii:
Another food related post
Went out for japanese food yesterday with my wife and the loghill family, forgot the fekkin' camera AGAIN! More crappy iphone pics then
Me in IHSH-07 (adore this shirt!) enjoying some aperitif.. Kirin Ichiban!
Prawn tempura
Salmon nigiri and california rolls. The nigiris were probably the best I've ever had. Ever.
Tsukimi udon (poached egg). Udon is one of my favorite japanese dishes.. In the background you can spot another IHSH-favorite, the 41 that loghill's rockin' with style.
Loved the food, the restaurant and the company. Good times.Awesome food, awesome company, thank you!
About the carpets, I love those Finnish carpets and have loads of them.
Here's black and green ones in our living room
And a blue/white with some goodies on it
Several awfully coloured ones at my mother-in-laws country place
Striped ones at our balcony
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It's been a bit slow lately, nothing much going on. Decided to post picures I've taken of nice buildings in my neighbourhood as I've carried the camera with me during my leg. Most of the houses around my area of the city have been built between 1890 and 1920 and I think many of them are very beautiful and characteristic to my neighbourhood. Photographically worthless I suspect but I gotta keep the steady flow of updates going, right?
Anyway, you probably won't have many updates in the coming week, but I'll do my best to end my tour with a bang - leaving for Barcelona on thursday and the whites will come along too! Update(s) from the trip sometime next week (unless I get reasonable WIFI access and can update as I go along).
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Allright, time for a final post before I wash these and send them away.
Spent the easter holidays in Barcelona, Spain with a bunch of friends (there were 18 of us, we have this tradition that we do a trip somewhere every spring and this was the fourth time now). The weather was super nice, around +20 degrees in the daytime and mostly sunny. Had loads of time to do touristy stuff, party and eat since all of the shops were closed most of the time.
Barcelona is a place I’ve always wanted to go to, because I love the modernista architecture and have been fascinated by Antoni Gaudi. Here’s me in front of Casa Batllo, an apartment building designed by him
Of course we had to go to Park Guell as well
The building by the main gate
A view from the park over the city
And then of course we had to vist the Sagrada Familia, the legendary cathedral that’s been in the making for 140 years and still isn’t finished. No wonder since the details are mind-blowing
If you ever go I strongly suggest you visit in on the inside as well, it’s absolutely fantastic!
We also visited Montserrat, which is a small village on the top of a hill outside of Barcelona. There’s a monastery and a cathedral there as well.
Cool rock formations above the village
Views from the village
This church is located on the Tibidabo, a high hill on the northern edge of Barcelona city. There’s actually two churches built on top of each other surrounded by a small amusement park. We climbed the church tower to the spot right beneath the huge statue of Jesus, I think the sign said that it’s about 600 metres above sea level. It sure felt quite high up
A view from there
Some random snaps
Maybe next time I’ll book a room here
And what would a post about Barcelona be without tapas (or pintxos in catalan). If you have no other reason to visit Barcelona, do it for the food. I have to say that it might even surpass Italy in terms of that, and I love Italy and Italian food..
It was an amazing trip and I’m actually quite surprised to say that I’m sending the whites off with a bit of a heavy heart. I still think that white jeans aren’t my thing but I still connected with these. They’re super comfy and I don’t think they look too bad either but the thought of me owning a pair seems off. Nevertheless, I’m super happy that I got the chance to participate and now I guess it’s indigo 634-time again
On our last night we saw this double rainbow from our party pad balcony, and I thought it would be fitting to end my leg here with it as well!
Thank you for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed this leg as much as I have!
