Yey! After over a year, I finally managed to figure out how to log on and update my blog...I had this typed out from before (you needed a goole account to log into this thing and they changed it all around so I couldn't find out where to post...yep technical difficulties...I'm such a loser), so I'll finish with my Wales story and later this week post my last week's vacation blog:)

We got back to Edinburgh and left for our swanky flight on British Airways to London We took the commuter train to our hotel in Notting Hill and then went out for dinner. The next day we explored a little. We were walking around a bit wondering where people eat breakfast. These construction guys were looking at us and said “Hi,’ so we were like “where do you get some bacon and eggs around here?” We ate at a seedy little joint and then headed to the Tower of London. We were standing outside with a bunch of city workers and Amy saw three rats. We thought she was going nuts and seeing things, but then I saw them, and then Trisha. We were joking with the workers because they were walking around with a shovel trying to find them (cause we were freaking out) and we are like be careful they’ll rip your face off. They never did find them. Well, we decided not to go in the Tower of London as it was way over priced so we continued our journey to the Tower Bridge and then took the UNDERGROUND (aka subway) to the Parliament Buildings and then we walked around and saw Westminster Abbey. It was Remembrance Day (not sure what the British call it), so they had lots of wreaths and funny looking poppies out. Then we went on the London Eye. We were able to get a great view of London on this puppy. It was huge and took 25 minutes to go all the way around. To finish off our day, we headed to the British Museum. This is huge. It was interesting but we were tired, so did not walk through the whole thing. We ate at a little Italian joint on the way.

The next day was our Welsh Dragon Haggis tour. This one was not as good as the Scotland one, but we kept ourselves entertained and saw some stuff. The first day we stopped in Chepstow and posed on the half Welsh, half English bridge and a saw a wicked Norman castle. We then went to the Big Pit where we go to dress up in sexy miner’s helmets and belts. We were escorted down the mine by a fine Welsh gentleman who could not understand a word Amy said. Yep, she needed English translators. Then off to view the ruins of the spectacular Tintern Abbey. Then to our final stop of the day which was in Abergavenny. It was a Welsh town with more takeaways than any place needs. We stayed in the Black Sheep Hostel which was an absolute arm pit. I think I came out with bed bug bites. Some of the locals got a kick out of us:) Amy was asking for the manager at this fish and chips place...saying they needed new menu ideas....the Canadian poutine....and she was explaining what it was. Since their words are different for things...she kept picking up stuff and saying ," we call this salt" "Do u call it salt?" Then when the bill came he said 90 pounds. She’s like “bullshit! How much did you charge them?” as she pointed at the locals. He was only teasing, of course.


The next exciting day in Wales we left Abergavenny. And headed through Rhayader and stopped at a nice little café on its outskirts. Then we drove through Elan Valley and saw three dams huge dams. We drove and drove and drove some more and saw Castell-y-bere which was “a wicked example of a Welsh Castle” as quoted by our tour guide. We ate lunch in Llanidloes and then stopped in Porthmadog which was a seaside town. We just stopped to see the washrooms though. Drove through Snowdonia and then stopped for the night at Caernarfon. The hostel we stayed at was such a step up from the other. Totters hostel was nice and it was clean! We were also able to sneak up and steal the smaller room that only had four beds. Way better then sleeping with 12…This town had a huge castle in the middle of it that was built by Edward I. There was also a nice pub around the corner. Amy, Trisha, and I headed over for a good time. The Jukebox cost a fortune to keep music playing in it though. Don’t worry we got the nice Welsh boys to keep it full of money. These guys looked about 15 years of age and were not the most attractive bunch. The one boy we nicknamed “Fang” had a thing for Amy. She did not go home with him though.

The last day in Wales we visited…Are you ready???? Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch that almost took up a hole line. It’s the name of a town in North Wales. The name translates as "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave" in Welsh, has long claimed the fame of having the longest name in the world. We stopped for a the famous picture of the road sign and that’s about all she wrote in that town…nothing much more to see or do. Then we began our trek back to London. We stopped in Llangollen which is a really touristy Welsh town and home to the shop with the longest shop name amongst other things. We walked up to the Welsh Castle on the hill, called Dinas Bran.

We then stopped in Stratford-upon-Avon which was a Shakespeare fest. We did not pay to see his grave or his house as it would have been so boring. We checked out some parks and churches, looked in some shops and clogged a few toilets. We are now back in London, and I had no idea how I would get a bus to the airport when my flight left at 6 am. I did not pay for a hotel. I snuck into Trisha and Amy’s and hotel and took the last bus back the night before and slept on the nice hard airport seats. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I never even got robbed! But I did lose my Visa somewhere in Scotland.....don't ask.

Well, here is how my journey home went...When I flew from London to Sweden, I had a little bit of a problem getting back into Finland because of the expired Visa....but I said just ONE day to get my stuff...PLEASEEEEEEEEEE. So they let me in:) Then I got to the airport....and Teemu was not there....and my stuff was at his place...so I went to his place...but he was not there either.....so I waited like 3 hours in the pouring rain for him and he finally came. He had been waiting at the wrong terminal:( So, by the time I had met up with him and got my stuff....I just went to bed. I was exhausted. So I’m kind of sad that I never really got to do any farewells.

Well my flight home was also disastrous. My flight left Helsinki at 9 am but due to weather in Paris could not leave till about 2 hours later. I missed my connection to Montréal and waiting like 3 hours in line in Paris to get a new ticket. I had to run like there is no tomorrow to catch the new flight. Well I get to Montréal....and waited and waited...but no bags....I waited a bit more to be sure....then I missed my damn connection to Ottawa. So I had to take the next connection to Ottawa...and finally got home like 8 hours later then I was supposed to. My bags arrived like 6 days later...I was starting to worry.

I was home for a week and then Teemu came to see me:) I picked him up in Montréal and we stayed the night and went and explored. We saw the Notre Dame, the old port of Montréal, the biosphere, and we went to the Biodome and the Olympique tower. Bioodome was cool. The had a different environment in each different section...so one minute I'm walking through the amazon sweating my clothes off...and then next I'm walking through the Laurentian forest and arctic freezing my ass off:) We also went to Ottawa many times and had some beaver tails and poutine:) Did the Parliament and a bit of a walking tour of the downtown area. We went shopping a million times:) My aunt's friend took us out to the comedy club one night and we all got hammered. Went to a Sens game. We went to Toronto for 2 nights. We did the CN Tower, Casa Loma, Hockey Hall of Fame, Air Canada Centre, Skydome, ROM, so we saw all the main sights. we then went to Niagara Falls:) Its beautiful. They had all their Christmas Lights up along the Niagra Falls parkway. The falls were lit up at night too:) We did the journey behind the falls and it was pretty cool:) Since we were already half way around Lake Ontario we decided just to continue doing the full thing...which meant we crossed the border into Buffalo...New York. Teemu got photographed and finger printed and probably anal probed...I have no idea want the yanks did to him in there....he came out a hole other person. No…it was just annoying we had to wait and he had to pay 6 bucks for them to finger print him. We stopped in Rochester and it’s the biggest dump. The place was kind of deserted and everything was closed. So we didn't stay too long. We must have been in the wrong area. We crossed back over the border in Kingston and continued our drive home.

We went to Morrisburg its a little own along the St. Lawrence to see A Light at Night at Upper Canada Village. All the buildings were lit up for Christmas and they had horse drawn sleigh rides and train rides along the beach...so it was pretty nice:) We also of course went to the big Christmas Parade in Winchester. The Parade of Lights. My town is about 5000 people, but for this parade about 15,000 more visitors come to see it:)

OK, I have updated last year…now new posts for this year will follow must make it my resolution.

Holy Crap! This is going be a long one again:) A lot has happened over the last four months and I have been absolutely horrible at keeping this page updated. Oh, but not now! I’m currently an unemployed wiener with nothing to do, so it’s about time I do something.

I got home the middle of November, but before that I travelled to the U.K. where I met my sister and her friend Amy. The flight there went O.K. I got asked a million questions by the Pakistani customs officer, like I was a terrorist or something. He asked me what I did for a living like three times….LIKE WRITE IT DOWN BUDDY! Anyways, it took me forever to get through…yea and I am supposed to be with the commonwealth?! I had to rush to find Trisha and Amy and from London we immediately rushed for our flight to Edinburgh.

Well, once off the plane we had no troubles getting to our “Hotel.” The reason that the word hotel is in quotation marks, is that is was a super dump. A three bedroom room consisted of a double bed and a single bed. EWWWWWWW, I had to sleep with somebody:) We got to the hotel on a real cool double Decker bus that had designer plaid seats and the cutest old man bus driver (I mean he could have been Sean Connery) with the funniest accent:)

We spent two days in Edinburgh and in those two days, my goal was to make Amy shit her pants:) We went on a few haunted walks. The first one was of the haunted vaults under the south gate bridge. “EDINBURGH’S underground vaults have been described as one of the most haunted places in the world.” Although the only thing that scared me was the fear of someone cutting le fromage in such a confined space:) Amy??? The next one we did was with live actors. It was with witchery tours where we visited the scenes of many “horrific tortures, murders and supernatural happenings.” ooooooooooooooooooo. The groups were introduced, and when your group was called out, you were supposed to make an animal noise, so Amy made a cat in heat sound. Everyone was like “What the hell was that?” They eventually figured it out:) Our guide was the hottest man alive, so needless to say, we did not get too scared. He was a younger, hotter, version of Ryan Philippe. Amy spent the night trying to impress him and grabbing the "Jumper-ooters” (or “outers” as Canadians would say) ass. We got to chatting with the guy in between his stories. One of the guys lost his finger (a fake one was thrown out into the crowd) and Amy failed to see that, so when he asked “Give me the finger?” She ended up popping the bird at him. All the old ladies were giggling at us:) Well, those were our crazy nights in the mighty city of Edinburgh.

The days we spent looking at some cute stuff in gift shops, and doing a little bit of a walking tour. We saw this cute shirt that had bagpipes on it and it said “Blow Me.” I wanted to buy it but Trisha thought that mom would not think that it is appropriate, so I ended up getting a shirt that said “I’m a weeeeee devil on it.” I also got a lambs wool plaid scarf. We saw some monuments and the Castle, which was extremely over priced so we didn’t go in. We also saw the new Parliament building which was super modern looking and a nice cliff behind it that you could hike up. Trisha was not feeling that adventurous after our whiskey testing (no that was later). We went into this tartan weaving shop to see how kilts are made. We tried on some cute hats and took some pictures and further down the aisle the sign reads “absolutely no pictures while trying on garments.” We were like “holy crap….lets get the hell out of here.” They have to do a better job at posting the signs…anyways the illegal pictures turned out fabulously:) We ate at some nice taverns on the Royal Mile. The first place we went to was Deacan Brodies. It was great greasy food and good beer. But man, what is with the energy efficient toilets? O.K. I’m an environmentalist, but how much energy are they really saving when I have to flush it like 10 times? There must have only been like 0.25 L of water in it and on top of that it took 30 min to refill up the tank…. And that was ALL over the U.K. One time, at lunch Amy couldn’t figure out how to flush the toilet so she called for reinforcements, so I was trying to help her and the owner pushed us in and closed the door….like how rude?

What would be the U.K. without a stop at a tea room? Oh, YA BABY…we went to Clarinda’s Tea Room where I had the most wicked hot chocolate with COLOURED marshmallows and a yummy slice of apple pie:)

Now it is time for the WILD AND SEXY HAGGIS TOUR!!!!! This is highly recommended:) It was a three day tour all over the sexy highlands of SCOTLAND, and it was, in fact, SUPER SEXY!! We had two Scottish guides called Disco Dave and Ferggie. They had a great sense of humour and played pretty cool music in our hopping bright yellow Mercedes tour bus. These guys entertained us with” stories of myth, legend and history” as we twisted our way around some of the sexiest places in Scotland. Did you know that for every person who lives in the highlands there are four sheep?

From Edinburgh, our first destination was Stirling where we saw the William Wallace monument. It was a nice hike up the path but the view from the top was well worth it. Breathtaking! Ooooooooo awwwwwwwwww. There was a joke with the tour guides. They say all tourists take a picture of the William Wallace statue, and it is the ugliest thing alive. It isn’t even William Wallace. It’s Mel Gibson. So they told us not to take a picture of that or we would be punished. MUHAHAHAHA! Well, I of course had to sneak a picture for shits and giggles:) Trisha and Amy posed with Mel while they were popping the bird at him and I snapped the shot. Well, the guides, of course, caught me. I could hear them honking the horn at me and I looked over and they were waving their plastic sword at me:) I almost had to pick something from the mystery bin (rubbage bin heheh or garbage can as Canadians would say). That was the joke, if you were the last one on the bus (after the given time limit) you had to do it with your eyes closed and then guess what kind of mystery you picked up. Well, at least it worked because no one was that late.

We then headed to Glencoe where we saw the three sisters (some very nice mountains). We also meet the very sexy hairy coo, Hamish (hairy cow as Canadians would say). Hamish definitely puts the ‘Sexy’ in ‘Wild & Sexy'.

We then headed off the beaten track (literally all the roads in the highlands were one lane and you had to pull off the road to let oncoming traffic pass) to Fort William which is home to Ben Nevis (Britain’s highest mountain). We then saw a clansmen show, which was interesting. A guy showed us what life was like in the good old days. How they dressed, ate, hunt, and lived. There was an interesting kilt demonstration. Watching a guy in our tour group take off his pants may have been a highlight to some people in the group; it certainly wasn’t mine as his nickname was “Troll”--for a good reason. Anyways, it was interesting to see how they made a kilt. I had no idea that they used so much material and that there were so many different ways of wearing it. I think the material they used in the demonstration was 18 metres. Before settling in for the night, we stopped for some snacks and whiskey testing:) Then, we were off to Kyleakin where we spent the night at Saucy Mary’s Lodge. We were told that Saucy Mary obtained her name from flashing her “paps” (or boobies) at fisherman. We tried to get a pitcher of beer at this lodge and the bartender was all confused “A picture?” After we said it was a lot of beer, she was like “ahhhh, you mean a ‘JUG!’” So that was our first experience with the culture gap:) Anyways, this lodge was nice and cozy and it was located on the Isle of Skye (which has a thriving Gaelic culture), so we were ready for a full day of exploring the Isle the next day.

First stop of the day was Eilean Donan Castle (the most photographed castle in Scotland) which we missed the previous day because we got there at 5 pm and it closed at 4:30 pm. We were unlucky in one sense because the second attempt at visiting the inside of the castle was unsuccessful. What a bummer, eh? The storm the previous night had knocked out all the power lines, so it was closed again. Although, we were lucky because we were now able to see the outside of the castle in daylight as it was pitch black on our previous visit. We were very fortunate indeed because often the views are obscured by rain and mist. “But on a bright day, particularly in autumn when the colors are so warm and varied, Scotland can boast of no more picturesque castle.”

While in Kyleakin we stopped and saw kilt rock and saw some marvelous hills and waterfalls. We were given some very funny stories of Celtic myths and legends. He “heard all about the Faeries and the Selkies, and local characters who have contributed to the rich history of this magical island.” We travelled along the banks of the loch Ness to see if we could spot Nessie. I’m sorry to say, that there were no sightings and the only monster I saw was Trisha when she got up in the morning:) We even preformed the Nessie call to attract the beast (which was signing a stupid song and dancing in a line). We stopped at the Nessie exhibition for a snack and then saw the scenic ruins of Urquhart Castle.

We then headed towards Inverness, which is the capital of the Scottish highlands. From there we visited the Clava Cairns. These puppies are older then the pyramids. WOW! They are about 4000 years old and are some of the “best preserved burial mounds on the Scottish mainland.” There were three main mounds at the site and two of them had passageways leading into them. The whole tour group piled into one in order to perform a very sexy ritual which consisted of dancing around in circles holding hands and singing silly songs. Yea we did that a lot, eh?

Next, we headed for the gloomy Culloden Moor, which was the sight of the defeat of Bonne Prince Charlie’s Jacobite uprising. We went for a ‘wee’ walk around the grounds and saw some tombs of the clans and flags where both sides were stationed. We began our journey home and headed south to Dunkeld where we saw a nice cathedral. The last sexy site before we returned to Edinburgh was the Forth Bridge.

Holy crap! That was all Scotland. I was hoping to do this all in one shot but I guess I will post this now, so that it is not too long:) Stay tuned for London, Wales, and my return to Canada…

Ok, so its about time that I update my blog again:)

The weekend of Oct. 8th I decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner. Well, it was more difficult then I thought it would be because I still can't figure out what everything is. Some of the stuff like poultry seasoning they don't have....and turkeys are few and far between and the ones that I did find were 7 euros a kilo and BIG BUCKS!!!! I finally broke down and bought one though :) Vesa took me out on Thursday night to buy everything, so I didn't have to carry it all around...I think everything turned out pretty good. There were 9 people at dinner and no one really complained and I don't think anyone was sick afterwards:) It would have been nice to have an apple pie or something, but they don't have bloody pies here anywhere....not even pie shells, and it would have been too much work to make one that probably won't turn out anyways. Oh yea, and I thought finding a turkey was hard! Finding a pan to cook it in was another thing. I bought small aluminum ones and cut them and attached them together with like a roll of tin foil. Yea, it was kind of messy....

The next week (Oct 13), I went to the movies with Teemu. It was 5 euro night on Thursday :) We saw "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" which was retardly funny. Then on Friday, I left work at 4pm and went to the cottage with Teemu and a bunch of his friends. I have no idea where it even was, but it was somewhere in central Finland. It was such a long drive. The scenery was nice, pretty much the same as home though...trees and lakes. All the leaves are changing colour, so Fall is definately here! I read my UK edition of Cosmo from back to front....quite an interesting read. We stopped at a groccery store on the way there and picked up some groceries...which took forever, by the way, because there was 5 of us...and 4 of us were Finns and are EXTREMELY SLOW. Anyways, when we got there food was already made for us by a mom:) Mom's are great aren't they ??? The cottage was more like a cabin. It was small, but had a loft with lots of beds in it, so luckily I did not have to sleep on the floor...It was also heated, and hotter then a dirty rig on a Saturday night! The first night, the guys went fishing and I tried sauna. On Sat., we went fishing all day. It was bloody cold out. I had on three pairs of socks, long johns, jeans, a long sleeve sweater, my cord jacket, Azadeh's winter coat, 2 toques....yes 2!!!, a pair of gloves, scarf, and coveralls, and I was still cold:) GEESH I should be used to this....At least, we caught 4 rainbow trout. The dad smoked them for us and they were pretty good...even though I don't eat fish that often. That night, all that we did was sit around and talk. I, of course, was extremely bored because none of this was in English. I think I began to study/memorize my Cosmo as this is now my second time through it. It is like 6 pm on a Saturday night and I'm sleeping!!!! I think I developed an imaginary friend or another personality from talking to myself so much. I made the mistake of drinking a lot of beer that night....maybe to satisfy my alter ego....but instead it ran right through me and I had to get up like 3 times to pee....yep, they can have a sauna in the house, but not a bathroom...I had to walk outside in the cold...down the very long driveway in my skivvies to pee:(

Sunday, it was extremely windy out, so we did not go fishing. Eveyrone was lazy and woke up at like 11 am. I had some weird horse meat for breakfast and then we sat around waitng for 4 Finns to make up their mind what the hell they were going to do. I, of course, had no idea what they were talking about. But finally, after 4 hours!!!!!, we decided to go for a walk...and of course there was 5 of us and there was just enough room on the trail for 4 across, so I walked ahead with my alter ego. I think Kathy (the other part of my brain) likes to walk fast because when I turned around all the Finns were like 1 km behind....no I think they are just slow:) but at least I got to talk to Kathy a little bit. After we did a short jaunt....it seemed like we were gone for 5 minutes....we were finnished our walk!!!! Kathy and I could have went for at least an hour. Kathy got really angry too because no one was talking to her--poor Teemu. He had to deal with the wrath of Kathy. We left at about 3 pm for our long ride home. Kathy and I slept most of it. But we stopped at some locks on the way home. It was very pretty.

Well nothing really new and exciting happened to me this week. On Sat. morning (Oct. 22), I went to the Science Centre (Heureka) with Vesa. All the exhibits were pretty kiddish, but I did see a IMAX like film. It wasn't exactly like IMAX but close enough. It was on Chimpanzees....Jane Goodall one....Of course she narrated it, but since the Science Centre is for kids, and kids are dumb and can't read sub-titles :), they dubbed it over in bloody Finnish. They gave me an interpretor like ear piece, which only went in one ear, so I could hear both languages at the same time. It was quite an interesting experience, but I enjoyed the film anyways. After the Science centre, Vesa made me lunch and then I went shopping with Azadeh. She bought a sweater and I bought some little souvenirs. We then went to happy hour and met Teemu and had some 90 cent wine:) After that, it was nachos at Santa Fe (this Mexican joint). Yesterday, was laundry day. I keep meaning to go do a walking tour of Helsinki, but the last 2 days it has been raining, so when I got to the city centre, I didn't really feel like walking in that kind of weather, so I went to a fancy little coffee shop and had a really good muffin and some hot chocolate with Teemu....it still doesn't compare to Tim Hortens though :) We picked up some grocceries and made steak and potatoes last night and then watched Deuce Bigelow European Gígelow which was kind of retarded...

Today, it is 0 C out. Good thing, I finally broke down and bought a coat. I went and got it wrapped for tax free shopping, and they put like 2 pieces of tape on the bag because your not allowed to use it or open in while in Finland to get the tax break. I was like oh this is a cinch....I got three pieces of tape off no prob...and the last one on the end was a bit more tricky...so I thought I could just leave it and sneak the coat out....but I RIPPED IT!!!! BASTARDS:....oh well, it was worth a try! It was only 17 euros that I would get back in tax, but its like free money so it was worth a try:)

I haven't heard from Kathy in awhile....

Anyways, thats all for now!

XOXOXO
Krissy

Hellooooooooooooooooooo all! I'm finally back from my vacation and I somewhat feel worse then before I left.....I'm broke, tired, sore, my shoes smell funny, and I have a shit load of laundry to do. Hmmmm hardly relaxing...

I left for Copenhagen Thursday night and stayed in a real hole--actually could have guessed by their slogan which read "We don't have a jaccuzzi, but you can fart in the tub all you want." Anyways getting there was a bit tricky the directions of which bus etc. to take from the airpirt was good, but the driver never told me when to get off, so I missed it and had to walk a million miles back to it with my huge backpack. Copenhagen was a nice city. I met up with Azadeh on Friday with no problems because I went to the bus stop and waited for her so she knew where to get off. We then walked around Copenhagen. It was a very nice day out and we saw some churches and walked a long the Stoget, the shopping street. We checked the buses to Aalborg and ended up missing them...we were thinking of hitchhiking but decided it was probably not a good idea. We went and searched and searched for a hotel for friday night and it was very difficult as everything was booked up, but we ended up finding a really nice hostel for pretty cheap. Saturday, we walked around a lot and saw the changing of the guards and we even posed with one in their funny hat :) and went to the castle a few churches, saw the little mermaid statue, and some monuments etc. We went to Our Lady Savior Church which was a really neat church because the tower that we climbed was outside. We then took a train around the city and there was this creepy guy on it (yes, like in Eurotrip) that was sitting like 6 seats behind...and as I was talking to Azadeh I said "I swear he is getting closer" and she is like "no way he is still way back there." Anyways by the end of the train ride, he was practically in our laps so it was quite creepy, and as he got off the train he was like "Thanks." We also thought this was kind of weird. Thanks for what???? After the train ride, all I could smelll were these roasted almonds and I wanted some so badly. I finally found some and it was also a creepy guy selling them....ewwww his hands were all over them when he scopped them into a bag and he handed them to me and said "They were made with love" ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...... but I still ate them....they were damn good :) Bacteria, we will worry about you later :) There was this English guy performing acts and stuff on the street so we stayed to cheer him on (and were the only ones to do so :)). He was on a unicycle juggling burning torches.

Saturday night, we were not so lucky finding a place to stay everything was booked. We were in the central terminal phoning places and guess who we saw....the creepy train guy again!!!!! He was waving at us and calling us over, but we pretended we didn't hear him:) After being unsuccessful in finding a place to stay, we decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe. We stayed in Hard Rock Cafe for as long as humanly possible. We drank some irish coffees and listened to the musci they got up on the bar and danced to the Grease remix hahahahahaha.... I got gypped in the french fry department and my burger was raw, but I was so hungry that I ate it anyways. Again maybe the bacteria from the almonds counteracted the bacteria from the raw burger. We then went to the airport and I slept on Azadeh's lap next, but the damn floor cleaner was so loud, I had to put in some ear plugs which still did not work. And plus, now, I'm feeling the bacteria.

Rome was the biggest armpit in the world. It smelled like a dirty toilet, people were really rude, and it was really really dirty. Second day there, I got robbed, so I have no identification, or money or anything here now!!!!!! I was so careful too :(. My purse was in front of me the hole time and I had no maps or cameras out, so I did not look like a tourist...besides the fact that I'm white and speak English. Anyways, it happened in the metro, I was pushed and looked down and everything was still zippered, so I thought i was fine. I went out and sat down in line at the Vatican and noticed some threads....HOLY SHIT! They cut the bottom of my purse open with a knife. I remember exactly who it was too--6'2" 200lbs, dark greasy medium length hair, 35ish, in a black fancy suit...I looked at him and saw a paper in his hand (which was probably wrapped around the jack knife) what an asshole. It would have been worth it if I at least got to kick him in the balls. I phoned "emergency" visa card place..and yep it took 5-10 business days for an "emergency" visa...those fuckers.....so I had absolutely no money on me. I phoned mom and told her that Teemu gave me 10 euros, so she was kind of worried....but he put everything on his visa for me which was really nice:) So, now I owe him big. When, we took the metro again I guarded him like a hawk and was suspicious of eveyrone...even the sweet old ladies.

Our hotel the first three nights in Rome was kind of ghetto. There were springs coming out of my bed and 4 species of insects in the washroom. I could not identify them down to species though as I did not have an entomological key with me....but there were some arachnids....which should eat the other three species....another species was really dominant as there were more then one present. They really liked drains and kind of looked millipeedy....only with less pairs of legs...

Anyways, enough with the bugs....Having my wallet stolen sucks ass....after this happened I drank a lot of wine. We did try and make the best of our trip and walked around and saw some churches, monuments, fountains, and cool old buildings. We went to the Colosseum and Palantine one day and saw some fat hairy Romans that were dressed as Gladiators....I wanted to pose with them but then realized that you had to pay to take their picture and they weren't at all good looking, so it was not worth it. Plus I had to really stretch that 10 euros that I had.... There was another crazy cat lady feeding all the stray kitties at the Colosseum. Trisha's furture profession:) The next day we went to the Vatican...I really liked their idea of "security" when we went all the scanners were closed. hmmmmmmmmmm I don't think they had the lunch break at rotating times. I think they must be like Fred Flinstone....Its quitting time!!!! and just all leave their post at the same time. We went to the cathedral and then to the crypt to see some exicitng tombs....There was only one way through it and once we got down there, I thought I was nevrer coming back up. The Pope's tomb was there and everyone was taking their sweet ass time. We then went and sw lots of art and scultures and stuff. We saw the Sistine Chapel. It was pretty nice, but not as awe-inspiring ass I thought it would be. Two naked guys touching fingers seems kind of gay.... We also did this cheesy 3D ride called the Time Elevator. It was on the history of Rome--American style.

We looked at some T-shirts but they were of poor quality and didn't want to pay the full price for them...the salesman was quite rude and proceeded to tell us where the Gucci store was...What a dick.

It was hard to eat well there as they eat at strange times. Most restaurants close at about 3 pm and open back up at 7 or 8 pm....so with only having a small snack for lunch...I'm always so starving...we have to settle for big shitholes.

We then went to get our train ticket to Flurence. Ok, customer service sucks ass. We went to information previously and was told it was around an hour and 20 euros....when we got there the ticket was more like 30 euros and took 2 hours...so we thought he was selling us the wrong one. We wanted him to switch tellers so we could make sure, because this guy did not speak any Englishh, so we did not was to buy the ticket until we were absolutely sure. He would not refund the ticket and said he couldn't, there was a line, and all this shit in Italian which we could not understand. Finally he refunded the ticket after about 10 min. We later realized that we can buy the ticket at these automatic machines, and we bought the same ticket that we originally had but through the machine as there was an English option.

So, we finaly arrived in Flourence. Some lady greeted us at the train station. She was like Are you looking for accomodation? We were like..maybe why??? and she got my sap story about loosing the wallet, so we got a good deal on an apartment. It was a very nice apartment, with our own bathroom and no uninvited guests. We walked around Flournece, saw some churches, monuments, fountains....pretty standard things. We ate at a pretty snazzy place one night. We ordered this steak for two. It was the size of Barney. Anywyas, I wanted it well done, but they only do medium, so we were like oh ok thats fine. It comes to us like 5 cm thick and "Medium" is actually straight from the freezer. It was sooo raw. I hope I don't get worms or something. I had a litre of wine to rise it down with though and some icecream for dessert :). The next night in Flourence we switched rooms to a hotel... It was also pretty nice:) We then left and bought our train ticket (through the automatic teller machine) to Milan. We got to Milan and looked for a hotel. We found onein the Lonely Planet that said Rcok Bottom Rooms, so we were a little bit leary on taking it. We asked to see the room first and it was all rennovated. It was the nicest spot we stayed at...clean, no bugs, it was so new we couldn't figure out how to work the electricity. We had to go and ask the lady... she laughed at us...we had to put our card key in the slot....

In Milan, we walked around yet again saw the standard things, monuments, fountains, churches. We went and looked at a few shops...we went in the Ferrrarri store and realized that I was out of my league when I couldn't even afford an umbrella. I bought a new wallet at a leather store. Oh, and I did not find any shoes in Italy either. My feet are just too big and nothing suits my taste....oh well I will be home soon. It's just I only have one pair of running shoes,that smell really bad...so everyone around me also thinks I should buy a new pair of shoes. Saturday night we flew to Tallinn and stayed in the airport till 7 am and took the bus to the city centre. We did a little bit of shopping and had a snack while we were waiting for the ferry to leave for Helsinki. Well, there was a little misdirection with the time. The ferry actually left at 12:30 pm not 12:45 so we missed that one, and took the next one over 2 1/2 hours later. We were pretty tired. We were laying on a disgusting bar couch for the hole ferry over and it smelled like cigarettes and there was some creepy guy looking at me. Teemu left his jean jacket somewhere so he had a cold walk to the metro when we got in.

So I have been back for a week now, I finally have got through all my laundry and now I have another load to do. It just doesn't stop!!!! This weekend I cooked a turkey dinner for everyone here. It was so hard to find all the stuff, and we invented our own turkey pan with lots of aluminum foil and cut open disposable caserole dishes.... but it was cooked and turned out well, at least I thought it did.

Anyways,

I think that is about it!!!

XOXOOXO
Krissy

Sorry about taking so long to update my blog...I've been having technical problems. Actually, more like mental problems because, apparently, I have about 9 user names and only one has the blog on it. I don't know how I've managed to create so many accounts.

Anyways, I've been keeping busy myself. I don't even know where to start (for once). It's been almost a month, so here goes....

Thursday, Aug. 25 was "The Night of the Arts." Azadeh and I met downtown to take in some of the festivities. Everything was free, which was a bonus:) It was pretty busy that night too. We went to the Helsinki City Museum, which was more like an art museum of different areas and eras of Helsinki and we saw some folk dance outside too. They had sexy outfits on, and I must get meeeeeeself one of those. We continued on down the street and I bought some maple walnut ice cream, yummy!!!!!!!!! I also "minted" my own coin, while holding the icecream....I'm talented at multitasking....I had the cone in one hand and the hammer in the other.... We also saw Trisha's future profession as "the crazy cat lady." There was this lady on the street with all these cats and a poodle. She trained them to do tricks and walk across a tightrope and jump in baskets and shit. It was cool. We looked at some photo exhibits, and then we went and listened to some music in the park, but it started to rain, so we went to the church to listen to chorale music (which I had no idea what it was, but it sucked ass, so we left).

Friday, was the Sitsit. It was a Finnish academic party that was 15€ (which included dinner and drinks). Even though I ate none of my dinner, I sure got my money's worth for the drinks:) I sent all the disgusting food to Henrik...yuk! Spinach soup with deviled eggs in it...puke...and rye, dried out, cardboard, bread....I'm gagging now thinking about it....We had to sit boy, girl, boy, girl, so of course, I was sitting near a Polish guy that drinks lots of vodka....I think we had the two bottles finishedd before dinner arrived....I couldn't even cut my chicken. Henrik was totally tanked too, and he ripped his damn trousers (in his words)....I wanted to take the last bus home, but when I looked at my watch it was 4:30 am...so I missed it by about 4 hours....so I got the idea, I could walk home, but it was like a 40 min taxi...so I didn't attempt it...I fell asleep on the floor and left at noon the next day. I was in the shower and was looking at my arms...and I had lots of war wounds...I was full of bruises because Henrik thought he could dance, but went and fell down and took me down with him.

Saturday, after the party, I went home and got clean underwear and met Azadeh for shopping. All the stores closed at 6 pm and we thought we could go for a few more hours, so I went to her house and we made dinner, I did some laundry (for free) and had a great night :)

Sunday Aug. 28, Azadeh and I met Teemu for lunch at a very divey place (student cafeteria) I had lips and assholes (sausages) with potato browns (or as I like to call them hash browns). Then, I went home to pack up some stuff.

Tuesday, I brought some stuff over to Azadeh's house, and on Wednesday I stayed at her house, as I couldn't move into my new place early....I had someTurkish coffee with her friends, and it was strong and kind of gross. One of them drove me back to Kannelmaki to get the rest of my stuff....man I have a lot of stuff. Thursday, I went straight to the rental office to get my keys, so was massively late for work.

That night I made a few trips from Azadeh's house to my house, and unpacked a little. The new place looked like such a shit hole from the outside, I was going toa cry when I saw it, but the inside is all renovated and a step up from the old place....

Friday night was Rianne's party. I tried to get there on time, but I was waiting for my stuff that a friend was dropping off etc. I finally got to the bus station at like 10 pm, and met another girl going late...so we got lost together....I phoned Henrik to askl him where we get off etc. like 4 times, and finaly I'm like come to the bus stop and find us, because we walked around for 20 minutes trying to find her place..... I didn't do too much the rest of the weekend, just took it easy and I probably went shopping (I forget its been so damn long). Monday, I went for a walk in the park...all the students were out in their sexy coveralls...they wear these weird outfits and in different colours for each faculty...actually there are some real fruity ones...bright pink is some type of engineering....maybe they wear these for easy access???HAHHA...I don't know.

The next weekend was my big birthday weekend....I did lots fo stuff and had a fun time :) I got lots of mail too :) Friday night, I went to the "Night of the Cats" at the zoo...Trisha are you jealous???? It is a night where the zoo is open super late so you can see them chuck raw meat at them (or feed them) and their nocturnal behavoiurs etc....because when I went during the day, they are always sleeping and not even in view:( The Nothern lights were also out, so it was very nice. The zoo and look-out tower was all lit up too. Saturday, I went to see the Wedding Crashers. Sunday, my actual birthday, I went to the amusement park. It was the last night it was open so it had some good fireworks:) I walked around with my friend, Teemu. We played some shitty games, and had a coffee and some doughnuts (but I miss TIM HORTENS!). The amusement park was quite small, so we didn't go on any rides....they wouldn't thrill me anyways:)

Wednesday, Sept. 14, I was in Tallinn and took the day off work to see Teemu off for his vacations. I had a great day in Tallinn. The weather was windy so none of the express boats were going over. We ended up taking a moster ferry over which took 3 hours, so I was quite bored....we listened to the cheesy band and then BINGO started! I was like I'm soooooooooooooo playing...Teemu laughed at me, but I made him get me a card....so I got the card and then all the damn numbers were called in Finnish, so he was my BINGO bitch and translated all my numbers....hahhahahahaha.....(cause he wanted to sleep). It was kind of rainy in Tallinn, but I already did the "Old Town" so we went to the mall for some cheap shopping, I didn't buy anything :( We ate at a ritzy restaurant for lunch too...It was prety fancy but around 10 euros.....I took the ferry home alone and I forgot to bring a damn book or something so it was pretty boring. I sat and listened to the same cheesy band only with tackier shirts this time......green sexy Hawaiianan ones...they were previously wearing red "Night at the Roxburry" shirts. Then, I got up and went shopping in the tax free store. I bought booze and chocolate for home. You know...the necessities :) Then, I was writing my postcard and some guy comes up to me "Moi dsfgsfgjhfgs." I'm like "I speak English." He was all loaded and wanted to dance with me etc...so that was pretty exciting. He said I was stunning hahahahha and he gave me his business card, kind of a fromage fest I would say. Then on my way home some guy on the metro was like, "I'm so happy to see you." I was looking around thinking...do I know this guy?...is he talking to me?...and he was like I want to be your boyfriend and all this stuff...pretty creepy....

Thursday, was the work excursion day...everything was in damn Finnish again, so I didn't get too much out of going...we went hiking in a different national park so that was nice. It was a raised peat bog where you walk on planks, so it was quite different from the other national park I went to. Plus, it was over an hour away, so it would be hard to get to on my own. It rained like hell and was also quite cold, and I did not have the fancy hiking attire that everyone else had on...was actually quite jealous of many of thier outfits......

I discussed with the secretary that I did not want to go to the excurion on Friday as it was all in Finnish, so she said I could have the day off. I have been off since Wednesday...yep I'm lazy....so Henrik (who is done work) decided we should make use of this long weekend.... Anyways, I missed the ferry to Sweden on Thursday night due to the hiking excursions, so Henrik and I woke up early on Friday and left for the airport (actually, I was late...I needed more beauty sleep). We had no idea where we were going to go and had already missed a few of the flights in the morning...so our choices were Riga and Stockholm. I need a visa for Riga, so we flew our asses out to Stockholm.....We even asked the cargo company if we could go as baggage (to go for free or cheap), but apparently they don't do that here.....Well anyways, the ticket lady was all worried as we didn't have any room etc...but we said we were fine. We got here and walked around a bit, and we finally found a tourist office. We asked them to find us a room and the only thing available was an 8 bed dorm. Henrik was like "that's not very fun...call more places"...but nope that's all there was.....and of course when I got to the room it was a complete sausagefest (all guys). I even went to an irish pub and drank lots of beer before bed...but still did not sleep too pleasantly...it was a symphany of snoring...yep all 6 guys were snoring....not to mention the bodily functions that I heard in the morning....Henrik was also not impressed and he went and bought ear plugs for the next night. We also had to rent some damn sheets....and there were a lot of weird stains on the bed. Henrik and I flipped a coin to see who got the cleaner one. I won of course :) We didn't even pack towels, so we both used the stupid pillow cases which totally didn't cover or dry me well.....

I also dragged Henrik shopping....hahahah poor Henrik...he's a good sport though. Saturday, we had a busy day. We got up early and of course nothing is open till 11 am...we were starving and walked around forever lookign fro aplace to eat. Only McDonalds was open, but we held out and finally found a bakery. Yep, 10 euro for a doughnut and a hot chocolate...HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!
We went on a canal tour, then to the royal palace, saw the changing of the guards (which I haven't even seen at home yet) and some of the inside of the palace. Then we walked to city hall and climbed the tower for a lovely view of the city. Although, we got a little turned around and we finally spotted it, so headed in the correct direction only to be surrounded by water, so we had to walk all the way back around to find a bridge...I think that was the only time we sort of got lost. After the city hall, we went to the Vassa Museum and saw the ship that sank in the 1600s and was brought up in the 60s. It was very neat! Then, we went to some zoo type thing which was my highlight....all the cute animals :) I got to see so many damn monkeys...and a lemur jumped on my head.....as the cages are ones you could walk through. I pet a python and a taratula's ass....very nice....We then went out for dinner at another american restaurant...which was pretty good....Pizza Hut.,..mmmmmmmmm finally:) and TGIF was the other place we ate at. Saturday night, I went to my room and actually met all the snoring guys...yep they were all British and talked very funny....We went to a few bars with them...they were hilarious. The second club we went to was a real sleazy joint. Becasue the first place we found...Henrik got carded (you have to be 24 to get in). Well, this sleazy joint we ended up in cost 100 krononor things to get in (looks like monopoly money)but its worth 19 bucks)....Holy shit just to get into a bar. Luckily, I had no currency left, and was only going to go for an hour, so I was like oh, I will just go home...but all the British guys paid for me. Anyways, it looked like a homo bar, because all the guys looked fruity and I swear I saw them making out. But, when I walked by to go to the toilet they were all "Night at the Roxburrying" me...ewwwwwwwwwww. So, maybe they are bisexual...anyways, I finally made it to the toilet and IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!! One toilet for both sexes....guys were peeing and I could see ewwwwwwww. None of them washed their hands....gross. So I waited for a toilet and when I got in there was no toilet seat or paper...what the hell? Cuba has nicer washrooms then this and I didn't pay 20 bucks to get in....geesh.

Anyways, the earplugs worked wonders that night! They were snoring and I could hear them throught the ear plugs...(which cost 40 bucks for a package of yellow foam ones I could steal at work for free). They almost worked too well, as I slept through the alarm that went off at 8 am. So we were in a panic at 10:30 to get to the airport....but we made it.

It was great to be spontaneous, I have never done anything like this before:) and despite the lack of planning, I did see lots and had a great time. Next week, I'm on holidays, so I booked a bunch of flights. Thursday I leave for Copenhagen, then Sunday to Rome, and taking the trian to Milan, and flying back to Tallinn on the Sunday and taking the ferry back to Helsinki....so I have one day to book some hostels and plan this trip.....

I'm now at my new workplace...It's gorgeous..only thing is, it takes me 3 buses and an hour to get here. But, it is way nicer then the old place...no porn shop on the bottom floor...so I have nothing to do at lunch now :( But this building has a sauna, gym, cafeteria, and everything is new!!!!!I'm still waiting for the printer so I can print my e-tickets off.

Anyways, I think you should be all updated now...I will try and post some pictures soon, as I have to empty my camera before leaving for Copenhagen....

XOOXOX
Krissy

Hey Hey Hey,
I finally have my new address for Sept 1:
Linnoituksentie 10 R 167 Room: 4, 00940 HELSINKI

Frig this one is for 4 tenants...and it says "room in a shared apartment for 4 tenants + kitchen/living room, balcony, 3rd floor" So does this mean there is no bathroom?.....and if there is one...would probably never see it...almost would rather live with the 2 guys as probably will never be able to get in it with 4 girls...

Tonight, I met my msn pal. We went to a cafe and chatted for a couple hours. It was nice:) The rest of the week is party party party so tonight am taking er easy as I don't want to go to the one tonight as would have to be naked.....(its a sauna one).

Can't wait to hear from you!

XOXOXO
Krissy

Photos
1. National Park
2. National Park
3. Juha Deploying CPR
4. Anna's Sediment Cores
5. Me, Anna, and Azadeh
6. Sibelius Monument
7. Aranda
8. Muikko
9. Botanical Gardens
10. School of Herring at the SeaLife Aquarium