(i) hate blogging

A view from Torni-bar.

This weekend I’m off to Kirkkonummi which locates near Helsinki to meet our friends Noora and Mikko. Navigating with two different GPS-devices we finally found our way. It’s pouring rain on a Friday night and girls are having a baby shower. They forced us boys to Helsinki on a bar-tour. The horror. It’s hard to be a man. Well, whatcha gonna do? We gotta go.

Noora and Mikko.

Mikko was my guide and took me from place to place. First we went to some trendy pub (can’t remember its name) and next off was Sirdie in Kallio. Funny place and I just have to give props for the WC – it was really clean. The tour continued through various different pubs and our posse got bigger bar by bar. After a few beers we felt classy enough to go to Torni and after that to Teatteri…

Next day we cruised around Kirkkonummi and enjoyed yet another guided tour. In the evening we had a bar-b-q party with loads of people, good food and drinks. I had a great time.

Thanks Noora and Mikko for hosting us. Next time we’ll be seeing three of ya

Noel trading muumi to droi.

The most of us...

Mikko's RC-helicopter.

El Capitan.

Me getting on board.

Ok, I’m a lazy bastard. No updates for a long time… Well I have been busy on my holiday. After the Riga-trip I bought a new car – yeah, the Volvo – and… can’t even remember everything else I’ve been doing… but today we sailed the seven seas at a lake called Näsijärvi. It sure was a well spent day with my godson (el capitan) Otso.

Jari's Bella.

I'm quite cute.

El Capitan taking a nap.

Audi R8.

4th day was the last day. Lots of photographing and walking around Riga old town. Lots of beautiful buildings and cars. The photos here don’t reveal the whole thing about the cars… to name a few I saw Chrysler Crossfires, Bentleys, Bmw M3/M5/M6/X6/760i WTF!, Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Aston Martin Vantage, Audi R8 blahhh.. it’s a long list.

And what comes to buildings I didn’t bother to upload any on my blog. Go see them yourself, it’s worth it I assure you. I would deffinitely recommend Riga old town and Jurmala to anyone. Been there twice and will deffinitely go again.

Me drinking Riga Champagne.

Let’s cut a few corners here… since the clock seems to be ticking. 3rd day was started by getting some breakfast from a nearby Rimi-market and heading to Jurmala again. While enjoying breakfast the train took us to Majori station where we took off. Sun didn’t bother to shine a lot but it didn’t bother us too much. It wasn’t too cold to dip in the Baltic sea and to sit on a bench and watch people passing by and some local kids playing soccer on the beach.

In the evening we checked out some tiny corner pub on our way to Riga old town. Cheap beer, nothing more – not that I expected anything else from the place. For supper we ordered a huge grill plate. 1.2kg of grilled food for four – or in this case for two Chicken, pork, sausages and three different gravies. I’d say it was big enough for two.

F430 and M5.

Boys playing soccer.

1.2kg of grilled food.

1.2kg of grilled food for four. Or in this case for two

The jacuzzi.

On second morning the weather was varying a lot. Some sunshine but also some heavy rain. We decided to use the services of our hotel and booked the sauna and jacuzzi for an hour. Half an hour later the phone rang and we were informed that the sauna was ready. The receptionist showed us the way, lit some candles and wished as nice and relaxing time. The sauna was amazing and jacuzzi even better.

Peculiar water system.

Yet one peculiar detail was to amuse us – water wasn’t thrown on the stove, instead there were water pipes in the steam room too and one just pulled the string to release water from the shower on the stove. It worked exceptionally well and I really consider on replicating the same contraption next time I’m building a sauna for myself. All in all, well spent six euros on the sauna and jacuzzi.

While taking sauna bath the weather had cleared up and we hurried to get on the move. We had listed some places worth checking out and started looking for them. We found some really good places to eat and enjoy beverages of one’s choise. Checked out the local biker pub and had planned to go to a place called Hospitalis (google it up) but it was closed due to change of residence. See more from the pics…

Europe made from flowers.

Lovers' locks. There were many.

Good looking drinks made out of Riga Balsam.

Sign of Hospitalis. Shame it was closed.

Local biker pub with nice looking window.

M3, M6 and 745i just happened to be in a row.

Riverside hotel.

Me cooling off with Zelta.

After we finally found our hotel last night, we booked the room and went straight to bed. After a good night’s sleep the morning greeted us with a nice sunshine. We decided to go to Jurmala and head for the beach to enjoy the sun and some Zeltas (local beer) to keep our heads leveled properly. It was less than one kilometer walk from our hotel to the train station and the train took us to Jurmala with a mere cost of about one euro. Not bad considering the ride was over 20 clicks.

Choppers were rare.

I’ll give you one-ride-a-day and today it’s a chopper HD – they were rare… all HD’s were touring models. But the cars… OMG. Riga seems to be full of beautiful cars. I was all fed up the first day watching BMW’s except the more rare ones.

The best laugh of the day was offered by a menu at some restaurant we ate. The menu was translated on several different languages and it was done real good – execpt the beer list There were six beers listed and for some reason on two of them the translation was a bit off. Draft beer means ‘hanaolut’ in Finnish. Draft can also be translated as ‘luonnos’ as it was on the menu. The only problem is that ‘luonnos’ is sketch in English and doesn’t mean anything in this context. Made us laugh real good and of course we had to try some ‘luonnosolut’.

Draft beer ~ luonnosolut.

Jomas iela in Jurmala.

Riga by night.

Easy - if you'd understand anything of it.

We arrived to Riga airport at 22pm. The sun was going down fast and and it would be dark as hell soon and we didn’t know exactly where we should go – well prepared as always. We knew the number of the bus we should take but it would only take us halfway and we should continue with a trolley. Only problem was, we didn’t know which station the trolley would come to… We found the right bus and to it and decided to walk the rest of the way.

Now the night was already pitch black and we had promised to arrive at our hotel at 23:00. No chance on our own. We asked some help from a lady walking her huge dog. She didn’t understand English very well so she took a full turn to guide us. She took as close, but she didn’t know the exact place. No matter what, we thanked her and continued on our own and found the hotel in no time. Well maybe we were half an hour late, but it didn’t mean a thing.

When it rains, it's time for pubs. When it shines, it's time for beaches.

Damn. Riga sure is a place 2 B. Beers don’t cost jack and sparkling is pretty cheap too. In Jurmala the beaches are still as long as ever.

We’ve really enjoyed our holiday here… our hotel even offers a real sauna and a big jacuzzi. Suits us.

Cheers – I’m off for a few beers and some pelmenis

Me playing with water.

I’ll be in riga for 5 days so no updates until I’m back.

Milja and Simo.

Me playing mini golf.

Once again in Tampere. This time in Järvensivu which is really idyllic and nice looking neighborhood. Our friends Milja and Simo have a personal home there surrounded by narrow streets – or more like paths – and nature.

We enjoyed ourselves some Ceasar salad and pesto-breads while chatting about this and that. After the snack we decided to go mini golfing at Pyynikki. It was a tight match between the three of us – Simo on the other hand beat us all clearly. But he is a golfer so that doesn’t count After golfing we headed back to their place to grill some homemade hamburgers. The evening went fast surrounded by yummy servings and nice people.

Mmm... meat.

Buying peas from Tammelantori.

The next day we headed to a market place called Tammelantori where Milja bought a bag of peas. From Tammelantori we took a bus to a beach called Rauhaniemi. We enjoyed ourselves some sun, sweet peas and of course some sparkling. Afterwards we rented two canoes near Rauhaniemi and paddled two hours. It was fun and more exhausting than I thought.

Thanks Milja and Simo for hosting us and offering us a ride to the airport.

Cute Simca in Järvensivu.

Rauhaniemi beach.

Yummy peas.

Kuntokolmonen ~ Fitness Lager.

(i) hate canoeing

Alkuviina ~ Start booze (or boost).