Welcome to our NEW home...in Finland!

Our nice Finnish landlady, Anne, picked us up from the train station in Jyväskylä in a red Volvo. I wish I would have taken a photo of her poor car loaded down with over 320 pounds of luggage. I also wish I would have had a video camera for the serious workout that we experienced at the train station in Helsinki. We could not find the elevator, so instead we carried four 50 pound bags plus our carry on bags down the train station stairs (two flights of stairs) and then back up two flights of stairs to arrive at our train platform. Comical (and sweaty)! Then, we had to find space for all of this luggage in the train. No sense in attempting to blend in...we stood out like traveling Americans with all of our luggage (see photo).

Anyway, we have arrived! Ah, sweet...look at our front door (see photo). Oh, "Ei Mainoksia, Kittos!"= No advertising, thank you!

Iceland from the Air!

I have never been to Iceland until this trip. And, I am not sure a one-hour layover in the Reykjavik airport is enough time to say I have really visited Iceland (but I did receive an Iceland stamp in my passport...that is kinda cool!) Nonetheless, I snapped a few great photos of Iceland from the air.

Finland or BUST...31 Hours of Travel!

Yep, another long travel day: five airplanes, 1 bus, 1 train, and 1 red Volvo! But, we did it up in true Leasa and Charlie style...parsimoniously with a few special luxuries. As we shopped for flights in July, we soon realized that we were going to have to get creative with our routing, otherwise we would likely spend up to $2,500. Yikes! So, we spent a few days researching all of the possible alternatives. Iceland Air was definitely the most affordable way to get from the U.S. to Helsinki, but the problem was that Iceland Air only flew from four hubs in the U.S., none of them being Colorado. So, we had to price out domestic flights from Colorado to the four hubs. We continued checking prices for about a week when all of a sudden Delta's domestic flight from Denver to Boston hit a low $138. SCORE! We bought our domestic tickets and then bought the $538 ticket from Iceland Air.

In 31 hours, we managed to rack up a total of 6,230 miles in the friendly skies and over train tracks:
Denver to Minneapolis: 693 miles
Minneapolis to DC: 935 miles
DC to Boston: 500 miles
Boston to Reykjavik, Iceland: 2429 miles
Iceland to Helsinki, Finland: 1505 miles
Helsinki to Jyväskylä: 168 miles
Our travels were pretty much smooth sailing with the exception of Delta airlines (insert visual of me shaking my fist) adding an extra leg into our travel day. (We needed another flight like we needed a hole in the head.) We bought a direct flight (according to Delta.com and our itinerary) to Washington DC, but we got an extra stopover in Minneapolis. Fun times and more hate emails to Delta. But, as I have mentioned before in this blog I have a love/hate relationship with Delta and the more I travel with Delta the more complex my relationship becomes with Delta. On this trip, the love for Delta came when we were bumped up to first class for our leg from DC to Boston, a short flight, but a lovely ride. Then, we splurged (just a little) for our five hour layover in Boston...Delta Sky Lounge, baby! To our surprise we walked into the lounge just in time for tequila happy hour (see photo). Hell Yes! Finland or BUST...

Colorado Lovefest!

I admit it...I am in love with Colorado. Every time I arrive in Colorado my heart sings, "Rocky Mountain High" and every time I leave Colorado my heart stings with sadness. In just a few days I will, once again, experience the latter emotions of leaving the place that I will always call home. This trip home has been sweet in so many ways, especially the time spent with family, friends, and dogs (see photo of my sister Julie and her hubby Dan with Stewie and the new addition Riley). It was also a very important trip because I may not come home for 10 months. While in Colorado, Charlie was doing the same, visiting family and friends, in Ohio. Now we reconvene in Colorado for a serious packing frenzy: two 50-pound bags for 10 months in a very cold place on this earth. Hmmmmmmm, should be interesting!

Quick Trip to Toronto

Yep, sometimes I am rather crazy for travel and adventure. So crazy that I agreed to go on a 29-hour trip to Toronto. Over the past few years, I have become more involved with my European Masters program alumni association, the Erasmus Mundus Student (EMA) & Alumni Association. As one of the leaders representing the EMA North American regional chapter I went to Toronto for a networking event of fellow EMA alumni. After two flights, I arrived just in time for a dinner at the delicious Waterfalls Indian restaurant in the funky Kensington area and the following day I had until 3 p.m. to tour the city of Toronto. From what I experienced in Toronto, I really liked the city. It has a good feel to it and I especially liked the Kensington area where musicians were strumming guitars on the sidewalks and a car was transformed into a garden (see photos). All in all, it was a great event and a good trip despite the fact that I squeezed it into a narrow window of time. But, I do love wild adventures like this and now I am ready to go back to Colorado and pack up for Finland.

High School Reunion

Yep, time for another high school reunion. Has it really been 20 years since we had the BIGGEST bangs in the west? Yes, it has and I have the white hairs to show for it! The last reunion, 10 years ago, I played a large role in planning the logistics, but this year I handed the baton to a few of my classmates because living in Georgia and doing a PhD does not facilitate reunion planning. While I was a little reluctant to hand it over, I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Friday night became a drunken debauchery at Fado's Irish Bar, right across the street from Coors Field in downtown Denver. I stayed with my dear friends, Deb and Owen who now live in New York, in a hotel downtown. Thus, no need to stay sober and plenty of reason to do some "planking" on Denver's pedestrian mall (see photo). It was nice catching up with the group of women that I mostly hung out with during the four wild and crazy years at Rangeview high school; we called ourselves the Party Brat Pack (PBP's). The group of guys, the "Bushmen", that we hung out had not really changed either. Like the PBP's they all still hang out together and live close by each other in Denver. Most of my dear friends from high school have children, a bachelor's degree, have never traveled out of the country, and some are married while others are divorced. I am the over-educated, child-less, wayfaring outlier in the group and the questions asked were rather comical, "How do you fund your travels and your life?" "What is it like to still be a student in your 30's?" "What does a typical day look like for you?" "I hear you have a boyfriend, what does he look like?" And, then there were some individuals that did not even ask questions--I think it is because my life has taken such a different path I am not sure they knew what to ask. So, instead we rehashed high school memories (driving backwards, building the homecoming float, and epic house parties). The second night was hosted at the fancy Mountain Ranch Bar & Grille, overlooking Coors Field. This night was a little more mellow with dinner and dancing. We got back to the hotel at 1 a.m., which allowed for 2 hours of sleep before I had to catch the Super Shuttle to the airport...onto the next adventure in Canada!

Road Trip Day 3: ODD Roadside Attraction!

As we planned our cross-country road trip I was interested in stopping at some of the odd roadside attractions. After many internet searches there was one attraction that we just had to stop for...the Wonder Tower in Genoa, Colorado. The Tower was built in 1926 by the eccentric Charles W. Gregory and served as a one-stop shop: a motel, restaurant, and gas station for the old highway 24. For almost twenty years, Gregory continued to add onto the gawdy structure by building rock rooms for him and his guests to enjoy, including a dance hall with stage. Gregory died in 1942 and the 60 foot tower fell into disrepair. To further the fall of the Tower's stardom, the highly traveled 1-70 highway was built transporting travelers to more convenient stopping points, such as Limon, CO 10 miles west of the Tower. But, never fear...the out-of-place Tower still stands, thanks to Jerry and Ester Chubbuck. They have kept the Tower alive by charging a meager $1 entrance fee and stuffing the place with weird animal monstrosities (see the two-headed calf), Indian artifacts, old bottles, rocks, fossils, and a huge dinosaur egg that has a handwritten sign on it, "Be careful, it may hatch!" Everything is for sale and the price tags are not cheap.

But, let's not forget to mention the real bonus of this roadside attraction, a view of the surrounding six states (or so they say...confirmed by Ripley's Believe it or not): Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Mexico, and South Dakota. Six stairways lead you through a maze of more rooms, these rooms are colorful and again stuffed with the wild, wacky, and whimsical clutter found on the ground floor. Along the way, they make it clear that the climb to the top is not for the faint at heart. The elevation is 5,752 and handwritten signs along the way say, "Climb at your own risk!" Supposedly, they will fine you $25 if you write on the wall. If you find yourself in the East of Colorado, do yourself a favor and stop at the Tower, it will entertain for hours.

Road Trip Day 3: More Kansas & Colorful Colorado

Woohoo! Nothing better than driving through Kansas; lots of corn fields, beautiful fields of bright yellow sunflowers, and weather that quite possibly would make you think you are starring in the “Wizard of Oz”. My father loves watching the weather change, hence he quickly became our weather-vane as we drove into the darkest and ugliest looking clouds. It began raining so hard that we decided to pull off the highway. We were not alone; about 20 other cars decided to do the same and wait out the storm. My dad kept calling, “How is it? According to the radar map, it looks like you are in the middle of a red zone.” I kept asking…do you know if there are tornadoes in the area? I was in a tornado when I was a young diva and my photo appeared on the front page of the Denver Post—insert image of scared little girl sitting on a bench with pieces of roofing, trash cans, and other debris laying about. After a 30-minute downpour, it finally let up. We drove on and into a parking lot (on the highway)…oh fun! A semi truck had jack-knifed during the torrential downpour.

Since we had finished the audio-book, we changed to the radio. I must confess..during road trips I love to scan the radio stations and see what sorts of music/talk shows are playing in the American heartland. Hence, we listened to a lot of 80/90 hits and even a little bit of Rush Limbaugh (until Charlie nearly threw up in his mouth).

Ahhhhh, I know that sign! "Welcome to Colorful Colorado!" We made it (almost), now just 160 miles to the parents house...with one special stop (see next blog post)...

Road Trip Day 2: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas

What a better way to begin another day in the car than by stopping at Cracker Barrel? Ha ha...let's try again. How about the breakfast buffet in St. Louis at Whole Foods (a favorite organic and natural food store)? Yeah, now that is more our style! Organic scrambled eggs, french toast, tofu scramble, fresh baked bread, fresh fruit, and home potatoes joyfully slid down our throats to join the digestive juices in our bellies. Some may think that road trips are all about gas station food (Snickers, Coke, and Doritos), but we prefer to be a little more selective with our road trip cuisine. In fact, Charlie even suggested we do a Google search for the best vegetarian restaurants and build a route around our findings (too bad the best veg eats are located in New York, San Francisco...a little out of our way). After a good and healthy Sunday brunch, we pushed through Missouri and then the long haul through Kansas (with a sweet picnic lunch in the late afternoon).

Road trips are fun because you have an ample amount of time to relax, converse, and listen. On day two, we finished listening to the audio-book, “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson, a great story of two men hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT). Very apropos since we lived in a place (Athens) that was only 40 miles away from the AT. Bill Bryson is a great writer with a nice balance of intellectual and factual information about the trail as well as a splattering of very funny moments on the trail. It was a good six hours of entertainment. The rest of the time, we talked...it's not hard for Charlie and I to stumble upon an intellectual (or not so intellectual) conversation and be entertained for hours on end.

Amidst all of the “Jesus loves you” billboards, Charlie spotted another winery, Les Bourgeois, in Missouri and that is where we met the pink pig. According to the wine pourer this pig is the most photographed pig in Missouri. Oh yeah and there is a special grape in Missouri, the Norton grape, and now we can say we have tasted it in all of its splendor (or not). Even though we did purchase a bottle of the semi-dry red wine, I am not sure I would recommend you stop only to taste the wine, the pig was much more interesting.

Finally, we arrived at our overnight destination, Manhattan, Kansas (another university town, home of the oldest institution of higher learning in the State, Kansas State University). Do you see a pattern here? We ate at Coco Bolo's, drank some margaritas, and drove through campus to gawk at the beautiful castle-like architecture.

Road Trip Day 1: Athens, GA to Carbondale, IL (499 miles)

Wake up at 6 a.m. Pack up the last few items and attempt to squeeze them into any little space that we might find, in between boxes, bags, and furniture. Nope…two items do not fit (two large picture frames). Argh…I begin to wallow in a growing monster of anguish (Come on Leasa, Keep Calm & Carry On!) I am simply drained, tired of organizing, packing, and moving stuff, and I am simply ready to be home in Colorado. The heat and humidity has tested my nerves the last few weeks and I am ready to move onto the next life adventure. We stop at Ike and Jane’s for our last red velvet cake doughnut, stop for gas (the most expensive gas purchased the entire road trip--U.S. $3.74/gallon), oil, and air for the tires. Ah, this day has been a LONG time coming. Once we leave the city limits of Athens, a wave of solace rolls over me. Ah!

We drive approximately 500 miles on day one (of three days) with an overnight stopover in Carbondale, Illinois—home of Southern Illinois University. The drive goes very well with several stops to change drivers, stretch, and fill up with gas. As we drive through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois, the pesky little “check engine” light on the car dash remains bright yellow. Yes, we have been dealing with some car issues for the past few weeks, but the auto mechanic swears that little “Lexi” (the hard core 1999 silver Lexus 300RX approaching 200,000 miles) will be okay and will not implode during our 1,500 mile road trip.

In Tennessee, Charlie spots a billboard for wine tastings at the highly acclaimed (snicker) Beachhaven Winery. We decide that forgoing this wine experience would be a sin, so we stop and sip on some surprisingly good Syrah, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. With a bottle of Cab in hand, we pushed on. We arrived at our hotel and immediately got back into the car for dinner. Charlie did some internet searching before our trip and he stumbled on a veggie café in Carbondale, Longbranch Coffeehouse, and when our friend (who used to live in Carbondale) confirmed the delicious fare, it became a destination. Charlie had veggie Thai curry and I devoured the veggie harvest with ginger sauce. Thumbs up for Longbranch! After a night swim we were ready for some shut eye.