Tallinn, Estonia & the Drunk Ferry to Helsinki

Tallinn Christmas Markets.

Wool sweaters & socks for sale.

Whenever I travel outside of Finland I like to check out the happycow, a website that lists and reviews all local restaurants serving up vegan and vegetarian offerings. There was actually a good list of recommended eateries in Riga and Tallinn. In Riga, we checked out the Raw Garden and grabbed some takeaway items for our bus ride. With tubs of wheat-grass growing in the windows, we entered the little restaurant and asked if we could order takeaway. The lady behind the counter spoke very good English and told us, in detail, all about the menu. We ordered two veggie sandwiches on dried pumpkin bread and grabbed a few munchies that were beautifully displayed on the counter, a cashew-coconut ball and two pieces of dried bread (one zucchini and the other carrot).  At 12:40, the Lux Express 4-hour bus to Tallinn rolled up and off we went into the countryside. While the ride through the countryside was beautiful, the wireless kept us busy, and the food from Raw Garden was amazingly delicious. (Good review posted on happy.cow!)

Charlie waiting to board "drunk" ferry.

You see a lot of this on the ferry.

Our cozy spot on the ferry...until the drunks sat below us.

Vomit bags on the ferry, just in case.

It was a short adventure in Tallinn, as we had tickets for the 9 p.m. drunk ferry to Helsinki. But, that did not stop us from exploring the Christmas markets and eating at the BEST rated restaurant in Tallinn--no joke. We found Aed, the restaurant, on happycow too and then after further investigation found that it was rated as the BEST restaurant in Tallinn by Tripadvisor. (Yes, I am an investigator of sorts, as I like to read people's reviews of restaurants, hotels, etc.--blame it on dreamy rational choice theory.) After eating the delicious pumpkin soup, linguine pasta, and chocolate cake, we walked to the drunk ferry and by first glance of the queue we knew we were in for an entertaining 2 hour ferry across the Gulf of Finland. People, not only the young people, people of all ages had *stacks of* cases of beers ready to bring back home to expensive Finland. The alcohol is obviously less expensive in Tallinn and so Finns make the mad dash across the pond to buy their goods. Luckily, we were upwind from the loud, obnoxious (and yes, drunk) teenagers who decided to party in our cozy location on the ferry.

Ah, it's nice to be back in Finland!

Riga: the "Little Paris" with a Coupon!

Riga Christmas Markets.

It was like a ghost town, except for inside the shopping malls, on Boxing Day (December 26) in London. We discovered that the Tube was closed because the employees wanted more pay on the national holiday--makes sense. What a better way to send this message than to strike on the BIGGEST shopping day in London? Way to stick it to the man and stick it to capitalism! Boxing day was also the day we were slated to fly to Riga, Latvia. After visiting the Tube station by our hotel and seeing all of the "closed" signs, we managed to find a bus that would take us to central London. We got off the bus at Shepard's Bush and discovered that ONE Tube line had just opened up at the very stop we got off...talk about good timing!


Ryanair to Riga...a flight where all of the passengers clapped after we landed...why do people do that?  Anyway, we walked out of the airport and waaaaah-laaaaa there was a Baltic Air hotel shuttle waiting for passengers. Good timing, again. We were dropped off at our hotel, Hotel Albert, where we checked in and explored the city by night.

Gingerbread cookies.

The House of Blackheads...what a name!

Let me tell you the best part of this trip...we got a SCREAMIN' deal! So, anyone who knows me, knows that I love a bargain and I love coupons. Yes, I am one of those crazy coupon clippers. But, in the past few years I have discovered the bliss of on-line groupon coupons. In Athens, Georgia I first stumbled on the groupon concept and since then I have been addicted! The good thing is that the groupon coupon concept has gone international, just in time for us to move to Europe. So, I signed up for CityDealiä (same as groupon--different name) in Helsinki, Tampere, and Jyväskylä and began receiving coupon deals by email. In addition to boob jobs, restaurants, and beauty treatments, there are even travel coupons...this is where it gets good! The coupon we used for our trip to Riga was 90€ and included 2 nights at the 4-star Hotel Albert, free wireless internet, breakfast buffet, and a 30€ dinner coupon and 2 welcome drinks. Cool!


Overall, Riga is a sweet and quaint little, or shall I say not so little, town. It is the largest city in the Baltic States and 1/3 of Latvia's population lives in Riga. We were lucky because most of Europe has an extensive Christmas holiday season, thus the Christmas markets in Old Riga were still open and selling gingerbread cookies, wool socks, warm hats and gloves, and handicrafts. Our exploration of the city took us to the bustling city market located in five converted zeppelin hangars where we bought fresh walnuts and tigerbalm, an 'authentic' medieval basement restaurant (only lit by candles) called Rozengrals, and Charlie experienced a Latvian beer tasting at Queens Public House.

Go to Riga, you will not be disappointed!

"Happy Christmas" as the Brits Say...from London.

Many of you were asking, 'why London for Christmas'?  Good question! London is certainly not known for good sunny weather during the Christmas holiday season, so why the heck would we choose London?

Top 10 Reasons to Go to London for Christmas:
1.) The flight was much more affordable than a trip from Finland to Colorado or Ohio; plus Charlie experienced his first (and probably his last) Ryanair flight (truly a cultural experience with the queue, fight for seats, and capitalism on board).
2.) London all dressed, and lit, up for the holidays (even without snow) is a very festive place during Christmas time.
3.) There are multiple Whole Foods stores in London, one of our favorite places to eat a plants-based dream meal and buy good food.
4.) London is famous for the West End theater shows and it just so happened that we both bought each other the same Christmas gift: a ticket to see Les Misérables. (The tickets were located right next to each other...maybe not such a coincidence.)
5.) The Tube (London subway) and all public transportation was closed on Christmas day, thus facilitating a beautiful Christmas walk into Central London (12.7 miles of a beautiful walk).


6.) Where else can you enjoy a Christmas day evensong in an UNESCO World Heritage Site that dates back to 960? In London, of course, at the Westminster Abbey. Okay, I am not a religious person, but I have developed a real love for evensong (ever since living in Oxford)--the sounds of the choir are spiritual and beautiful. It makes me want to break out my yoga mat right there in the middle of praying people and have my own spiritual experience. Namaste.
7.) Eye & Mouth Candy: red payphone booths, fish n chips,Big Ben, red double-decker buses, GOOD Indian food, mince pies, Christmas pudding, affordable cider and beer, Tower bridge, warm scones, and afternoon tea.
8.) The British accent is like 80% dark chocolate with cocoa nibs and a little cinnamon sprinkled on top--it is music to the ears! I want everyone to speak with that beautiful accent. Seriously, I love it!
9.) Where else you walk out of the subway and be fully immersed in a live music sensation? Paddington train station, of course, on Friday nights! The Great Western Paddington Railway Band played Christmas favorites as we sipped on our tea, enjoyed the music and the ambiance of the train station Christmas hustle and bustle. Some travelers would stop for a little blissful sounds to the ears--sometimes just enough to warm their heart and compliment the bad with a smile.
10.) Sunshine...for at least one day!

The Joy of a Sunbath...Before London!

We are heading to London for Christmas and would you believe that after 16 days of NO sunshine the sun came out as we were waiting for our flight in the Tampere airport? Life is funny that way. We were sitting in two seats that were perfectly located in direct line of the sunshine. Ahhhhhh, now we understand why you sometimes see Finns sunning themselves (standing peacefully outside with their heads tilted upwards towards the sunshine with their eyes closed) in a sun bath of vitamin D goodness! Off to London...

Pikkujoulu

The research team that I work with at the University of Jyväskylä, Higher Education and Social Change, invited Charlie and I to attend the annual pikkujoulu (little Christmas party) Thursday night. At 1:30 p.m. we started off at a pub in the city center, Vihreä Haltiata, where GOOD (and expensive) beer is served. Imagine paying 7 euro for a Belgium Kwak--yep, I am a sucker, but so is everyone else. The going rate for a GOOD beer in Finland is around 7 euro...get used to it! The mood was festive and in true Leasa style I brought along a few Christmas hats to add to the festivities. I do love cheesy themed hats and often times a simple hat brings out the HAM (and alter egos) in people--which was the case, especially as the night progressed. After a few beers the party moved to one of the best restaurants in Jyväskylä, Figaro. The food was good, but the presentation was what would bring me back. We ended the night at a local pub where the beer was flowing and the Christmas hats were passed from one person to the next. I have to say I am really grateful for being a part of this research group. There are some brilliant people involved and all of whom are very supportive and interested in my research.

Darkness Settles In...Only 5 Hours of Daylight

Livin' 62 degrees north of the equator means that November and December brings with it the darkness of winter. Everyday we lose a few more minutes of daylight and this nifty little table (from Gaisma) updates everyday with the exact sunrise/sunset times. I like to check this chart everyday and then give myself a pat on the back for surviving another day of darkness. Not only is the majority of our days dark, they are grey without sunlight. We are going on 10 days without sunlight (But, who is counting? I am!) On the bright (and sunny) side, I think we are still reveling in the novelty of dark days. Yes, the lack of daylight darkens the mood a little, but it is also a little exciting. Darkness at 2:30 p.m.??? Really? That is just crazy and different. You begin to feel like you need to eat dinner at 4 p.m. and sleep well past the 9 a.m. hour. So, we are popping vitamin D, Omega-3, and B-12 pills like candy and the sun lamp is getting a lot of action these days.

Charlie seems to be coping with the darkness a little better than I am; I feel like I need to be moving all of the time because if I stop and become sedentary the darkness may suck me into winter bear mode: hibernation. Plus, I get these waves of tiredness throughout the day, especially at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. 


Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Yes...winter solstice! The solstice is December 22 which marks the shortest day of daylight...9:44 a.m. sunrise and 2:47 p.m. sunset. It also means that after the 22nd we begin gaining minutes of daylight. YES! You have to remember that the last time I lived in Finland, I only experienced the latter of what I just described because I lived here from January to June. Of course I did experience November 2006 in Oslo, but Oslo is just below the 60th Parallel North which means they have a little more light than where we live now.

Christmas Comes Early...

 A few days ago we received two notices in our mailbox that indicated we had parcels. Now, where are they??? Time for some investigative work. First, Google translate the notice (because it obviously is written in Finnish). Confirmed! We have two packages. Now what? Call the phone number written on the notice and of course there is a recorded message in Finnish of which I only recognize "yksi", "kaksi", "kolme", "neljä" (one, two, three, four). I assume they are telling me what number to press for my inquiry...if only I understood Finnish then I would have pressed the correct number. Oops, instead I press some number that gets me passed to three different departments and then a dead line. Hmmm, now what? We look up the "posti" on-line and find the post office for our postal code on Google maps. With any luck, we will walk there (about 15 minutes away), the packages will be waiting for our arrival. After an adventurous walk through ice, snow, and slush...we make it and YES, the packages from Ohio come home with us.

We decide to have a Christmas dinner, complete with big salads and dinner entertainment: opening of the packages! Woohoo. Christmas comes early. We tear open the boxes like an excited bunch of five-year olds and find many items we have been dreaming about lately: almond butter, refried black beans (YUM!), margarita mix (Oh, yeah...I sense a Mexican fiesta in the the near future), UNO (finally, I can make Charlie draw four), lemon cookies (mmm!), green chilies (great for my mother's enchiladas recipe), salsa, dryer sheets, pretzels, deodorant (the dry kind), shaving creme, and dental floss, and so much more. It is funny how certain items at home bring such comfort, especially when you cannot find them where you live. We are very appreciative of all of the thoughtful gifts from the Mathies family! And, we are especially thankful that the gifts are all perishable (for the most part) and not material...these days we are being very intentional about decreasing the amount of material items in our life. I guess that moving out of the country and purging a lot of material items makes you realize that simplifying your life is liberating and good for the earth! Woohoo.

An EPIC Day in Tampere

I convinced Charlie to come along with me to Tampere, Finland-- to experience the city where I lived in 2007. I was asked to present my research at a PhD Seminar for the University of Tampere Higher Education Group and we decided to make it an entire day trip. Woohoo, back to my old stomping grounds!

Our alarm clock woke us up dark and early at 6 a.m. to catch the 7:22 a.m. train. We were about to experience an EPIC day in Finland:
Arrive Tampere at 8:50 a.m. and drop the computer bags in train station lockers (only 3 euro to lock your bags for 24 hours.)
Walk through city center (which was still dark at 9 a.m.).
Hike up through the forest and blowing wet snow to the Pynniki observation tower. 
Eat the delicious (and famous) munkki (Finnish doughnut)...and then climb the tower for a fantastic panoramic view of Tampere all dressed up in white (snow, baby!)
Walk back to town center and visit the Kauppahalli, the Market Hall.
Enjoy the cutest Christmas market, Joulutori, with glögi wine and Finnish handicrafts (hand-knit socks, gloves, and roasted chestnuts.
Eat lunch at my favorite restaurant in Tampere...Go Pal--vegetarian Indian buffet!
2 p.m. present, present, present...my research.
5 p.m. yoga with the fabulous Paula at Om Yoga.
Get hot and sweaty at the Rauhaniemen sauna.
Swim in the COLD water lake (woohoo! Charlie's first time), drink coconut water, and eat granola bars.
Eat Italian food at Napoli's. 
Chill out...and catch 10:09 p.m. train back to Jyvaskyla.  



Wow, what a day of adventure, excellent food, intellectual stimulation, and great company!

Dinner Parties Make the Days (and Nights) Brighter

Charlie has met a few international friends in his Finnish class, one of which is a Professor from Greece. She lives here with her 15-year old teenage daughter. They invited us and Joan, another Fulbright grantee, for an authentic Greek dinner...delicious! These days we only have about five hours of daylight, so dinner parties become especially important to ensure social interaction, joy, and laughter. Seriously, a Finn told us that the only way to survive the dark months is to exercise and meet with friends often. After a scrumptious dinner, we drank wine, ate roasted chestnuts and plum tarts as we shared stories about living in Finland.

The Joy of Visitors...

The (delicious) gifts that our Flemish visitor left behind. Lucky us!!! Speculoos cookies and paste, Belgium chocolate, and the very special (and tasty) Jenever liquor. Thank you, Marijke, we will think of you every bite and sip we take...and every kilo (lb.) we gain (ha ha...)!

More Belgium!

Enjoying a kitsch viking dinner.

I left Belgium for Finland, only to get more Belgium! My dear Flemish friend, Marijke, was waiting for me in Helsinki when I arrived. She had planned a week-long vacation in Finland...the place where we first met. Back in 2007, while living in Tampere, we were randomly selected as flatmates in student housing. At that time she was on an Erasmus exchange program for 4 months and I was doing a semester of my Masters degree at the University of Tampere. Every since then we have kept in touch and have seen each other every year. Sometimes we would meet for a few hours in Brussels and other times for week-long holidays together. Here are the blog entries highlighting our trips together:  
July 2011- Brussels, Belgium
June 2010- Paris, France & Alicante, Spain
December 2009- Brussels, Belgium
 May 2008- Gent, Belgium 

It is just so nice to connect with someone so easily. You know what I mean? I love when special people step into your life so naturally and without effort. Every time we meet it is as if no time has passed, which was again the case this week.

On our way, through the forest, to the sauna.

We will soon be swimming in this lake!

We met in Helsinki and took the train to Tampere to revisit our old stomping grounds. While living in Tampere we frequented a favorite Finnish sauna and decided we should visit it again this trip. So, we caught the #3 bus headed to IKEA, got off at the Kaupinkatu stop, walked through the forest, asked a few people along the way if we were going in the right direction, and finally arrived at the big lake with the sauna resting peacefully on the shore. Ah yeah! Before jumping on the bus we had prepared appropriately: sandwiches and water. We paid 6 euro as we entered the familiar sauna, undressed in the women's dressing room, showered quickly, grabbed a wooden seat and washed it off, and entered the steamy sauna reading 76 degrees Celsius. Once we were dripping with sweat and heated to the core, we walked outside, continued to walk down the stairs to the lake and before you knew it the stairs disappeared in the water (AHHHHHHH!). YES, cold-water swimming!!! It never gets easier, really it doesn't.

Ahhhhhh, cold water lake swimming!

But, the Finns swear that you do not reap the FULL benefits of sauna unless you experience the absolute shock to your situation (the cold, hot, cold, hot combo increases blood circulation=health benefits).

Visions at the sauna...

Charlie & Marijke in the winter wonderland of Jyväskylä.

Okay, so we did it and I continue to go back for more (I have to admit that the adrenalin rush keeps me going back for more!) After four dips in the cold water lake, we were peaced out and ready to walk through the forest and catch the bus to the train station.




The rest of the week we spent in Jyväskylä and enjoyed a nice little snow storm, a Finnish Christmas carol show, card games, and Harald's viking restaurant.

Christmas Carols in Finnish

We attended the annual Christmas carol sing-along at the Jyväskylän Kaupunginkirkko (City Church) today. I never knew Silent Night (the song) was translated into Finnish. We tried our best to sing along in Finnish (which was actually really good pronunciation practice.) There was even one song sung in English, Do you Hear What I Hear, it gave me chills to hear a familiar song that carries with it such warm Christmas feelings. At one point during the program an instrumental group was playing a song (without singing) and they all of a sudden stopped the music. The harpist dug in his pocket, held up his ringing cell phone, fiddled with it a bit, stuck it back in his pocket, and the group played on. It was a funny moment, no one really seemed to be put off by it--not even the harpist came off as embarrassed. Finns have a way of easily suppressing their emotions and just playing cool.

Workin' & Playin' in Brussels (Again!)

EMA Regional Chapter Representatives...action photo!

Leasa & Ali enjoying Brussels.

Another trip to Brussels--this time to represent the North American chapter of the Erasmus Mundus Student and Alumni Association (EMA). I was recently voted in as the President, so it is my duty to represent (rough gig, right?!) One of my dear friends, Ali from Brazil, was also in attendance and we had a ball hanging out, catching up, and engaging in EMA business. We talked about WHY we feel compelled to be apart of EMA and we discovered our answers were similar...our Masters degree experience gave us so much (an education, an international experience, and lifelong friends), that we feel it is important to "give back".

Yum, Belgium waffle!

So, there we were in Brussels giving back as we participated in three days of marathon meetings in the European Commission Madou building. At the end of each day we went back to the Thon hotel and treated ourselves to cold Belgium beers chilling in our mini-refrigerator, good cheese, Speculoos cookies, and Belgium chocolate (all of which was purchased at the local Carrefour supermarket one block away). Yep, sweet life--workin' hard and playin' hard!

Grand Place at night!

Grand Place Christmas light-music show.

The famous KWAK beer--LOVE IT!

Play hard! These EMA meetings are like the mini-UN during the day (serious discussions with an infusion of politics and intercultural communication dynamics). At night, however, everyone leaves the seriousness in the meeting room and an international festival comes to life as we all enjoy the Brussels nightlife together! This year we had the help of the Brussels Christmas market and incredible Christmas sound and light show at Grand Place. I visited the Christmas market with my Flemish friend, Marijke, in December 2009. But, this year the Christmas sound and light show was much more elaborate with beams of light shooting up from the center of the square and lights dancing to the sounds of classical music. Incredible!!! Now, this is a place you want to visit during the Christmas season. They even had real sheep in the nativity scene...okay, that was a little over-the-top for my likings, but they did really go all out. So, as we hopped from pub to dance club to waffle kiosk, always ending up back in the magnificent Grand Place to marvel at the lights, the architecture, and yes, the sheep too.

A late night waffle experience...with lots of laughter!

Atomium

The trip ended with a visit to the weird structure called the Atomium. This UFO-looking structure was designed in 1958 to symbolize the peaceful use of atomic energy. We rode the elevator to the top sphere and discovered that this is maybe the (only) reason to visit the Atomium--the views overlooking Brussels.