Category Archives: Crazy Euopean People

Crazy Chinese People, Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Family

My Parents first trip to China

25 Comments

In the year of 2011 was my first visit to China. Nothing too special about that but it was also the first time (and only time thus far) that my parents visited China. Through this Guest Post by my wife you learned already few basics about my dear mother. As you can imagine the whole idea of visiting China was not a dream of my mother. She was scared of the country itself, the many people, the food, the hygiene, the plane, getting lost at the airport and did I mentioned the food before? My father on the other hand was really excited about this trip. He pretty much didn’tt care at all about all the things my mother was scared of except one thing, public toilets in China. My old man is not the youngest anymore, meaning that any kind of “squatting” his pretty much impossible for him.

Import_016
Picture at the Drum Tower

Everything started during spring time when we had the great idea to have our engagement dinner in China, together with the whole family. As a joke my wife suggested that I should invite my parents as well. I kinda didn’t get the joke and actually asked my parents. My mom was shocked, and said she wouldn’t even board the plane and my father wanted to know the details already on the phone. Three months later my wife and I were waiting in Xi’an for my parents to arrive at the airport and of course my parents actually arrived without any harm (just a bit exhausted).

The entire trip to China was already an adventure worth writing a very own article about. Lets just say it involved them not being able to park the car at Helsinki airport, hearing their names mentioned through the airport announcements about gates being closed, having very noisy people on the plane, arriving at Beijing and being lost, mobile phone without service and thus not being able to call us for help, not being able to ask for help as they only speak German and Finnish,  a changed gate to Xi’an at Beijing airport and running all over Beijing airport…

 

Import_012
Arrival in Xi’an

Anyways my parents arrived during late afternoon and were welcomed by my in-laws and family friends. Already during the first evening we had a program planned for them (even though they were pretty exhausted). We visited the fountain show at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda with a short tour around the surrounding area and of course a big dinner. As you can imagine dinner time meant horror time for my dear mother and MIL was not exactly helpful in this situation either as she just piled up more food on my mothers plate. Mom ate always bravely the plate empty, without having a clue what food it was, and MIL piled up more…

 

Import_031

During the one week in Xi’an we visited together most of the main attraction such as the Terracotta Army, the Tang Paradise, Tang Dynasty Dinner & Show, Drum and Bell Tower and also the Muslim Quarter. My parents both got a new hairstyle plus massage at a hairdresser, a full body massage (my father with cupping) and a lot of food. For my mother at least one dream got fulfilled, she got a silk shirt tailored, something which is of course also possible in Europe but usually very very expensive.

 

Import_020I am not sure anymore what we all ate but it was very much. The engagement dinner was interesting as we had also Camel served which I didn’t mention to my parents until the dinner was done. Otherwise it was pretty uneventful, probably due to the exact planning by my wife who had an “activity plan” done already weeks before the trip. In the end we also spent one day in Beijing and did a little sightseeing tour. Beijing has mixed feelings when I think back due to the fact that we never could get any taxi and then we a wild “black taxi” trip back to the hotel.

In the end I can say that it was a nice trip but a bit too exhausting for my parents. We had too much in the program and it all involved walking around a great deal. To make it worse it was during Juli, meaning temperatures to make the asphalt on the streets melt. Furthermore my mother couldn’t handle the air-condition and ended up getting sick in the end and suffered the last day when flying from Xi’an to Beijing. For the next time they come to China (my mother doesn’t know about her luck yet) we have planned a much more relaxing holiday for them with trips to the nearby hot springs and it will be either during spring time or during autumn to escape the hot summer.

Crazy Euopean People

Restaurant Day in Helsinki

17 Comments

Last month we visited the so-called Restaurant Day in Helsinki. In Finnish it is called “Ravintola Päivä” , was first held in 2011 and is apparently today the world biggest food festival in the world (17th of August 2014 in 30 different countries). Anybody can participate and sell their self-made food during that day, both professional restaurants and normal people you may encounter there. I hope I got the basics right as I have not much experience with it and rather focus more on the food offered there than on the idea or system behind it.

 

RP3As I understand people are either offering food  in their own homes or sell it on the street at their own stands. We decided to visit the biggest cluster of stands this August in the Helsinki city center at Esplanadi. First of all, it was a mess to find a parking space for our car! I don’t know how we managed but after endless driving around I found a spot very close to the event. The next problem was to get through the masses of people. It was seriously packed there, it reminded me on some public events in China where you are basically stucked and can’t move anywhere. The biggest problem was then to get through with a baby stroller…

 

RP7What can I say, even though it was so troublesome to get around there due to the amount of people but it was also enjoyable. No not that I enjoy masses of sweaty people on a summer day but everywhere was food from around the globe! I tried to take picture of the different stands but that proofed impossible as every time I got close enough to a stand I had not enough time to take proper pictures before being pushed away again. There was so much food but my wallet was just not thick enough to support and all out eating event.

 

Few more pictures can be seen in the gallery. The restaurant day was the last “event” we attended in Finland and lets see when we attend our first event in Germany!

Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Family

Leaving Finland

27 Comments

It is finally the time to leave Finland. Tomorrow morning we have to get up around 5am, get into our full packed cars and drive 360km south to Helsinki where the ferry is waiting to take us to Germany. Up till now we have done packing, packing and some more packing in the hope to get as much of our stuff as possible to Germany. It actually mostly worked out however my precious books have stay behind until my parents can take them next year with them in late summer. Looking at our cars it appears that we have done some tuning work to lower them as far as possible. No, it won’t be an enjoyable journey, the cars are so full that our seats had to be put more to the front, my wife will have her seat full of stuff and to make it even less comfortable she will have to carry both bunnies on her lap. Nathan’s seat looks like a cave, surrounded by boxes filled with our belongings (no need to worry, everything is fixed to their spot so nothing can move in case of an emergency full brake).

DSC02305
Nathan at his great grandparents grave

 

We have done all kind of different strange work since we arrived. Preparing some fire wood for next spring, fixing my grandparents tombstone and checking which poor trees will be cut down next year by my father. My dad is really good in cutting down trees but he really doesn’t like finishing the wood working as my mother in complaining for over twenty years that the firewood is always too big for the different wood fired ovens. We also got our boat out of the water and carried it to our little boat shed. As the boat is made out of real wood we had to do some extra work with it such as drying it first for a week and then applying some flaxseed oil to preserve the wood. The boat has been handcrafted few years ago by our neighbour who passed away sometime later, making it the last handcrafted boat in the area, perhaps even in whole of west Finland.

DSC02286

 

The past days have been restless. Awaiting our departure in the cottage while watching nature preparing for autumn. It has been getting colder here, only rarely the sun peeks through the mist which is hanging heavily upon the lake during most of the day. Somehow it feels like it is time to leave, start anew somewhere far away from the cottage, from Finland our old home. I am watching my father walking around our beach, in his own way saying goodbye to his little paradise. He and my mother will be back next summer whereas I will be most likely not be able to see Finland and the cottage for a couple of years, depending on my work.

DSC02319

 

I say farewell Finland, you have been my home for the past seven years. Life has been not always easy here but I met my wife here, Nathan was born here so not everything was all that bad. With our moving away I also take away one possible future burden away from you, Mother-in-law will be terrorizing Germany next time, not you Finland.