F1 Weekend

When I dropped my bags to my room on Thursday evening I couldn’t be anymore surprised, Finnish girls in my room.. ..in Edinburgh I met only handful of Finns and now, straight away, two Finns.. On Friday headed to track with an English bloke and spend few hours with him just soaking up the feeling of my first ever grand prix, amazing atmosphere.. Eventually, headed for my stand to watch the last bits of practice session but just couldn’t stay awake, jetlag was hittin me.. ..and just about an hour before I had bragged to Kirk that jetlag doesn’t seem to affect me.. ..yeah, right.. I had brief nap and we started drinkin a bit in our room, gotta say it was nice to able to speak Finnish with the girls.

my first ever grand prix ticket

dunno why, but I really like Porsche Panamera.. ..not a fan of Porsche but this one..

On the next day headed to track with my German roommate, Sebastian, but we went straight away to our own seats to watch the action. I was supposed to meet Kirk that day as well but never saw him so spent the whole day by myself. I was chattin with a Spanish bloke sittin next to me, he had sent an e-mail to Toro Rosso since he was apparently from the same town as Algesuari and he was invited to the paddocks on Friday evening, had a chance to see mechanics in action and had dinner with both drivers, what a lucky bastard.. ..why didn’t I ever thought of sending an e-mail to Lotus.. I took Saturday evening quietly cause wanted to prepare for Sunday without havin any hangover. My other german roommate tried to get me to start drinkin with him but I didn’t want to.

I wonder if there's ever gonna be a better Finn in F1 than Mika was..

'I wonder what kind of a piece is this from F1 car'.. ..marshalls cleaning track after Sutil's spin

On the next morning headed to track with Sebastian and other one of the Finnish girls, Alisa. We we’re watchin a bit of action from next to corner two since Alisa had only general admission to the race. After awhile we said goodbyes to Seb since he was leavin towards Germany straight after the race. I took a slingshot ride with Alisa, awesome experience! Finally she headed back to her ‘spot’ and I went to my seat. I managed to get quite a few photos from the drivers parade but obviously not from Kovalainen, darn.. The race itself was a bit boring but yet again, obviously it was completely different than following from telly. In general I would really recommend grand prix weekend as a experience but whenever my next grand prix weekend is gonna be, I gotta get better seating for it to be able to enjoy it a bit more than this time. But yet again, time and money well spent. The rest of the night ended up listenin music and drinkin with Alisa in our room. Our German roommates tried to get us to join them in some bar I couldn’t be bothered, was happy enough just to stay in the room.

home-crowd hero

Qantas fly-over

unfortunately Webber didn't do so well..

Etihad Airways & Abu Dhabi

After spending a day in London it was time to head back to Heathrow and prepare to my next leg of journey, this time flyin with Etihad from London to Abu Dhabi where I would spend a full, 14hr stop-over and havin a chance to visit the city itself. The plane itself looked very nice, I had never been on a plane this size. Found my seat that I had booked back home and started waitin will someone be sittin next to me or could I enjoy both seat by myself. For awhile there was one aussie bloke sittin next to me but after awhile he moved to the front section of plane since there was lot of space so I got both seats to myself. Dunno what I was really feelin at the time plane departed Heathrow, this would be my last sight of Europe at least for a year, I was kinda happy but also a bit sad.

..even a steel cutlery at Etihad..

I gotta give good credits for Etihad, service level was great and food itself was very good for a plane meal, no complaints about that. I started watchin True Grit from my e-box but started feelin a bit tired cause hadn’t really slept in two days - I couldn’t get any sleep the night before my travel from Turku to Helsinki.. I reckon I slept or more like napped for about three hours durin my flight so I was fairly tired when plane landed to Abu Dhabi the next morning. Sight of the city was fairly nice from up in the air. First thing that struck me was that people didn’t really feel that friendly or customer orientated or maybe it’s just the custom of the country. I was tryin to find a luggage storage for my bag but apparently airport didn’t have one so I’d have to carry my bag with me the whole day, damn.. I found my way to passport check and wasn’t quite sure what should I do since there was a visa counter next to it but I got thru in few minutes, bloke just said to me that you’re not from Asia so you’re alright. First stamp to my passport, neat.

my documents we're never checked when boarding plane to Australia..

Found my way to the bus stop in front of the airport but no bus nor signs anywhere.. I saw an older lady who was on the same flight comin to the stop as well and asked if she knew about the bus, apparently it’s supposed to leave at some point. After awhile that bloke who was sittin next to me at first in the plane came to the stop as well so it was me and two aussies waitin for bus. Reckon we waited for about 30-40mins before our bus finally arrived. That bloke was headin to hotel but that lady had same flight as me later on as me so we decided to take a wee walk in the city. At first we tried to find a map somewhere but then picked up a taxi to head for Marina Mall from where we could get a tourist bus for a tour around the city. Taxi driver tried to scam us, fare was 11.25 and at first he gave me only fiver back from 20dirham note. When I mentioned about it to him he gave me 3dirhams back and didn’t even say sorry, damn Sri Lankan.. ..what a nice introduction to Arab Emirates.. Anyway, we bought tickets for that tourist ride and headed for Marina Tower first since we we’re gonna jump off from the bus close to bus station to catch a bus back to airport. The ride itself was pretty nice, althou, every time we stopped I felt like I was melting, reckon temperature was about +27 to +30, a bit different than back home.. ..but yet again I wasn’t certainly gonna complain, not this time.. Eventually we got to our stop, jumped off, exchanged some more dirhams for bus and started headin back to airport. We arrived there fairly early but yet again, I couldn’t carry my backpack anymore, that 10kg started to feel on my shoulders.. Gotta say it was nice to spend that day with someone else, we did admit that some of the people did felt a bit dodgy and this way we got more out of the day since we had someone to talk to.

It was kinda a bit of bummer cause the flight departed only about 11ish pm so I was fairly tired by then and it would be pretty late till we would get our meals. I poured down quickly three glasses of wine durin dinner hopin it would help me to get some sleep, bollocks.. Reckon I slept in first stint about 3 to 5hours althou it was pretty hard tryin to keep up with the time since we we’re headin east all the time. A wee sandwich for breakfast and another nap. About an hour later woke up again for ice cream, nice service.. For few times I was tryin to look outside what was happenin but the sun was way too bright to be able to open the blinds. Another wee nap and after started to watch rest of True Grit. Just about when I was finished with it, dinner was served, perfect timing. When we finally started to come down you could open up your blinds, what a dodgy weather, rain was pouring down.. ..not too much but still..

I couldn’t be anymore surprised how quickly I got thru customs not much really asked. At first passport check officer just asked what are my plans, when I told him that after this weekend no plans at all, just wanna explore the country response was; ‘good on ya mate, off you go, enjoy Australia’.. ..wow, wasn’t really expectin anything like that, thought I have to prove my assets and some kind of travel itinerary but nothing.. Finally got my rucksack, did few adjustments and chattin to another customs officer since I had declared that I’m bringin wooden artifacts to the country - small wooden souvenirs from Africa given to my by my friends, he only asked what they are like and didn’t even wanna see ‘em, amazing.. ..that was it, I was thru the customs.. It was just absolutely amazing to meet Adam since we hadn’t seen in about 1,5yrs. He drove to my hostel, we took few drinks and I had to head for my bed, sooooo tired..

Lithuania

I arrived to Vilnius about 45mins ahead of schedule, great, more time to explore the city on my first night. I had pretty good instructions to my hostel but the initial problem was which way to head from bus station, especially cause there we’re no street signs. Luckily my inner compass directed to me straight away towards right direction ( doesn’t happen too often.. ). Walkin past first few blocks I was stunned, where the hell have I come, it was just so damn ugly and the buildings we’re in awful state.. Finally, walkin after about 15mins and been stopping all the time to make sure I’m following instructions correctly I arrived to Town Hall and from there on it was easy and reassuring that this might not be that bad city after all, just the first impression. After few mishaps finally found the right door to my hostel - not the easiest one to find. Left my bag in the room and onto Old Town.

Dunno why but Vilnius nor Kaunas and the whole country just didn’t convince me, contrast between Latvia & Lithuania / Riga & Vilnius was surprisingly big.. Vilnius had quite a bit of nice buildings to photograph but that was just about it.. ..I really didn’t feel all that safe from time to time, althou I didn’t have any problems either but anyway.. If in Latvia & Riga they are at least tryin to keep everythin in decent shape sometimes I felt that in Lithuania they just don’t care. Few main streets in Old Town we’re nice but as soon as you jumped onto a side street the whole scenery changed. I’m not sayin that Riga didn’t have anything like that but not just in this scale as in Vilnius.. On my first night went for a dinner to have some local dish, those zeppelins we’re nice. Went to a wee store to get few beers and to hostel, eventually there was bunch of us drinkin and havin fun at the common room and we stayed in for the whole evening last ones of us goin to bed around 2am.

Next morning woke up reasonably early again, this time 8.30ish. Oh well, cup of tea and onto exploring Old Town better and take proper amount of photos. I did walk around the city maybe for about 2,5hrs but most of the time just wanted to go back to hostel asap.. ..I really wasn’t able to spend so much time in the streets of Vilnius than I spent in Riga.. Ended up watchin few tv-episodes from my laptop and started drinkin with the owner of hostel and three german girls and that was another night in Vilnius, again just indoors..

Dunno really what happened in Vilnius, like I mentioned, I never felt really completely safe and I just didn’t get ‘it’ from the city.. Maybe it was just wrong timing or maybe Vilnius and Lithuania just didn’t have that much to offer me, guess I need to try this one again sometime later but at least right now, I wouldn’t really recommend Lithuania.. On my last morning in Vilnius I got up only after 9am and actually stayed in hostel up till 10am when started walkin slowly towards railway station aiming for 11.15 train. Took few more photos and was way early in the station. I saw aussie couple from my hostel briefly and jumped onto train towards Kaunas. Not really much to see on the train journey and I arrived to Kaunas maybe about an hour later than I was planning at first. Not much lost in there, basically Kaunas is a long pedestrian street from Town Hall to one big church and that’s it.. I did manage to get quite a bit of photos anyway but I was really struggling, what the hell I’m gonna do here for the whole day, my flight leaves only at 8pm.. Walkin halfway back the pedestrian street went for a lunch in pizzeria and after that decided to check few other bigger streets around that main street if I could find something interesting from there, what a waste of time..

Pretty soon I made my way to bus stop and jumped to a bus headin towards airport. I arrived to airport at 4ish, check-in would begin at 6pm.. ..and flight depart at 8pm.. Guess I was lucky to chose my trip this way cause at one point I was considering to spend a whole week in Kaunas, no way.. It’s pretty useless regretting your choices but maybe I should have stayed in Riga for 3nites and just one in Vilnius, I really enjoyed Latvia, way more than Lithuania. I just had few coffees at the airport and spent most of my time writing this. Hopefully I could get some sleep at the plane althou it’s only 1,5hr flight. Since there ain’t any public transport from Tampere to Turku at the time I arrive there I’m crashing a night at my friends place. On sat morning takin either bus or train to Turku and preparing for my farewell party later on that day.

All in all, I’d say this was a good trip but honestly, I was really disappointed at Lithuania. Right now I wouldn’t really recommend it but yet again, everyone has their own preferences and yet again, maybe those 2nites in Riga was so awesome that Lithuania just couldn’t get even close, if I would have done this trip from Lithuania to Latvia my feelings could have been different. And yet again, since I was partying pretty hard in Riga reckon that was affecting me as well in Lithuania. Like I said earlier, maybe I need to try Lithuania some other time again and obviously, Latvia as well. Funny enough, I’ve never been in Estonia, reckon that’s too close.. It could be as well since my ‘big’ trip is closing fast I wasn’t really concentrating on Lithuania 100%, who knows, and really, who cares.. I’d still say, in general time and money well spent.

Riga

Gotta admit that I was happily surprised about Riga, Old Town was scenic for most parts and obviously, it’s cheap in here.. KHL play-off game, absolutely awesome.. ..people in Latvia are just extremely fanatic about hockey which makes the whole experience a lot better. Like I had seen from YouTube, beginning intro was just awesome. Latvian national anthem, the whole crowd was standing ang singing.. ..game itself was entertaining and what surprised me was the level that Riga supporters we’re chanting for their team, no matter the score. Gotta admit that I drank a bit to many beers durin the game but what the heck, I’m on holiday. I do remember vaguely comin to hostel but that’s it.. ..apparently I went to sleep 11ish.. ..reckon travelin to Riga took it’s toll on me..

Next morning woke up at 8ish, dunno why.. ..goddamn, couldn’t get anymore sleep.. ..oh well, few energy drinks and for a stroll to Old Town. Got quite a bit of photos taken, went to two churches, on another one took a lift ride to tower, great views. Went for a lunch actually twice, first by myself to pub next door and then to a local buffet restaurant with the blokes that I was with in the hockey game. If I was struggling with hangover it was nothing compared to those guys, man, they we’re dying.. ..made me felt pretty good.. Hah. Later on the evening went out with two yankees and aussie bloke, ended stayin up till 6am with that aussie bloke, goddamn I felt bad when woke up few hours later, I can’t really be havin hangover every day, althou todays feeling ain’t nothing compared to yday.. I was struggling a bit finding the bus station, dunno why I missed that one, could blame the hangover.. Finally got onto bus and to my 1st class section at the back of bus, neat. Got some refreshments and this bus has electric sockets for laptops and on top of all, free wi-fi, travelin with style.. And this whole 4,5h trip cost only 18€, how cheap is that comparing to Scandinavia..

Really waiting for Vilnius, just wonderin how much different the country and people are gonna be like, if at all. And also, what are the prices in there, gotta get used to another currency, again. Most likely I’ll end up drinkin tonite as well, obviously dependin on the people that I’m gonna meet in hostel, just gotta hope I won’t be getting anymore hangovers like on Tuesday. Althou, I do still feel good when rememberin those scottish blokes and their hangover..

Mini-trip

Before my ‘big’ trip to Australia I decided to take a wee trip somewhere, where-ever I could find cheap flights. By the time I was booking my flights I could have had flights even to Edinburgh with just less than 30€ but I just didn’t wanna go there, rather somewhere I have never been so I started to search flights for eastern Europe. Basically I had two choices - either fly to Poland from Turku or to Latvia/Lithuania from Tampere, after weighing options I chose the latter one. At first I was just thinking of either Riga or Kaunas but then decided to combine them since it’s pretty cheap to travel in Baltic countries. Only thing that was bothering me was travel costs to Tampere, about 3rd of whole travel budget.. In that sense Poland would have been cheaper but then I’d have either only 1 full day in Gdansk or other option, stayin 5 days in country and visitin Warsaw as well but when checkin prices for trains I was stunned.. ..would have been 35€ one way, in 2nd class.. ..no way.. So, chose Latvia & Lithuania, after all, it’s only 50€ return to Tampere and this way I get to see two countries and three cities. My travel itinerary is flyin to Riga where stayin for 2 nights, then travelling to Vilnius with a bus where stayin 2 nights as well, and on a last day takin train to Kaunas from where I’m flyin back to Tampere.

When I was reading newspaper yday saw that Dinamo Riga is playin in KHL play-offs on the day I’m headin there, awesome. Finally found a webpage from where to book tickets. There was quite a bit of free seats left and for pretty good price, 15-20lats, but.. ..since it was less than 4days to the venue I couldn’t pay with credit card, great.. Gotta hope I can find some ticket service from downtown Riga and get a good seat for the game. Anyway, no matter where I’m gonna sit, I’m definitely gonna go for that game, especially when I was checkin some game intros from YouTube, looks awesome. And I reckon, game itself is just a bit different than in SM-Liiga.. Dinamo doesn’t have any finnish players but they’ve got swede as a goalie. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl has two or three finnish players but I reckon I’m not gonna recognize ‘em cause their names are in russian..

I haven’t made too much plans of what to do in Baltic, rather just take everythin as it comes, just got few ideas what to see. I rather ask from my hostel what to see, usually the best tips are from locals. Of course, I do have wee guidebooks to get some idea what to see but I don’t wanna rely too much on them. ‘Just go with the flow’, that’s been my motto for awhile.