Post number 100

It's time to collect some data. According to Globetrackr, I have collected here a top ten list of the countries that have visited my blog, Alive in Finland. It may have some old leftover data from my previous blog, Moved to Sweden, but I can't separate them. Too late for that.
  1. Sweden - 38,98 %
  2. Finland - 35,17 %
  3. United States - 8,32 %
  4. Hong Kong - 5,49 %
  5. United Kingdom - 1,29 %
  6. Russian Federation - 0,94 %
  7. Canada - 0,68 %
  8. France - 0,51 %
  9. Australia - 0,44 %
  10. Germany - 0,37 %

There was "unknown" in the 5th place with a 3,23 % share. Hits were from all over the world: 56 countries thank you very much! It seems that Sweden has lost its share but Finland has stayed pretty much the same. Whereas USA has grown big-time. There I have Hairy Swede to thank for. Mogli has been busy outside blogging, which may have caused the decrease of Filipinos at least in my visitor list. It seems not likely that the Finns will ever get the 50 per cent share, which would mean my blog language change to Finnish if they did. I'm not sure if I even wanted that. Let's have another walk-through with the statistics after 50 or 100 posts. Until then...

Den #5: Nature

Finally I can conclude this 5-piece introduction of Denmark. I have some other type of posts pending, but I needed to get rid of this first. To get it out of my system.

The most of Denmark consists of fields. There are no mountains. That explains those rapid weather changes. Denmark wants to increase and develop their wind power plant technology further. No nuclear plants. They are so green, environmentally conscious. Then again, what about legos? Plastic stuff that never decomposes. And, as far as I'm aware of anything, plastic still needs oil as its ingredient. I like their idea of being energy independent though.

Let's continue with Finns. When we arrived at Billund airport, there were two guides awaiting. One of them was male. A quick look at him saying "Hei!" convinced me once again: this dude is gay. My wife has warned me about not judging anyone by the first impression, so I stayed silent. The guide of our hotel was an older lady. Fuzzy old woman. She had interesting things to say, but it was a bit boring. When we got to the hotel, we had a welcoming event. The male guide took care of talking. And he was brilliant. He sounded just like a Finnish Lasse Norres, one-time manager of a legendary Finnish group called Dingo (he's done nothing ever since, but is concidered as a celeb still). Back to guide. When the occasion was over, my wife whispered to me: "This man sure is one of those..." Yup, even she noticed it, LOL! Nevertheless, he was such a good tourist guide that I wished he had been ours. I liked the way he pronounced "Billund" - it sounded more like "Pillunt" than "Biillynd" to me. Maybe it was a correct pronounciation still, who knows.

Back to Danish. And tolerance. The Danes are world famous for their tolerant attitude against sexual items. Also they are free to make fun of other religions but their own. But the free will seemingly doesn't reach immigrants. It was a news to me to hear that Denmark accepts least immigrants in Nordic countries. That is, even less than Finland. Maybe they are afraid of foreigners after what they have said and done. Or maybe they want to keep those busty women all for themselves. If you live in Eldorado, there simply can't be room for everyone..? Besides, the Danish men seem to have the same kind of hair loss going on as the Swedes do. And the Finns are not exactly foreign to that phenomenon either. So perhaps their self-esteem has lowered not to be able to compete with dark, handsome hairy rivals?

The guide told us that the legendary Danish fairy tale writer and teller Hans Christian Andersen was never married, but had a love of his life somewhere. Yeah right. Of course he could have been a "if I can't have you, I don't want nobody, babeh" type of a guy, but I doubt that. He could have been a "girl at each harbor" type of a charmer since he travelled a lot, which seems more likely. Then again, he could have been gay, making up stories about his distant lover. After all, he was a master in that field. Or worse, he could have done things Michael Jackson was accused of having done with children. An old man telling bedtime stories to small kids isn't actually popular these days. Please remember my ever-present TIC attitude, Danes, and be worthy of your tolerant image.

Personally, I found the Danish very polite and friendly. Not that helpful but still never rude. They smiled at us in a friendly way when they passed us in the streets, as if they knew us somewhere. An old couple even said hello to us while walking with the nordic poles. It must be partly because of our Nordic looks, partly because we had a lovely girl with us. I can't expect it happen to everyone although it could.

The Danish were even more into their own language than the Swedish. Maybe it was due to the whereabouts of the Vejle, but they preferred German over Swedish. English wasn't that great there either. I must admit that I'd never make it if I had to have a conversation in Danish. Even our guides talked English with the local people.

Now I have finally visited every Nordic country, Scandinavia if you will. The trip to Norway's Lapland hardly counts as a true visit but still. I'd like to fly to Oslo some day, although Norwegians are not famous for their love of Finns. At least as far as sport is concerned. I'd like to find out whether that is true in the grass level. It's kind of pleasant to notice that I'd like to re-visit every Nordic capital. Except for Finland's, which is so lame.

Den #4: Copenhagen

While the most of our group of Finns were travelling to a zoo nearby, we decided to see some of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, instead. We had seen Kolmården already in Sweden, and our lady guide told us that it was much the same. Luckily there was a railway station in Vejle which had a straight connection to Copenhagen. Since we were in mainland, we had to cross some bridges and islands on our way. It took about 2,5 hours to get there. A lot of modern times windmills escorted us along the way.

At first, we checked the map to find out where the famous statue of small mermaid would be lying. Or sitting down actually. There was an arrow up in our map, pointing that the statue would be just out of range. Hell, it was several kilometers out of range! We walked and walked along the harbour, and it started to rain. Finally, when we were ready to give up, we saw it in the distance. Normally I wouldn't go to great pains for a statue. It just had turned into a challenge during the search.

Another thing we wanted to experience was a Danish bread, smörrebröd. That was a huge disappointment. We have had the same kind of bread and butter with a lot of topping on it in Finland for ages, so this wasn't that new an experience. To know better is to judge better, LOL! Granted, it was just one sample, but we saw pictures of other Danish bread slices, which weren't any dissimilar.

It would have been stupid to stay in Vejle on Sunday, because everything was basically closed. Our famous male guide told us that in Copenhagen the shops are mostly open on Sunday as well.

Ströget, the pedestrian shopping street area in the centre was a nice place to wander around. The prices were high, even higher than in Finland. Sadly the second-hand record shops were all closed. Not that I checked them all out. An old round tower in Ströget was a nice place to visit. We simply had to climb there (no steps, no elevator; just a diagonal road almost to the top), to see the view of course.

Suddenly it came to me: is there a Hard Rock Café in Copenhagen? I had chased HRC souveniers in Rome, Paris, London, Reykjavik and Stockholm already. I have now 3 guitar-shaped bottle openers which also pass for ice-box magnets - sad thing I didn't start collecting them from the very beginning. They probably didn't exist in 1996? My wife also took a traditional picture of me (with our daughter), standing in front of Hard Rock Café.

The weather was sunny most of the time, ever since we left the harbor and the mermaid. We also walked to see the royal castle and watched the guards standing in their posts. Our kid asked me: "Why do those guards wear such funny hats?" I couldn't really tell, so I speaked some jargon about old habbits and fashion trends. All I could say for sure, was that those hats must be pretty warm to wear in hot weather. And, that too, is based on assumption.

Tivoli, the amusement park stood the opposite of the main railway station. We had no time to visit there, but it is plain to see that the next time that one will be our main target. And there will be a next time. We definetely want to see more of Copenhagen. More than just 8 hours. And maybe we want to sit on the lap of H. C. Andersen's statue once more. That was very slippery by the way.

They have a weird but working system with the trains. If you travel to a certain place, you must enter a correct carriage. That way the train conductor can easily check new arrivals. Also, if you're in a wrong carriage, the doors may not open at your station. In that sense, it was a bit tricky. Then again, tickets were easy to buy in ticket machine via credit card. And there was no time and date in the ticket. That's a plus compared to Finnish system. I hate it when I have to know in advance what precise train I'm going to use on my way back. And, the trains were right on schedule!

Den #3: Vejle

The city where our hotel located was called Vejle. Still is. It is pronounced in the German way, almost like the word "whiler". It is a small town actually, near the sea. The only bigger street was a shopping street, or a pedestrian street if you will. Anyway, it was full of small boutiques which attracted tourists. Picture 1 (taken in the largest shopping center of Vejle): When the brand is succesful enough, all you need is a logo!

At first we had a hard time finding a place to eat or drink coffee, but later on we found out that the most of them were already closed. And it wasn't even evening yet! Almost every shop was closing during 5 - 6 p.m. We were really struggling for a cup of coffee. Our male guide had tipped us off to pay a visit to a "hidden" restaurant. It was very well hidden indeed, but we found it the other day, by accident of course. Maybe the expectations were too big to meet, but the food wasn't particularly tasty. And the service was pretty slow. Then we didn't realize that it was the way of the world in Denmark.

The hotel (picture 2) was alright, but the same breakfast buffet every morning started to irritate me. There was not that much assortment to variate a lot. Anyway we needed to eat something, notably those days we stayed in Legoland all day. The service proved to be slow also in the Danish hotel business, and the beds were not made at all during our stay.

Once we ordered a cup of coffee at the reception bar - after we had desperately searched for a coffee bar in the Vejle center. Ten minutes passed we noticed that the woman in charge hadn't even started to make it yet. My wife, the more impatient one, went back to the counter and explained the situation to another woman, who started to make it at once. In a moment she brought it to our table - only to be interrupted by the first woman, explaining that the second woman had made it in a wrong way. She took the coffee away, and came back after several minutes. That was a weird coffee machine she used: you had to push a piston (mäntä) down, but not before the coffee was ready. Hell, we were in such a need of coffee that we pushed it down quite soon and drank it. It didn't taste good, but it was coffee still. And our last cups of coffee there. It was strange because in the mornings the coffee was quite good.

In picture 3, you can see a shop called "Catwalk Scum". I just had to take a picture of it! Scum? What were they thinking of? Bum fashion, the next big thing? These things justify having a camera in your cellular, LOL!

Our male guide (who will co-star in the last episode of my Denmark study) advertised that there were some extremely delicious fish restaurants near the harbor. The fish would be fresh, caught the very same day. Well, we couldn't find any fish restaurants there. Hell, we didn't even find the street the recommended restaurant was supposed to locate. We asked some local people and they didn't know either. I wondered that it sure was easier to say "I don't know" than guide us in English. Finally we entered one sushi bar, which was a pleasant place. Once again, the waitress was polite but the service was so slow.

Since I'm on a roll with pictures (in fact, being lazy to transfer these pics to a PC delayed the making of this post. As you can see, it was worth having them here...), let's have another one. In the last picture, you can see a mixture of cola and energy drink. It promises to be the strongest cola in the world, having 50% more caffeine than leading brands. Not saying which they are, of course. I bought it at the airport, on our way back home. I thought that I might need some extra energy while driving from Helsinki back to Nokia. Yup, it was keeping me awake convincingly. I only took a couple of sips of it to be honest.

When we arrived home, I began wondering that maybe it was too strong a drink to bring to Finland. It's not for sale here, I guess. Then again, why would it be sold at the airport, if it were illegal to carry abroad?

Another thing that caught my eye in the can, was the text "support the breasts". Hell, I support them gladly, LOL! If it wasn't obvious after my previous post. It continues in Danish, but it says basically that 25 öre of each can go to the fight against breast cancer. I support that too, although 25 öre is close to nothing. It's something like 3,5 cents of Euro. It's kind of weird though: get high with caffeine and save some breasts at the same time. I'm all for saving Danish breasts, and as I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of it to save (I'd put a smiley here, but I have promised myself not to use them in my posts anymore. In my comments they adventure sometimes still).

Den #2: Rackland

I know, I'll get crushing objections from Floridian and Sapphire to name a few, but I just can't be silenced. Sorry...

The first thing I noticed in Denmark, was the D cup effect: almost every woman walking (read: bouncing) in the street was astonishingly well-equipped. It blew my mind, to quote Hairy succesfully. I had thought this could happen only in Sweden, but now it happened in Denmark too. And the women in question weren't fat at all. I felt like being born in a wrong country; and I didn't need five days to decide that. Then again, if this were a daily scenery for me, I probably would not pay any attention to it anymore. If I ever had. Maybe it's good to be born in Finland, even if just to go abroad and see the natural wonders of mammals.

This supports my theory of Finnish not originating from Scandinavian roots (not my own theory, but a dialect of it, if you will). Even if Finland was part of Sweden for centuries, the genetic inheritance came from the East, deep in the heart of Russia. The matryoska doll, where wooden Russian woman dolls are hidden inside a larger, the similar-looking doll, serves as a prime example of a Finnish woman as well. Short height, big head, bad skin, tight shoulders, large waiste, big fat bottom and thighs, beer-belly, thick ankles, short feet, week, brunette hair (not blonde as usually stated) and, yes, small tits. Of course, generalization isn't fair, but this isn't actually my invention. It's pretty much common knowledge in Finland. We know what we are, which sadly doesn't necessarily help grow our self-esteem. Yet, Finnish women treat Finnish men like garbage. Maybe we males are so dumb to take the hits and not doing anything about it. It's considered to be manly when not complaining about anything. And maybe we are not worthy of a Finnish woman still. Ok, enough about my provocative opinion.

I have noticed that the Swedes and the Danes in particular, do eat a lot of greasy, fatty food. But for some reason, it shows in their boobs instead of ass and thigs. This isn't fair to the Finnish women; they have to eat more healthily not to grow a huge ass, and still the boobs don't grow much, if not at all. Granted, every woman doesn't want large breasts, but why do they get siliconized then? And pay a fortune for it? Do they feel the environment pressing them to get a big rack? Against their own will? That's BS.

If we go back to my original topic, I used to think that the women were pretty in Sweden, Portugal, Romania especially, Italy and France - basically everywhere I have dropped by (except for Bulgaria). Meeting these blonde (there seemed to be even more blondes than in Sweden) Danish women was a final wakeup call for me. It's not that they are beautiful, it's that the Finnish women are so goddamn ugly. With a hell of a lot of exceptions of course but still. In average. Some may want to hang me for this, but I have tried to be as objective as I can. If you wish, you can leave a comment. Bring it on, LOL!

Den #1: Legoland

I have dealt this subject into 5 different posts. They all deal with our family's trip to Denmark, in one way or another. The first one is about our main target: Legoland.

We spend two days in Legoland, which is just about minimum and maximum. You can't see and experiment all in one day; on the other hand after two days it's only repetition of the same. It was a worthwhile trip. I recommend it to everyone; even if you don't have children.

Our trip, organized by the Finnish travel agency Matkavekka, was a success. We were in good hands all the time. Also the weather wasn't that bad. It was mostly sunny, although some rain showers were present daily as well. We heard that it's part of Danish weather: rainy, shiny, windy and cloudy skies change places many times during an hour! Anyway, it wasn't as bas as forecasted for the whole week.

Lego miniatyres were impressive. Really. Those amusement park equipments were also quite enjoyable. Admittedly, it was more fun for the children, but the lovely environment shone its joyous and playful feeling around - even so that it felt almost irresistable. It didn't feel that commercial a place as Euro-Disney. After you had paid the Legoland ticket, everything was basically free inside the park. Drinks, food etc. excluded of course. The Legoland personnel was very motivated, friendly and professional. The park itself was tidy and extremely well taken care of.

Because the Billund, where this original Legoland is located, had its own airport, it was pretty fast to get there. Even if we had our hotel booked in a city nearby, called Vejle. Which proved to be an excellent choice for the trip as well. This five-day stay in Vejle, with hotel, flights, Legoland tickets and transportation, cost a bit more than 500 euros each. Not cheap, but then again worth the money. And what's more: worth the experience. After the season it'll be even cheaper.

The Summer of '69

Yes, it's exactly 40 years since man (or 'a man', LOL!) stepped on the Moon for the first time in history of mankind. At least allegedly so. This time, I'm not supporting any conspiracy theories. Because I want to believe. Like I read in a newspaper: why would Americans set-up the fake Moon walk so many times? Because they are stupid? I don't think so, not this time.

It's not that fashionable to brag about seeing the incident on TV, because it reveals you're an old fart. But actually I do remember watching it happen, 40 years ago. Being only 3 years old, I surely didn't see it in right perspective, LOL, maybe I was thinking "Big deal". Probably not even that. And if it weren't my mother who carried me in front of a television set, saying "Look, they are on the Moon now!", I would never have witnessed it happen. All I remember is some blurry moving images in black and white. Which is more than some recall about their trip to Woodstock.

I'm pretty convinced that we haven't yet heard everything related to the first succesful Moon trip. I wonder why Neil Armstrong is always so quiet about it. Then again, after walking on the Moon - what would leading a normal life on Earth feel like after that? Not so many people to share that mutual feeling around.

I'm so laid back I'm laid off

Yes, that must be the reason for getting laid (off). These days you must lean forward in everything you say and do. Promise to get things done on time, even if you never had done anything like it. Signs of the times. I don't fit into lying matrix. I never have.

Actually, our company seems to be doing what the other bigger companies have done for the past six months. Now's the time to cut extra costs without having to explain your actions to anyone. It's the recession, you know. Understandable to kick out somebody. In plural in our case.

Getting laid off is unknown to Swedes at least. It's like you are getting fired for a certain amount of time. Or until further notice. I got a two-month lay off, maximum, after which I will continue working as nothing had happened. During a lay off I'm entitled to get unemployment compensation. It will take more than a while to get it, because there are so many people in my situation as well. I can take another job if I like/get one. I could also quit my job without term of notice.

In a way, I'm happy about the situation, because I had only a few-day vacation which I have already spent. Also, I was so tired after working and doing the same things all over and over again that I really needed to rest. On the other hand, I had to welcome more of that ever-loving bureaucracy in the shape of multiple papers and visits to several offices. And the loss of money makes the living more difficult. In fact, this lay off incident seems to follow the Smek's economical disaster curve quite expectedly, LOL!

Now I have more time to blog, but less money to do things to blog about. Anyhow, I'm hoping for a better ending to this year. That shouldn't too hard to implement. But then again: how many things go right in this crazy world?

Two slips in six months

Since Mr. Obama started his presidency I have noticed two embarrassing moments in his acts. Nothing big but still big enough to mention. You'll be the judge whether two mistakes is much. Personally I think he could have avoided these slips easily if he had wanted to. There may have been more of them around, but I haven't been that interested in the subject at hand.

The first one occurred when Obama was comparing his bowling skills to paralympics level or something like that. Very unfortunate. The second one I witnessed myself, when Obama caught a fly and killed it on a television show. And even bragged about it.

What bothers me most, is the fact that these actions would have been expected GWB to perform instead of Obama. Now the 'change' doesn't feel that appropriate a word anymore, does it? I hope these slips were only beginner's mistakes - otherwise he's done a great job so far. Good luck to Barry town people, still a lot of good things to do...

Don't beat anymore, the man's already dead!

At first I must confess that I have never been a fan of Michael Jackson. Then again, I have liked some of his songs up to a point. I have even purchased some of his records, though admitted because of his duets with Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger. It's not like me to pretend.

The first wave of repulsion met me right after the announcement of Jackson's death. I was still in total amazement how this could have happened, when the media started doing its thing. A lot of celebrities revealed us how they had always admired Michael Jackson and how genious he had been. Even those who actually never met the man were interviewed. Hell, including some Finns in local tabloids!

Ok, it's nice to be nice to the dead. But... where was the frontier of support when he was alive? These people interviewed kept their mouths shut. Maybe being afraid of getting their name dirty or something. Attached to alleged child abuse perhaps.

The second wave knocked me out. Autopsy reports were released, saying Michael was bald, skin and bones and full of needle marks. What gives anyone a right to release stuff like that? Now that those reports have been found to be untrue (no one tells to what extent), we keep on getting more and more of the same. In different packages, but still. I get this feeling that because he was somewhat easy to mock and hurt, the media feels they still have the right to treat him the way he has been treated ever since Thriller. That is, how they feel like.

Let's be fair and give the man some peace. Although he died at 50, he still managed to make a career worthy of several lifetimes. That's more than enough to make somebody to be not just anybody.

ME AND US

I me mine and so on. Well, it's my birthday today. Not a special day in other way. Oh yes, it's the independence day in the US. Happy birthday! (a quote from S Wonder in case U wonder). And in the Flilippines too.

Not much to celebrate at the moment, but it's alright. I have always hated to be the center of attention. Well, I can stand being celebrated by my family members. They surprised me this morning by bringing breakfast in bed. A nice gesture. What makes them happy makes me happy as well.

It seems like I will have more time to blog in July. I have some goodies waiting, just around the corner...