Cobblestones Are EVIL

Hey guys! It's been a really long time, and I figured you deserved a real update of my travels so far! I wrote this in my hostel dorm in Prague as I tried to sleep, but was kept awake by the really loud people in the courtyard. Hope you enjoy:

Since my last real blog post, I've visited Amsterdam, Brussels, and I'm currently in Prague. It's only been 10 days since I left Copenhagen, but it may as well have been 10 months, judging by how much I've seen and experienced! I'll try not to bore you with lame details, so I'll just give a quick summary which will probably not be a summary at all, but a collection of thoughts slightly pertaining to where I visited cause that's apparently how I write. 

Anyways. Amsterdam. Alliteration. Unfortunately, my day was rather uneventful. I had an excellent tour - a Sandemans tour, for those wondering - and I had a great meal. It was honestly very regular, and even the entry of my journal is only two pages long (trust me, that's short).
I did enjoy my two-ish days in the Netherlands, despite not having much to report. I stayed with my good friend Rebekah, with whom I attended high school. She is currently studying International Food Business in Dronten, a little Dutch town about an hour's train ride from Amsterdam. We decided to travel together around Europe for her week-long autumn break, which pretty well everyone in Europe gets (lucky bums...)

Another friend I went to high school with gave me a list of places to visit whilst in Belgium. I can't really qualify this as a list of recommendations, really, 'cause it's more of a beer scavenger hunt.
I like to think of myself as a beer enthusiast, but Riley is a real connoisseur; he lived in Belgium on a Rotary Exchange (the same program that brought me to Finland) and while he was there he was immersed in the extensive beer culture of Belgium. He actually has a blog, wherein he gives tasting notes on different beers. It's a very entertaining blog, check it out if you're interested.

I think I speak for Bekah, as well as myself, when I say Brussels was awesome. I loved the city - which is not common for me - and had an excellent experience. I ate Belgian waffles, saw the most amazing town square I've ever seen, drank lots of beer, and simply explored the city. I plan on coming back later before I run away to Ireland, and I can't wait!

Prague was also mega cool. The old town was beautiful and the food was delicious. I can't really go into detail about what the buildings looked like, so you can check out photos from our trip here. Bekah and I had lots of fun tourist dodging, eating plain pasta and salt (because budget), and making dumb faces in photos. I loved spending time with my favorite weirdo, and without her I would have had to rely on my sense of direction, which was nonexistent in Prague. Thanks for sharing an amazing week with me Bek, you're the bomb!

 

On a sort-of random note, did you want to know what Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Prague all have in common? Sure, they're all in Europe, and I'm certain they have many other similarities, but the common ground I'm talking about is just that: ground. More, lack thereof. Alright, I'll just say it: I MISS DIRT.
At first, I thought the cobblestones were really rad - totally tubular, even - but after spending the last week-and-a-bit walking on them, I've concluded that they will be the death of me. They're all uneven, the technology is so outdated, and they have absolutely no give if you happen to trip over a stone that decided it wanted more sun than the rest of it's neighbors. No, I haven't face-planted quite yet, but I can see it looming over me like a dark cloud of death. 

I'm directing my hatred at the cobblestones specifically, but really I just miss small towns: it's quiet, there's parks, they have dirt... This country girl just doesn't belong in a big city. 

Thankfully, I arrived in Ghent on yesterday, a smaller town in Belgium that hopefully has dirt. After that I'm off to Dublin! I can't wait to see the city, but I've got way more mountain trekking planned (okay, when I say "planned" I mean "I have a vague idea of what I might want to do, but I haven't budgeted it or looked at a map or thought about where I want to go")

In any case, I'll try and update you again, which will most likely be on my flight to Dublin, since I seem to write all my posts then. *casually blogs at 10 000 feet* *flips hair that hasn't been washed as often as it should be* I'm fabulous. 

Well, it appears I've run out of things to say! I guess I'll leave you all to the rest of your day now. 

sbohem ted`

~Claire

A Quick Update from Brussels

Hey guys!

I'm really quickly writing this in my hostel before I run off to another day of Belgian adventures. Belgium is amazing, I love it here.

This update is mostly to inform you that I am still alive and well, but not to expect a real blog post any time soon. I will write a big one about Amsterdam and Brussels when I get time, but that won't be for another week, since I leave for Prague soon and still need to soak up all the Belgium I can get!

So yeah. I'm alive. Life is awesome. You can have a photo of my amazing friend Bekah and I drinking Belgian beer :)

Gotta blast!
Claire »»»»»

P.S. CANADIANS. It's election day. Go vote. I'm hoping to celebrate the Stephen Harper Going Away Party all the way over here in Europe, help me make that happen! :) :) :) :)

Face Your Fears!

I wrote this, as usual, on a plane. I just left Copenhagen and am hopefully flying in the direction of Amsterdam, where I get to see my favorite weirdo Canadian! I'm really stoked to see her, and we'll be off adventuring in Belgium and the Czech Republic! It's gonna be a wild ride, boys and girls, and I can't wait. Here's a blog post about my stay in Copenhagen...

A little background:
I'm afraid of a lot of things. I'm kind of like a 9-year-old that accidentally got stuck in a 20-year-old's body. The two fears I experienced on Sunday were hights - a really quite common fear - and.... biking. Seriously, I'm afraid of biking. I'm not even talking about the motorised stuff, I'm talking the metal frame you sit on and use your feet to pedal. I don't like the feeling of moving so fast, but the thing I really fear is when you turn a corner and the bike banks to one side.
I'm a physics kid, I know why this happens. I also know that, unless the ground is mega slippery or covered in gravel, I won't slip. I still pee my pants a little bit every time.
There, now you have two tidbits of information about me for when they make Trivial Pursuit: Claire Stanhope edition.

Tangent: I just blew my own mind: Timbits must be a play on words for tidbit, since they're so small. Does everyone know this? Am I late in this revelation? Probably, I'm kind of oblivious.

Okay anyways, Sunday I biked around Copenhagen, which was terrifying, and I also climbed a ridiculously high tower and even climbed to the very top without vomiting! I can confidently say that my father would not have made it to the top of the Church of Our Savior, and probably not even out onto the main lookout. I, however, did, so I deserve a gold star. This is a photo of me at the top, trying not to look like I was about to hyperventilate and pass out.
Despite leaving my stomach half way up the tower, the view was AMAZING. It honestly reminded me of Assassins Creed, when you climb up a huge tower and just get to marvel at the view. This view was only slightly less pixelated.

After getting to the bottom of the tower and learning how to walk again, I went to an area nearby called Christiania, affectionately known as the Green Light District. I feel like you're already catching on as to what this place was, but I'll be blunt: it was a giant pot market. They had signs everywhere saying "NO PHOTOS" and all the vendors covered their "storefronts" with mesh and army camouflage and wore masks. I'm not even kidding.

Other than that, my time in Copenhagen was mostly sightseeing - which is best experienced in my facebook album - and getting lost, with the occasional beer and open-faced sandwich thrown in.

All in all, Copenhagen was beautiful. Every single building was gorgeous, no matter what it was. Danes proved to be extremely friendly, coming up to me and asking help as I stared blankly at my map of the city. I was lucky enough to have an awesome host that lent me her terrifying transportation machine (read 'bike') and let me stay with her in her mini apartment. The generosity of Danes and Europeans continues to amaze me!

Tak og farvel Danmark!
Carl out »»»»»»

Photos for My Bloggerino

Last time I made a blog, I used some feature with Blogger that showed the photos right in the blog and took them from Facebook. At the time, I thought it was rad, but now when I look back at the blog all the photos are gone. This is unfortunate. Because I'm sure that will happen again with this blog, I'm just going to give you the address to the Facebook album I have made (which is public - aka anyone can see it, even if you don't have a Facebook account). If I want to reference a particular photo, I will link it like this so you can click and see it.

Hopefully this works for everyone and doesn't get messed up in a couple of months!

I'm writing a full post about Denmark that I'll probably post quite soon, but for now I have photos from my last few days here that you can see at this link (this is the same album as linked above).

Enjoy creeping my photos :)

Ses senere!
>>> Claire

IN COPENHAGEN!

OH MY GOSH I NAVIGATED COPENHAGEN AND DIDN'T GET LOST HERE'S A BLOG POST AND A SELFIE OF ME AND THE REALLY HAPPY LOOKING WALL SOCKET

Written on my flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen:

This is it, I'm saying goodbye to my favorite country-that-isn't-Canada again! Finland, we need to stop meeting like this.

All jokes aside, I had a great time over these past two weeks visiting with friends and host families. Everyone was so supportive and only a few people groaned when I showed up! 

Visiting my old school was weird. A Canadian flag hung on the wall of the Kahvio, joined by a German flag from the exchange student who visited the year after me. Other than the flags, it was like nothing changed. Like seriously, they still hadn't replaced the photos from my second year "coming of age" dance. I feel like all high schools share a multinational lack of enthusiasm in updating pictures and suchlike.
Of all the reactions I got from my teachers, my old Physics teacher's was the best. As he saw me, he casually greeted me, then did a double take and said "whoa, where'd the Canadian come from??"

This time, not only did I have to say goodbye to my Finnish friends and host families, but I had to part with the new family I'd become a part of: over the past week I have become an honorary Iraqi.

having been "adopted" by one of the families living in the refugee camp. Saying goodbye to them was more difficult than one would expect, since I'd only just met them a week ago. 

Last Saturday I met with a woman who has been actively involved with the refugees for almost the entire two months that they've been in Päivärinne. She brought me to where they were staying, just a short walk from my host family's house, and introduced me to some of the families and individuals that had finally started to settle in after a long journey across Europe. 

Their kindness was to a degree I'd never experienced; every single time I greeted them I was met with a smile and an enthusiastic "terve!" Their warmth and friendliness was inspiring, especially after I had a change to speak with some of the asylum seekers about their journey to Finland. 

I volunteered at the camp teaching Finnish for Beginners classes. I felt that I was fairly qualified in that field, having gone through the exact same struggle of language learning only two years earlier. From the enthusiastic nods and thumbs up I received, I figured I was getting my points across decently well and they understood what I was trying to say. I had an unrealistic amount of fun teaching the three classes I did, laughing with my students about silly Finnish language rules and coaching them through tough pronunciations. I like to think they had as much fun as I did, and I hope I made learning one of the hardest languages in the world look a little less daunting. 

After every lesson I would walk to the family housing and enjoy spending time with my new Iraqi family, a family of four living in cramped quarters that would always magically have a chair on hand for me to sit in, no matter when or where. They fed me uncomfortably spicy foods and laughed as they taught me how to eat soup with a fork. I taught them Finnish and I attempted to teach my throat how to make the sounds necessary to speak Arabic. My botched pronunciations were always met with laughter and then encouragement to try again. I will now impress you by writing my name in Arabic:

حلادا

So yeah, I'm pretty much fluent. All jokes aside, I had so much fun and can honestly say that spending time with these amazing people changed my life for the better. I hope that I will one day have the pleasure of seeing them again

So, with the tears and heavy hearts aside, I have arrived in Copenhagen! Okay no, I haven't yet, I'm writing this in the plane, but I will post this when I land and get WiFi! Woot! I'll update again when I have time (aka another flight). 

وداعا!
حلارا

A Week in Finland

So I've been in Finland almost a week now and I've come to realise that I don't understand Finnish as well as I should. The average Finn seams to speak to me very differently than my family...

Random Finn who doesn't know I'm Canadian: "I wish to know if you would enjoy consuming the clear, tasteless beverage having the chemical make-up of two hydrogen and one oxygen molecules"

My family: "You want some water?"

In any case, I'm still able to get by with my crappy Finnish. At least it entertains my friends.

Speaking of friends, it's awesome to see everyone again! Very little has changed, but that's to be expected; I've only been gone a year! I'm going to my old high school on Monday, which will be weird. I'll only know the third years and teachers, everyone else will be wondering who that strange kid who can't speak Finnish is.

On an interesting note, the little town/ village/ gathering of people in a concentrated area that I'm staying in has taken in about 200 refugees. I've been very curious to meet some of them, and I recently found out they are looking for volunteers to help! I'm not sure what I would be needed for, but I plan on going in a couple of days to help out. I think it will be an amazing experience to find out where these people are from and what they've been through to arrive here; you hear a lot about refugees in the news, but it'll be a whole different story actually speaking to them. I can't wait to update you readers on my experiences there!

Otherwise, life is... Life. I've just kind of jumped back into my routine I had a year ago, which has me in a false sense of security. The next two months will be, well, quite a bit different. I'm still not 100% sure where I'm going; I've booked flights to Copenhagen and then Amsterdam, where I'll meet up with my bffl - sorry, not sorry - who currently lives there and we'll travel around for her October break. After that I'm going to Belgium and Scotland and other places? Horrah for not making plans!

So yeah, there you go. I'm still alive n' stuff. Hopefully I'll update you again before I leave Finland but, again, I make no promises!

L8r luzerz, Carl out »»»»»