Famous Places from Aeroplanes

There are times when you get a window seat and are treated to fabulous views of the wing, or of clouds from the top. But occasionally you get a chance to see a few famous places from the sky.

And since I have seen them with my own eyes I think it's fair for me to say that I've visited them, and can tick them off the list. Hell, I didn't even leave Heathrow Airport and I can say that I've seen Windsor Castle...

Windsor Castle...




Niagara Falls...

O Canada

Welcome back to the land of the humidex and Tim Hortons and inferiority complexes about the United States (okay, the third one is a stereotype...)

It is very good to be back. I managed to get back to the old school for the last day of classes, and it was good to catch up with some old colleagues. Stacks of new faces, though. I went along to the staff show, which was pretty good fun and we had the guitars out strumming away a few songs.

There's probably not too much exciting to report at the moment - maingly catching up with people and reaffirming some friendships, which has been great for me but boring for others to read about. I'm in Montreal as a bit of a tourist this weekend, so will post an update shortly.

Hope all is good wherever you are!

Transit

Hello from Boston, where I have a three hour layover. After a 5 am start, a three-hour flight from Helsinki to London, a two-hour layover, then a 7 hour flight, it has been great to have access to the American Airlines lounge just to have a shower. But there's bugger all food here, which sucks. Cheapskate Americans. Flights today have been fine so far.

I will post more info on the final few days in Finland when I have a bit more time.

In the meantime, feel free to look through some photos at Facebook:



(Facebook is being temperamental - you can see the other albums if you follow the links...)

Midsummer in Tampere

The sun finally came out in Turku, and it was good wandering along the river, drinking coffee at cafes and doing a bit of people watching. I stopped in at one of the museums along the riverfront which was called Aboa Vetus, which I think is latin for Old Turku. It was a fantastic museum. In the mid 1990s they were doing some excavations and came across the ruins of old medieval buildings, which weren't on any maps and therefore came as a complete surprise. The ruins were excavated, and they built a roof over the top and turned it into an underground archaeological museum. Very interesting.

Yesterday I jumped on the train to Tampere, which is an old industrial city which has been gentrified into a pretty cool city. All of the factories along the river have been converted and it is a pretty good place to wander around. It must be a university town, because there's a stack of alternative types around the place, which meant I didn't want to drag out my camera and appear un-hip...

This weekend is Juhannus - or Midsummer - one of the biggest holidays in the Finnish calendar. It commemorates the longest day of the year and is the start of the holiday season. Most Finns apparently head out to their cottages, and certainly this morning the busiest place was the railway station, and even more people loaded up with bags were wandering in that general vicinity. Unfortunately, Juhannus isn't intended for tourists, and pretty much everything is closed, including all of the museums, tourist sites, a lot of restaurants, cafes, shops and fast food places. It will definitely impact on my trip to Tampere, as most of the places that I was interested in seeing will be closed.

Nevermind, will go for a few walks and catch up on some reading and chilling out. Hopefully there will be enough places open to get some food - even the hotel restaurant is closed...

The King of Sweden's throne

Finland's history saw it torn between Swedish and Russian rule until it became independent in 1917. Swedish royalty occasionally enjoyed the comforts of Turku Castle (or Åbo Slott, as it's known in Swedish, which is a far more entertaining name).

Anyway, here's the throne of the Swedish king. I myself have sat upon this regal seat (though I did not use it.)

Just goes to show the greatest of us have to go poopy, including our own monarch, HRH Queen Elizabeth II.

Turku Castle

This is the first castle that I've been in (unless you count the Excalibur casino in Las Vegas...)

Turku is the oldest city in Finland, but a lot of the oldest stuff has been destroyed by fires. The castle still stands, and I ventured into Finland's most popular tourist attraction for a look. I originally intended to wander down, take a couple of photos and head back, but the walk was longer than I thought and I was wet from the rain, so figured I'd head in. It was well worth it (for a castle virgin, any way) and had a quick tour with a young bloke dressed up in some faux medieval garb - I'm sure he felt like an idiot.




The castle courtyard



This is part of the oldest paintings in Finland - 15th century. No flash photography allowed, but mine accidentally went off. You know, new camera, takes a bit of getting used to.



Detail of one of the wall tapestries



A statue of one of the saints. The castle contains the last catholic church built in Finland before protestantism took over.

Finnish baseball

Yes, I am being boring and watching TV. I went out for another walk during a lull in the rain, down to Turku Castle, which was a tad further away than I thought. Anyway, it was about an 8km round trip and my feet are sore and I'm wet and cold and watching TV.

The TV channels at this hotel are all local, and I'm watching this bizarre version of baseball, which I have just googled, and it's called pesapallo, or Finnish baseball.

The pitcher stands right next to the plate and throws the ball straight up in the air, and the batter walks in and whacks it. And instead of a diamond, the runners run in a zig-zag.

As most of you know, I have two sport lists - sports I'm good at and sports I suck at. The first list currently has no entries, but I'm watching this thinking that I could probably throw a ball straight up in the air, so perhaps my sporting calling is to be a pesapallo pitcher! Then again, maybe I'd be better as a pesapallo catcher (because there isn't one...)

Wikipedia says this sport is played in Australia... never seen or heard of it before in my life, although we did come fourth in the 2006 Pesapallo World Cup (out of four competing nations!)

Might have to see if I can find a live match somewhere!

Turku in the rain

I arrived in Turku yesterday and woke up this morning to a pretty dreary, miserably day. It was raining lightly but steadily, and I figured I'd head out and about anyway I was chatting to one of the cleaners in the corridor who asked me if it was winter in Australia, and I resisted the temptation to tell her that yes, it was winter in Australia but it was still warmer than Turku...

This trip has seen me reconnect with a few things. It's been the first time for quite awhile that I've been inside a church. It's also the first time in a long while that I've worn pants. I'll be honest and say that I haven't found God, but I have enjoyed the leg warmth that comes with wearing a good pair of pants.

I wandered up to Turku Cathedral, which dates from the 1300s (well, bits of it do). It was good respite from the rain, but was chock full of tourists.

Here are a couple of photos:

A few more Helsinki photos

These photos were taken down near the harbour.







A view from the train to Turku, which is on the southwest coast of Finland.

God's expensive real etstate

A few churches in Helsinki.

The downside of fame

You work hard. Schmooz up to the right people. Pull a few strings here and there. Big note yourself. Eventually someone makes a statue of you so that birds can shit on you in perpetuity.

Not sure who this guy is but he kind of looks like John Howard - if Johnny didn't do those daily tracky-dack walks around Sydney...

Helsinki

This is my first taste of Europe. Helsinki is a pretty good place, though I've only been looking around for a couple of hours. It has a good atmosphere and there's a lot of people out and about, no doubt enjoying the sunshine. The sun rises at four in the morning, and sets at a quarter to eleven at night. Winters must suck big time.



Pohojoisesplanadi (Finnish is a bugger of a language...)



Kauppatori - a tourist market where you can buy souvenirs or local foods including reindeer and seafood (I'm not sure I'm game to eat fish caught out of the Baltic Sea...)



Another view of Pohjoisesplanadi

I'll head out again for a bit more exploring after I've had a bit of a kip. My body clock is a bit out of whack. The good news is that with the long days, an afternoon sleep won't be a problem.

The first photo on the new camera

I now have four digital cameras, which is three more than needed. The only camera I had with me on Groote came with a charger that I used once and then it mysteriously disappeared, which means I effectively have a fairly expensive paperweight until ebay can get me a new charger.

Deciding that I probably should take some photos on my trip, I bought another camera duty free in Thailand.

So this is the first thrilling photo. It's the plane that took me from Bangkok to Helsinki. It wasn't a bad flight - I had an exit row with an empty seat next to me. The plane was pretty full so why other passengers didn't request an exit row, I don't know. Certainly makes the trip fifty times better.

I just paid $6.50 for a coke...

I hate the Euro. Or more the point, I hate the amount of Euros this hotel chargers for coke - it better not be stock standard.

And to think yesterday I was paying 30 cents for a coke in Thailand.

I might end up hating Europe.

On the road again

Or more accurately, in the sky again as I have over 19 flights over the next two months. That's the problem with using Frequent Flyer points, where the most direct route is rarely available and it takes three legs and twice the amount of time as it should. But it will be worth it to catch up with friends and family again and to take in a few more sights around the world.

I'm in Bangkok now and fly out to Helsinki in about three hours. It's the second longest leg at 10.5 hours, but hopefully I have scored myself an exit row which will make the flight more bearable. I asked for one and she says I have an exit row seat, but the seat map doesn't really look like it!

Nothing really to report at this stage. Flight to Singapore was fine. I had the exit row again, and an older lady was sitting right up against the emergency window. She couldn't lift her bag up into the overhead locker, so I helped her out before realising that in an emergency there was no way she could lift out the emergency window. She laughed when the the flight attendant asked her if she could manage, but considering the chances of anything going wrong are pretty slight, the flighty didn't move her.

One night in Singapore. Nothing exciting there. Went into the city for a look around and the bus trip took forever. Looks like there're setting up an urban race track.

First posts are always boring...