Yes you read that correctly. Autumn. I waited and waited for summer and warmth here in Helsinki, ... and it never came. They are telling me now that is just going to start raining more and more and getting cooler and cooler. Damn, ... at least the sun is beginning to set at times I am used to.
I will start off clearing something up to appease myself and my mother's side of the family. I am not half gypsy. Gypsies, or the Roma originate from the Asian sub-continent region and immigrated to Hungary, Turkey, and Romania hundreds of years ago, hence there name Roma. They are not in any way related to the indigenous Romanian ethnic group to with I am 50% a member. The Romanian ethnic group descends from the Romans of Italy, who settled and colonized Romania over a millenia ago. The Romanians DNA and Romanian langauge is closest to that of the ancient Latin Romans then any other ancestry in the world, .. this includes modern day Italians. Thank you Wikipedia.
Check out these to videos too. One of makes you smile and want to travel. The second makes you think and realize you should travel.
1st. (first video at the top) http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/videos.shtml
2nd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4
Okay now on to what has happened over the past week.
After Tallinn earlier in the week I had a football game in Tampere which is the second biggest Finnish city outside of the Helsinki area, and is about 3 hours north by bus of Helsinki. It was raining when I woke up, it raining the whole bus ride and it poured the entire game. The Tampere Saints are 0-9 but it was important we ddin't take them lightly and won well. Our passing attack wasn't faded by the rain and after the defense let up scores n the first two drives they pulled it together and shut out the Saints the rest of the game. It was nice to not have to win the game in the last minutes for the first time in months. I even got to sit out a bit towards the end of the game to rest my tender shoulders, and I didn't have to play defense at all. The final was 55-21 at Tampere.The weather is noticeably cooling, and the sun setting early every night. The seasons don't waste any time here in Finland. I am not going out after the game, because I am not trying to have a repeat of last weekend's Finnish everclear blackout and the feeling like crap for the next 2 days. Next two games to finnish out the regular season are at home. Oh and by the way I am now wearing number #56, because in the Butchers game number 75 got destroy by the D-line ripping it off. They play pretty dirty over here.
I went to Tallinn, Estonia or in Estonian, Tallinna, Estee ,for the day today. My cruiseliner laft the harbor in downtown Helsinki at 10.30 this morning and as we left I took some photos. After a two and half hour ride we pulled into the port city and I walked the kilometer or so in the soft rain into Tallinn's Old Town.
The Old Town in Tallinn is supposed to be one of the best perserved medieval cities in Europe and I could see why. It is entirely self-contained and away for the modern hotels and office buildings Tallinn also has. Steeples and towers rise all over the place and the narrow, cobblestoned streets combined with the rainy weather took me right back to ancient times.
It being a Wednesday afternoon and rainy, there weren't many tourists out and about, and I had my pick of what I wanted to see and I didn't mind getting a little wet to do it. I got to check out Europe's oldest pharmacy, as well as the the ancient town hall, and climb the 70meter town hall tower which gets narrower and narrower as you climb.
The town hall is in a wide open expanse of cobblestone named Raekoja plats, and it serves as Old Town market square. It was full of touristy trinkets and goods, and a lot of ugly patterned sweaters. The rain had picked up and I stop for a bite in a little cafe. Because I had only 3.5 hours before the ferry went back to Helsinki, I braved the rain and checked out the extreme impressive Russian Orthodox St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral atop Toompea Hill in the Upper Old Town.
I found a little ledge that overlooked Old Town and snapped a few photos before I humped it back to buy a Estonia sweatshirt and hop on the ferry. The Estonia currency is the EEK. 15EEK=1 Euro. I thought that was funny
Anyways miss you all.
John
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