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2007 - July - Back to index |
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Soundtrack of my life Unessa mies, valveilla nainen Risto |
A friend of mine has been promoting a Finnish band called Risto for quite some time, and finally I did the listening. This is some heavy stuff, I tell you.
Back in Brissy faster than the eye could flick. -If I had to mention one thing I would miss in Brisbane, that would certainly be the CityCats: ten beautiful superfast catamarans connecting the north and south banks of Brisbane River. Standing by the rail on the front deck when the boat speeds between the skyscraper spotted shores makes you feel like Kate Winslet in the figurehead scene of Titanic. CityCats have obscure aboriginal names, and until recently I hadn't known what they stand for.
I fled the hotel as early in the morning as possible, worried that the aviation police might be chasing me as soon as they realized that I was not planning to go straight to the airport. I was planning to see downtown Taipei, instead! I'm such a crook!
Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world (unless you're reading this next week). My favourites were the Chinese money signs in the lower part of the building. Money talks, bullshit walks.
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The plaza of Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial must be quite a sight when filled with people - however, I was there alone. If you don't get an attack of agoraphobia here, you probably won't get it anywhere.
Hsimending used to be a red light district (or so I interpreted the tourist guide text) but now it's dedicated to shopping, shopping and shopping.
As usually on my way back to Australia, I had a stopover, this time in Taiwan. I left my luggage at the airport and took an excellent tourbus ride provided by the Republic of China (you sure have my vote in the UN now, guys!)
The first stop was in Sanshia to see the Zushih Temple and the historical Old Street.
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The second stop was in Yingge, which produces sculptures and pottery of all kinds including replicas of various Song dynasty china brands. After this visit, I went absolutely nuts about Chinese porcelain. Ge Kiln lookalikes were my favourite by far, but they were twenty times more expensive than Di Kiln longquan celadon, which I liked as well, so I ended up purchasing the latter one.
This sculpture would've been mine for 700 euros. I'm mad at myself already for not buying it.
In the evening, I took the shuttle bus to my hotel, which was quite posh on the outside and came with four meal vouchers, all courtesy of the airline. First it seemed like a damn good deal for a broke student, but when I saw the signs in the lobby, I started to feel very guilty about my plans to see as much of Taipei as possible during my transit...You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave? Geez, and I thought the sticker they gave me at the airport was some sort of memorabilia.
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To make it all the more eerie, the music-box piece they played over and over again in the cafeteria sounded exactly like something you would hear a moment before Drusilla massacres a restaurantful of transit passengers...
Sylvia and I stayed up all night, but early in the morning my iPod sock had to say bye-bye to her brother and sister, while I had to bid farewell to Sylvia and my beautiful penthouse lodging.
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When the train crossed the Polish border, I saw my second most magnificent thunderstorm ever. Around the same time the temperature went down by about 20 degrees, so my idea of travelling very lightly, wearing only a mini skirt, a summer top, and a money belt proved to be slightly off target. I ended up concentrating on the culinaristic aspects of the country, less so on sightseeing.
To hell with rainy Poland, I'll go back to Austria! I was back in Vienna just in time to thrash the main conference reception at the City Hall.
Tämän snagarin jonossa ei ketään nakattu turpaan.
The second day at the conference was almost as good as the first. After it was over, staying in the air-conditioned conference center for the rest of the night seemed like a tempting idea, but eventually Sylvia and I had to go swimming in the Danube and celebrating the magic minute 20:07 20.07.2007 with some happy hour tequila sunrises in Copa Cagrana.
Late in the evening, I took the night train to Krakow. From the same station, trains departed to more or less everywhere in Central Europe.
Today, I learned about another Viennese specialty. Like in Helsinki, the city did not easily allow buildings to have more than four floors. So everybody started building houses with four floors only... plus Keller...plus Dach...plus Erste...plus Mezzanine... c'mon, that counts as four! It does!
AS-SIG (the Alternative Splicing Special Interest Group meeting, that is) was possibly the best conference I've ever been to. Admitted, I haven't been to that many, but still, I was sitting on the edge of my seat practically all the time.
In the evening, me and my fellow conference guests went out and about in Vienna. Didn't make it to the bar of the old observatory, Urania, unfortunately.
Goodbye Helsinki, hallo Wien! Vienna was steaming hot and far more beautiful than on my last visit fifteen years ago.
Went dining with my local hosts in the Do & Co, which has a fairly impressive view across Stephansplatz. The ladies' and gents' rooms had obscure signs, which is a Viennese specialty, I was told: instead of putting up standard pictures of hens and roosters, each restaurant comes up with different way to inform (or misinform) the clients of which door is which.
Too bad the public transportation in Vienna is world-class...
The day after, Pavoni start-me-ups were desperately needed. I did mine single-handedly, and I'm planning to quit my day job anytime now to become a full-fledged barista. -Oh. Hold on for a second. I don't have a day job!
For our next trick, we headed for Populus for some serious midday karaoke, raping numerous seventies FinnHits pieces and other classics.
After yet another lengthy barbie session in Punavuori, it was a perfect night to watch skinny dippers in the fountain of the Urho Kekkonen Memorial Monument and the sunrise above Töölönlahti with the sweetest people on Earth.
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Anu's grandma, if you're reading this - nothing happened, honest! Ikis was just fooling around!
Do you think the barbie is ready yet? -We consumed bruleed everything as well as some sparkling wine in the traditional location, Sinebrykoffin puisto. Later in the evening, Tarja arrived from Lappeenranta to enjoy big city life for a while.
Surprisingly enough, the following day most of us were a bit tired, but that was all the more better for some Wii playing. Cows were thrown, bunnies were used as bowling pins, and divers' masks were filled with lemonade (don't even ask). -By the way, you REALLY need to be fit to milk cows!
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In the evening, Don Johnson Big Band played a fantastic gig at the Kaivohuone. Tommy Lindgren started acting all island-girlish during My Island Girl but couldn't keep a straight face in the long run. This was the first time I've been to a Finnish night club after the smoking ban was enacted, and the fresh air everywhere in the noisy hall just felt so...so...wrong.
After a quick visit to Mom and Pop it was time to catch up with some friends. Baker's on Mannerheimintie has a happy hour where sparkling wine is one euro per glass, and boy oh boy, did we take up on the offer.
*Photo courtesy of Kirsi
Back home after a long, long year. Well, in somebody's home, anyway - once more a big thank you to the hostess. Certainly couldn't complain about the view.
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Soundtrack of my life The Walls Have Ears Sid Tepper/Roy C. Bennett |
My hasty summer trip to Europe began in Bratislava, which is almost an exact replica of Tallinn in Estonia, except for the tourism infrastructure. (All the Finnish tourists were there, too.) Much of the architecture is very nice...
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...but not all of it.
"Holy Moses! What's that?"
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I just love this movie! I can watch it over and over again. And like many of the best movies, you can enjoy it either fully aware of what each detail is about, or blissfully ignorant of what is actually going on, just amazed by the beauty of it. (I should know - I've done both!)
