Hello everyone! Heipahei~
I just returned from my holiday. Finland is such a beautiful country! The cities are filled with pretty buildings, the streets are wide and everything is relaxed. There is so much green, and the car drivers are all friendly! (I was very surprised at this XD they stop for pedestrians at crossings!) Finnish people are also very friendly and helpful. Their English is almost perfect, and everyone we met was really nice.
There was only 1 hostel where the service wasn't great, the Eurohostel in Helsinki. If you ever go there, I don't recommend it. The building is old, the showers have these little saloon-like swinging doors that were completely see-through (NOT comfortable!), and I was scared the elevator could break down any moment. The staff was also very unprofessional and unfriendly. We had booked more than a week in advance and had gotten a confirmation, but when we got there, they told us they were full! If it had been up to them, we would have been sent away empty-handed, but we complained and luckily I could show the e-mail in which they confirmed our reservation, so they had to arrange something else for us. We got a room in another hotel for the same price as a room in the hostel. I suppose that was a good way to solve it, but it caused a lot of stress. All the other hostels and hotels we went to were prefectly fine though, so my overall opinion of Finnish hotels is okay.
One of the most interesting things was the light. Twilight only began around 22:30, and the street lanterns were switched on at 23:45! Then it would be dark for only 3 hours or so, and the sun went up again. So cool. The Finnish language is also very interesting. Tolkien based the Elf language on it, and I can see why! The language doesn't look like any other one, I believe only Estonian and Hungarian are related. Their grammar is super complicated, and at first sight the words look like someone just threw some letters together. But after a few days I began to pick up some words (asema= station, nainen= woman, tervetuola= welcome, kirkko= church, linna = castle, kiitos= thanks etc.). Of course those are the words you see most often as a tourist XD But when they use these words in a sentence, they stick all kinds of conjugations behind it. Turku is a city, but when they were talking about 'in the city' or 'of the city' it would be Turun. At least, I think so, but of course I'm not sure! I think the language is really fascinating, and I would love to learn more of it.
Nature in Finland is something great as well. Fins don't swim in swimming pools but in lakes, and they're right to do so. The weather was very hot (and I thought Finland would be cold...) so we were searching for a swimming pool, but couldn't find any anywhere! The next day we asked the hostel staff, and they directed us to the lake (that was in Tampere). It's so lovely to walk through a forest, then suddenly reach a small beach and see the lake! The water was a little cold but you got used to it very quickly.
One of the best things about my holiday was meeting
Jousia again :) I first met her when I was on exchange in Japan, and she introduced me to lolita. It was so great to see her again. She showed us the 'real Finnish life', so now I know that consists of sauna, swimming in lakes and grilling delicious sausages. We had dinner together with
Yoshh and her boyfriend, which was a lot of fun. There were 3 lolita's and 3 'normal' boyfriends, so while we were talking about dresses and shops and blogs, they considered starting a 'lolita boyfriend support' Facebook group. Oh, they have to suffer so much... XD
After Finland, we went to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, for a few days. The city has a beautiful medieval town centre, it's like one big museum. Everything was a lot cheaper there, so we could afford a more luxurious hotel, and we had great meals for super low prices. Estonian people, especially the younger ones, are very nice as well. They're ambitious and they work really hard. I've never met people who were more happy to be part of the European Union! People in Holland often complain that the EU only costs money, but the Estonian people know what the benefits are. For the Dutch people, every bit of wealth or freedom or advantage the EU brings isn't special, because they're used to freedom and wealth already. But Estonia has only been independent for 20 years, and when the were still part of the USSR they really suffered. So they can really appreciate the EU. Though of course, they also complain about how everything got more expensive with the introduction of the euro... But it will bring a lot more tourists there, and make trade a lot easier as well, so in the long term they'll be happy about it.
Now I'm back in Holland. The only thing to do is driving lessons... I hope to get my license on the 2th of August. Hopefully I can sew a little bit as well. Just before the holidays I finished a new dress, I will show it soon!
