London - Grimbergen - Leuven

Tuesday on the bus, through England, France and Belgium. Wednesday beautiful small towns Grimbergen and Leuven, and Brussels, the capital. New hosts, new friends. And a horrible dutch keyboard. Aaaaargghhh
Oh, by the way: On to Rock Werchter tomorrow until Monday. No chance to get an internetconnection. If you feel like telling me something, text me!

Rule Britannia!

A day of soaking up british pride and british traditions!
Dear Nick left for Lyon, and Fernando and me for the Docklands.
10 am weather report: slight drizzle
The rain made us reconsider the choice of the day, and opt for the Britsh museum instead. On arrival we found the weather to have changed for the better.
10:30 am: few clouds, glimpses of sun
"London doesn't have a climate, London has a weather!" Whoever had first said or thought that, he/she was sooo right!
On to the Tower and St Katharine's wharf, then. Habours, yachts, modern buildings to get lost in between - nothing much I liked.
12 am weather report: no sun, slight drizzle
Gosh! Greenwich and the pie and mash shop we found on friday instead of walking alongside the river Thames then. We crossed the famous and spectacular Tower Bridge and took the bus to our lunch.
Ahhhh - steak and kidney pie again after soo many years of missing it! Plus peas to go with it, and a nice cuppa. Fernando had shepherd's pie and rhubarb crumble with mustard for afters. He could hardly manage. Rare occasion.
Goddard's Pie Shop" definitely is a place to remember, and enjoy british traditional food!
Across the road "The Spanish Galleon" attracted us, serving beer from the first british brewery. Nice and cozy inside it was, and it better had been, because of the weather outside.
13 am weather report: nice steady rain
Getting better every second. More rain. On to the Royal Navy College and the National Maritime Museum to enjoy another important part of british tradition. Navy and markets. So british!
The beautiful ensemble of the buildings called Maritime Greenwich is world heritage. Hey! I've found it again! World heritage! :-)
Walking through the rain with my sandals didn't improve them. Actually I slipped, and they bust. Back in Islington I went to the shoemender across the road. Wow!!!! He's THE shoemender of Arsenal London! Pictures of all the soccer players all over the place. Special thanks, souvenirs, the lot. And this famous man mended my shoes! I was so proud. And then he never even asked to be paid for it. Awwwwwww!!!
By the way I wonder what it is about these shoes and shoemenders. They never want to be paid for the mending, neither in Vigo nor in Islington. Weird...
That was my last day in London. Today on by coach to Brussels and then Grimbergen and Thorgal from HC. I'll miss all the best soccer matches. :-)

Sunday with Targaryen and Endurbuderi

We adopted Nicholas from Michigan aka Endurbuderi saturday night. On sunday we had a typical sunday roast in a typical Spitalfield pub close to Liverpool station, then took busses to see as much as possibe of the London must-sees and went to the Tate gallery. I spend more than an hour to admire Turner's late paintings. Ohh, I have to come back to London and the Tate again soon!
More laters...

Camden Town and Hampstead Heath

Yes, those were the places we visited on Saturday. But I'll have to tell you later...

Weekend starts in London

I bought an Oyster Card to travel around Inner London during the next week for only 22 Pounds. Then I enjoyed the rides and walks through the well known and long missed streets of London, from Islington to St Paul's where we met Ashley.
Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh - time to exhale!
Sitting in the sun on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral feeling like in a Mary Poppins movie, relaxing after the adventures of the last day, and just loving life again!
Scones at Marks and Spencer's!
Coffee to take away right at the corner from the Youth Hostel where my daughter and me had stayed so often when in London last century!
Traveling is such a great way of spending your days!
If only the coffee had been better...
Well, Ashley left her office just after 5 pm, and it was great to get to know this friendly woman from Namibia whom I had met in chat so often already! The three of us easily chatted again like long friends on our way through the Dockland to Greenwhich. Who would have thought we only just met, and Fernando and me knew each other since six weeks only!
In the oldfashioned Pub "The Gipsy Moth" close by famous Cutty Sark we met two good friends of Ashley's, found a table in the small garden, and had the english summerdrink Pimms - a must with a weather like this!
Greenwich looks like the cutest old english village you can imagine, full of people eager for some time off after a week of work, now merrily eating, drinking, chatting, laughing.
The small diner we had chosen was closed by the time we left the pub. We'll have to go back, because they had all the traditional english food Fernando had been looking for all week now, but never found so far. Steak and kidney pie, shepherd's pie, mash, peas, liqueur and eel - you name it, they got it!
We went to a chinese restaurant instead (how often can I eat chinese in one week outside China, I wonder). And then back home to Islington.
I thought.
Because I was so very tired after only four short hours of exhausted sleep. Fernando and I were living on coke by then, we could hardly keep our eyes open.
But Ashley insisted we went this special open air show of fire and airy acrobatics just roud the corner, and we went, and it was worth it!
So it was 1 am till we got home again, but so what? We're on holiday, we can sleep as long as we want.
But - the big town is calling, and all the sights and adventures are awaiting us, so I guess it won't be so long a night, after all!

All's well that end's well

Next morning, after four hours of sleep, I left the Travelodge at 10 am to look for an internetcafe, which was soon found just around the corner. Opened 24/7, so actually I might have gone there last night, and tried to reach Targaryen/Fernando by mail. Hmmm
You live and learn. Next time I know better. (Though I hope there will not be a next time of buzzing around a foreign city in the middle of the night if not partying.)
One hour of mailing and calling and chatting got me two new hosts, and finally Targaryen!
He had been waiting and running around at Victoria Station just like me until 3 am, and then went home by bus, where he arrived shortly after I left. Pffff
Of course he checked his mails before going to bed, and when he woke up around 10 am, checked again and joined hc-chat hoping to find me. That was just after I had left chat, asking Taku (from Finland living in Switzerland) to tell him I was looking for him and online. Which she did when he entered chat two minutes later. And then his laptop crashed.
After I had written several messages and mails to find new hosts in London (just in case!), I joined chat again, where Theriel (from the States living in Finland) told me Targaryen had been there 28 minutes ago, looking for me. Tja...
I checked my mail again, and there was a message from my host-to-be. The phonenumber I had given him was wrong (!). And his phone wasn't working, only the answering machine (!). Now he asked me to call Ashley, another HC-member from London whom I knew from chat. And with her help, everything turned out fine.
I went back to the hotel, checked out, and waited for my dear host. 40 minutes, he had written, and then he would meet me in the hotel lounge, where I was supposed to wait and not move one inch.
80 minutes later I was getting anxious.
100 minutes later I was getting worried.
And the he came - there are so many Travelodge hotels around, he had forgotten the adresse of mine and tried most of them before hitting the right one!
Can you imagine how glad we were we finally made it inspite of all these bizarre and weird coincidences!
All's well that end's well, as we British keep saying... ;-)

Swinging it to London

This Thursday was a day of the most bizarre. Things and people got lost and found again in the strangest places and under the weirdest conditions.
Let me tell you all the story - if this frigging laptop let's me, cos it keeps crashing..
Paul and Hyunsoon left Berlin at the new Berlin mainrr station, hugging me, asking me to come and visit them in Seoul, and secretly passing me an envelope with 120 Euros. Wow! This money came in handy later in the day.
I got the rubber duck for Rubberduck, meeting Gabi at ver.di was nice as always, the food in my fridge was taken over by her, Christel will look after the flowers - everything worked out fine.
Until I tried to take a picture, and the battery didn't work. Well, the recharger was missing. Guess where it was found later in the day? In Sami's kitchen in Riihimaeki! What a nice reason to go back and get it!
So I had to buy some more of those old fashioned films, and take my old camera with me. That was done pretty fast, and I checked my mail, and was done with Berlin.
I thought
Hah!
Tax office troubles! How I like this! It's the last thing on earth I'd love to do, actually, especially three hours before take-off!
Hrrrrmpphhh
That being dealt with, and my flat nice and tidy to get dusty and dirty again until I'm back, I closed and locked the door, and was off to Schoenefeld.
The flight was late! No problem: that way I had a chance to actually see Lovas getting out his plane coming from Madrid, but with no way of meeting him. :-(
The flight was gorgeous, with the brightest multicoloured sunset, but waiting at Luton airport for passport controls was tiresome. And no chance to call my host Targaryen.
We had agreed I'd call him as soon as possible, so that he'd know when to leave his flat in Islington, and come to meet me at Victoria Station.
When I finally was allowed to phone, there was no Targaryen aka Fernando answerng my call, only a blxxx machine. Hmmm
I grabbed my luggage, got one of the last seats in the next bus leaving, and tried to call him all the way to London. To no results but answering machine comments.
After a busride that took almost as long as the flight had, I got off at Victoria Station, looking forward to seeing Fernando again after five weeks - but no Fernando waiting at the busstop. Hmmm
By now it was 1:30 am. I waited. I waited some more.
I looked around the several busstops and stations, even the train station. No Fernando awaitng me with open arms. Hmm
He should be at home.
Took a taxi to Islington. The taxidriver understood not one word of my wonderful english, but managed to drive me to the flat all the same. No Fernando at home. And the nice driver told me, this was no area for a nice lady to stay and wait in the middle of the night. Hmmm
Then he drove off.
It was 3 am by then.
I was lucky, found another nice taxi driver, who took me to a hotel, supposed to be low budget. Hah! London! Low budget!
This is where the 120 Euro came in. And off they went on a small bed in a small room. But: with coffee. :-)
So I finally went to bed at 4 am (which in Germany would have been 5), hoping to find Fernando the next day through Internet and HC. If not, I'd have to look for another host. Hmmm
Well, that was Thursday...

Time to leave football capital

The last days were filled with soccer, dinners arranged and payed for by my guests, and trying to squeeze tent, matress, sleepingbag and clothes for three months into one tiny bag.
Today it's meeting some collegues in the office (job? work? what the heck is that? can't remember...), and doing everything that has to be done before traveling, and I didn't manage to do yet. Getting money for UK and Denmark, f.e. - they don't have euros, and i forgot. I got used to just paying with euros in all the other european countries I visited lately.
Plus I have to buy some rubber duck for Rubberduck from HC, and get some more stuff ordered by my fff aka favourite finnish friends. Klösse! Imagine!
To keep you on track: I found a flat in Helsinki from July 15 to Aug 7, and a flat in Riga from Aug 3 to Aug 17. Watering the flowers for my HC-hosts is all they asked for. I don't have to stay there all the time, but I may. Nice, hein?
Oh, and I met a few more finns to spend time with in July, going by bike to picnics at the sea and/or lakes, building up legospacechips (there are some geeks around, but they're nice all the same), riding famous finnish horses (or maybe just give them apples and sugar), going up north to Lappland. And much more.
Oh, and tonight I almost meet up with Ivan from Madrid. His plane will land at 21:50 and mine will leave at 21:55. We're kind of used to almost meeting. Same in Madrid on May 26. Same in Riga in July. He leaves, I get there.
But I will definitely meet Roberto from Padova in Vilnius in August. :-)

Heatwave over the big city

No chance to get my guests out for a walk. They invited me for dinner at Cafe Mirell, where we watched soccer (like everybody else in Berlin), and then they went to bed early, and me on to chat.
This morning we started quite late on our sightseeing tour, and after three hours of mostly going by bus, we were done. Famous döner was the food of their choice, and then back to my nice and cold flat. I wonder what we'll do the next days.

Soccer maniacs in my flat

Bert took me back to Berlin in Jana's SAAB in less than three hours. So I had enough sleep before going to the doctors very early this morning (everything fine) and buying food and drinks and flowers for my guests from South Korea. I met 68 years old hc-member Paul and his wife at the new Berlin station Südkreuz. They are true football enthusiasts and had tickets for every match the South Korean played. Now they want to see as much as possible in the three days they are staying in Berlin (when not watching the matches), but the heat is overwhelming. So they're having a siesta now, and then we'll take a first trip around Berlin, the football city.

Kiel again

Another day with the Stach family! Always sooo pleasant! Saturday night they showed me around the Kieler Woche must-sees, and on Sunday it was a bit of work talk, a lot of relaxed time with the kids at home and at the children's grounds of Kiel Week (well, mostly) and nice chats between friends.

Saturday, June 17, 2006
No bicycle tour along the coast today - rain and drizzle all morning. So after hugging Ulrike from Naturfreundehaus, a friend since more than 22 years now, we took the car to plunge into joys of "Kieler Woche". Which we did all day, and in the evening we had to part again. :-(
Sometimes I miss seeing my kids more often.

Friday, June 16, 2006
Friday morning I got the pics I took during my last trip. Ahhh, how wonderful to live through the seven weeks of enchantment again! Since I kept almost all my bills and lots of booklets plus of course this weblog, I can start on doing a nice diary now. Hopefully I will...
On to Rathaus Schöneberg to meet up with a car driver to take me to the Baltics for 15 €, and to go back to Kiel for Kieler Woche and my kids. We met in the center, did some nice shopping, strolled a bit through the crowds who came to Kiel for the boats, the music and the fun, and then went on to Kalifornien and the beach.
No sun, alas, but we wanted to watch the football matches anyway, so we bought some Dithmarscher Pilsner, cherries and dutch (!) cookies, and it was a relaxed evening with tv and - most important - my daughter Anna and her boyfriend Volker.

Football, the heat and a laugh or two

Yesterday afternoon I went downtown to browse the shops and get some more books. The shelves are still so empty in my Berlin flat! ;-)
Wow, what a surprise! Hundreds and thousands of yellow be-t-shirted people at Wittenbergplatz! Berlin had been invaded by the Swedes longing for the football match in the evening against Paraguay (1:0), strolling thru the city, looking for tickets, drinking (well, of course, being swedish), and soaking up the sun.
Sun! Too much of it! It was winter for eight long months, and now we're stuck in a heatwave! Blaaahh...
So I stay mostly inside, do some paperwork and phone calls, watch the soccer games, and try to find new hosts around the world. Online and with HC, of course.
Hey, it always works! Yesterday I was invited to Riga and Warsaw, and this morning to yet another place in Finland. By the way, Podr0znik from HC who invited me to Warsaw gave this beautiful bunch of corn flowers to his girlfriend this morning. So sweet!
In chat we got a few new admins, but Helge simply is best as far as nitty gritty jokes go. He posted a few on his "Camel farm", enjoy!

Give low pay the red card

Nothing at all of any importance happened yesterday - only shopping and stuff for my next trips and hosts, and getting the flat ready for my next guests. So time to ponder on the world and what's important in life, good working conditions to name just one. Unions take care of that, with your help.
The global union UNI declared June 15 International Justice Day, informing on poor working conditions and asking for action. Whom will you give the red card? Check here.

Summer in the city

Finally summer arrived in Berlin! Everybody's in the streets and the cafes, when not watching football matches and cheering. Sadly enough I have to work a lot to get everything ready for my next trip. Clean the flat, f.e. So no big news from here for now. :-(

A weekend at the Baltic

Wow, this weekend was greaatt!!! (Of course)
Here's the details:

Monday, June 13, 2006
Monday morning I took the bus to Kiel, where I met some guys with a car, sharing the ride back to Berlin. Hey, one of them had been at a party at Falckenstein on saturday, as well! Funny coincidence, hein?
Back home I was a bit tired, but not too much to join HC-chat (who would have guessed?), found a few new hosts, and booked a lot of flights for my next trip, starting next thursday.
Click on the map to follow my travel:
June 22nd: London (Targaryen), June 27th: Grimbergen (Thorgal), July 3rd: Copenhagen (Chatbet), July 8th: Lahti (Tanjak), July 10th: ??? (Viivi), July 16th: Helsinki (Maikel), travel around Finland a bit with him, meeting Elsis, Pulina, Sussin, Sami and a few more of my fff aka favourite finnish friends, and then on to Tallinn in August. Maybe from there by bus and train to Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Poznan, and back to Berlin. Who knows???

Sunday, June 11, 2006
We slept a few hours in one of the cozy houses, and some of us at the beach, and next morning we had breakfast with a view to the Förde. The sun was already so hot, and the light so very bright, most of us prefered to stay inside instead of at the nice terrace, like Bert's younger brother Tilmann and me.
We took some time to clean up, and on the way back to the Stach flat we each had this most lovely, tasty icecream. Hmmm
Then my daughter Anna and her boyfriend Volker arrived and took me to Kalifornien, a beautiful place at the beach east of Kiel. They had rented a flat for a week, and arranged to take their meals at the Naturfreundehaus, where we tend to go every other year since Anna was one year old. We had a lazy day at the beach, strolling along the seaside from California to Brazil and back again. Well, that was a loooooong walk. Afterwards we enjoyed the sunset, and fell asleep fast and deep.

Saturday, June 10, 2006
Saturday we left the Stachs' place and went to Falckenstein for the big party. The day was nice and sunny and hot, there were lots of helpers to get everything ready (taking turns to go to the beach), and then we were partying through the night till the early hours of Sunday.
Bert and Jana had been married for 1111 days (AND nights), so that was a wonderful occasion to celebrate with all their friends. Food and drinks and friends were of the best, and the band was whoopppy: Doener Diskothek.
Sadly enough nobody danced. So the drummer met me later, and said he was glad I had been the only one moving to the rhythm, at least, and dancing on my chair. ;-)

A day with the Stach family

Yesterday was one of those days: a lot to be done, and then nothing much after all. Bert, Jana, cousin Johannes from Schöneberg, little two year old Lars and me went with two cars all over Kiel to get everything necessary for the big party on saturday. 8 year old Eric joined us after school. The weather was great, but we were mostly inside the cars, shops, and all kind of places where we found helpful people who gave us party kit.
At ver.di we met my looong time collegue and friend Holger Malterer, and Dieter Krause, with whom I had been working on our new wage system. Holger once had tried to convince me to join his ver.di-team in Kiel. And I had refused becuase of my non existent driwing skills and hade gone to Berlin internet editorial staff instead - arrrrgghhh!
We lived on food and drinks offered in the huge markets, including cocktails for free. :-) Finally we made it home just in time for the World Championship, and had an evening of soccer, pizza and beer. Nice day, in a funny way...

Oh-oh - more than a week without any news :-(

I will have to work on this, and tell you exactly what happened. But later - too many people around right now asking me to stop playing around, and start helping them with the next party.
Yeah well - you will read more from me, eventually...
And here it goes:
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Tuesday was a verry lazy day at home in Riihimäki. When Sami came back from work, I did some cooking, and we sat each in his/her own room, eating and chatting online. Well, the other chatters thought we were crazy, but we enjoyed not to have to talk too much. ;-)
Later Sami joined me in my room, but we still chatted online. Nice!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Next morning we left early to get to Sami's office, from where I went on by train to Helsinki. In my winter coat. Sun shining, 27 degrees. I felt so ridiculous!
Still I saw most of the places Theriel had told me about or even shown me, and found quite a few beautiful ones. I went to the City Museum, which definitely is worth a visit, and then on to some bookstores, where I bought this funny whossname: "You say I'm a bitch like it's a bad thing".
In a supermarket I browsed around for some typical finnish food to take home, and got Marianne and Salmiakki. Joanna, the Erasmus student I had met in Cadiz in April, had given me some of these delicious peppermint chocolate sweets and liquorice, and told me their names , so I knew what to look for.
After work Sami took me to the airport. How sad to have to leave him! I hope we'll meet again...
In Berlin it was freezing cold. But warm in my good old flat. One hour later, Psytek aka Roberto from Padova arrived at my place. He had meant to hitchhike to the big Berlin Beach Camp on whitsuntide, but was lucky and found Franz, an HC-member from Bavaria, in Munich, who took him and his friend Tiziano all the way to Berlin.
I knew Roberto from chat, and we had had a lot of fun together there, so of course I had agreed to host him. And he was as friendly in real life as in chat!
We had döner at my favourite turkish place, and beer at Café Mirell. Nice to be back home! And with friends!
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Late to bed, up early! We had to meet Pulina and her sister Sussin at Tegel airport, and Maikel from Oss at Schonefeld. Biiiggg smiles and hugs when we met the girls from Helsinki, then on through Berlin from far northwest to far southeast to meet dear old Maikel, the guy whom I never had seen before, but who will lend me his tent for Rock Werchter, and whom I will travel with thru Finland in July. Such a nice, reliable friend! He even sent me an sms saying he would wear an orange t-shirt. But how could I miss him? I knew his pic, and he's tall, and nice, and carrying his backpack. How many of his kind would be around the airport?
So a few more kisses and squeezes - we all knew each other from chat! - and on to the Beach Camp in Grünau. Yeah well - bit cold and rainy for a beach camp. Theriel had been joking all the time about snow in Berlin, and actually it was quite close to that.
We arrived early, but there was already a friendly crowd, setting up tents, laughing, chatting, greeting long lost friends, drinking. We were lucky and had a nice cozy corner for the chat gang. Click on the pic and find from middle to right: Roberto, Maikel, Pulina, two others, Sussin, me - curly red hair, always easy to make out.
Patrick, Dorota and Caesar build up their tents close to ours soon afterwards. I knew Patrick and Caesar from Helsinki (and chat), and Dorota had sent me some mails asking about the Berlin museums.
That idea was great, and since museums are open till 10 pm on thursday, and the entrance is free, some friends joined us on our trip through Berlin and the Museumsinsel. Tiziano took some pics: check here.
They went back to Grünau, and I went back home to my cozy, comfortable, warm flat - and chat.
Friday, June 2, 2006
Another day at the camp - and I managed to get a bottle of champagne just for myself in the local shop - always kept nice and cold all day. :-)
It was one of those lazy days, with nothing much to do but enjoy your time hanging around with some old and lots of new friends. In the pic you can easily distinguish me (red, curly hair) besides Sussin, and Syd (?) from Tallinn.
Monday, June 5, 2006
My sister and her daughters left after this cold, but nice weekend, and Patrick came riding on his bike, bringing Maikel's tent and my sleepingbag that had saved Ghoti and Catflower, if not their lifes, but at least their butts. I had offered to host him if he felt like resting a bit after two weeks of non-stop-partying in Helsinki and Berlin, and he decided he needed the break.